Discrimination and Resistance in the Classroom

Classroom Prejudice

Photo from a pamphlet titled "The Black Student at Dartmouth" (n.d.)

Though breaking the barriers to accessing colleges like Dartmouth was pivotal, working to gain entry to these elite institutions was only the beginning of a long, arduous journey. Black students at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) experienced myriad forms of discrimination, from microaggressions to explicit racism, which sometimes even escalated into direct violence (Kendi 60). While many of these harms were present in informal social interactions between students, discrimination in the classroom was (and is) commonplace (Simpson 3). This page explores the forms of racism experienced by Black students academically, starting with experiences within classes and involving faculty. 

During the mid-20th century, racial, economic, and social issues in the United States were coming to a head. The intersectional causes of Civil Rights, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and widespread economic and gender inequality deeply affected the lives of many Americans. However, when Black students attended PWIs, they found that attitudes of racism and sexism were deeply entrenched everywhere.

Specifically in their academic lives, they often encountered direct ideological conflict and grade discrimination by professors. In I Have Been Waiting: Race and U.S. Higher Education, Jennifer Simpson points out that the “invisible”, “normalized” attitudes of white supremacy and white identity frequently caused the exclusion of Black students from intellectual inquiry, equitable class participation, and overall achievement. Some students, like Wesley Pugh, directly resisted these harms at Dartmouth:

Photo of pre-med students from "The Black Student at Dartmouth" (n.d.)

Students at other schools, like Keni Washington, also experienced prejudice in the classroom. In his interview for the Black Alumni Stories oral history, this Stanford ‘68 cited many negative experiences. As a music major, he was disheartened when his professor ridiculed jazz music in his class. At the time, William Shockley was also a professor at Stanford. Shockley, who worked to prove the “genetic inferiority” of Black people, also visited Dartmouth, where he was met with widespread protest and resistance. As a Stanford student, Washington regularly encountered Shockley:

Dartmouth students protesting at William Shockley's guest lecture (1969)

Though Black students resisted discrimination on several fronts, the academic harms at PWIs often isolated them and threatened their educational success. However, Jennifer Simpson writes that “the learned habits and assumptions of white supremacy are not permanent” and can be dismantled by massive changes to epistemology and pedagogy in the classroom (24). Though this goal can be achieved in many different ways, one in particular has a rich history and application at Dartmouth: the formation of a Black Studies program.

Black Studies as a Form of Resistance

The section above outlined the ways the Black experience was often marginalized, excluded, or explicitly attacked in academic settings. However, despite the harms experienced in these situations, Black students mobilized across the nation, protesting and fighting for equality in what became known as the Black Campus Movement. This Movement worked on several fronts, but one of the most academically impactful was advocacy for Black Studies programs. Before this movement, scholars like Ibram Kendi agree that “curricular relevance was nonexistent” for Black students (152). Prominent Black scholars like Zora Neale Hurston and W.E.B. Dubois were left off syllabi, instead favoring white (and often, explicitly racist) content (Ibid.).

Black students and faculty created a Black Studies program in 1969, largely in response to forms of classroom discrimination, First named Afro-American Studies, it was later changed to Black Studies in 1971. Programs like these offered a wide range of courses (see photo), all to celebrate Black scholarship and “break the rules” of the predominantly white academy (Kendi 154).

Cover of "Who Needs Black Studies? Perhaps You Do!", a pamphlet advertising Dartmouth's Black Studies program (1974)

Course listings from Dartmouth's Black Studies program (1974)

One particularly unique aspect of Black Studies programs was the opportunity to go abroad. Dartmouth’s program, based in Sierra Leone, was a highlight of Wesley Pugh’s undergraduate career. Speaking on his experiences, he noted that this foreign study was a “life-changing and tremendous experience,” which “leaves an indelible mark in one's life.”

The formation and growth of Black Studies (now African and African American Studies) at Dartmouth is far from over. But in an often bleak, prejudicial academic environment, the opportunity to build community and Black Pride is fondly remembered by Black students at PWIs like Dartmouth across the nation.