By Florence Mugambi and Charla Wilson,
We have embarked on an oral history project to document the Black student experience at Northwestern University in the 1960s and 1970s. The project aims to capture a variety of perspectives and voices through interviews and personal accounts to shed light on three questions: How similar or different were the experiences of African and African American students at Northwestern during this period? What was the nature of African and African American students’ interaction on campus? How did contemporary societal issues impact their student experience.
Background: Recruitment of Black students
The 1960s was a period when many African nations gained independence and promoted the recruitment of many African students at universities in North America,
Europe, and Asia, fueled largely by decolonization and their workforce needs for development. Thousands of African students Africa received scholarships to study in US universities The African Scholarship Program of American Universities (ASPAU) officially commenced on April 1, 1961 for the general purpose of enabling highly qualified African secondary school graduates to obtain first degree training at US institutions of higher learning. Under its auspices, 1,594 grants were made from 1961– 1970, and an additional twenty African Transfer Study Awards awarded in 1971–1972. These grants and awards were distributed among 236 participating American colleges and universities to students from 34 African countries.
While Northwestern recruited African students through the ASPAU, the existing Program of African Studies (PAS) had been engaged in recruiting African students since its inception in 1948. In the hearings conducted on African Students and Study Programs in the United States by the Subcommittee on Africa (Committee on Foreign Affairs) in 1965, Gwendolen Carter, then PAS director, explained the importance of having a separate building for African studies at Northwestern, which held weekly sessions that provided opportunities for intellectual and social engagement among the university faculty, students, and members of the wider community.
The earliest documented Black student admitted to Northwestern was John Jacob Astor Goode in the 1880s. In 1903, Lawyer Taylor became the first Black student to get an undergraduate degree while Naomi Willie Pollard became the first Black woman to earn an undergraduate degree (1905). The first Africans to obtain PhDs were the Nigerian economist Pius Okigbo in 1956, the Mozambican revolutionary leader Eduardo Mondlane in 1960, and Hannah Abeodu Bowen from Liberia, who was also the first person to obtain a PhD in African History in 1962.
“…in 1965, Gwendolen Carter, then PAS director, explained the importance of having a separate building for African studies at Northwestern, which held weekly sessions that provided opportunities for intellectual and social engagement among the university faculty, students, and members of the wider community.”
Momar Diagne, undergraduate student
from Senegal, in the School of Business,
(2nd left) with PAS director Gwendolen
Carter at Africa House 1966. PAS Archives,
Herskovits Library
Bowen Abeodu H. (1960–1961), Melville J. Hersksovits (1895-1963) Papers, 1906–1943
Throughout the early twentieth century, Black student enrollment remained small, ranging from five to twenty students in a given academic year. By the 1950s, Northwestern had begun unofficially recruiting African American male athletes, but it was not until 1965 that the university adopted a policy specifically to recruit Black students, largely a response to civil rights legislation that prohibited discrimination in education based on race.
In 1965, William Ihlanfeldt, the director of financial aid, and Jack Hinz, the director of admissions, devised a recruitment program called Northwestern University Chicago Action Project (NUCAP). Additionally, national programs such as Project Upward Bound funnelled Black students to Northwestern. Through NUCAP, Ihlanfeldt and Hinz identified Black students at the top of their classes from seventeen high schools in Chicago and invited them to apply for a six-week summer academic enrichment program that included off-campus excursions, academic counseling, and a work-study assignment. If the students chose to enroll at Northwestern, they participated in an extension of the program in their first year. By 1967, this program resulted in the enrollment of eighty-nine Black students, mostly male athletes, at Northwestern from diverse backgrounds outside of athletics.
Social life and housing for Northwestern Black students
The two main challenges for Black students were social life and housing. On arrival Black students encountered a social climate that was not prepared for a demographic
change. Northwestern was a predominately white school that privileged white social norms. Joseph Okpaku, a Nigerian undergraduate civil engineering student recalled that Black students were made to “feel like guests instead of an integral part of campus.” Black students experienced racial discrimination in the classroom and were excluded from pledging to Greek organizations. They felt humiliated. For example, some white students refused to accept Black roommate assignments yelled racist epithets at them. Moreover, Black students felt confined to a hostile world that did not have room for them to enjoy normal social life events like dating. Interracial dating was informally discouraged. To overcome these challenges, Black students concentrated on building community by forming social groups and brought attention to these issues in on-campus forums and editorials in the student paper.
While Northwestern did not have an official policy of racial segregation, there are documented accounts as far back as 1902 of housing discrimination against Black students who sought on-campus housing. In response, the university established International House in 1947 for overseas students, including Black students. Likewise, overt racism and restrictive housing covenants often prevented Black students from renting apartments in Evanston. Unwilling to inflame their relationship with Evanston landlords, university leaders did not do enough to support the students against this discrimination. For example, Hannah Abeodu Bowen, a PhD student, wrote to Professor Herskovits in 1960 about how a prospective landlady turned down her application to rent a double room because “it would be too much for a white girl to share the same room with me.” Bowen complained to the foreign students’ adviser who promised to investigate but never did.
The 1968 Bursar Office takeover
Some white students, particularly women, wanted to select Black roommates, especially friends they had already made, but their requests were often denied. However, if a white student requested a white roommate, that was typically accepted. This led to the involvement of many Black students in advocacy for open housing in Evanston. On May 3, 1968, over 100 Black students organized a “takeover” of the Bursar’s Office until the university administration agreed to their list of demands for changes to improve their student experience on campus. Among other issues, they called on the university to reserve a living unit for Black students, to support open
housing in Evanston, to desegregate real estate holdings, and to include Black student participation in open housing review committees.
The oral interviews
We spoke with four alumni in the summer of 2021, three Nigerians and one Kenyan. They were Ferdinand Ofodile (WCAS’65, FSM’68), Joseph Okpaku (McC’65), Fola Soremekun (WCAS’62, WCAS’65), and Njoki Kamau (PhD candidate, McC’78). They told their stories as international students, reflecting on their national backgrounds, their families and upbringing, and how they came to the United States and Northwestern. They discussed their student experience, including academics, housing, and participation in student organizations. Finally, they talked about their lives after
Northwestern, including further education and career paths. In the next issue, we will profile the story of Joseph Okpaku who graduated with a BSc in civil engineering in 1965. He became the first Black vice president of the student senate in 1964–65.
Acknowledgement
This project was facilitated by a research grant in the summer of 2021 from the Black Metropolis Research Consortium’s Archie Motley Archival Internship Program for two interns. The two interns, Calista Smith (University of Chicago) and Malik Pitchford (Depaul University) were instrumental to the progress of our inaugural work. They assisted with background research on the narrators and the transcriptions of the interviews.
We are seeking interviewees!
If you are interested in participating as an interviewee or know of Black alumni from the 1960s–1970s, please contact us.
Florence Mugambi is the Librarian for African Studies (florence.mugambi@northwestern.edu) and Charla Wilson is the Archivist for the Black Experience,charla.wilson@northwestern.edu).