Northwestern University has contributed files documenting 2 major public protests regarding unfair treatment of students. Included are a variety of materials on the  April 22, 1968 student takeover of the NWU Registrar’s and Business Offices by 120 African-American students to promote a list of demands and heighten awareness of black student experiences of racial insensitivity on campus. The materials include news clippings, flyers, reports, correspondence files, and the list of demands and responses. In addition to materials of the 1968 takeover, Northwestern has also submitted documents regarding the 1995 hunger strike of Asian-American students to protest discriminatory practices and to demand the creation of an Asian-American Studies program. The materials include background files, correspondence files, and program development files, and date from 1993-2012.

Featured Collection

Image: Asian-American Student Protest, 1995

Collection: Records of the Asian American Studies Program

Dates: 1992-2012

Description: Included in the Weinberg Collection of Arts and Sciences are details of the development of The Asian American Studies Program, established in 1999 after four years of debate between the Northwestern University administration and the student body. In the spring of 1995, members of the Asian American Advisory Board (AAAB) and other minority student organizations began a hunger strike and public protest in order to pressure the University to create an Asian American Studies Program. The hunger strike and protest soon spread to other universities, as students from Columbia, Princeton, and Stanford held sympathy protests for NU’s AAAB protesters. After 23 days, the administration conceded and began the process of establishing an Asian American Studies Program.

Url: https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/repositories/6/resources/45

Primary contact: Charla Wilson (bio)