Items

• Three Who Died for Civil Rights

  This exhibit contains items including articles, flyers and logs related to the murders of civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney in Mississippi, 1964. Goodman was a student at Queens College at the time of his death. The exhibit includes memorial projects produced by students and faculty at Queens College.
• Mississippi Freedom Summer

  This exhibit consists of photographs and flyers highlighting the participation of Queens College student activists in the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. In particular, many of these students were involved in the Meridian Freedom School initiative and fundraising activities.
• School Boycott

  This exhibition includes flyers promoting The School Boycott which occurred on February 3rd, 1964. It was organized by local New York City civil rights leaders, and members of the NAACP and CORE. More than 450,000 students boycotted their public schools to protest school segregation and overcrowding.
• Student Help Project Art Book

  The Student Help Project Art Book was produced by Queens College graphic design students to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Student Help Project. The Art Book visualizes the legal struggle for desegregation and equal opportunity to quality public education in the 1960s.
• Student Help Project Timeline

  The Student Help Project was a collective of Queens College student activists who volunteered to tutor schoolchildren in Jamaica, Queens and Prince Edward County, Virginia in 1963. The Student Help Project Timeline exhibits archival items donated by members of the collective. The items were part of a 2013 Queens College social media project, titled “50 Years Ago Today.”
• CUNY AAUP Resolution

  Adopted by the City University of New York Council of the American Association of University Professors, this resolution outlines a commitment to academic freedom and provides a promise to "protect the university from tactics which undermine the structure of freedom."
• Ad Hoc Committee Statement of Demands

  This flier, created by the Ad Hoc Committee to End Political Suppression, lays out the group's purpose in choosing to occupy the Social Sciences (SS) Building on the Queens College campus. The group would occupy the building from March 27th, the date of the flier's creation, until April 2nd, the start of spring break, with only an hour-long disruption in between. That interruption occurred in the early morning hours of April 1st when 39 protestors were arrested and the building was temporarily cleared. The activist student group's principal motivation, as expressed in the first two of their four demands, was in support of three suspended students from the college facing criminal charges for driving out a General Electric recruiter on March 11th. Additionally, they sought the rehiring of a dismissed English instructor and the abolishment of a recently issued CUNY-wide report governing faculty firings. Though the Queens College administration would reinstate the suspended students, the college's president, Joseph P. McMurray, adamantly refused to dropped charges. Consequently, student protests continued into May.
• Queens College Dean's Report

  Produced by the office of Queens College Dean George A. Pierson, this report summarizes campus events from March 1969 that resulted in student unrest and protest that would continue into May. As the report describes, the initial cause of the protests—which would culminate in 39 arrests following the student takeover of the Social Sciences Building on April 1st—was student outrage over the suspension of three students charged with forcing a General Electric recruiter off campus on March 11th. While the college administration would eventually lift the suspensions, they refused to drop the criminal charges filed against the students. The result was continued protests on campus led by the student-led Ad Hoc Committee to End Political Suppression.
• "6th Day Bust Rally"

  Created by the Ad Hoc Committee (to End Political Suppression), an activist student group at Queens College, this flier calls for a rally at 1pm on April 1, 1969 where the group would issue its reply to Queens College President McMurray's statement from the prior night. At the time of the flier's publication, the Ad Hoc Committee was leading a protest on campus that included the takeover of the Social Sciences building. In fact, in the early morning of April 1, 38 were arrested after police were tasked with clearing out the building. Student protest would continue, however, through April into May. The flier also reiterates several of the group's other positions, including a set of four demands that would shortly expand to six in response to the police action taken early that morning. The group's initial protests were held in response to the suspension of three students following a March 11th incident on campus with a General Electric recruiter and the administration's steadfast efforts to press charges against them.
• Statement by President Joseph P. McMurray

  This is a statement issued by Joseph P. McMurray, president of Queens College, in regards to the student occupation of the Social Sciences Building and his decision to request police action in the early morning hours of April 1, 1969. Students, numbering sometimes as high as 700, had taken over the building on March 27th in response to the administration's treatment of three students following a March 11th protest on campus. While the administration dropped the students' suspensions, as demanded by protestors, they steadfastly refused to drop the criminal charges filed against them. The continuing protests were only temporarily delayed by the arrest of 38 in the morning of April 1st. Tensions would remain high on campus for the remainder of the school year with regular student demonstrations on campus through that year's graduation.
• President's Newsletter

  This newsletter, issued by the Office of Queens College President Joseph P. McMurray, offers the administration's reaction to the continued student protests on campus. In addition to McMurray's letter is a response to five of the demands called for by the Ad Hoc Committee, the student group organizing the campus demonstrations which began in the final week of March 1969.
• Supplementary Fact Sheet

  This is a fact sheet that was prepared by the Ad Hoc Committee in attempt to correct, what they perceived to be, a distorted version of events presented by Queens College President John P. McMurray and other college administration in the preceding days. The events in question involved the particulars of student protests and demonstrations on campus in March and April 1969. This sheet covers the timeframe of March 27 to April 1, during which time students occupied the Social Sciences Building on campus in protest of the college's treatment of three students from a separate incident earlier in March.
• "Concerned Faculty Statement"

  This is a statement presented by concerned Queens College faculty at a meeting of the college's Personnel and Budget Committee. Agreed upon by approximately 150 faculty members, the paper expresses concern over the college's handling of ongoing student demonstrations in March/April 1969. Many of the points enumerated in the document echo the assertions and demands made by student activists in the Ad Hoc Committee.
• "A Procedure suggested for coping with the Present Emergency"

  This notice, created by Queens College's Biology Caucus, proposed the creation of an interdepartmental, college-wide committee comprised of full-time faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. As the document notes, it was the hope that this committee might arrive at a satisfactory decision to resolve the college's ongoing crisis between students and the administration. Student demonstrations and sit-ins were regularly planned between March and May 1969, with tensions on campus remaining particularly acute during that period.
• Letter to Queens College Professional Staff

  This letter was issued to the professional staff in the Paul Klapper Library at Queens College on April 15, 1969. Three days earlier, the college's Biology Caucus proposed the creation of an inter-departmental committee composed of faculty and students from each department in the college. As the notice states, however, the library department did not have students and so it was requested they provide additional staff representation. The committee, it was hoped, was to be convened in effort to rectify the ongoing student showdown with campus administration that saw regular demonstrations on campus between March and May 1969.
• Statement by the Department Chairmen, the Dean of Faculty, and the President

  This statement was prepared by Queens College administration in regards to persistent student unrest on campus in March/April 1969. The document details some of the steps the college had taken to rectify the issue, including their convening of representatives from the faculty and student populations, a measure taken in effort to show the school able to "police itself." Earlier in the month, student protest groups occupied the college's Social Sciences Building in protest of the administration's treatment of earlier activists. After several days, the administration requested police clear the building and nearly 40 students were arrested in the process on April 1. Tensions between students and administration remained high in the weeks that followed.
• Resolution Meeting Notes-First Session

  These handwritten notes, taken by an unknown faculty member, are from the first session of the Personnel and Budget (P&B) meeting held on April 17, 1969. They give an account of the happenings of the meeting, beginning with summarized statements from members of the "Concerned Faculty" group. As evident from the document, the meeting's agenda was largely informed by the continuing student unrest on Queens College's campus and the administration's continued inability to satisfy the demands of the student protestors. The protestors, arguing in favor of dismissed faculty and other previously punished student activists, were a regular presence on campus in March/April 1969.
• Resolution Meeting Notes-Second Session

  These handwritten notes, taken by an unknown faculty member, are from the second session of the Personnel and Budget (P&B) meeting held on April 17, 1969. They give an account of the happenings of the meeting, beginning with summarized statements from right-leaning members of the student population including the president of the college's Young Republicans club. As evident from the document, the meeting's agenda was largely informed by the continuing student unrest on Queens College's campus and the administration's continued inability to satisfy the demands of the student protestors. The protestors, arguing in favor of dismissed faculty and other previously punished student activists, were a regular presence on campus in March/April 1969.
• Responses to the Nine Points

  This position paper was presented by Queens College's Department Chairmen, the Dean of Faculty and the President in response to the concerns shared by a group of "Concerned Faculty" on April 13. The document provides a response to each of the nine points brought up by the faculty concerned with the college's handling of ongoing student demonstrations in March/April 1969.
• "To the Faculty: 'If You Don't Read This, Don't Complain About Anything That Happens at Queens College'"

  Sent to all of Queens College's faculty from the Ad Hoc Faculty Committee, this letter attempts to collect a general consensus from faculty on the ongoing campus unrest in order to present a unified front to the college's President James P. McMurray. The letter includes several proposals previously issued to the president. The group responsible for this letter should not be confused with the Ad Hoc Committee (to End Political Suppression), a left student and faculty activist group largely responsible for the prolonged demonstrations at the college. In reference to them, the letter offers: "most faculty members believe that the demonstrators' tactics established dangerous precedents and that these tactics were disproportionate to the grievances."
• Then We go to Academic II

  Produced by the Ad-Hoc Committee in late-April 1969, this flier calls for student support for the takeover of the Academic II building. In March, the same group organized the occupation of the Social Sciences Building in protest of the college's treatment of two student activists arrested and suspended in early March. That sit-in, which led to the arrest of more than thirty, failed to force consensus between protestors and administration as intended. As a result, students organized again to take over the campus' main administrative building, blocking access for all staff and prompting at least six faculty members to lock themselves in their offices without food or electricity. The takeover lasted from mid-day Monday April 28 until Friday May 2 when the police where called to campus at the request of college president Joseph McMurray.
• Support "A" Bldg Sit In!

  Created by the Ad Hoc Committee, a student activist group at Queens College, this flier requests support for the Academic II building sit-in. In addition to providing justification for the students' occupation of the building, the flier gives additional info on the protest and details on an afternoon rally on April 29, 1969.
• Draft of Campus Referendum

  This memo, sent to Queens College's librarians from delegates to the Campus Caucus, invites comments on a proposed campus referendum that had been crafted by representatives from several academic departments. The memo lays out the procedures for the vote as well as a rough draft of the referendum which includes several questions—including ones about protest permissibility and disciplinary measures—that speak to the concerns surrounding student unrest on campus in March/April 1969.
• "Support the 5 Demands"

  Despite being printed on official Queens College letterhead, this handout was created by student activists in the Ad Hoc Committee. The flier calls for support of the five demands put forth by the group to the school's administration. Those five demands, laid out in the beginning of April 1969, included the reinstatement of a dismissed professor and the dropping of charges against student protestors involved in incidents in the prior weeks, amongst other things. Printed during a student takeover of an administrative building, the handout was just one of many created during particularly turbulent weeks on campus in March and April 1969 with high tensions between students and administrative.
• Faculty Committee Meeting Notes

  These handwritten notes were taken during a Faculty Committee meeting held on May 3, 1969. A large segment of the meeting was devoted to handling issues with Queens College's SEEK program. Short for "Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge," SEEK was established in 1966 as a CUNY-wide program to assist disadvantaged students who might otherwise lack the opportunity to study at a four-year college. At Queens, much debate surrounded the program by 1969 as many black students in the program argued for greater autonomy and demanded significant changes to the program structure including student control of faculty hiring. At one point, students smashed windows and overturned card catalogues. Their actions, which contributed to the temporary closure of the college, made the front page of the New York Times on May 3 including a large photograph above the centerfold.Occuring simultaneously with the SEEK protests were additional unrelated efforts taken by the Ad Hoc Committee that saw the student occupation of administrative buildings and offices. In choosing to close the school for the second time in 1969, President Joseph P. McMurray declared, "No meaningful educational program can go on in this kind of atmosphere." Queens joined City College and Brooklyn College in temporarily shutting down because of student unrest. By May 3, of the four major CUNY schools, only Hunter remained open.