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[88] 3 Movement Peak After Martin Luther King’s assassination, the energy of the growing movement continued to take a more radical direction. In 1969, students took over campus buildings in both North and South. Black nationalism, the belief that African Americans had to build their own movement for empowerment, grew from coast to coast, leading to massive demonstrations in support of African liberation struggles. The women’s liberation movement took off nationwide and included hundreds of small consciousness-raising groups, as well as national organizations and caucuses for women’s rights. Antiwar sentiment expanded, pressuring the United States to withdraw its troops from Vietnam. And the repression of activists increased: The police upped their violence against demonstrators, and the FBI further infiltrated and harassed activist groups under its Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO). Black-Student Takeover at Duke, February 1969 Sally ■ In 1969 in Greensboro and Durham, students took over buildings at A&T and Duke. At both campuses, police responded with violence. An A&T student, Willie Grimes, lost his life, and many believed it was from a police bullet. Repression increased around the nation, including the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the murder of numerous Black Panthers. But into the early seventies, there still was a lot of energy in the movement and powerful mobilizations around many issues. In 1969, Duke University had only one black professor. Students pushed to get more black professors and a black studies program. The black student leaders were good friends of Mike’s and mine, part of the radical community that sprang up after King’s assassination and our Duke vigil. Negotiations with Duke’s administration were going nowhere as the spring 1969 semester began. We woke up one February morning to the news that black students were occupying Duke’s administration building. So we dressed warmly and went over to Allen building with water bottles and rags, in case there was tear gas. By this time, we had learned how to prepare for confronta- Never the Twain Shall Meet [89] tions with police from years of antiwar demonstrations. We stood in the three entrances to Allen building, determined to prevent cops from storming the building . There must have been fifty or sixty of us white students, standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside the building. Nelson ■ I was in Greensboro at Bennett College with Owusu Sadaukai, who was giving a speech, when we got the word that black Duke students had taken over Duke’s administration building. So Owusu and I drove fifty miles to Durham and joined the students in Allen building. That was where Malcolm X Liberation University was born, as an alternative to the institutionalized racism of Duke and other universities. A large contingent of police arrived on Duke’s campus while we were inside the administration building. We marched out of the administration building onto the quadrangle. A large crowd had gathered there. The police started teargassing everyone. Sally ■ It had been a long day, standing in that Allen building entranceway. It was getting dark when suddenly the black students emerged. With their fists in the air, they marched out the front door of Allen building onto the main quadrangle, holding a banner that said “Malcolm X Liberation University.” The quad was full of white students, many of them curious onlookers. I assumed the protest was basically over except for some chanting. I hoped there would be a few speeches, because I wanted to hear about Malcolm X Liberation University. Suddenly, the police started teargassing everyone. From what I could see, the police provoked the riot, clubbing students who came too close to them. They chased people all over the quad with the tear gas. A bunch of students ran into the Duke Chapel to get away from the tear gas. To my shock, police ran after them, opened the door, and sprayed tear gas inside the chapel! Paul ■ I heard about the protest at Duke and the police attacking them on the news. I was trying to decide where to go to medical school—both Johns Hopkins and Duke had accepted me. That day, I decided to go to Duke. Things were happening there and I wanted to be part of them. Little did I know that my future wife and good friends were in the middle of it. The Dudley High School Protest and the A&T Revolt, May 1969 Nelson ■ Confrontations between activists and police increased through the winter of 1969. In February, students occupied the A&T administration building...

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