Introduction

Abstract

Fists balled and raised, black berets, head wraps, swaying Afros, sunglasses, black leather jackets, army fatigue coats, dashikis, African garb, with Curtis Mayfield singing “We’re a Winner” in the background, shouting from fuming lips and posters in the foreground: “black power, racism, relevancy, black pride, revolution, equality, non-negotiable demands, student control, Black Studies, Black University”—higher education was under siege. The academic status quo had been destabilized. On February 13, 1969, black student activism and its challenge soared to a record level. Nine hundred National Guardsmen strolled onto the UW Madison campus with fixed bayonets that Thursday. Some rode on jeeps decked with machine guns. Helicopters surveyed the thousands of protesters. If the presence of city police had stirred campus activism a few days earlier when black students kicked off their strike, then the National Guard whipped students into a frenzy. After picketing and obstructing traffic during the day, about ten thousand students, with African American torch bearers leading the way, walked in the cold from the university to the capitol in the largest student march of the Black Campus Movement (BCM). Their bodies may have been freezing that night, but their mouths were on fire: “On strike, shut it down!” “Support the black demands!”¹