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Title: NYU Students Strike Author: Various Authors Date: November, 1968 Language: en Topics: student movement, USA, 1968, analysis, Black & Red Source: Black & Red Number 3, November, 1968, page 58 Notes: Scanned from original.
Comrades in Kalamazoo!
... Over the summer the black students looked around for a Director of
the Afro-American Student Center. They chose John F. Hatchett, a man who
was expelled from I.S. 201 after the whole uproar there. He was approved
by the University Senate, and by Dean Whiteman (Dean White Man) under
Hester’s direction. (Hester is President of New York University.) The
faculty was not consulted.
Almost immediately after his appointment, a furor was raised by the
Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, by other Jewish and religious
organizations, over an article that Hatchett wrote in Afro-American
Teachers’ Journal which was allegedly anti-Semitic. The article has been
quoted out of context in numerous sources. The quote places the blame
for the “poisoning of the minds of black children” on the “white Jewish
teachers and Anglo-Saxon Blacks.” Hatchett talks about the “genocide” of
black and Puerto Rican children in the New York City Public School
System....
Under enormous pressure from alumni, wealthy Jewish donors, faculty and
outside pressure groups, Hester suspended Hatchett, but immediately
reinstated him as a measure of good faith.
Obviously the pressure was enormously great to fire Hatchett then, but
Hester couldn’t afford a summer blowup of blacks against him. The
occasion for Hatchett’s actual firing didn’t come until Thursday last
(October 10), when the Times did a report and a seething editorial on a
speech Hatchett gave the day before at the Uptown Campus, quoting him as
calling Humphrey, Nixon and Shanker “racist bastards.” HATCHETT WAS
FIRED THURSDAY NIGHT.
What happened:
classes out of Main Building and into the dorms and Loeb Student Center.
less politics behind our tactics.
decided to take Kimball Hall, an administration building....
We have lost innumerable opportunities through laziness, lack of
coherent politics, lack of organization, to get through to the mass of
students before polarization. Now the polarization is strong, and we’ll
have to make do.
L’IMAGINATION AU POUVOIR!!!
It’s our only hope!
Latest: Kimball is occupied.
More news soon--
J...
... It is no longer possible to speak glibly of racial harmony and not
confront the realities of racial tension; it is no longer realistic to
think that an emerging black consciousness will settle for programs
created in their name that are actually in the control of
administrators. It is inconceivable that students of any race will
tolerate dismissals of anyone because his views run counter to those of
the men in power....
We ask all faculty and students to take a stand today by staying out of
classes and showing the administration that the university will not
function until this issue of critical importance is resolved. We realize
that for many people this will be their first involvement in protest at
the university. But in times like these, one is either part of the
problem or part of the solution.
Join us!
Radical Coalition
In America, we are told, a man cannot be attacked for his own political
views. In America, we are told, the universities are value-free and safe
from obligations from any particular interest group in society. Two days
ago, John Hatchett said Humphrey, Nixon, and Shanker were “racist
bastards”. Yesterday he was kicked out by Hester...
The question of Hatchett is not a question of civil liberties, even
though it is clear that Hatchett was fired for exercising his own
freedom of speech. The real question is the question of power: power to
dispose of people who stand up and try to change this country through
their actions and thinking. The black students were told they had the
power to choose the director of the Afro-American Institute, but that
power was empty of content. The university administration is run not by
the sentiment of people here, black or white, but by the powers to which
they are beholden. The uproar over Hatchett was not caused by people on
campus, but by the corporations and rich people who want NYU to function
according to their interests...
Today we strike to say that we will not allow this situation to
continue. We strike to say that racism will never end if we leave
decisions up to the people that live off racism and refuse to address it
honestly. We strike to show that power should reside with the people who
live and work in a place like NYU and not the people with money and
influence.
JOIN US! Our strength is in numbers and not in dollars. Black people are
dying every day in America and Africa because of racism. They are
fighting against it and we are all living inside it. We must take our
stand now, too.
The demand is raised that black students and not the university
administration must be the constituency to whom Hatchett is
responsible--for he is the representative of the black students, and
they must decide whether he is satisfying the requirements of the job.
The second demand, for black control, is the same demand that black
parents are raising at Ocean Hill-Brownsville and the Black Panthers are
raising in the black communities. Because black people have historically
been exploited in this society, they are organizing for control of their
community...
STRIKE!
Radical coalition
“The newspaper belongs to the people”
Wednesday
Dateline 10am
Support Announcements:
School of Social Work--entire school; faculty and students on strike; no
classes, no field work
School of Arts students--voted 175 to 25 on a resolution stating that if
Hatchett is not reinstated they will resign from the university to form
the FREE SCHOOL OF ARTS
Graduate dept. of Psychology voted overwhelmingly to strike
Faculty--many, many classes now meeting outside of Main to protest the
issue committee set up to support strike and another to serve as
liaison. Faculty for University Change, chaired by Professor Corso of
WSC is supporting strike.
Letters of Support have been received from Dick Gregory and Father James
Groppi as well as others...
POWER TO THE PEOPLE POWER TO THE PEOPLE POWER TO THE PEOPLE POWER TO THE
PEOPLE