African American Studies -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 6/16/2003
Last Visited: 11/28/2004
In Black Power on Campus: The University of Illinois, 1965-75 by Joy Ann Williamson (University of Illinois Press), Joy Ann Williamson, assistant professor in the School of Education at Stanford University, charts the evolution of black consciousness on predominately white American campuses during the critical period between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s, with the Black student movement at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign serving as an illuminating microcosm of similar movements across the country.
Nationwide black student college enrollment doubled from 1964 to 1970, with the greatest increase occurring at mostly white universities.As Williamson shows, however, increased admission did not bring with it increased acceptance.Confronted with institutional apathy or even hostility, African Americans began organizing.Drawing on student publications of the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as interviews with former administrators, faculty, and student activists, Williamson discusses the emergence of Black Power ideology, what constitutes "blackness," and notions of self-advancement versus racial solidarity.
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Williamson has made a very worthwhile contribution to our understanding of a complex, turbulent chapter in American higher education.She provides an essential background for the period she explores and a well-researched and sensitive description of Black activism as it found expression on campus between 1965 and 1975.Equally interesting is her analysis of the sharp decline in activism by the mid-1970s.