Call Number:

003.147

Repository:

Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections

Extent:

0.01 linear ft. (1 folder )

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Minority Coalition collection (HCQ.003.147) Quaker and Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.

Date:

1977

Abstract:

This collection contains four documents pertaining to the demands and subsequent hunger strike facilitated by the Minority Coalition of Haverford College.

The Minority Coalition was formed on the Haverford College campus in the aftermath of the 1972 Black Students' League boycott of non-academic activities. After seeing inadequate improvement in the years following the boycott--statistics showed a drop in the percentage of Black students at the college--the Minority Coalition issued a list of demands and initiated a hunger strike in 1977. It was during this event, held in Roberts Hall, that a banner reading "Haverford – A Quaker or a Racist Institution" was hung between two pillars. The Minority Coalition represented multiple marginalized groups, including members of the Black Students League, the Puerto Rican Students at Haverford, and Asian-American Students at Haverford.

This collection contains four documents pertaining to the demands and subsequent hunger strike facilitated by the Minority Coalition of Haverford College. The first document, dated April 21, 1977, was written by Mark Gould, a professor of sociology at Haverford. Gould expresses his support for the Minority Coalition's proposal, outlining the sacrifices necessary to promote a diverse college environment and explaining why diversity is a positive force on the student body and College as a whole. The second document is a list of demands, drafted by the Minority Coalition, which includes: a moratorium on hiring until practices which promote diversity can be implemented, the methods of creating such practices and a "final goal" outlined as minority representation in the College as equal to the total U.S. population. The third and fourth documents are responses from the Minority Coalition after Haverford College faculty failed to respond to their demands. They outline the moral implications of such silence and propose a hunger strike in Roberts Hall.

Materials are arranged chronologically