Black History Month / Valley Retrospective : Perspectives on the Past--and the Future

From the African American who owned much of what is now the San Fernando Valley in the 1790s to the high school student who has devoted himself to keeping his peers out of gangs, people of African descent in the Valley have a long, proud history.

In this special report, we look back at some of that history and--with the help of several voices from the present--turn to the future.

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NORTHRIDGE / Roots of Change Seen at CSUN in ‘60s

Before “Roots” ever made it to television, before the term African American came into use on the pages of newspapers, the idea of recapturing African American heritage transfixed a generation of young black Americans at San Fernando Valley State College.

Seeking to recover that heritage, students at what is now Cal State Northridge staged a series of protests in the late 1960s, prompting the formation of one of the nation’s oldest Afro-American studies departments.

Today, 25 years later, the fruit of their labor still remains. The Pan-African studies department at CSUN is considered to be one of the strongest departments of its kind in the country.

The series of explosive clashes to which it owes its existence began in November of 1968, after an incident between an African American athlete and a Valley State coach. Rumors spread quickly that the athlete had been kicked by the coach.

“The kick was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Kenneth Collins, now a Valley contractor and an acquaintance of the student who was reportedly kicked. A demonstration ensued, and Collins, then still a high school student, was one of the participants.

As Collins describes it, the protest quickly took on a life of its own. The crowd surged into the administration building, sweeping him with it.

“I was scared to death,” Collins recalled. “I didn’t really know what was going to happen.”

His participation was short-lived: Older students noticed his young face and ushered him outside. Those who remained took 34 campus employees hostage that day. The standoff ended with a score of arrests.

Incidents continued throughout the tense winter months. In January, Delmar Oviatt, then acting college president, canceled a planned convocation in which students were to address the faculty, according to Life magazine, which recounted the events in an article in March of that year. The students marched. More arrests followed.

The next day, Jan. 9, marked a turning point. A total of 256 students were arrested in a massive protest, according to newspaper articles from the time. Led by the Black Student Union, they named the creation of an Afro-American Studies department as one of several demands. They were backed by a broad array of community leaders, faculty and students, both black and white.

The negotiations that followed resulted in the creation of the departments of Afro-American studies and Mexican-American studies, now called Pan-African studies and Chicano studies.

The Rev. Zedar E. Broadous, now president of the Valley branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, remembers the dread and uncertainty he felt as an activist at that time: “There was nothing to stop someone from just walking in your house and just killing you and your family,” he said.

“Now, we want to talk about the feel-good side of it (the civil rights movement).” he said. “But at the time there was not a feel-good side to it.”

James Dennis, CSUN professor of Pan-African studies, was one of the pioneering faculty members in the new department. He said the purpose of the program today remains what it was in 1969.

“First and foremost, it’s to get knowledge about black experience into the heads of black folks,” he said. “Black folks are very culturally deprived. We don’t study ourselves.”

As Broadous describes it, the students of Valley State had awakened in the ‘60s to the realization that slavery and generations of oppression had afflicted African Americans with what he called a “forced amnesia.” They saw that Africans brought over in the slave trade lost their families, their language, even their names, and their descendants were taught a history defined by white Americans.

Pan-African studies today is still trying to present a counterpoint to that history, Dennis said.

The department’s faculty continues to argue for more autonomy and acceptance, both within and without academia.

Among its supporters, the philosophy of 1969 remains strong: “If you don’t know where you came from,” said Broadous, echoing an old slogan, “you don’t know where you are going.”