Agents of Change

The Longest Student Strike in U.S. History

Part of the Series: California Newsreel Essential Collection

Current struggles to make colleges welcoming and relevant for students of color continue movements which swept across campuses fifty years ago. AGENTS OF CHANGE tells the timely and inspiring story of how successful protests for equity and inclusion led to establishing the first Black and Ethnic Studies departments at two very different universities: San Francisco State (1968) and Cornell (1969).

San Francisco State students, their supporters on the faculty and in the community, including the increasingly influential Black Panther Party, launched the longest student strike in U.S. history. In addition to curricular changes, they demanded increased minority student recruitment and retention, and the hiring of minority faculty. Student activists, like actor Danny Glover, demonstrated and faced brutal police assaults and massive arrests unleashed by then-Governor Ronald Reagan. In spite of these obstacles, Black, Latino and Asian student groups formed the Third World Liberation Front and emerged victorious, creating the first College of Ethnic Studies in the nation and igniting similar actions across the country.

"A gripping case study of...two of the most effective student protests in American history." - Mother Jones Magazine