On the anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination, the ABC led a boycott of classes and held an action. To point out the death that occurred because of white imperialism and antiblack racism, ABC members carried a coffin with a red, black, and green flag draped around it to the center of campus and held a silent vigil. They were growing tired of negotiating freedom with white decision makers.
By March 1969, the Princeton students (mostly black), who formed the group United Front, wondered if their university could afford to be a moral institution with regard to racism. President Goheen attempted to address the concerns of the students. As a matter of policy, he stated that Princeton “will not hold securities in companies which do a primary amount of their economic activity in South Africa.”90 Goheen noted that doing so constituted an “unusual commitment on the part of this, or indeed any, university.” The president also acknowledged the important contribution of the black graduate students, who sat on the committee to study the apartheid issue. He then pointed to the fact that the faculty voted overwhelmingly to reject gifts to the university from companies “doing a primary amount of their business in southern Africa,” and that he would recommend that the trustees adopt the policy. In addition, he pledged that Princeton would work with other educational institutions that stood against apartheid and followed through on Goheen’s pledge.
Finally, the president reassured the students who worried about the original report’s suggestion that changes in the university’s investment policies could lead to cuts in funding for the recruitment of black students. He expressed great respect for the “depth, intensity, and nature of concerns which moved the United Front” and the other black students who pushed the issue. “We can and will do more to enable all our students—black and white—to study and learn from the Afro-American experience. We can and will extend our current efforts to add more black faculty, students, and staff to the University community. We can and will support and encourage the efforts of students, faculty, and staff to work with local community groups on problems of mutual concern.”91 To bolster the president’s proclamations, in early March 1969 the Princeton faculty voted to approve an Afro-American Studies program for the university.92 As the story about the university’s ties to apartheid became national news, Goheen’s approach to the stirring controversy was open to scrutiny.93
Although positive in tone, the president’s message did not provide the anti-apartheid students with solace. For the members of the Unified Front, divesting was a clear issue of morality and societal values. To emphasize that point, black students disrupted a service at the university chapel. A representative highlighted a passage from the Bible: “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose is soul?” (Mark 8:36).94 Strategically, they chose a space where contemplation and reflection were requisite. They had tried meetings and committee work; the next step was to employ moral suasion in a sacred place.
Days later, on the morning of March 11, 1969, the ABC launched what it would later call a “symbolic gesture” by staging a demonstration on Princeton’s campus. Moving beyond moral suasion, fifty-five black student members of the ABC and five white members of the campus chapter of the national New Left organization Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) entered the New South building that housed some of the university’s administrative offices and chained the doors shut. They decided not to just sit in but to take over the building, making the demonstration that much more serious. In the cold early morning hours, the agitators approached the janitor, who was also black. It must have been interesting for the janitor to see students that early in the morning. They informed the custodian that they were commandeering New South and that he did not have to perform his duties that day. According to Brent Henry, the janitor said “cool” and left the edifice.95
Although not adversarial, ABC and SDS had not worked closely on any projects before the demonstration. In addition to ABC and SDS, the Pan-African Student Association and the New Jersey Committee for South Africa assisted in organizing the protest. As the sixty students demonstrated inside the buildings, fifty others (mostly SDS members) marched outside the hall. In a move similar to that of black student protesters at Columbia in 1968, ABC leadership asked the few white students who were in New South to leave so that the black students alone could express their disdain with the university’s decision not to completely divest.96 In this way, these young activists employed Black Student Power by strategically using their race as a lever for power in negotiation with the university. The black demonstrators still enjoyed the support of SDS and the Third World Liberation Front, which was another group of students that opposed Princeton’s ties to the apartheid governments. If the ABC members believed that the university maintained racist ties to oppressive governments of predominantly black nations, then they wanted to be at the forefront of the movement to illuminate and break those ties. The sentiment mirrored that of black youth who demanded Black Power around the nation. For those black youth and Princeton’s black demonstrators, it was necessary for black people to take the lead on issues that directly affected black people.
Figure 2.3. Off-campus activists support the United Front’s campaign against Princeton University’s investment in apartheid southern Africa. Courtesy of the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University.
Figure 2.3. (continued)
SDS and other supporters of the ABC held rallies throughout the day. At one rally a banner read in capped bold letters: “CRY, BELOVED PRINCETON.”97 Surrounding the refrain were the words apartheid, murder, fascism, oppression, suffering, racism, and misery.
The black students were alone in the building. ABC leader Jerome Davis stated to the growing crowd of onlookers: “We have taken this action to demonstrate our disgust as black people and as human beings.”98 The protesters pointed to what they believed was “outright and admitted moral inconsistency of the university’s commitment to mankind and the Government of South Africa.” The university committee that studied Princeton’s ties to apartheid explained that to divest would be financially prohibitive. To that notion ABC declared: “Morality has no price” and refused to leave the building until it decided to do so.99 The occupiers did not allow many people to enter the building; they had to be wary of undercover police and counter-protesters. Hoping to have their story told accurately, they allowed reporters from WNJR (a black operated radio station based in Newark) to enter, but insisted that other journalists conduct interviews from outside. When a reporter asked when they planned to end the demonstration, an ABC representative replied: “When we leave, you’ll know.”100
As was the case with the black students who occupied buildings at Columbia, Cornell, Howard, City College of New York, Rutgers, and so many other universities, the students at Princeton did well to make provisions for their demonstration. Princeton demonstrator Gerald Horne, who was among those in New South, observed firsthand the methods and tactics that students had used during the uprising at Columbia University the previous year.101 He knew that having a successful campaign required preparation for arrest, meals, lodging, and other practical matters. The student agitators who took over buildings elsewhere had community members to bring in food and supplies, but the Princeton students planned for such provisions. The leadership of the ABC chose New South for their demonstration in part because there was a cafeteria, but there were other reasons. There were no classrooms, so the takeover would not hinder instruction and learning; it was, after all, midterms. Also, the building only had three points of entry, making it easier to secure the place. An important step for the demonstrators was to not unnecessarily destroy anything or to create a mess that would create more work for the black custodian. As they reflected on what they had just done, the demonstrators contemplated next steps.
Figure 2.4. A member of the Princeton Association of Black Collegians holds a sign during the group’s protest to end the university’s