About BSO

Mission:
A) The overall objective of the BSO is to implement a comprehensive action program designed to promote an understanding of the past, present, and future problems and needs of Black students as well as to the Black community. Moreover, to develop effective methods of dealing with these problems.

B) Other objectives are:
To provide a structure through which training, services and programs can be channeled in the best interests of the Black student, the Columbia community, and the Black community at large.

To enhance the ability of the Black student to cope with the pressing demands of college work and financial concerns through academic assistance, career counseling, and social interaction and support.

To enhance and promote the cultural greatness and contributions of the people of African descent, and to improve the general level of understanding within the University community about the heritage of Black students

To provide a vehicle through which the Black student on Columbia's campus can express desires and opinions such that (s)he may have a real impact on the course of events at Columbia which directly or indirectly affects the student.

To assist Columbia's Black alumni in matters pertaining to, or in connection with, the academic and social environment of Black students, thereby becoming an unofficial Student Alumni Committee for the Black alumni.

 

History:
Though marked by struggle, the black student body at Columbia has a rich, vibrant history. The first known black graduate was Pixley Seme, class of 1906 and founder of the Africa National Congress. He was followed by many other notable black figures long before the founding of the BSO, including the poet of the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes, novelist and Barnard alumna Zora Neale Hurston, and activist, athlete and actor Paul Robeson.

Before the 1960s, black attendance at Columbia was limited to only a few enrollments at a time. During the 1960s, as a direct result of the Civil Rights struggle, Columbia witnessed a rise in the black student population. It was at this time that undergraduates formed SAAS (Student Afro-American Society), which was concerned with the affairs of black students and issues of the greater black community. Because women were not admitted to Columbia until 1983, the black women of Barnard formed a group in parallel, named BOSS (Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters). The two collaborated on campus projects.

Tensions between students and the university mounted in the 1960s for two reasons. First, Columbia had become heavily involved in research for weapons systems to be used in the Vietnam War.  Second, the university planned the construction of a gymnasium in Morningside Park where Harlem residents could only access the gym through a back door entrance on the bottom level, while the upper levels of the gym were accessible only to Columbia students and affiliates through the main entrance. This blatant segregationist policy led to black students and Harlemite supporters protesting what they called “Gym Crow”.  In 1968, students passionate about both issues held a demonstration in Morningside Park, where the university had already begun to erect construction fences.

Soon after, black students and supporters occupied Hamilton Hall to protest the building of the gym, Columbia’s involvement in weapons research, the general lack of black students and faculty, the absence of a Black Studies department, and the lack of transparency and input into the university’s dealings with surrounding Harlem.

Armed with guns, the students took over Hamilton Hall, and locked the building from the inside. After some time in Hamilton, the black students told the white sympathizers, many of whom were members of Students for a Democratic Society, to leave and contribute by taking over other buildings on campus. They did, effectively shutting down the university. The President of the university ordered the NYPD to smother the protest by force, aided by white athletes and members of the ROTC. Ironically it was the white students in other buildings who bore the brunt of the police storming. Had the police broken into Hamilton, they may have suffered casualties at the hands of the sisters and brothers inside.

…And the protest was a bittersweet success; The university did not build the gym.  However, Columbia, in the middle of Harlem, refused to establish a Black studies program, even given grant money earmarked to do so. This, coupled with the fact that there was no space for the black students to call their own led to unrest in the black community. In 1970, a group of armed black students seized the abandoned ROTC office on the first floor of Hartley Hall. The students, joined by the then State Senator David Patterson renamed the space the Malcolm X lounge, in honor of a man who recognized the importance of territory as a basis for nationhood. Subsequently, murals were painted on the walls depicting black leaders such as Marcus Garvey and Sekou Toure.
By this time the SAAS had faded. The early seventies saw the creation of SOBU (the Student Organization of Black Unity). This too had a fleeting organizational stint, then dwindled away. The Black Students’ Organization as we know it today (BSO) was formed in 1976. Among its founding members was Dr. Robert Sadler, who called for a “MANDATORY MEETING OF ALL BLACK STUDENTS”. Heeding this call, every last one of them came for that first meeting in the Malcolm X lounge, the home of the BSO till this day.

Today, the Malcolm X lounge located in 106 Hartley Hall is the home of the BSO. In addition to a comprehensive library, the lounge exhibits a beautiful mural across its front wall. It is from here that new chapters in the BSO’s history are being written.

[Information courtesy of "To Remember Our past Is To Define Our Future: A History of Black Student Struggle at Columbia from 1968-1987" by Winston Willis CC'87]