Continued Support

     Between 1973 and 1974, African American students at NC State successfully demonstrated the need for a cultural center on campus. Although they won the battle over the Print Shop, African American students would continue to struggle to find a place for themselves on NC State’s predominantly white campus. SAAC’s request for a cultural center came at a time when the rate of college attendance for African American students increased substantially across the United States. According to Lori D. Patton’s article “Power to the People! Black Student Protest and the Emergence of Black Culture Centers,” between 1960 and 1977, the college attendance of Black students increased from 227,000 to 1.1 million.” Patton continued stating:

"Although combined numbers of Black students increased, small clusters of these students were the reality on most White campuses. Having so few students on the campus that they could relate to, Black students depended upon one another for the needed support that they did not receive from faculty, staff and fellow students at these institutions…Their [African American students’] experiences on campus were marked with an increasingly prominent feeling of isolation and marginalization."

The African American Cultural Center at NC State sought to reduce feelings of isolation and to create a positive and comfortable environment where black and white students could learn more about the benefits of campus diversity and African American culture.

Visit other Exhibits in Crossing the Color Line.