Revisiting the 1968 SFSU Student Strike While Trump Targets Campus Protesters

The longest student strike in U.S. history was held at San Francisco State University, then known as San Francisco State College, from the fall of 1968 to the spring of 1969.

Organized by the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Third World Liberation Front coalition, the strike led to the establishment of the nation’s first College of Ethnic Studies and a more diverse faculty.

Although the movement was concentrated on the Golden Gator’s campus, it was informed by the social movements of the era, and intended to better the living conditions of the communities from which the students came.

For International Workers Day on Thursday, May 1, a free arts showcase titled Somebody ‘Blew Up’ San Francisco State College: THAT WAS NOW, THIS IS THEN (How the Black Student Union & Black Arts Movements Changed Education Forever) will commemorate and add context to the San Francisco State College student strike.

Hosted by Associate Professor Mark Allan Davis, the evening will feature a dance performance from De’jha Scott, a lyrical recital by Chioke Allen and music from singer Najé Nova, who will be backed by saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh & his quintet. Dancer Nick Brentley will discuss a controversial performance created by Davis, and the keynote speech will be delivered by Dr. James “Jimmy” Garrett, co-founder of the original BSU and one of the organizers of the 1968-69 student strike.

More than a half century later, the issues the students fought for and against haven’t gone away. In fact, they’ve only grown more pressing. Suppressing protests on college campuses and dismantling diverse representation in government-funded positions are currently central concerns of President Trump’s administration.

Davis, who in many ways sees all protests as a form of theatre, imagines the event as not just a walk through history but a stand against the oppression of today.

An educator who teaches Black literature for the College of Ethnic Studies, Davis has an illuminative past: he was in the original cast of The Lion King on Broadway and choreographed the music video for Milli Vanilli’s “Don’t 4-get My Number.”

Davis is currently at work on a book about the larger societal context and social movements surrounding the 1968 student strike. The May 1 event gives him the opportunity to combine his knowledge of protests and performance.

“I’ve been a theater and dance person my whole life,” says Davis, acknowledging that this moment, politically, calls for a great act.

With scholars from across the state expected to attend, Davis says this event will provide Black California State University students dealing low enrollment numbers and low graduation rates time on stage with the actual creators of the first BSU in the United States.

“To have this moment with these young Black students today,” says Davis, “and these incredibly amazing people who are in their late 70s and early 80s that were there, that created this discipline, that transformed education… I want this on film.”

Davis, originally from New York, joined SFSU nearly a decade ago. During his time on campus, he’s grown to understand that there are “preconceived notions about what San Francisco is,” he says, with a nod to the city’s reputation as a liberal bastion cloaking its latent racism. “Not only as a city, but also what its institutions are.”

A few weeks ago at a conference in San Diego, Davis listened to Dr. James “Jimmy” Garrett’s daughter, Nataki Garrett, discuss the student strike as her father had told it to her.

“On paper,” says Davis, quoting Nataki, “the strike was a demand for the hiring of more faculty of color, to teach students of color about their history and impact on this country and the world.”

Nataki went on to explain that the California State University system was “never created to support a global majority student population.”

So Black students had to infiltrate the school system by pressuring school administration and making their presence felt on campus. They also hit the community to recruit other Black folks.

Of Nataki’s father, Davis says, “He would go to the corners of the city, and ask anyone standing there, ‘do you have a GED or a high school diploma?'” Which was all you needed to enter the CSU at the time, and then he’d offer them a choice.

“You can make your money in craps on the corner, or you can make double that at work-study. And the only thing you have to do is take this knowledge that we’re going to give you and drive it back to the people,” he said.

As an educator, Davis sees his work as a continuum of that. “I know the power that they hold,” says Davis of his students. “For me, the whole point of this is to show them the power that they have.”

‘Somebody ‘Blew Up’ San Francisco State College: THAT WAS NOW, THIS IS THEN (How the Black Student Union & Black Arts Movements Changed Education Forever)’ takes place on Thursday, May 1 at 7 p.m. at San Francisco State University. The free event will be held at Knuth Hall on the SFSU campus (1600 Holloway Ave. San Francisco, CA 94132).