Guide to African American reference
Guide to Afro-Caribbean reference
Apr 30, 2008
On the morning of November 21, 1968, 96 black students, members of the newly formed Black Student Union, crowded into president Roger E. Guiles office. They presented him with a list of demands, which included the creation of courses in black culture in the literature, history, and language disciplines. The protest was one of many such campus race riots across the country beginning in the summer of 1967. Part of the UW-Oshkosh experience at that time was whites staring at blacks or the “ Oshkosh Stare” as it became known. According to a senior history internship by Mike Reuter titled, “ Do Your Thing,” one black student remembered Oshkosh as having a “ conservative, even menacing, social atmosphere.” Reuter’s 2002 exhibit is published online by Polk Library’s Archive and Area Research Center. The url for the digital exhibit is <http://www.uwosh.edu/archives/bt/about.htm>.