{"id":2926,"date":"2019-06-18T11:04:28","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T15:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=2926"},"modified":"2025-07-26T16:25:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T20:25:56","slug":"the-evolution-of-a-revolution-for-black-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/the-evolution-of-a-revolution-for-black-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evolution of a Revolution for Black Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uneeda Brewer \u201970<\/span><\/strong> was bereft, stunned, by Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s assassination. Other Black leaders had been assassinated, but none like King, who had traveled all through the South visiting small communities\u2014including hers\u2014to inspire others into peaceful protest despite their fear.<\/p>\n

As a reaction to the assassination, Brewer and 13 of her classmates banded together as the Black Students\u2019 Association, or BSA. Fifty years later, their mission continues on Goucher\u2019s campus as Umoja: The African Alliance, sometimes referred to as Umoja: Black Student Union. Goucher honors their 50th reunion with an exhibit in the Athenaeum as well as a celebration in the fall. (Contact the Office of Alumnae\/i Affairs for more information.)<\/p>\n

The BSA confronted Goucher with a list of demands to \u201ceradicate practices which contain or tend to perpetuate, inadvertently, racial and cultural prejudice,\u201d wrote Pauline A. Bigby \u201970<\/span><\/strong>, one of the BSA\u2019s founding members, in Goucher Alumnae Quarterly<\/em>, fall 1969. The publication is now Goucher Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Because of the members\u2019 consistent and determined efforts, Goucher created a non-credit bearing course on institutional racism and six Black studies courses that included the accomplishments of Black people, hired a Black visiting professor, and brought Black speakers to campus. The BSA members also created a letter-writing campaign and visited high schools to encourage Black students to attend Goucher. \u201cNo longer is Goucher \u2018lily-white,\u2019\u201d the BSA wrote in one letter. \u201cThere is a Black scene on Goucher\u2019s campus, and we want the opportunity to share it with our Black students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that these efforts were the solution to racism and ignorance, but they were a start. As Bigby also wrote, \u201cGoucher needs a community based not on articles and bylaws but on understanding and tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Black
Black History Month events, February 1989<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yvonne \u201cBessie\u201d Owens Everett \u201973<\/span><\/strong> was not a founding member, but she became involved in the BSA when it was especially influential on campus. As an art major, she used this outlet to explore her Black identity, experimenting with the cubist movement, which has roots in African art, Everett says. Her professor, whose focus was in optical art and photorealism, was harshly critical of Everett\u2019s work. \u201cWhen I graduated, he said, \u2018If you wanted to do Black art, then you should have gone to a Black school,\u2019\u201d Everett recalls.<\/p>\n

Shortly after that professor\u2019s comment, Everett received the Thomas A. Watson Fellowship to study abroad for one year. Someone on the scholarship committee told her, after he had examined her art, that the award would not be based on grades \u201cbut what we think you can contribute to the world.\u201d Everett continued to promote Black art, painting murals in a church and other public spaces.<\/p>\n

The BSA\u2019s presence on campus fluctuated throughout the years, organizing protests, fashion shows, Black speakers and artists, and eventually evolving into the Umoja that students know today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s humbling,\u201d Brewer says, to watch the BSA evolve. \u201cThe seed of what we created has blossomed into what is needed now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ridwan Lawal \u201920<\/span><\/strong> joined Umoja in his first year at Goucher and became president as a sophomore. Lawal has met many BSA and Umoja leaders who are still promoting Black lives. Those conversations were powerful, he says, and made him realize that activism doesn\u2019t end when he graduates. \u201cAll of the ladies who have been a part of the Black Students\u2019 Association, honestly, I praise them every day,\u201d Lawal says. \u201cThey are amazing. Their stories live forever in my heart, forever in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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