[Music] hello I'm Cheryl McCarthy welcome to one:1 the late 1960s and 1970s was a simal period for college and university student protests stunned by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and enraged by the escalation of the Vietnam War students all over the country staged protest black and Puerto Rican students at the City College of New York staged a campus revote in the spring of 1969 that would change the complexion of that campus and other City University campuses forever here to tell
us about it are Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss Emy winning filmmakers and co-directors of the five Demands a documentary about that fateful spring and Charles Powell a civil rights attorney who was a leader of the student protest welcome so Greta and Andrea why did you decide to make this film well I was a student at the City College of New York in the mid '70s and one of the reasons that attracted me to go to that school was open Admissions and um the fact that it had a reputation for both aca
demic excellence and student activism both of which I was interested in but no I never know the whole strike the whole uh way that the college had become so diverse was completely swept under the rug no one talked about it no one knew about it so when someone brought one of the young professors who was part supported the struggle brought us pitch the story basically and we were like what okay yeah that that's a great story we want to tell it the first thing that struck me coming through Harlem s
urrounded by harlemites my folks and then entering the college and finding they weren't any of my folks we had to have a strategy on how to open the doors for more people like us black and Puerto Rican students chained the gates to City College of New York closing it fre be free everybody going to get together and walk like you and me a lot of people knew about the uh the Columbia University protest in ' 68 uh they knew about the the students with the guns at Cornell uh I even knew about the uh
the students in Paris you know and their protest why do you think many people didn't know about what happened at at uh City College I think there were two reasons one is that in general you know we know about the anti-war protests from the late 60s primarily white middle class students were revolting and that was what was really being uh taught in the history book but in fact there were 200 protests across the country by black students in 1968 to 1969 alone and that history isn't really known an
d I think that has to do with the general racial bias of the history books um but on top of that there's another reason I think which is that I don't think the City University of New York was particularly proud of this chapter and its history and I think um open admissions which I'm sure we'll get into wasn't one of the demands but nonetheless it was the outcome of what happened in in Spring of 69 and for many of them they felt this was you know we had this Elite status you know the Harvard of t
he poor Etc and open missions um tarnished that image and so I think that partly uh we don't know that story because City University wasn't proud of it and I I hope when they see our film they'll reclaim that history change the narrative basically and that they will become proud of what they should be proud of it you could see immediately what happened in 1969 at city college changed access to higher education across the country the impact was so immediate and so profound so Charles you were the
re right in the midst of it what were the what were the things that built up to the Takeover and it was actually two years prior when students began to start coming together and formulating a plan you know for things that were you know problematic for you know for black students on the campus at that time so if you look at the five demands of course admissions was a key factor uh we had those examples of the great work that was happening in the Civil Rights Movement you know when Equity was not
just a modern term you know we certainly wanted equality and what better examples you know than right there in the C in the middle of Harlem where many of the Great um civil rights Pioneers resided one thing I was stunned to learn was that uh in 1969 uh right in the middle of Harlem and the College was the enrollment was something like 91% white wor than I I believe it was close to 97% white by the time that we formulated those demands in ' 68 and I don't think it changed that radically in ' 69
so I believe it was somewhere around 97 you know per um so those were the things that we were noticing but it was really you know the human factor I mean we are students uh we're not being seen you know there were people who didn't believe that because of our race we actually you know belong there that we could come in and we could compete not just through the seek program which I'm sure we'll talk about but many of us were just mainstream you know individuals and we went we graduated on time we
persevered and we went out and did some amazing things so we're proud of L um that was not recognized in 68 that we even had the potential to bring anything of value to this school and we proved them wrong I know in the film there is one student uh who talks about uh being in a class and her professor tells all of the students who were in The seek program which was a special program to bring in you know uh minority students said well you all stand up and then said announced to the class well th
ese are people who couldn't have gotten in otherwise Francy Covington she's so well spoken and she said some most radical things in that under in that kind of understated way way in one class one instructor asked all of the seek students to stand and she proceeded to tell the other members of the class that we were in a special category essentially that we had not done the hard work and gotten the high SAT scores and here we were now so the committee of 10 mhm got formed what was what what was w
hat was that all about each of our committee members had a group of individuals that we were responsible for and so how that worked out beneficially is that you would get to know the very people that would go on the front line you know with you so we would study together we would eat together we'd meet together we'd party together and do things and those were the sales and you came up with this list of five demands which is what the movies is about correct uh just go through them briefly what we
re the five demands you know so the the most important and significant you know U demand was that which related to the admissions um I'm so glad that Andrea talked about the fact that it was not open admissions theand number one a separate School of black and Puerto Rican studies I think you can say that just about any human endeavor uh in America the concentration has been on those people of European descent history is essential you know to our getting a especially a liberal arts education righ
t you know I mean so where is our history and there was none there a separate orientation program for black and Puerto Rican students why did you need a different orientation from the orientation that the other students got part of what was being said you know you're going into classrooms you're being ignored you're certainly you know going into orientations and there's nothing about you um you know that really allows you to feel welcomed because an orientation is a welcoming and we also thought
that there was you know should be some recognition by the college that something about you know um our experiences should be recognized and shared with others a voice for seek students in the setting of all guidelines for the seek program including the hiring and firing of all Personnel okas seeks the primary support area for black and Puerto Rican students we need to have some control about what occurs within those programs of course these are all sensible aren't they we were college students
that the racial composition of all entering classes reflect the black and Puerto Rican population of all all of New York City's high schools since the city of University of New York is in fact you know a public ins institution funded and financed by public monies and public funds so we said there should be some sort of correlation so we knew that in that period of time statistically 57% of the graduates of you know uh high schools in the city of New York were you know um African-American or Lati
nos so we wanted that correlation [Music] that black and Puerto Rican history and Spanish language be a requirement for all education Majors you know we are you know training teachers who going to go into our community to teach black and Puerto Rican students might be good for them to have some awareness of what that history and culture is when they're going out there to embrace um our kids so those were the five of okay so in Fe of 1969 uh the students present these five demands to president Ga
llagher and uh what was the what was the reaction silence Sil silence yeah silence the truth of the matter was he was moving very slowly and this was a time when you know people wanted to change it was like we've been trying to we've been talking about this for what a hundred years it's enough with the talk let's just do it the five demands did not miraculously appear a month ago they were first formally presented to president Gallagher in October at which time there was no response from the adm
inistration again in January the black and Puerto Rican Community presented president Gallagher with the demands he was asked to agree in principle to the validity of the demands and to set up the means by which negotiations could take place again there was no response no structure was set up for negotiation until the black and Puerto Rican students closed down south campus and declared them themselves on strike on the Takeover actually starts on April 21st tell me how that jumped off so we actu
ally met about 4:00 in the morning and then we traveled onto the campus we had our you know little tools or equipment you know so we knew that we would have placement we had mapped it out and we locked the gates how many you all together there was literally only about 40 or 50 person we walked into the library at 6:00 in the morning and there were kids there they were studying um and there were others who you know ended up staying on the campus it must have been there overnight because we're goi
ng through buildings and we're telling them time for you to go you have to leave um many of them said for what you know we're saying well we're doing a takeover and they said a takeover what you know I mean so we went through all of that back for so you took over the entire South Campus basically okay and while you're were in there I get I get were negotiations going on was anybody negotiating with you or bill gallager was a great man um you know but as as gret said he didn't get us he didn't ge
t this he didn't get the significance he didn't get the timing this is historical you know you pointed out very well what would happened in ' 68 you know then you were going into 69 with 69 propelled you know then the Kent State situation and Jackson State and 70 and Cambodia and all of that so he didn't realize this was bigger than him Gallagher was having a lot of difficulty with the student protesters this must have been a very frustrating situation for him the students in fact burned a uh pu
ppet of him in effigy since I was present when that happened I remember that and it actually made me sad because they're very very few presidents that I think who would have been as sympathetic to the student demands as Gallagher was the City University people I think realized that so that's why they were saying to him okay take it slow we got a plan you know it's not their plan it's going to be our plan and then we said this is the wakeup call if you're not going to listen to us then we're goin
g to stop operations we thought it would be as I said in the film for a couple hours but it wound up being over two and a half weeks and at what point was was there some movement uh the State Board of Education decided we're going to give you something at what point I think as it went from day one into day two um and all of a sudden you know people began to start paying attention Gallagher yesterday he agreed to three of the students five demands and immediately ran into resistance from his facu
lty today he was ordered to open the campus and was commended by most students for refusing to bring police on campus saying he would rather go to jail himself but as optimistic as he is about the black students leaving voluntarily they show no signs of doing so if they don't they will soon face a court order themselves college campuses a sanctuaries you know and he honored that commitment he would did not bring the police onto that campus at any time it was his successor who brought the police
on not president Gallagher and there was it was not a violent not at all the the violence happened afterwards where probably police informant set the fire to Finley Hall and the white students were attacking black women which brought the the brothers in to defend them there was some white students that trapped black women students at the gate and the word got out and we came and there was this major major altercation five black women were being assaulted by about 200 white men students we just l
eaped into the crowd of all these men and started swinging by the next day and talking about blacks chasing down white students which it is just the opposite the journalist got the story wrong in the Post strike where they blamed the black students whom they referred to as Negroes for the violence I think James small says it all in the film he says we didn't come to destroy we came to inherit and so we not setting fires we were not causing violence but you can see that there's a that incredible
image with the he calls in there's a bus a city bus and all the cops who are all white come off the bus and we use that song and the black is so terrifying what do they want and that and and that's the J to position it was like people were just so terrified of organized students of color well that continues today and that continues prot right it's black lives matter or something El yeah yeah it's it's it's it it continues today and we will have a restoration of Law and Order on the campus black
is so terrible as terrifying black is a thousand black riding and a million white asking oh my God what do they want black is such a shocky there's a kind of um secondary narrative going on in our film I think about the way the media represented what happened on campus from the very beginning the first thing that David Brinkley says is the students shut down the campus they wanted the campus enrollment to be 50% from black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods I don't know he had the five demands I'm s
ure on a cheat sheet he couldn't get it right he you know and from there the disparity between you know what the students were asking for and what the students were doing and what was being reported was getting wider and wider so by the time the violence takes place on the campus you you know we have this Montage of all these different voices saying you know black students wanted to fight against white students I mean crazy kinds of things there are those students at city college who said that v
iolence was inevitable here black students would want to fight against white students fights between black and Puerto Rican students and those who wanted to return to their study days of violence Among Us black and the City College of New York ringed by police in a frenzy of fear and violence Okay so Gallagher decides he's going to resign you get a new president who's a little very terer claims uh threatens to bring in the police so when he was replaced by Copeland the first thing Copeland did w
as to look up all of our academic records and see who he could get rid of soon we heard that there was going to be a police presence and they're going to take anybody and everybody out off of this campus by whatever means of force when there was a threat of violence that's when we decided to leave not just for our own sake but for the sake of of everyone to say we do not want this to be viewed as as some sort of a violent encounter we had a purpose we fulfilled it we marched [Music] out free yea
h we shall be free everybody want to get together and walk like you and me what happened was that um other campuses Brooklyn in particular also Queens but Brooklyn had a big student protest it was kind of like wildfire it was catching on on the other campuses um they started to have their own protests and um because of the violent incident that Greta talked about with um white students attacking a a handful of black women and black men coming to the rescue Etc that that incident uh and the polic
e coming on campus and all of all of these things kind of spiraled and the administration's um response which was kind of not really thought through enough it was a little bit like we we can't have this this this is we've got to just put a lid on this as fast as possible give them something they didn't even ask for to stop to all of these protests we'll give them open Admissions and what was that open admissions anyone who graduated from one of the public high schools of the city could attend on
e of the City University campuses colleges But A New Concept arose which was not a concept we were pushing and that concept was called open admissions could you define open admissions for us please open admissions means that the only requirement for entrance to high to college to one of the colleges of the City University of New York is a high school diploma and every student who graduated this June from from any High School in New York City was offered a place in one of our colleges how many to
ok up the offer well an alarmingly large number they were totally unprepared for what happened um because they were just flooded this was against my advice which was that they should simply increase the seek program because what the university did was it took in everybody is that it took on a situation it was not financially able to handle that's what happened open admissions was the result and I think you could say that open admissions even though it wasn't one of the demands was the result of
the Takeover and I think in a way although it had a lot of problems and it wasn't far from perfect it was a positive result it was it was a positive result it did drastically increased the number of black and Latino and other students who were admitted to not just City College but to City University yeah yes and I mean even like like it was funny um Stanley Nelson our executive producer who grew up in Harlem he got in through open admissions I got in through open admissions a lot of my friends g
ot in through open admissions so the point is even though the school was underfunded the classes were overcrowded they weren't enough rooms I mean there were so many problems having to do with scarcity of resources but nonetheless students who got into City College or any of the City University campuses through open admissions the ones that wanted to persevere succeed and make enormous contributions back to the city in the Long View this was hugely successful [Music] yeah that open the nation's
policy brought hundreds of thousands Black and Latino people into the commity system probably the biggest education leap for black Americans happened at City University especially after and immediately after the Takeover and I mean that nationally the really great result of open admissions not only at the City University but across the country is that we've changed the story and the expectation is if you want to go to school you can go to school and you can [Music] [Applause] [Music] succeed the
re is a reason why of all of the colleges and universities in this country I chose this particular School in this particular City you represent more than 150 nationalities just about every possible background every color and culture every faith and Walk of Life so graduates with your glorious diversity you all embody the very purpose of the school's founding what do you want hope people will take from this story from this documentary for me the core audience is the people of Harlem and the black
and brown Community who don't know about this history to feel inspired okay cuz there's a lot of problems now and then you can see this film you go wow people did it before people organized and made change we can do it again for me I want it to be an inspiration to young people today and old people anyone to see a success story everywhere we've gone every campus there are a group of students a group of Faculty that are saying as gr said we got to get this right uh 53 years later we're dealing w
ith some of the same issues cutbacks um lack of access I think I may have mentioned you know that the counseling situation um the fact that there's an overproliferation of non-tenured you know regular staff people and they're bringing in you know uh adjunct and things of that sort uh I hope we can see that connection from yesterday to today that's what I got out of there certainly a great story and one that I think a lot of people didn't know about until now and now fortunately because of your f
ilmm they will know about it unfortunately we're out of time I'd like to thank Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss co-directors of the five demands and Attorney Charles Powell for joining me today for more information about the film go to the FIV demands film.com and to learn about our upcoming shows you can follow us on Twitter at121 huny TV for the the City University of New York and one to one I'm Cheryl [Music] McCarthy
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