Over the years, Emerson College has had a significant history of student-led activism on its campus. From fighting for racial justice on campus to protesting against the Vietnam War, generations of Emersonians have sought to make Emerson an institution more equitable for its students and responsive to the sociopolitical issues of the times. 

While Emerson now prides itself on its diversity, the college did not attract a diverse student body throughout the 1960s. An April 1968 report from the U.S. Office of Education reported that there was not a single student of color in Emerson’s student body of more than 1,200. According to the April 1968 Boston Globe article that cited the report, some students of color self-identified as “other.”

Despite the umbrella statistic, there were a handful of students of color in Emerson’s student body in the late 1960s, including Moonyene Jackson-Amis. A member of the Class of 1969 who studied speech pathology and audiology, Jackson-Amis recently spoke to The Beacon about the campus climate during this time. 

“The ‘60s were a fairly tumultuous time on college campuses… because students all over the country were fighting to make sure that, in particular, African-American experiences were part of the tapestry of the learning and social experiences on the college campuses,” Jackson-Amis said. 

During the Spring 1968 semester, Jackson-Amis co-founded Emerson’s Black Organization with Natural Interest (EBONI) alongside two classmates, Pearlis Jones and Linda Gayle, and served as the organization’s first president. EBONI works to ensure that people of color and their cultures are represented on Emerson’s campus. 

While EBONI was and remains an Emerson-affiliated organization, it had broader community support under Jackson-Amis’s leadership.

“We had our brothers who … [made] sure that we were not only supported in our efforts to get the college’s attention, but also … [gave] us a physical presence in case we needed that,” Jackson-Amis said. “I was very delighted to know that we had a sort of general support.”

One of EBONI’s early efforts to “get the college’s attention,” according to Jackson-Amis, was delivering then-President Richard Chapin a set of 10 proposals on April 11, 1969. Among the proposals were demands that required that the freshman class contain no less than 30 Black students; provide 10 fellowships and additional workshops to Black students; hire Black guidance counselors and recruiters; appoint two Black students and a Black recruiter to the admissions review committee; designate the birthdays of Dr. King and Malcolm X as schoolwide holidays; and that soul food be provided in the dining hall, among others. 

Jackson-Amis said she always believed in writing the list of demands down, hand-delivering them to the president’s office, and allowing him to accept or reject them.

“If they’re not written, they’re not made a part of any memory bank, and they can always say that they are not received,” she said.

The special report submitted by Jackson-Amis requested that Chapin respond by May 1, 1969. According to the report, EBONI members visited Chapin’s office on the afternoon of May 1 to pick up his reply to their proposals. 

In his response, Chapin did not fully commit to admitting 30 Black students into the freshman class but said his administration would “support student participation” in the college recruiting process. Chapin added that the college could not grant “full fellowships,” but pledged five full-tuition scholarships in the fall of 1969 and an additional 10 in the fall of 1970. 

He noted that all department chairs were in favor of holding workshops and emphasized that the faculty “overwhelmingly recommended” that a course on Black history be taught by a Black professor, and that a “basic communicative skills-performance course” be offered to Black students.

Chapin also said he would explore hiring a part-time or full-time employee to handle counseling, recruiting, and financial aid for Black students, adding that one Black student would be seated on the Admissions Review Committee and a Black recruiter would serve on the Admissions Board. He added that the college would authorize students to be absent “without prejudice” on the birthdays of King and Malcolm X, but would not go as far as declaring both events school-wide holidays. Soul food, according to Chapin’s response, had already been implemented by the college’s food committee. 

On the evening of May 1, EBONI held a meeting in the student union building to announce the organization’s displeasure with Chapin’s response. According to the special report, this dissatisfaction was because Chapin “had not accepted the proposals as they stood, and he had not

guaranteed [the proposals] would be carried out by the college.” 

Less than a week later, on May 7, nearly 200 students coordinated a sit-in outside Chapin’s office at 148 Beacon Street. Chapin eventually agreed to eight of the 10 proposals, but students pledged to remain in the administration building until all proposals were met. After a brief meeting with Chapin later that day, the students left the administration building.  

Jackson-Amis added that while the demands themselves were important, the more enduring lesson is that the process of having demands met served as a “[collaborative] moment in the history of Emerson.” 

“This was an intentional group of people who came together around the issue of inclusion,” Jackson-Amis added.

While nearly 56 years have passed since Jackson-Amis and EBONI leadership delivered their demands to Chapin, Jackson-Amis said she’s attentive to current activism on college campuses around the country and on Emerson’s campus.

She said that when it comes to activism, “courage cannot be prescribed.” Instead, it is “something that you have or have to grow into.” 

“Those who are creating the strategy around the protest have got to identify what the angst is,” Jackson-Amis said, “From the administrative point of view, [they] have to look at who’s funding Emerson, from where the finances come, and why the sentiments are as they are.”

Jackson-Amis added that activists must clarify the issues they are fighting for or the structures they are fighting against. 

“There’s no way that I can support the total demolition of homes and the destruction of the lives of innocent people—no way,” Jackson-Amis said. Though she has not taken a side in the conflict in the Middle East, she continued, “I am an African-American person, and when I see anyone that is targeted for the color of their skin, their racial or ethnic backgrounds, their belief in who they love, I’m against that.”

Jackson-Amis suggested that those who want to protest should sit down with the College president or administration and ask them to identify the basis for the objection to their voices. Once they do that, she said, they should have a campus meeting, much like EBONI leadership did in 1969.

While it was mostly students who were involved with EBONI’s advocacy, Jackson-Amis identified faculty members who were supportive of their efforts. Edna Ward was a professor during Jackson-Amis’s time on campus. She would go on to serve as the college’s vice president and provost. 

“[During this time] Dr. Ward said to me, ‘This is the most significant movement on Emerson’s campus since its inception,’” Jackson-Amis recalled. 

Jackson-Amis said that freedom of thought and expression should be embraced on college campuses and in society as a whole.

“When somebody’s wings are clipped, that is a real assault, not only on the person, on the being, but on the ways of thinking,” Jackson-Amis said, “If the institution is not available to free thought, and it’s only there to inculcate a certain belief, then that’s not the education that I think has merit.”

Jackson-Amis was involved in the Civil Rights Movement before beginning her academic career at Emerson. In 1963, she was chosen by her local NAACP chapter to attend the March on Washington. She recounted traveling by Greyhound bus with a friend from high school to listen to King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. 

“People need to understand that he wasn’t just dreaming,” Jackson-Amis said. “He had a thought that there would be a time where our collective thoughts, our collective desire, [would be] to live together as human beings.”

Recalling Dr. King’s dream, Jackson-Amis noted that embracing diverse cultures and beliefs ensures King’s teachings are put into practice. 

 “We’re all on the planet together,” she said, “and we have to find a way to live here, not just peacefully, but in harmony and in support of each other’s cultures, backgrounds, and beliefs.”