Fifty Years Ago: The Birth of Black Power in Canada
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 29 January 2019 03:08
- Written by editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1751 ... January 29, 2019
___________________________________________________________
Fifty Years Ago: The Birth of Black Power in Canada
January 29, 1969: Montreal students occupy computer lab to protest campus racism
John Riddell
January 29 this year marks half a century since Black students at Sir George Williams University in Montreal led a bold occupation of the campus computer centre. Their two-week action marked the dramatic arrival in Canada of Black Power, a term used to describe the militant mass struggle for Black freedom that shook the United States during the 1960s.
The occupation also triggered sharp government repression: a violent police assault on February 11 that broke up the occupation, causing an estimated $2-million in damages to the computer centre. Criminal charges were then laid against activists while an extended Canada-wide and international... campaign mobilized in their defense.
