Student activism is a necessary function of the modern university. Though the history of student-led demonstrations can be traced all the way back to medieval universities in the 15th century, the 1960s saw a dramatic rise in protests at university campuses across the world. Manifestations at U.S. universities influenced their Canadian counterparts, contributing to a surge in students getting involved in campus politics and activism. The popularity of such movements continues to be felt today: many of the changes in university structure brought about in the 1960s-1990s would not have occurred without the interference of student activists. In Montreal, as in many other cities, Black student protesters were at the forefront of such movements.
Canada’s largest student protest took place in 1969 at the Sir George Williams University (SGWU) campus (now Concordia University). Hundreds of students at SGWU organized a two-week peaceful sit-in at the university’s computer lab, protesting the university’s anti-Black faculty and administration, before they were assaulted by Montreal riot police on February 11, 1969. Most of the recorded material from this demonstration is held by the Concordia University Archives under the “Computer Centre Incident” Collection. On January 29, 1969, while the occupation was underway, Black students at SGWU published a list of “demands” for the administration: to meet with students to negotiate the formation of a hearing committee and to drop “all criminal charges against Black students.”
The archives also indicate the students’ commitment to envisioning a future for Black students at the university, from advocating for a Black studies program to demanding Black control in the admissions process. In the January 28, 1969 issue of the SGWU newspaper The Georgian, a student wrote about a “Black Studies Program” organized and led by students to educate their peers on racial inequalities, which was met with very limited participation. A letter to the editor in Concordia’s Thursday Report on February 17, 1994, reveals that students were still calling on the university to “accommodate a Black Studies programme” twenty-five years after the events of the protest. The efforts of these student activists in creating a space for Black voices in the university structure are undeniable.
Despite the resounding volume of these critiques and demands from students, it took Concordia University over fifty years to acknowledge their complicity in the Sir George Williams University protests. Only in October 2022 did the university formally apologize for their “enforced silence” on the 1969 protest. If the material evidence from the SGWU protest — the declarations, statements, flyers, and newspaper articles — had not been under the complete ownership of the Concordia Archives, would the university have been able to carry out this “enforced silence” for so long?
Having control of student protest materials also allows the university to manipulate the narrative around such protests. They can present the facts in whichever way best benefits their public image. This can be clearly seen in Concordia’s formal apology. When writing about the university’s path forward, the apology redirects attention away from the 1969 protest and onto the “Task Force on Anti-Black Racism” that was issued by the university in 2020. “The Task Force on Anti-Black Racism has recommended specific, meaningful actions that will guide us on this path,” it says, adding that the task force has put forward measures that “span most aspects of university life” and “aim[s] to encourage Black knowledges.”
Looking at the 1969 student protest archives reveals that all of these ideas had previously been presented by students to an administration that simply turned a blind eye to their demands. Even as Concordia restated their commitment to Black Studies, there was no mention of the past student activists who had led the efforts for a Black Studies program as early as the 1960s. Not only does this erase the important role that historical student activism has played in reshaping the structure of the university, but it also affects how present-day student activism is perceived. Had Concordia been more honest about the direct impact that student-led efforts had on the current state of the university, I believe that the current public attitude towards student activists at the university would be less hostile.
Similar to how Black students at SGWU took the matter of Black Studies into their own hands, McGill’s African Studies Department — officially introduced in 1969, the first of its kind in any Canadian university — would not exist as it does today without the mobilization of student activists in 1997. However, most of the available information about student involvement in the African Studies Program lies within the trenches of the McGill University Archives Collection, contained in one scrapbook that consists of various written materials and newspaper clippings.
Looking into the archives of student protests reveals that “budget cuts and hiring policies” in the 1990s were rapidly destroying the existing program. A report from the Africana Studies Committee (ASC), created by students to counter the destruction of the program, shows that the McGill administration removed several core courses and attempted to reduce the status of the program from a major to a minor. Meeting notes from an ASC faculty meeting on March 6, 1996, further disclose that over 200 students rallied in front of the Arts building in support of the African Studies program, in addition to 400 letters of support signed by students that were handed to the Dean of Arts. The scrapbook also includes several flyers calling for students to rally; they each carry the bold slogan “Defend Diversity,” followed by a subtitle reading, “Bring your noise-makers, guitars, drums, and your social conscience.” The same student group handed out educational pamphlets containing information about how administrative procedures affected threatened programs such as African Studies. Further still, the scrapbook includes posters for “Emergency Meetings” to discuss ways forward for the African Studies program. This material evidence provides a complete overview of student efforts in reviving the program, revealing how student activists were at the helm of this project.
Yet, none of this is mentioned anywhere in the publicly-available information about McGill’s African Studies program. The current page for African Studies on the McGill website simply reads: “Established in 1969, the African Studies Program at McGill was the first of its kind in Canada.” A cursory search on the internet about the program’s history yields next to no information about the involvement of student activists either; the only source is a 2022 article from The Tribune, which details the formation of the Africana Studies Committee. Even the scrapbook located in the McGill Archives Collection is inaccessible online — anyone wishing to view its contents must first submit a request to the archives to view it in its physical location.
It is clear that the McGill administration is not interested in bringing attention to the historical role of student activists at the university. Though Concordia eventually disclosed the uncensored details of the 1969 protest on their main university website, along with providing full access to the protest material on the Internet Archive, McGill continues to hide the extent to which student involvement shaped the university. This allows McGill to protect their branding and suppress historical student dissent.
It is extremely easy for universities to occlude the historic efforts of student activists when they see fit. As students, we have to keep the memory of these protests alive. We must make active efforts to preserve these examples of student activism so that we can use the same praxis as our predecessors in order to make real change today. It is especially important for us to document activism by Black students because it acts as a historical record of their fight against systemic racial inequality and ensures that their actions are not erased or forgotten over time.
If you, or anyone you know, are actively involved in protesting and organizing within student circles at McGill, I urge you to try and maintain material evidence of these protests as best as you can. Whether it is flyers or zines, pamphlets or banners, they all contain valuable information worthy of preservation. You can reach out to student-run archives like the Student News and Protest Archive (SNAP) or maintain a record of your own. As student activists, we are responsible for recognizing the ones who came before us and providing the same support for those who will come after us.