African American Alumni Council celebrate 40 years of activism at Pitt

Jack Daniel remembers the events of Jan. 15 and 16, 1969, as a turning point for equality at Pitt.

On those days, students in the Black Action Society locked themselves in the Cathedral of Learning computer center for seven hours.

Students issued a list of 10 demands to then-Chancellor Wesley Posvar. Among them were an increase in the role of black students, faculty and administrators at Pitt, as well as a black section of the library and amnesty for protesters, Linda Wharton-Boyd, president of the African American Alumni Council, said.

“There was campus unrest,” Wharton-Boyd said. “It was the time of Dr. King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, President Kennedy saying there would be a black president in the future and civil rights movements [happening] across college campuses.”

Daniel, a communications professor and long-time advocate for civil rights, was a faculty member at the University during the lock-in. When students released the list of demands, Daniel met with Posvar on their behalf.

“At Pitt, civil rights advocates were students,” he said, adding that the protests were “urgent, strident and uncompromising.”

This homecoming weekend, the African American Alumni Council will celebrate 40 years since the computer center protests. The celebration is not of the strident actions the BAS took, but of the “progress and success the University has had” in diversifying the student body, Daniel said.

Wharton-Boyd said she thinks Pitt has done a wonderful job bringing minorities to Pitt since 1969. According to the Fall 2009 Undergraduate Profile, freshman minority enrollment is now at 19 percent.

The celebration is meant to “recognize the AAAC’s successful partnerships with Pitt” and “to launch the AAAC multi-million dollar scholarship campaign,” Wharton-Boyd said.

The Council will announce the Bebe Moore Campbell Scholarship Fund, the Jack L. Daniel Endowed Book Fund and the AAAC Endowed Scholarship Fund at an awards banquet Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Twentieth Century Club.

These scholarships are a part of the Council’s $3 million campaign to provide critical financial aid directly to students from underrepresented groups, according to a University news release.

The council has more than 13,000 members and expects between 1,200 and 1,500 members to attend the homecoming celebrations, Wharton-Boyd said.

The alumni in attendance can attend a unity breakfast, campus bus tour, homecoming game tailgate, business and career networking events, student-alumni mixers and fireworks on Bigelow Boulevard.

“We now have four generations of African-Americans contributing to strong families, stronger government and a better society for all,” Wharton-Boyd said. “We celebrate the transformation of thousands of lives as well as the transformation of a great university.”

The Council takes its role seriously and encourages Pitt students to find their place in the world, Wharton-Boyd said.

“This 40-year celebration is a very timely and significant event in the life of this great institution, and I hope that what has transpired at Pitt over the years will set a standard and be a model for other academic institutions to follow in fulfilling their diversity agenda,” Wharton-Boyd said.