City College Protest History: A Legacy of Activism and Change
The City College of New York (CCNY), since its founding as the Free Academy of the City of New York in 1847, has embraced its role at the forefront of social change. Providing high quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers, CCNY has been a site of significant student activism, reflecting broader social and political movements. This article explores the history of protests at City College, focusing on the landmark 1969 protest and its lasting impact on higher education.
Early Years and a Culture of Tolerance
Founded by Townsend Harris, the Free Academy aimed to provide free higher education based on academic merit to children of immigrants and the poor. Even in its early years, the Free Academy had a framework of tolerance that extended beyond the admission of students from every social stratum. The curriculum adopted in 1847 included mathematics, history, language, literature, drawing, natural philosophy, experimental philosophy, law, and political economy. This commitment to inclusivity and academic excellence laid the groundwork for future activism.
The Seeds of Change: Civil Rights and Anti-War Movements
By the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement became a backdrop for activities at City College. The student protest movement gathered force in the late 1960s with the Civil Rights Movement and anti-Vietnam War movement in full swing, anti-establishment feelings grew. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the commencement address at CCNY in 1963. CCNY undergraduate Stephen Somerstein documented in photographs the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march. These events set the stage for the transformative protests of 1969. "The student unrest that overtook many campuses in the United States in the late 1960’s was fanned by growing opposition to the disastrous Vietnam War…." At the time, the civil rights movement attempted to eliminate all perceived manifestations of institutional racism in the United States, including college and university campuses.
The 1969 Protest and the Five Demands
Culminating at CCNY during a 1969 protest takeover of the South campus, African American and Puerto Rican activists and their white allies demanded, among other policy changes, that the City College implement an aggressive affirmative action program to increase minority enrollment and provide academic support. On April 22, 1969, a group of CCNY students occupied the South Campus and Klapper Hall. They did not vacate the buildings until May 4, two weeks later.
In commemoration of a transformational event in the institution’s 172-year history, The City College of New York’s Black Studies Program hosts discussions and a walk April 16-18 to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1969 protest that led to open admissions. The observance also includes the remounted 40th anniversary exhibit entitled: “The Five Demands: The Student Protest and Takeover of 1969." Originally curated in 2009, it can be viewed in City College’s Morris R. Cohen Library Atrium. in the NAC Ballroom. in NAC 1/202 and ends at Remembrance Rock on CCNY’s South Campus, with a commemoration honoring activists who fought for open admissions.
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These demands included:
- The establishment of a School of Black and Puerto Rican Studies.
- That every CCNY freshman class be made up of 50 percent Black and Puerto Rican students to better reflect the population of Harlem.
- An immediate effect was the implementation of Open Admissions in 1970 rather than the original target date of 1975.
- The demand that no discussion would occur until campus security guards - who were mostly Black - refused the administration’s order to remove the protestors from the grounds and were all reinstated, which President Gallagher assented to immediately.
- The creation of academic support programs for minority students.
At some point, campus protesters began referring to CCNY as "Harlem University."
The Impact of Open Admissions
The protest led to the implementation of The City University of New York's (CUNY) controversial open enrollment policy. Beginning in 1970, the program opened doors to college to many who would not otherwise have been able to attend college. During the 25 years of open admissions, hundreds of thousands of Black and Latinx students entered the CUNY system. The CCNY student takeover steered the university toward this alternative future for higher education.
However, this policy was not without its challenges. Allen Ballard warned that this was a bad idea: “The university…took on a situation it was not financially able to handle.”
Challenges and Changes
City College began charging tuition in 1976. Open enrollment was eliminated in 2000 and academic entrance requirements were implemented at CUNY's senior colleges and applicants who could not meet it had to enroll in the system's community colleges, where they could prepare for an eventual transfer to one of the 4-year institutions. Since this decision, all CUNY senior colleges, especially CCNY, have seen an increase in incoming freshman GPA and SAT scores.
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The deleterious consequences of dismantling open admissions were brought to light in The Atlantic: “Since it went through an aggressive, system-wide overhaul that began in 2000, the City University of New York’s top five colleges - Baruch, Hunter, Brooklyn, Queens and City - have been raising admission standards and enrolling fewer freshmen from New York City high schools. The Atlantic wrote: “This race disparity within the CUNY system widened most noticeably after the 2008 recession, when CUNY’s bargain tuition rates began drawing more middle-class families. Applications surged. That same year, CUNY increased its math SAT admission requirement 20 to 30 points for the five highly selective colleges. Department of Education records show that by 2012, the number of black public high school students enrolled as freshmen into the system’s top five colleges had decreased by 42 percent. Not only have recurrent increases in tuition and SAT scores cut into minority enrollment in the top five senior colleges, but also since 1992, the SEEK Program has been cut in half.
Continued Activism and Legacy
As a result of the 1989 student protests and building takeovers in response to tuition increases, a community action center was opened on the campus, called the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community and Student Center, located in the NAC building.
Student activists today are still organizing for justice at their universities, from equitable pay for campus jobs to better housing conditions. Even before the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision invalidating affirmative action in higher education, Black and Latinx students faced stark underrepresentation. At the same time, this era has also seen new forms of student activism (such as rising graduate student unionization).
The Enduring Relevance of "The Five Demands"
The documentary The Five Demands tells the story of how the first state-mandated, state-funded educational opportunity program in the United States gave rise to a student movement for multiracial solidarity. It features present-day interviews of students from the classes of the early 1970s who were some of the only students of color at CCNY.
The strikers at CCNY in 1969 insisted that higher education must not exclude those who have been forced into poverty and failed by education all their lives. It is a reminder that a vision of education for all is not a pipe dream.
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CCNY: A Pillar of Education and a Historic Landmark
CCNY's Collegiate Gothic campus in Manhattanville was erected in 1906, replacing a downtown campus built in 1849. This new campus was designed by George Browne Post. Shepard Hall, the largest building and the centerpiece of the campus, was modeled after a Gothic cathedral plan with its main entrance on St. Nicholas Terrace. The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission made the North Campus Quadrangle buildings and the College Gates official landmarks in 1981.
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