Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College

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The fight for the creation of Puerto Rican and Black Studies programs across a number of campuses in the City University of New York (CUNY) system in late 1960s and early 1970s is one of the singular academic and political achievements of the student and community movements in these years. Stories of unity and solidarity between Puerto Rican and African American student populations and local communities were central to the struggles at many of the campuses throughout the City University. The battles for a Puerto Rican Studies department at Brooklyn College were directly connected to the larger Open Admissions movement that fundamentally reshaped CUNY after 1969. This was especially true at Brooklyn College, as this collection on the history of the fight to create a Puerto Rican Studies department at the college reveals.

The efforts of a mostly Puerto Rican and African-American student-led struggle within CUNY in the years after 1968 contributed to the establishment of the larger field of U.S.-based Puerto Rican Studies (PRS) programs. As a pioneering discipline, PRS also contributed to the emerging fields of Latino Studies and Ethnic Studies, helping transform the curriculum in higher education institutions across the nation. Brooklyn College was one of several CUNY campuses at which students and faculty engaged with each other, alongside community residents, to achieve a more equitable, responsive, and integrated public education system. Influenced and supported by national organizations such as the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords Organization, the Civil Rights Movement, international struggles including opposition to the Vietnam War, and the pro-independence movement in and for Puerto Rico, student-activists at Brooklyn College engaged in various forms of protest in their efforts to transform the university system.

When Puerto Rican and African-American students began to arrive in small but significant numbers at Brooklyn College (BC) and CUNY during the late 1960s, they encountered a campus that did not reflect the Brooklyn neighborhoods they knew and had grown up in. By 1968, 96 percent of the undergraduate student enrollment at Brooklyn College remained white, middle class, and largely Jewish. In that same year Puerto Rican students established the Puerto Rican Alliance (P.R.A.) at Brooklyn College, signaling the presence of pioneering Puerto Rican student-activists on the campus.

The early cohort of predominantly Puerto Rican and African-American students who began integrating the Brooklyn College (BC) campus in the late 1960s became active members of the Puerto Rican Alliance and the Brooklyn League of Afro-American Collegians (B.L.A.C.)--both student clubs at BC. In April 1969 the student members of P.R.A. and B.L.A.C. presented BC President George A. Peck with a list of 18 demands that included: active recruitment and admission of more Puerto Rican and Black students into the university; establishment of Puerto Rican and Afro-American Institutes; and an end to biological and chemical warfare research and C.I.A. activities at the campus. These demands were modeled after the Black Panther Party’s 21 national demands. The 18 demands were also supported by Students for a Democratic Society (S.D.S.), a student club composed of a mostly white radical students on campus. This phase of the student-led struggle at BC is described in oral histories with pioneering student-activists included in this collection as a racially, ethnically, and linguistically inclusive movement.

Later in the spring of 1969, in response to student demands and student and faculty activism on campus the BC administration approved the creation initially of the Puerto Rican and Afro-American institutes, both of which opened on the BC Campus early the following year. One of the biggest and earliest demonstrations in support of these demands at Brooklyn College became known as the “BC19” event. In May 1969, after weeks of campus protests, 19 students were arrested in their homes during a pre-dawn raid by NYC police. Pioneering student-activists faced charges for their on-campus demonstrations and were held on Rikers Island, in Queens, NY for three days. BC student and faculty activists, as well as members of the surrounding Brooklyn community (including BC alum, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm) raised funds for bail to allow the arrested students to be released. Oral historical interviews conducted with two of the “BC19” students, Antonio Nieves and Dr. Orlando Pile are included in this collection. Finally, in January 1970, with continued support from BC faculty and staff, the Departments of Puerto Rican and Afro-American Studies were established and began operating on several CUNY campus, including Brooklyn College, Hunter College, Borough of Manhattan Community College, and City College, contributing to the longterm transformation of CUNY through new and progressive curricula and a growing and integrated student body.

The initial few years after the establishment of the Department of Puerto Rican Studies (PRS) in 1970 remained fairly quiet on the BC campus. Led by students, faculty, and staff, the new academic department and the separate PRS Institute (which continued) developed courses, programs, and community-driven partnerships between Puerto Rico and the diaspora in the United States. The 1973-74 academic year marked the next major phase in the Puerto Rican struggle at Brooklyn College. Student-activists organized and mobilized to defend their right to self-determination of and control over the Department of Puerto Rican Studies. Shortly after the founding director and chair of the department resigned the BC administration organized a search committee, chaired by President John W. Kneller. In an unexpected move, President Kneller defied the decision of the search committee and in Fall 1974 chose a candidate as the new chair of the department who students, faculty, and staff opposed. Students then engaged in a series of protests demanding to have Prof. María Sánchez, the search committee’s choice, as the department’s next chairperson. Students rallied on campus and at President Kneller’s house and the gym he frequented. The protests escalated into a multi-day take-over in October 1974 of the BC Registrar’s office, ending with the arrest of 41 students and 3 faculty members. This incident became known as the BC44. Oral history interviews conducted with arrested students and one faculty member are part of this collection.

This Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College Collection (PRSBC) focuses on a mostly Puerto Rican led student movement at CUNY during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student-activists, photographs of participants and important events, and archival materials. The oral history interviews were recorded for a documentary film, Making the Impossible Possible (2021), directed by Tami Gold and Pam Sporn and produced by the Alliance for Puerto Rican Education and Empowerment (A.P.R.E.E.), an organization founded by several of the pioneering Brooklyn College student activists. Antonio "Tony" Nieves, student member and liaison of the Puerto Rican Alliance and the Brooklyn League of Afro-American Collegians contributed the photographs in this collection, which captured the racial and ethnic solidarity on the campus during the late 1960s. Archival materials found at Brooklyn College’s Archives and Special Collections fill out the story of institutional, pedagogical, cultural, and linguistic transformation that occurred across the CUNY system and at Brooklyn College as a result of the actions of a formidable, mostly Puerto Rican and African-American student-led, movement. The collection was curated by Gisely Colón López, a doctoral student in the Graduate Center’s Urban Education PhD program.

Date

(Circa)

Language

English

Collection

Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College

Subjects

Time Periods

1961-1969 The Creation of CUNY - Open Admissions Struggle

1970-1977 Open Admissions - Fiscal Crisis - State Takeover

Items

26–39 of 39

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January 24, 1972 Letter from the Committee on Puerto Rican Studies and Research to CUNY Chancellor Kibbee confirming a plan to create a Puerto Rican Research Center at CUNY
This January 24, 1974 letter to CUNY Chancellor Robert Kibbee, co-signed by Brooklyn College Department of Puerto Rican Studies Chairperson Josephine Nieves, confirmed a proposal to create a Puerto Rican Research Center at CUNY. The proposed research center eventually became the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, CUNY. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
May 21, 1971 Press Release announcing opening of Bilingual Day Care Center by the Brooklyn College Institute of Puerto Rican Studies
May 21, 1971 Press Release from Brooklyn College's (BC) Office of College Relations announced plans by the BC Institute of Puerto Rican Studies to open the first ever Bilingual Day Care Center in an effort to meet the needs of BC students and surrounding Brooklyn community. The Escuela Infantile Bilingüe was located in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn and focused on Puerto Rican culture and history. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
February 6, 1971 Letter from the Puerto Rican Faculty and Staff Organization to the Brooklyn College President Office Announcing the formation of the New Organization
A February 6, 1971 letter from the newly formed Puerto Rican Faculty & Staff Organization to the Brooklyn College (BC) president, details the organization's objectives to racially and culturally transform the BC campus. The letter specifically noted that on the organization's main objective was to sustain communication between the BC administration and the campus's Puerto Rican community. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
March 20, 1970 Brooklyn College Faculty-Staff Bulletin Announcing Creation of Three New Departments at the College
Published by the Faculty and Staff of Brooklyn College (BC), this March 20, 1970 bulletin alerted the BC community of founding of three new departments approved at a BC Faculty Council meeting. The three departments--Information Science, Afro-American Studies, and Puerto Rican Studies--were approved at a March 17, 1970 Faculty Council meeting. Professors Josephine Nieves and Daniel Mayers were named as Directors of the Department of Puerto Rican Studies, and Afro-American Studies, respectively. The bulletin also described the visionary goals for both new departments. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
February 5, 1970 Letter from Brooklyn College President Kneller favoring the establishment of a Department of Puerto Rican Studies at the college
In this February 5, 1970 letter from President John Kneller to Prof. Josephine Nieves, director of the Institute of Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (BC) responded to her formal request for the creation of a Department of Puerto Rican Studies at the college. President Kneller noted that the BC Faculty Council was considering the proposal to create the department and assured her the proposal would be included in the February 16 agenda of the Faculty Council Meeting. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
January 29, 1970 Request for Creation of a Department of Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College
This January 29, 1970, letter, written by Professor Josephine Nieves, Director of the Institute for Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (BC), makes an official request to found a Department of Puerto Rican Studies at the college. The letter describes challenges and obstacles that hinder the development of a Puerto Rican Studies curriculum within the college. The letter also reveals the distinct role institutes play in CUNY as compared to departments. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
Summer 1969 Brooklyn College Faculty Council Resolution Confirming the Establishment of the Puerto Rican and Afro-American Institutes at Brooklyn College
The establishment of both the Puerto Rican and Afro-American Institutes within Brooklyn College (BC), effective September, 1969, was announced in Minutes of the BC Faculty Council, . This document confirms the institutional purpose for both institutes as defined by the BC Faculty Council. The context also revealed that BC did not have plans to develop full departments of Puerto Rican or Afro-Americans Studies in 1969, noting that the institutes would offer courses through already existing academic departments within the college. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
May 14, 1969 Letter from Brooklyn College Acting President George Peck Announcing a Bail Review for Indicted Brooklyn College Students
A May 14, 1969 memo from Brooklyn College (BC) Acting President George Peck informed the college community about a bail review for BC students arrested during protests on the campus. The memo also stated Peck's commitment to confer with student leaders about the 18 demands presented by Puerto Rican and African-American students a month earlier. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
May 9, 1969 Announcement from Acting President George Peck alerting the Brooklyn College community that the NYPD would patrol the campus
On May 9, 1969 Acting Brooklyn College (BC) President George Peck announced the role of the NY Police Department in response to the student-led movement at. The document described various protest strategies and acts of civil disobedience coordinated by members of the student body. The Acting President also commented on plans to implement CUNY's open admissions policy to provide college admission for every graduate of New York City high schools. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
May 5, 1969 Memo from Brooklyn College Acting President George Peck discussing input from BC student government about student suspensions
This May 5, 1969 memo from Brooklyn College (BC) Acting President George Peck alerted the BC campus about the role and responsibilities of the student government of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) regarding student suspensions. The memo noted the variety of protest and civil disobedience strategies engaged in by the current student-led movements at the college. The memo concluded with an assurance by the acting president that several of the students' 18 demands were already being met or were in the processes of being implemented. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
Brooklyn College Acting President Peck's April 18, 1969 Letter Indicating a Meeting Scheduled to Discuss the Students' 18 Demands
This April 18, 1969 letter from Acting BC President George Peck confirmed his office's open communications with Puerto Rican and African-American student activists regarding the 18 demands presented by the students earlier in April. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
Brooklyn College President's April 18, 1969, Response to Puerto Rican and African-American Students' 18 Demands
The Office of the President at Brooklyn College (BC) responded on April 18, 1969, to the 18 Demands presented by Puerto Rican and African-American students earlier that month. In response to the first demands, the office alluded to CUNY's proposed 1975 implementation date for Open Admissions, revealing the intensifying student-led movement for immediate implementation of Open Admissions that spread throughout the CUNY system, including the BC campus. The president's responses also detailed how the student-led movement had pushed the transformation of the college because of their demand to establish institutes for Puerto Rican and Afro-American Studies. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
May 3, 1968, Faculty Council Minutes Supporting a Proposal to Integrate Brooklyn College
As the demand for Open Admissions intensified throughout the CUNY system, Faculty Council Minutes from May 3, 1968, document a discussion regarding the increased enrollment of a more racially, ethnically and culturally reflective and responsive student body at Brooklyn College. The faculty meeting concluded with the passage of a recommendation for a more racially and ethnically inclusive recruitment of staff by college departments. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College (CUNY) during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.
18 Student Demands presented in Spring 1969 to Brooklyn College Administration
Puerto Rican and African American students at Brooklyn College (CUNY) co-wrote a list of 18 demands presented to the President of the college in the Spring of 1969. The Puerto Rican Alliance (P.R.A.) at Brooklyn College and the Brooklyn League of Afro-American Collegians (B.L.A.C.) were two student organizations central to the cultural, racial and educational transformation of the Brooklyn College student and faculty bodies, as well as college's curriculum. This list suggests the visionary-utopian goals of a CUNY-wide student movement, including the demand for the immediate implementation of an Open Admissions policy. This item is part of the Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College (PRSBC) Collection, which covers the largely Puerto Rican-led student movement at Brooklyn College during the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought for the creation of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at the college. The collection includes oral history interviews with pioneering student activists, photographs of participants and their struggles, and other archival materials on the fight to create the Puerto Rican Studies Department drawn from the Archives and Special Collections library at Brooklyn College.

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