On March 23, 1968, the TWLF (Third World Liberation Front, a coalition of multiple ethnic organizations on campus) occupied the on-campus YMCA in response to unjust university policies as well as in opposition of the Eurocentric education model. Among threats to suspend George Murray, a Black Panther and prominent educator at SFSU, the BSU releases their 15 Demands as well as a threat to go on strike. The next day, November 1, 1968, Murray is suspended, and on November 6, the TWLF begins their strike. The campus soon shuts down due to confrontations between the protesters and the police while more students and faculty join the strike. By January 6, 350 teachers form a picket line around campus. The strike continues with rallies, demonstrations, picketing, sit-ins, and other tactics. February 29, it’s announced that George Murray and Nathan Hare, Black Studies Department chair, will not be hired back the following year. In a culminating event on March 5, Timothy Peebles sets off a bomb in the Creative Arts building, injuring himself. On March 20, an agreement between strikers and the administration was signed, resolving the BSU’s 15 demands, marking the end of the strike. The result is a new College of Ethnic Studies.
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Black Students resources
