element of the black freedom movement inspired black student on the college campuses across the united states to claim a new unapologetic but politically engaged black and proud identity. it was not only cultivated in the south, but also predominantly white colleges in the north. the rutgers newark campus was no exception. during the second semester of the 1966/67 academic year, richard w. roper, one of 20 black students enrolled at the time, was elect president of the naacp campus chapter. roper and hits like minded colleagues wanted social justice and demanded greater democratic access. they began to push for more radicalized direction of the group fueled by national debates, assassination of dr. king and malcolm x, protests about integration, state you r power and freedom. a new organization was launched power and freedom. a new organization was launchedr and freedom.

a new organization was launched and freedom. a new organization was launched and freedom. a new organization was launched. the black organization of students, or boss, established a powerful narrative of justice, peaceful discontent and equitable opportunity in the history of rutgers university through a bloodless coup. it received student from cross-sections of the rutgerss newark communities. similar to the convergence of black and anti-war movements in 1967, it was the joining of these forces and ideals by b.o.s. members and supporters particularly the puerto rican organization of students that led to petitioning of the university's administration to tear down the physical fence that surrounded the periphery of the campus. b.o.s. drew attention to rutgers' disregard for the surrounding black community and put forth a list of radical demands. a welcoming environment for all people of color, the hiring of black student faculty and staff, and open admissions from surrounding urban neighborhoods.

rpo, the puerto rican student organization, followed suit and within seven days drafted a similar manifesto to advance the accesses to postsecondary education of puerto rican and other spanish speaking students. their letter to the vice president dismissed rutgerss attempts as tokenism and put forth an uncompromising series of demands. the demands put forth by the puerto rican organization of students reflected the racial ethnic and economic disparity in access to higher education at rutgers. the manifestounder scores the inability of spanish speaking urban residents to access credit or take out private loans to pay for a private education, tuition and house. the university's anniversary celebration of the takeover focuses on black/white

relations, largely ignoring the role of latino students in the protest. rutgers history advances the idea that it's predominantly a black/white story. this omission of latino activities can also be examined through the lens of again ter. the puerto rican organization of students included many women on its chapter. the pro demands were drafted and submitted by jenny diaz at the time when the campus was not only redominantly white, but also overwhelmingly male. the exclusive women's voices is highly selective, organized and strategic. philosopher writing on knowledge, power and the modern state revealed both the constructive processes of histories and the voices from archives that tangle with history's stories. he identified the subjected knowledges as knowledges that

have been disqualified as inadequate to their task or insufficiently elaborated. if we consider that public history is a fourm of collective knowledge, the exclusion i have women creates a complete and punitive history. the contentious history of the student protests disrupts the consensus driven memory. the liberation of conklin hall is celebrated as a an acts of nonviolent civil disobedience and not a black student protest. the commemoration focuses on positive as petses of the sit-in, while reducing the experiences to a single act. nearly all stated it became the highlight of their lives. many of the activists detoureded from their college rears and failed to graduate. several faculty members left the university in the '70s, disenfranchised, because they felt lack of control over the programs of study and perceived the academic climate of the campus to be one that is no

longer rigorous. yet the anniversary program highlight as singular narrative of success in which founding black organization of student members all became leaders in academia in the world world as the rut betters newark campus became a paragon of diversity. although some positive results were gained from the meeting with the board of governors, including the hiring of robert and clement, rutgers continues to struggle in enrollment and retention. according to one of the most recent fact books, only 9 of the 167 tenured professors are black women and men on the newark campus. from a total of 5336 admitted first year undergraduate students, 658 are african-american. historians have long grappled with analyzing how individuals and groups perform collective

memory work. while commemorative practices they generate and how it a cultivated view of the past is politically constructed. nongrowth of a two year project on the historical construction of identities at rutgers university entitled commemorations the politics of national identity was a collection that considers the role of public commemoration within the formation of collective memory. historian john gillis' chapter presents a useful lens because it explains that identities and memories are not things we think about, but things that we think with. the commemoration as a political process promotes particular interpretations of the past to the public. during the sit-in, the black organization of students put forth a series of demands that outlined black issues regarding student admissions, enrollment, retention and recruitment of faculty. today the university remembers the takeover as a step towards the campus' growing multiracial

diversity. in this way the commemoration of conklin hall is a powerful example of the differences between history and memory. the b.o.s. demands have been framed by rutgers newark as a call toward an open democratic color blind environment while the original intent of the negotiations was specifically increase the number of african-american students and faculty on campus. the university has played a major role in the process of shaping the public perception of the protest through domestication of black student radicalism. the university's memory of the takeover and the commemoration which it produced curtails black power radicals expressed in the negotiations for more corn serve difference and perhaps agreeable theme of american idealism. as the 40th anniversary

approached, they had several decades of framing the movement that began with obvious disregard for the first 30 years followed by the 35th anniversary commemoration which did not include first person reflections of the activists. by 2009, the grand narrative of conklin hall was forged as a successful black student actityism for a multicultural diversity that generated change for years to come. the story of the takeover's after math is a tension of conflicting narratives.math is conflicting narratives. the progressive narrative in which the university's response to the proceedest is characterized in terms of social justice and racial cooperation, the redemptive narrative to evoke a sense of progress mch the commemoration allowed all participants to find themselves on the right side of history, and a toxic narrative about the ongoing racial inequality within rutgers faculty and

underrepresentation of newark high school graduates within the student body. the liberation of conklin hall south to make rutgers recognize its responsibility to the black community by forcing the university to reconcile its identity crisis as a white school in a black city. the city of newark became a contested space in the 1960s, one that had been a vehicle of upward mobility for whites, but offered bleak prospects for its increasing black population. the demand for equality and access to higher education became vital in a city whose job opportunities continued to decline for working class residents while racial tensions key press depressed the quality of life. the university emerged as a hero in the memory of the protest because according to the narrative created by rutgers it was challenged by students and in response became an open and

multiracial environment. the collective memory produced through the commemorative process fails to attribute the role of post 1965 immigration appearance in the current diversi diversity of the student body demographics. it also celebrates the education opportunity fund as an yoult cough the protests even though the program was a state initiative that precedes the sit-in and today provides support to many students less than 30% of whom are black. the relationship between history and memory as two different forms of narration essential to the struggle of individuals and communities because historical narrations often shape and transform our understandings of place. the meanings attributed to place in turn can dictate which events are remembered or forgotten. commemoration and sights of memory are plagued by competing claims. memory forgets, eases down and smooths over the contentiousness of the past. in the 2009 commemorative community, all participants

agreed on a single collect i have memory. the '69 liberation is one of the most effective, nonviolent student protests and its legacy created the most diverse university campus for the last 15 years and counting. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> i'll now open the floor for comments and questions. when you're called on, please wait for the boom mike to reach you. let's start in the front row. >> where is the -- >> it's coming your way. right up here in the front row. here he comes. >> i'm deeply embarrassed at how touched i am. i'm reliving my school experience. i was at ohio state as i told you when kent state occurred. and i remember it vividly.

i still have a lot of anger and resentment. i have no problem assigning guilt. i don't think you order the national guard or allow them to have live ammunition on campus. so this is to me one of the most heinous things when we kill our own students. i think this is terrible. the way in which i have tried to cope with this, not very well, is that i have bought a day, may 4th, at the local radio station and i dedicate it to the lives of the students who were killed that day. but there is an alternative to the way in which corso and rogue who i hope are in hell handled that incident. no national guard were called.

no live ammunition. no students were killed. that is leadership that requires courage. that is heroism. all of that was lacking at ohio and kent state. [ applause ] >> do either of you have a response? let's go to third row, right there. >> first i want to thank you for those remarks because as a political activist and scholar, i have a great deal of trouble with the truth and reconciliation model. but that's another issue. i wanted to make a comment in terms of the student affairs office and a more general comment to the three of you in terms of the historical moment at which interviews are conducted. in terms of student affairs, this was really enlightening and i think it is part of our

revisioning of the second way. most of that revisioning is in terms of the activities of women of color. so this is a very different kind of thing i have to tell you on my own campus, cal state long beach, one of the counselors in student affairs was the most active person in promoting chicano feminism on campus. you took this model and have these three conceptual points. but i'm wondering if you've looked at the relationship between those conceptions and how you identified people's memories and when the interviews were done. because i think that has undoubtedly changed over time. so rather than just having these as three discreet models or

concepts, i think it's really mess to see for each of these people when those interviews were done. and similarly with rosie's work, i wonder if there were interviews of the students from the b.o.s. at the time of the commemoration and how they characterized their memories or what happened compared especially to if her intervien interviewed at the time of t rebellion. >> just a comment. i break, yeah, it would be wonderful in a way if we could have had sort of a longitudinal process by which we maybe had interviewed folks at the time and then sort of carried that forward every few years, et cetera. unfortunately, we don't have that. but you're exactly right, and

that's the job we'll have to do is to think about how these memories have changed and how they've impacted sort of the enter connection between memory and history. so you're exactly right, yes, i agree. >> i'd also like to respond and thank you for your question. i think what i tried to do in my presentation before i held down the enter button for too long was to really talk about the nuance and the messiness of this and while interviewing the student protesters, some felt that this was a great moment for them and that it allowed them to become leaders later on in the community. one of the members of b.o.s. is now the head of umdnj which is the major medical university in new jersey and in newark. one of them is also in an administrative role at rutgers university, as well. but there were others that kind of felt that this was a crown that the university really wore

without necessarily meeting the demands that were put forth. and that in many ways it was usurped, that this moment of radical protest was really taken on by the university without changing the real things that needed to be done. and it's more seen in the faculty diversity at rutgers newark. we're really struggling that even when we are able to bring faculty of color into the university, our retention rate isn't great, there's not a great amount of support. the students demanded specific programs of study and those things are just not happening at this time. certainly not from a grant -- certificate granting institution. >> for me, i spent a lot of time in my work thinking about the role of memory because when i started interviewing emily taylor, she was about 85. so there had been 25 to 30 years since she was at the university

of kansas. and emily taylor sortsona in ka. people knew who she was and there was this piece about it. so i took the map of the interviews and i spent a very long time in the archives. and most of the examples i shared with you today actually came out of the archives because i'm not sure that my exact interpretation of what happened would be the way any one of the people i interviewed would explain the activities. because i do think this ises as greg talked about a change in how we talk about things because we start to create a narrative around what it meant and your own personal role within that, which i think is a very interesting topic from the point of view of history. you also need to track through the activities from various points of view. and that's where i think archival documents in conversation with oral history are so important because otherwise you get a disjointed

sort of view. so thank you for your question. >> let's go right there in front -- dark sweater, yes. you. >> thank you very much. i have two questions about the present. and one has to do with anthony emperiala. whom we might call the great white hunter after that beautiful quotation. and that is where he is now and what is he doing. and similarly with governor rhodes, where is he and what is he doing now? >> well, he's dead. >> is that true? >> yes. one thing i'll say about rhodes, not step on your line, but he lost the senate primary race that tuesday, all hoe it was

very close. and he actually got a bump in points based on his rather heavy handed inflammatory reactions. so, yes, so he lost the primary and his governorship ran out and he kind of faded. >> and then he came back and was governor again. and he keeps coming back. he wins and stays twice and then by law you have to step away from governor ship after two terms. so he stepped away for four years from '70 to '7 # 37ship a terms. so he stepped away for four years from '70 to '7 # 37 reelected again in '74 and again in '82. and he tried to run again later, but by then, his time had sort of passed.and he tried to run a, but by then, his time had sort of passed.in '82. and he tried to run again later, but by then, his time had sort of passed. so he's always will there as th somewhere figure in ohio republican politics you might say and then he comes back again for two more terms '74 and '82.

>> is he still live something. >> he is deceased. >> i wanted to respond to your question. the councilman has passed. the "new york times" has a -- i'll let you read it. but a few interesting quotes. but for the liberation of conklin hall during the student takeover of the building, a lot of his goons came to counter protest on the campus and at some point a giant battery log, i'm sorry, english isn't my first lag, was used to try to enter the building.log, i'm sory first lag, was used to try to enter the building. and other student protests and activists surrounded building because they didn't want to become violent and no one died, which is a pretty remarkable thing for this time. but they tried to battery ram the building and enter. >> lady in the green jacket and

then to the gentleman behind. and then we will go to you. we'll run a little later because i want to make sure we have time for all the questions. >> two relatively quick questions. for kelly, how representative was dean taylor in the second wave movement and on college campuses and also for rosalie, i teach at kane university right outside of newark so i'm really interested in what you're doing. and i'm wondering how the university -- if the university has seen your research and how they've potentially responded to it and what it's like for you to be doing research as a graduate student in the university and critiquing the university. >> well, first, a lot of my next project will be other deens of women. do i not think she was alone in doing this. some deans of women i think followed the say i don't type, but there were certainly other women at other institutions that were doing similar work. i spent quite a bit of time in

the dean of women's archived records as well as in the inter-collegiate associate women's students records and some of the ku models were being septemb sent as best practices across the country for the key, for the sex education courses.ku models best practices across the country for the key, for the sex education courses.some of the kg sent as best practices across the country for the key, for the sex education courses. so it certainly was going on. and some of my work illustrates that you can look at deans of women who were involved with the first wave of the women's movement and then sort of moving these concepts forward on campus if individual waves. so i think some of it depended on the institution and how much latitude that institution gave that particular dean of women. >> i'd like to respond, as well. i know it's hard to get this point across in a short presentation. it is not my attention to vilify anyone or say one side was wrong or one side was wrong. it was -- my greater point is that it was highly contested at

the time. and it seemed very strange to me to attend the commemorative practices and see a very almost disney-like portrayal of what happened. and i'm really interested in kind of recovering a lot of these voices and really interested in continuing this project and interviewing more of the women who were involved both in the puerto rican student organization and the black student organization. and i told people c-span was recording this, so i'll let you know when i get back about how this goes. >> yes, sir. in the back row. >> quickly, the idea, the same time that was going on at kent, similar was going on in north carolina. at that same time which got

little attention, one was civil liberty, one was civil rights. they were combined. the other factor is at this point dr. king becomes very, very vocally anti-vietnam. and there are some of us who feel that his was related because he was being told -- we knew he was against it earlier. but he was being told your role is in civil rights, are not being anti-war. and i would suggest to all of you young people thatre not beig anti-war. and i would suggest to all of you young people thate not bein anti-war. and i would suggest to all of you young people thatnot being anti-war. and i would suggest to all of you young people that you go and get for those who are still around and you can with some of the people in aclu, ada, naa, because they were very much involved in all of these at that time. and then we find that very soon

after those protests, the draft movement became almost eliminated and the present army is primarily voluntary. because parents were not letting their sons go into a war, conflict, that they thoroughly disagreeded with. and so they were just boycotting the war itself and that was primarily the kent college operation. take's just my suggestion and memories that i carry with me at age 92. >> i think you're talking about the jackson state shootings which happened about a week or so later. and jackson has has been unfairly overlooked. i know at the annual

commemorations at kent -- yeah, two students were killed at jackson. at contenkent, they always make point of including jackson state. it's interesting you talked about -- thank you. >> lady in the second row. >> thank you. my first question is to kelly. did oral histories include faculty against progressive reforms and i was looking at your statistics and the number of students enrolled at result g rutgers didn't seem that many. why do you think that. >> the administration at ku at the upper levels had largely passed away when i started the project.

so i was not able to personally talk with those people. the reaction to her projects was pretty clear in a lot of the written record and certainly you would see sort of gaps. and the chancellor's papers with regards to the keys in 1966, huge sets of files from parents and citizens very, very, very upset with the dean of women. and they were actually linking back to the early '50s senior keys and the dean of women's role. so it was obviously clear that people understood she was pushing thissed a jen take, but, no, i wasn't annual to interview any of administrators. i did talk with some of the faculty and i'd be more than glad to visit with you afterwards if you would like to.

>> i'd like it to respond to yo question. at the time when the protests occurred, the community surrounding the school is predominantly a xhun difference color. and yet the campus is white. and the faculty is white. at the time of this protest, there were about seven students of color campus. most of whom were men. and if we even looked at the physical location of rutgers newark, there was a fence barricading it away from the community and everybody the way the buildings were constructed because people were thinking of rye the rye the ons at the time would be the only way to enter would be from the inside of campus. and i think that while i-of will i think it's important that we keep in mind that we have a lot of work that continues to need to be done.we keep in mind that lot of work that continues to need to be done.i think it's im keep in mind that we have a lot of work that continues to need to be done.