Clark Atlanta University

Black Student-Worker Revolution and Reparations The National Association of Black

Students, 1969-1972
Author(s): Richard D. Benson II
Source: Phylon (1960-), Vol. 54, No. 1 (Summer 2017), pp. 57-78
Published by: Clark Atlanta University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/90011264
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Richard D. Benson II 57

Black Student-Worker Revolution and Reparations:

The National Association of Black Students, 1969-1972

Richard D. Benson II
Spelman College

Abstract

In August of 1969 at the University of Texas, El Paso, Black students in attendance for
the United States National Student Association (USNSA/NSA) annual conference openly
challenged the student organization on the grounds of institutional racism and financial
exploitation. Resistance by the Black students of NSA led to a call for financial reparations
from NSA and the creation of the National Association of Black Students (NABS). The
organization was established around the tenets of Marxist-Leninism, with the aims of the
‘student-worker’ leading and organizing an anti-imperialist student movement entering
into the 1970s. This paper explores the founding of the organization, their ideological
aims and also investigates how their political activity interfaced with the socio-political
shifts and developments of the overall Black Freedom Struggle. This essay encourages
continued investigations of Black Power student/youth collectives of the 1970s that were
highly influenced by the fusions of Black Power, Marxist-Leninism and financial influences
that effected numerous organizations during the era.

The point is obvious: Black
people must lead and run their own
organizations. Only Black people
can convey the revolutionary idea
– it is a revolutionary idea – that
Black people are able to do things
themselves. Only they can help
create in the community an aroused
and continuing Black consciousness
that will provide the basis for political
strength (Carmichael and Hamilton
1967, 46).
Inspired by the above words of
Carmichael and Hamilton, in April of
1970, almost eight months after the
founding of the National Association of
Black Students (NABS), Gwen Patton,
leader of the Black student collective,
provided her candid perspectives on
the Black Freedom struggle for the
Baltimore Afro-American news organ.
Patton, just twenty-six at the time was a
veteran of the Black Freedom Struggle.
Having participated in the Montgomery
Bus Boycott as a child and later active
in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC), Patton reflected on
the complex and tumultuous history
of the movement. Speaking on the con-

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58
troversial founding of NABS, and pro-
gramming for Black students (high
school and post-secondary) in rela-
tion to the uplift of the Black commu-
nity. Patton, who was not one to mince
words bluntly stated that, “the Eldridge
Cleavers are in exile; the Huey Newtons
are in jail and Malcolm and Martin are
dead. The responsibility of leadership
weighs on the shoulders of the young
Blacks in our colleges, universities and
high schools throughout the nation”
(NABS Born to Unite 1970, A6).
NABS was established in August of
1969 after a controversial split from the
United States National Student Associa-
tion (USNSA/NSA) denounced the ac-
tions and programming of the NSA as
racist and dismissive of Black student
lives and societal challenges. Headed
by Gwen Patton, the spokesperson and
student leader of the dissident group,
Black students announced that the asso-
ciation was no longer relevant to the sig-
nificant problems of Black students who
sought the following: organizational
independence from the NSA, financial
reparations from the NSA and that the
new organization was to be known as
NABS (Ibid).
Seemingly abrupt, the radical move
by Patton and the collective of Black stu-
dents to secede had been planned since
the mid 1960s upon the NSA’s refusal to
examine the values of Black Power on
colleges and universities. More signifi-
cant, the developments of NABS coin-
cided with national political develop-
ments, which affected many students in
higher education throughout the coun-
try. Swept up in the wave of New Left
radical student activism, anti-Vietnam
war activity and anti-colonial struggles
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Phylon 54 (1)
around the globe, student groups began
to largely reflect the counter-hegemon-
ic struggles that dominated the world
stage. With attractions to Marxist-Le-
ninism, Che Guevara, Amilcar Cabral,
Malcolm X and political undertakings
of Mao Tse Tung, student activists em-
barked on a wave of student protest
and mobilization efforts that required a
scientific analysis of the diverse mani-
festations of global capitalism and im-
perialism. Studying and organizing,
within the changing landscape of the
latter 1960s, Black students began to
adopt and develop transnational cri-
tiques of power and global exploitation
of Third world indigenous populations
(Gosse 2005, 194-195).
NABS emerged within this context
as an upstart vanguard Black student
organization to fill the void of The Stu-
dent Nonviolent Coordinating Commit-
tee (SNCC) due to SNCC’s radical anti-
imperialist activity to include the 1966
call for Black Power. SNCC suffered
financially due to the organization’s cri-
tique of Israel for the outcomes of the Six
Day War and campaigns spearheaded
at anti-Vietnam War activity to include
smashing the draft which all provided a
gateway for NABS to fill post 1968. The
Black Nationalist thrust and organiza-
tional framework for the second wave,
Black Power student groups such as
NABS filled SNCC’s void and expanded
its mission by 1969 (Benson 2015a, 76-
78; Allen 1992, 254, 256).
In recent years historians of the Black
Freedom Struggle have advanced schol-
arship to highlight student collectives
such as NABS and peer organizations
of the aforementioned to include: the
Institute of the Black World, (Atlanta,
Richard D. Benson II
GA); Malcolm X Liberation University
& the Student Organization for Black
Unity, (Greensboro, NC); Communi-
versity, (Chicago, IL); Nairobi School
Movement, (East Palo Alto, CA); Pan
African Student Organization of the
Americas, (Chicago, IL); and the Center
for Black Education, (Washington, D.C)
(Rickford 2016; Benson 2015a; Konadu
2009; Rogers 2012). However, this large-
ly uninvestigated decade of scholarship
implores more exhaustive research into
the ideological shifts, organizational
pragmatism and mobilization practices
of Black student collectives who aligned
with working class and Left forces of
the era. Dan Berger’s The Hidden 1970s:
Histories of Radicalism is a recent ed-
ited compilation that provides such an
examination of a time rife with activ-
ity for social change on a multitude of
fronts. Berger posits:
The 1970s was a time when social
movements were repressed and tore
themselves asunder. But it was also
a moment when movements experi-
mented and expanded. For those
radicals who remained strongly
identified with the antiwar and an-
tiracist movements of the 1960s, the
1970s was a time when they felt they
had to walk their talk. Unable to hide
further in their rhetorical pronounce-
ments of impending revolution,
these people readied themselves for
the task at hand (Berger 2010, 4-5).
Thus, the existence of NABS cap-
tures such an interest in Black student
radicalism of the 1970s. Additionally,
it further behooves an analysis of how
such a group developed an organiza-
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59
tional line that is: critical of capitalism
and imperialism, aligned with work-
ers struggles all while unabashedly
demanding financial repair from a pre-
dominantly white national student or-
ganization. More critically, this essay
aims to achieve the task of moving orga-
nizations such as NABS from historical
obscurity of the Black Freedom Move-
ment into historical, curricular and
pedagogical relevance. I also argue that
an examination of NABS provides a his-
torical interruption regarding the Black
student organizations emerging in the
era of the New Left. Such an analysis of
NABS lends the opportunity to analyze
the tactics of a successful reparations
campaign and activism executed by
Black students.
As an organization, NABS sought to
broaden the nuances of Black student
activism while complicating the ortho-
dox notions of student and worker al-
liances. Such innovations and organi-
zational developments aligned NABS
with the Black Marxist, Detroit based
League of Revolutionary Black Work-
ers (LRBW) which furthered NABS de-
velopment and programmatic line to
develop the concepts around the stu-
dent-worker alliance, community based
programming and antiwar activities
that included draft counseling for Black
youth facing the Vietnam War. But most
intriguing about the all Black collective
was their foray into the New Left wave
of activism that promoted the study of
Marxism-Leninism, Maoism and sci-
entific socialism (Morris 1991; Hinton
2011). According to scholar-activist, S.E.
Anderson, there were three significant
factors that led to a Left trend during
this era of the Black Freedom struggle:
60
“(1) the ideological growth of the Black
student leaders, (2) the ability of Marx-
ists to clearly explain the Vietnam War
and African Liberation struggles and
their ramifications here at home, and
(3) the exposed intellectual paucity of
our so-called Black leaders” (Anderson
1977, 41). These critical dynamics of
historical and ideological developments
are what aided in NABS emergence and
radical activities. Additionally, collec-
tives such as NABS aid in defining the
complexities of Black Power by provid-
ing an interruption to the ‘classical’ bi-
furcated Civil Rights and Black Power
Movement narratives.
As Black Power Studies provides a
growing body of scholarship on post
1960s freedom struggle, few scholars
concern themselves with the nuanc-
es of the 1970s anti-imperialist New
Left Black student movement. Yet, the
growing field of Black Power Studies
provides the potential for significant
inroads for continuous reconceptualiza-
tion of the Black Freedom Movement.
And this essay continues these efforts
by suggesting that close examination
into the multi dimensional activities of
formations like NABS and the overall
movement, presents historical richness
to be gained from Black Power’s com-
plexities.
Black Student Liberation:
Gwen Patton & THE USNSA
The genesis of the 1960s Black Stu-
dent Movement was deeply intertwined
with the general sit-in movement and
boycott struggles for integration of fa-
cilities and attempts for integration into
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Phylon 54 (1)
the social fabric of American life. Due
to the proactive efforts of Miss Ella Bak-
er, measures were taken to ensure that
young people would have an activist
platform to interface social change on
terms that spoke to needs of the Black
Freedom struggle and youth in general.
SNCC’s political focus of mass voter
registration in the South during the ear-
ly 1960s set the stage for the evolution
of student-youth protest strategies on a
national scale (Ransby 2005).
Black students and youth from
Northern and Southern local, and col-
lege campuses, rural and urban com-
munities, generated activist programs
through SNCC and groups such as the
Northern Student Movement (NSM)
and the Revolutionary Action Move-
ment (RAM). By the spring of1963, these
formations ushered in the momentum
for the next phases of non-violent di-
rect-action engagement with the White
power structure in Southern and North-
ern communities. Largely due to the
efforts “of SNCC and Southern Chris-
tian Leadership Conference (SCLC))
organizers, various Southern cities were
seething with protest revolt. The turn-
ing point of mass Black consciousness
and for the protest movement came
during the ‘spring nonviolent offensive’
in Birmingham, Alabama” (Ahmad mi-
crofilm, reel 17 no.242) And consequent-
ly, the state of Alabama was front and
center on the national and international
stage as a racial battleground rife with
the makings to successfully dismantle
Jim Crow.
In Montgomery, AL, students of
the historically all Black institution of
Tuskegee University provided princi-
ple contributions to movement efforts
Richard D. Benson II
through picket lines, demonstrations
and classroom engagement with sup-
port from some faculty and many local
supporters. As products of a rich legacy
of community activism, many Black
youth of Alabama were privileged to
access the tactics and energies of their
grandparents and parents who oscillat-
ed from Alabama to and from Detroit,
MI where they worked in factories and
auto plants. Traversing the Mason-
Dixon line allowed these Black work-
ers to not only support kith and kin in
the South but also to gain invaluable
organizing experience from their mem-
berships in union organizing. Union
collectives such as the Congress of In-
dustrial Organizations and the United
Mind Workers enabled mobilization
and reinforced the value of collective
organizing for the historic Montgom-
ery bus boycott. These activities and
intergenerational involvement of Black
elders and Black youth launched the
activist career of Gwen Patton (Patton
Interview 2014).
A product of Montgomery, Alabama,
Patton’s activism began with the Mont-
gomery bus boycott as an organizer aid-
ing in the collection of shoes, grocery
shopping for Black folks in the com-
munity and facilitating efforts on the
transportation committee for the suc-
cess of the boycott. As a youth, Patton
witnessed that a significant component
to the success of the 381-day strike was
the sustainability of the strike fund that
local residents established to support
the financial aspects of the protest re-
sistance sustained by the Black people
of Montgomery. Even more significant
were the lessons gained of mass mobi-
lization around the basic principles for
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61
community survival. These experienc-
es allowed Patton to excel as an activist
upon entering into Tuskegee Institute
to pursue her undergraduate education
in 1962. Patton’s training and exposure
from her days of assisting with Mont-
gomery’s boycott efforts informed her
of the critical need to analyze and locate
the base of power of student power on
the Tuskegee campus. And the center of
student influence and control was to be
found in the student body government
(SBG) of Tuskegee.
Aligning herself with a militant cadre
of students on campus, Patton and oth-
ers targeted an SBG takeover out of the
hands of fraternities and social types on
the Tuskegee campus. Patton quickly
identified that once the revolutionary
students gained control of the financ-
es allotted to the SBG, then a strategy
could be implemented to “transform the
SBG and to direct the programs which
could build social consciousness” (Pat-
ton 1969-1973). And upon a successful
outcome for the militant student fac-
tion on campus through the democratic
process, Patton became student body
president in 1965. To Patton’s delight,
she realized that the level of political
consciousness amongst the Tuskegee
student body mirrored the changing na-
tional landscape for students who were
intentional about social change. And
the climate for social change on Tuske-
gee’s campus readied Patton and other
militant students for opportunities to
interface with other SBGs, activists and
youth from higher educational institu-
tions and their neighboring communi-
ties nationwide.
As SBG president, Patton attended
conferences and regional meetings held
62
by the USNSA. By 1964, students from
around the country began to participate
in the “Fast for Freedom” food boycott
which was a nationwide effort to con-
nect an anti-poverty program to the mo-
mentum of the Civil Rights campaign.
Students from around the country
would forego their dinners for an eve-
ning and donate the proceeds to sup-
port poor Black folks in the South and
the general freedom movement (Michel
2004). Patton, motivated to take a pro-
active stance regarding accountability
measures of the NSA, began visiting the
NSA national headquarters. When Pat-
ton began questioning the operations
and protocol of the national organiza-
tion she was met with an unexpected
exchange from NSA staff. According to
Patton:
I start going to the NSA office in
Washington D.C. and begin analyz-
ing and asking people in the office
where does the money go? I’m look-
ing for accountability. And I saw
two white boys sitting at the desk
called the Civil Rights Desk. I said,
“Who pays for the office? Who pays
your salaries?” Thinking I’m silly,
naïve,{they say,] “Oh part of this
comes out of the Fast for Freedom.”
They had stolen money under pre-
tense! That’s when I started having
critical thoughts about liberalism
and this white-face liberator. I made
up my mind that I was gonna pull
Black students out the NSA and the
NSA owed reparations because they
used the misery and plight of Black
folks’ situation to raise funds to un-
derwrite their own existence. It was,
to me, sinful (Benson 2015b, 186-187).
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Phylon 54 (1)
Beyond her moral trepidations, Pat-
ton’s sentiments of betrayal by the NSA
were born from her awareness of the
NSA’s hefty annual operations budget
for national and international program-
ming. Founded at the start of the Cold
War in the summer of 1947, the NSA’s
developed around democratic princi-
ples against global communist student
formations. At the peak of the NSA’s
membership in 1960, the organization
touted over 400 schools under the gen-
eral affiliation to the NSA. And while
there was little dependence on dues
from its national members, the NSA
received the bulk of the organization’s
support from a number of philanthropic
foundations. Known to function under
a bipartite system that included it’s do-
mestic and international programs, the
NSA was able to sponsor: annual inter-
national seminars, foreign student lead-
ership training projects and scholar-
ships for foreign students as well. And
despite the organizations commitments
to programming, the NSA was still able
to maintain a large travel budget for its
staff and overseas representatives (“A
Short Account NSA, CIA, Etc.” 1967,
30). Also contributing to the bulk of the
annual budget of the NSA were the stu-
dent services provided by the organiza-
tion that included: “a record club, a fes-
tival of student films, arranging student
travel in Europe, sale of the Interna-
tional Student Pass which gains entry to
youth hostels, etc., abroad and the sale
of student life insurance” (Blackburn
1970, 26). These services alone account-
ed for approximately $200,000 annually
with amounts of less than $20,000 com-
ing from annual dues of membership
schools (Ibid; Johnston 2009).
Richard D. Benson II
Thus, Patton was critically aware of
the complex and highly involved pro-
gramming of the NSA. But she also
knew that the financial coffers necessary
to maintain such operations were far
from miniscule and the dollars dolled
out for NSA staff reflected this as well
– hence the fury in her aforementioned
quote. However, Patton and other stu-
dents from across the nation would be
dealt an implausible blow of seismic
proportions regarding the dealings of
the NSA. In March of 1967, Ramparts
Magazine published an article that shed
light on an unholy alliance between the
NSA and the Central Intelligence Agen-
cy (CIA), which provided an expose of
the financial gravitas that benefited the
NSA’s annual budget by the hundreds of
thousands of dollars. The NSA received
grants from CIA front foundations such
as the Kaplan Fund, Borden Trust, the
Price Fund, the Edsel Fund, the Beacon
Fund and the Kentfield Fund. And be-
tween 1962 and 1965, the NSA received
$256, 483.33 from the Independence
Foundation alone for international pro-
grams and most of this amount went to
finance the NSA’s International Student
Relations Seminars, annual extravagan-
zas that served as a recruitment and
training opportunity for prospective
NSA international leaders and accord-
ing to Ramparts, the NSA continued to
benefit from the singular sponsorship of
the Independence Foundation (“A Short
Account NSA, CIA, Etc.” 1967, 31,33).
Absent of the CIA backed awards, the
NSA still raked generous earnings from
less controversial charity organizations
such as the Foundation for Youth and
Student Affairs (FYSA). And according
to Ramparts Magazine:
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63
FYSA annually pumped hundreds
of thousands of dollars per year into
the NSA’s treasury. The figure for
October 1965 to October 1966 was
$292,753.60. It provided a general ad-
ministrative grant of up to $120,000
per year and funded projects such as
NSA’s magazine, The American Stu-
dent, foreign student participation at
NSA Congresses, technical assistance
projects; and its funds paid NSA’s
dues to the ISC (International Stu-
dent Conference). In addition, FYSA
could be relied upon to pick up any
operating deficit that NSA incurred
during the year, and FYSA gives
“scholarships” to ex-NSA officers for
overseas study (Ibid).
Upon the release of this information,
Patton and many students from across
the country were aghast by the deal-
ings of the NSA and further inclined
to question the legitimacy of govern-
mental actions of the roles of national
governmental defense agencies in rela-
tion to student protest movements, do-
mestic and abroad. Additionally, Black
students were fed up with the stifling
anti-progressive tactics of the NSA that
led to the censorship of students who
took anti-imperialist stands against the
Vietnam War and other third world
liberation struggles around the globe
(Patton NABS Development & Demise,
1969-1973). Patton, who had been de-
veloping plans to establish a national
Black student organization separate of
white involvement had enough fodder
to accomplish her goals. Because of Pat-
ton’s involvement with SNCC and her
Tuskegee activist base, she had been or-
ganizing and speaking at college cam-
64
puses across the country. Patton would
encounter many Black Student Unions
(BSUs) and Black students who were
impatient with the state of the general
Black student movement and wanted
immediate change through a Black or-
ganization as the 1970s were rapidly
approaching. After some years of ana-
lyzing the overall situation of NSA, the
overall movement, and the most effec-
tive means by which to achieve such a
feat, Patton knew that the annual meet-
ing of the USNSA in El Paso, TX was
the prime opportunity to execute a plan
of earthshattering proportions (Patton
2014; Benson 2015b, 186-187).
Gaining Independence:
Founding NABS
Prior to NSA’s annual El Paso meet-
ing, the NSA held a Southern area con-
ference in Atlanta, GA on February 15,
1969. Held as the conference on ‘the
University and Racism’, Black students
attending the gathering charged NSA
with a gross lack of concern for Black stu-
dents in the following areas: using Black
college students as pawns for organiza-
tional interests; denial of Black students
in the policy shaping process of the or-
ganization; absence of programming to
deal specifically with Black student is-
sues; NSA using methods of financial
attraction to the organization to further
divide Black students and; the USNSA
is thoroughly infiltrated by the CIA and
the FBI – both governmental organiza-
tions responsible for the oppression and
death of people of color in both domes-
tic and international contexts (“SOBU”
1969, 1).
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Phylon 54 (1)
Further fuel to the intentions of Gwen
Patton and her aims to disassociate Black
students from the NSA came in the form
of a resolution by the Black students at
the NSA conference, Black students in
attendance critically addressed how
the NSA conference on ‘the University
and Racism’ further legitimated the rac-
ism of the general organization. Black
students at the regional meeting who
organized against the NSA stated that,
“we the Black student representatives of
colleges, universities, and Black student
organizations, denounce the USNSA as
a racist organization that perpetuates
division among Black students, we fur-
ther urge all Black students across the
country to sever their affiliation with the
USNSA” (Ibid). As a result, many Black
students in the attendance resolved that
the newly founded, Student Organiza-
tion for Black Unity (SOBU) headed by
Nelson Johnson would assume the man-
tle to meet the needs of Black students
looking to separate with the NSA (Ben-
son 2015a, 95-96). While this may have
been the case for many Black students in
attendance, a critical mass of Black stu-
dents anxiously awaited the next moves
of Patton and the annual NSA August
1969 meeting to take place El Paso.
From August 16-29, 1969, Third World
Commission (TWC), an affiliate caucus
of the NSA, gathered in at the Cortez
Hotel in El Paso, TX for a pre-conference
held prior to the NSA’s annual confer-
ence. Comprised of Black and Mexi-
can students, the TWC was a creation
of Patton due to her negotiations with
the NSA upon a failed attempt to have
a resolution passed in NSA to condemn
the U.S. military and its role in Vietnam.
The outcome of the aborted attempt was
Richard D. Benson II
the creation of TWC and Patton was
also able to negotiate a “Draft Counsel-
ing Desk” to replace the Civil Rights
Desk that existed at the NSA. The TWC
was constructed to support students of
color of the NSA and operate as a broad-
based coalition of students working for
the uplift and support of student educa-
tional struggles around the world (Pat-
ton 1969-1972).
In El Paso, TWC sessions were com-
prised of workshops, viewing revolu-
tionary films and hosting guest speakers
to inform Black and Chicano students
of the exploitation students of color
faced on a global scale. However, clan-
destine activities of TWC included the
Black caucus preparation face-off with
the greater NSA leadership for the an-
nouncement of Black student indepen-
dence from the national organization.
Of the guest speakers of TWC confer-
ence, Dr. Nathan Hare, chairman of the
Black studies Institute at San Francisco
State College informed the press that,
“an independent Black student orga-
nization will serve as a more efficient
and thorough force to meet the needs
of Black students” (Ybarra 1969, 4) In
alignment with workshop sessions such
as “students and armed guerilla tactics”
and “Third work Coalitions (a Black Per-
spective)”, Dr. Hare addressed a room
full of Black and Chicano students on
topics of nationalism and student activ-
ism (“Student Opinions Are Split” 1969;
“USNSA Quote of the Day” 1969; Third
World Commission FBI Files 1969).
A long-time movement comrade
of Gwen Patton and a speaker for the
TWC sessions was former SNCC execu-
tive director, James Forman. Forman’s
presence and influence was timely and
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65
significant to the planning operations
of Patton and her fellow student activ-
ists readying to confront the NSA (Ben-
son 2015b, 184; “News and Notes 1965).
Just a few months prior on May 4, 1969,
Forman delivered his controversial yet
effective treatise, the ‘Black Manifesto’
in New York City to a shocked congre-
gation of the Riverside Church demand-
ing that white churches and synagogues
of America to pay $500,000,000.00 in
reparations to Black Americans (For-
man 1997, 335, 343-352; “The Black
Manifesto & Aftermath” 1969, Dye
2009). Forman’s invitation by TWC sig-
nified the stance and strategizing inten-
tions of the Black caucus within TWC.
Forman, who had a contentious history
with NSA that dated back to his time as
a student representative at Roosevelt
University in Chicago was well aware
of NSA’s exploitive activities relating
to Black students in 1956 when he too
fought to ensure that Black representa-
tion in the NSA was reflected in policy
making and Black student presence as
officers in the majority white national
organization (Forman, 88-91).
As history evolved full circle, Pat-
ton’s work and planning now signified
that the inspiration of Forman’s actions
went beyond theoretical dimensions.
Now, the activities would include the
key assistance in the planning of the
NSA takeover by one of Forman’s top
student aids from the east coast, Ke-
nyatta Muhammad. Kenyatta was a
member of Forman’s Philadelphia fac-
tion of Black Economic Development
Conference (BEDC) team that provided
key strategizing insight in the discus-
sions and planning aimed to confront
NSA. For Patton and the students of the
66
TWC Black caucus, Kenyatta’s role was
timely as now; Black students would be
the next leg of reparations protesters re-
sponsible for proselytizing the aims and
objectives of the Black Manifesto’s call
for financial repair to Blacks in America
(Benson 2015b, 187).
A significant role for Kenyatta, Pat-
ton and other former SNCC activists,
such as Mickey McGuire, Scrooge Laz-
arre and student activist Kent Amos,
from Delaware State University, was to
ensure that the intended interruption of
the NSA program was executed without
fail. In a recounting the strategizing ses-
sions, Patton recounts that, “the night
before we studied all of the plugs in
that building. We had alot of reconnais-
sance in preparing for this thing. We
knew where all the plugs were” (Benson
2015b, 187). And on the day of August
27, 1969 as NSA held its opening ses-
sions for the annual organizational elec-
tions and general activities, TWC joined
by radical white students, marched into
the University of Texas El Paso’s Memo-
rial gymnasium during the NSA presi-
dential election dressed as Klansmen,
shouting and chanting, “KKK, NSA!”.
The protesting faction stormed the NSA
speaker’s platform and burned a paper
cross in front of the rostrum in protest
of the general organization and the NSA
presidential election (“Blacks Storm
NSA Platform, 1969). Led by Kenyatta
and Patton, the Black students “rose
from the floor to ask the organization to
consider a Black mandate, including a
demand that NSA take half the money it
had received since 1961 for Civil Rights
work and give it to a new breakaway
National Association of Black students
as reparations” (“New NSA Leader”
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Phylon 54 (1)
1969). The amount that Patton and the
general group demanded of NSA was
$50,000.00. And upon receiving the re-
quest in front of the massive conference
audience, the NSA leadership voted not
to adopt the mandate proposed by Pat-
ton and Kenyatta. Consequently, the
Black students who were strategically
placed in the gymnasium pulled the
podium off the stage while others po-
sitioned near the sound equipment dis-
mantled the microphones and speakers.
One “Black student yanked the instru-
ment away leaving the startled student
with the receiver against his ear, its cord
dangling uselessly” (Ibid). With the at-
tention of the gymnasium crowd, Ke-
nyatta contended that the racist actions
of the NSA must cease and the organiza-
tion must reorganize its organizational
structure to address and fight white rac-
ism (Ibid).
Though tumultuous, the move by the
Black caucus of TWC came as no sur-
prise to members of NSA – regardless of
racial background. The NSA’s reputa-
tion had been sullied by the expose of
government agency intervention and
knowledge of the NSA’s treatment of
its non-white members had preceded
itself on a national level. Of the con-
vention’s events, an NSA student re-
marked that the organization had sup-
posedly fought to “denounce the [US]
government for being irrelevant and
too locked into deal with real problems,
but the NSA was really the same way it-
self. Something like this was bound to
happen this way” (Ibid). As for Patton
and the protesting faction, the outcome
weighed in total favor of the Black stu-
dents’ demands to secede from the NSA
and receive financial compensation for
Richard D. Benson II
the organization’s exploitive activities.
Under the newly elected leadership of
president Charlie Palmer (of the Peo-
ple’s Movement in Berkeley), the NSA
conceded and agreed to pay $50,000 to
the newly formed National Association
of Black Students. Additionally, the
NSA instructed regional and area NSA
student governments to administer re-
payment programs to Black student or-
ganizations on college campuses as well
(Ibid.; Patton NABS Development &
Demise, 1969-1973; Ulen 1969). Due to
the NABS victory and secession, Chica-
no students, with additional input from
Caesar Chavez, engaged in intense dis-
cussions with the newly formed NABS.
As a result, the Chicano students also
demanded that the NSA pay repara-
tions to the newly forming Chicano stu-
dents’ organization. This action further
unified the Black-Brown activism and
the groups emerged as a united front al-
liance (Patton 1969-1972).
In a news conference, Patton in-
formed the press that, “we no longer can
be a part of a racist organization” and
he also stated that, “the newly formed
Black association had no plans to let the
NSA use Black problems for their own
purposes to gain financial grants from
foundations (“Blacks Storm NSA Plat-
form” 1969). For Patton and many of
the Black students who were veterans
of the movement, working with white
students for social change and the ad-
vancement of poor Black folks became
a norm. As former SNCC workers,
this charge became a norm both before
and after the historic 1966 call for Black
Power. However, Patton genuinely felt
that “when Blacks can work in the white
community, the student movement will
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67
become one; but until such time, the
Black student movement should not be
hampered because of racism” (Patton
NABS Development & Demise, 1969-
1973). Thus, NABS emerged to address
the needs of Black students entering the
1970s and as heirs of SNCC, continuing
the charge of counter-hegemonic and
anti-imperialist Black student protest.
NABS: Programs & Activities,
1970-1972
The events from El Paso yielded dra-
matic results for the newly founded
Black student organization. The work
of Patton, Kenyatta, McGuire and a
host of Black students involved in the
NAS conference takeover signaled that
a different type of student activist was
emerging in the wake of the call for
Black Power in 1966. Black students
were applying notions of praxis in their
activism and for an organization such
as NABS to establish itself with an un-
intimidated challenge to an organiza-
tion that reflected institutional racism
signaled a gargantuan feat. Patton’s
ability to demand the terms and negoti-
ate the outcomes for NABS was critical
to how the organization would estab-
lish its presence in the overall freedom
struggle for the ensuing 1970s. NABS’
maneuvering secured reparations from
the NSA amounted to an approximate
total of $60,000 ($396,525.41 in 2017)
which accounted for the inflation factor
(CPI Inflation Calculator 2017). NABS
received the total payment in three in-
stallments. However, the core leader-
ship for the upstart group also negoti-
ated to obtain the national headquarters
68
of the NSA, which became the new na-
tional headquarters for NABS located in
Washington, D.C.
From this base of support, Patton
was elected as coordinator of the Black
student collective and the student group
began planning sessions to execute the
tasks of: assembling charter members to
develop a draft of a constitution for the
new organization; elect charter mem-
bers from the identified regions to serve
on the national NABS board; incorpo-
rate NABS as a non-profit organization;
establishing the NABS news organ,
STRUGGLE: Voice of the Black Student-
Worker, which served as pedagogical
tool for political education and also as
recruitment tool for prospective Black
students around the country; securing
supplies for the new organization and
most important, resuming communica-
tion with the NSA leadership to ensure
that the initial payment of the $60,000
would be expedited. If not, the plans
of the new organization were baseless.
However, during this early establish-
ment period of the organization, NABS
was courted to forge a corporate spon-
sorship with a local business entity to
which the organization accepted and
thus allowing for the upstart organiza-
tion to acquire brochures, stationary,
membership cards and supplies un-
til the first payment was secured from
NSA (Patton 1969-1972).
To the chagrin of the NSA and other
allied factions of the like, NABS, upon
receiving their first payments from the
NSA, brokered a real estate deal and
purchased the home next to newly es-
tablished NABS headquarters in D.C.
This arrangement allowed the newly
formed NABS to multi-task its opera-
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Phylon 54 (1)
tions that were to include both a na-
tional and local flair for the communi-
ty-based student-worker that aimed to
encompass both high school and college
aged youth. Ideologically the NABS
organization expressed the concept of
the Black Student-Worker which essen-
tially empathized with working class
students that NABS identified as a criti-
cal mass of the overall movement (Pat-
ton1969-1972). NABS pushed a line of
revolutionary analysis that was to be
driven by working class leadership. Ac-
cording to NABS documentation from
1971:
Strategy indicated that NABS
would have to 1) adopt an ideol-
ogy that was broad based while still
clearly advocating struggle, study,
and commitment; for this we chose,
“Liberation of Black people by any
means necessary.” and 2) avoid be-
coming too famous too fast by not
antagonizing whenever possible nei-
ther the pig establishment nor other
factions struggling in the Black com-
munity (NABS, Historical Perspec-
tive 1971).
To solidify the organization, NABS
leadership collectively agreed that
the primary phase of the organization
would be to establish a recruitment
campaign. NABS intended for the orga-
nization to be accessible to any and ev-
ery Black student on college campuses
nation wide who were interested in the
new collective. NABS wanted to take
advantage of memberships for indi-
viduals as well as organizations. Thus,
NABS targeted: Black Fraternities, Black
Sororities, Black Student Unions (BSUs)
Richard D. Benson II
and Student Government Associations
(SGAs) and individuals through the
dissemination of national recruitment
letters that consisted of comprehensive
reports to attract prospective students.
The communications included: orga-
nizational rational & purpose, mem-
bership goals, financial status and the
NABS national/local structure. While
continuing to work with TWC on the
recruitment of prospective students,
NABS and TWC members would pro-
vide personalized communications to
high profile recruits that the organiza-
tion deemed of important interest to the
future standing of NABS (Recruitment
Proposal NABS 1970; Patton ASC NABS
1969-1972).
NABS also began a ‘Speakers’ Bureau
Program’ that included NABS board
members and popular Black Power fig-
ures of the period. Leaders foresaw the
‘Speakers Bureau’ as a networking and
recruitment vehicle as well as a fund-
raising mechanism for the organization.
At college and university campuses
nation-wide, BSUs and SGAs provided
honoraria to speakers and with NABS
acting as a clearinghouse of sorts for
speakers, the organization would ben-
efit from a percentage of the honoraria.
Additionally, NABS was able to utilize
the ‘Speakers Bureau’ to attract SGAs
and BSUs for draft counseling work-
shops on college campuses. For NABS,
this was a direct continuation of the Na-
tional Black Anti-War, Anti-Draft Union,
(NBAWADU) program that Patton had
established prior to NABS under the di-
rection of SNCC in 1968. Now under the
auspices of NABS, NBAWADU would
continue to address working-poor, in-
ner city Black youth (particularly Black
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69
male high school students) who were
primary draft targets from the Black ur-
ban centers of: Chicago, Detroit, New
York, Oakland, Boston, Philadelphia
and Washington, D.C. Under the di-
rection of Patton, NBAWADU, now a
project under NABS direction, would
continue anti-war mobilization, politi-
cal education about the Vietnam War
and produce literature on the National
Front for the Liberation of South Viet-
nam (FLN). This anti-war, anti-draft
position of NABS reflected the organi-
zational position of an anti-imperialist
community based organization ((Re-
cruitment Proposal NABS 1970; Patton
ASC NABS 1969-1972; “NABS Born to
Unite” 1970; For Us Women-NBAWA-
DU 1968; NBAWADU Newsletter 1968).
With a commitment to developing
youth programming, NABS established
an arrangement with the Neighbor-
hood Youth Corp. and during the sum-
mer months, the NABS headquarters
became a tutoring and worksite for
high school students. NABS members
would also visit the homes of many of
high school students in the areas inter-
ested in the organization. According
to Patton, “after a thorough discussion
with parents and their offspring, who
always presented the option of quitting
schools to join the movement, my ad-
monition was that the Movement does
not need any ‘drop outs’, and parents
assessed NABS as an excellent interim
period” for some of the Black youth
who were considering quitting school
(Patton ASC NABS 1969-1972). In sup-
port of such programming, NABS de-
veloped an internship program to sev-
eral colleges and universities. Antioch
University and Washington Technical
70
Institute accepted NABS’ headquarters
for the internship site. NABS then be-
came responsible for providing evalua-
tions on student performance. Pleased
with the outcomes of the partnership,
Antioch later began providing work-
study funds for its students participat-
ing in the program (Patton ASC NABS
1969-1972; Benson 2015b).
With the objectives of conscious-
ness building, NABS developed study
groups with the intentions of develop-
ing a politically shaped cadre orient-
ed towards anti-imperialist struggle.
NABS emphasized study and develop-
ment of revolutionary principles. While
it conducted political education on top-
ics such as the Vietnam Revolution-
ary Youth Association, Marx, China,
Fanon, Cuba, Nkrumah and Cabral, its
leadership grappled with the role(s)
that students and youth should play in
the general movement. NABS “moved
from the student to the student-activist
to the activist scholar concept” (NABS,
Historical Perspective 1971). To assist
in the shaping of the NABS ideology,
the collective conducted study circles
and workshops lead by the likes of Dr.
Nathan Hare, Dr. Rhodes, and James
Forman, to name a few. NABS allianc-
es throughout this phase of the move-
ment also included the involvement of
Dr. Nathan Hare of San Francisco State
University; Howard Fuller of Malcolm
X Liberation University of Durham and
Greensboro, NC; Nelson Johnson of the
Student Organization for Black Unity of
Greensboro, NC (SOBU or YOBU); Vin-
cent Harding of the Institute of the Black
World of Atlanta; and Preston Wilcox
of the National Association for African
American Education (AFRAM) of New
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Phylon 54 (1)
York City (Patton Correspondence Na-
than Hare 1971; Patton Correspondence
Nelson 1969; Patton Correspondence
Howard Fuller 1969; Patton Correspon-
dence Preston Wilcox 1970a; Patton Cor-
respondence Preston Wilcox 1970b).
Though the intention of NABS was
to build relationships with broad seg-
ments of the Movement, the organiza-
tion was not reserved in critiquing the
Movement’s notables and personalities.
In 1970, for example, NABS levied harsh
criticisms against Stokely Carmichael
and the contours of Black Power. While
delivering a speech in Georgetown,
Guyana, Carmichael delivered ten po-
sition points on the socio-political and
historical ramifications of Black Power
and its connections to global struggle.
Later that same year, NABS responded
to Carmichael’s speech with a short
publication entitled, A List of Contradic-
tions to confront the Black Power propo-
nent’s platform. Carmichael offered a
position stating that, “non-white power,
or Guyanese Power, is something useful
to be used against white imperialism”
(Carmichael 1970). Responding to this
tenet, NABS sharply replied, “What col-
or is/was Mobutu, Tshombe and Papa
Doc, and are/were they not close allies
to Rockefeller and other imperialists? –
or how often do oppressive Black dic-
tators with millions of dollars in Swiss
Banks choose to take pictures with their
arms around their oppressor?” (NABS,
List of Contradictions). Though NABS
offered a sharp critique for the work
of Carmichael, the organization did
ally with the Republic of New Africa
(RNA) of Detroit, whose cultural and
political outlook identified the group
as land based Black nationalists. NABS
Richard D. Benson II
purported that its members embodied
an “activist-scholar discipline” that al-
lowed for liberal critical thinking and
analysis. The NABS and RNA rela-
tionship developed to where the RNA
would use the NABS headquarters as a
sort of embassy to hold its conferences
and work with the NABS members in
the Washington D.C. area. The goal for
NABS was to buy all the houses on the
neighborhood block (totaling five) to
sustain a “liberated” neighborhood for
other organizations outside of NABS to
have a base of support for operations
((Patton ASC NABS 1969-1972; Gwen
Patton, interview June 23, 2014).
As NABS evolved and gained from
the debates, community activism/pro-
gramming, scientific analysis of capi-
tal and political study sessions, the or-
ganization began to veer slightly from
their intended course. From its incep-
tion, NABS intended to operate solely
as a service organizations for Black
students. However, as the Movement
evolved, so too did the aims and objec-
tives. NABS continued to support Third
World struggles and even adopted the
slogan, “Practice, Initiative, and Self-
Reliance” from the Palestinian struggle
while continuing to forge connections
with radical organizations to support
Black workers. By mid-1970, members
of the League of Revolutionary Black
Workers (LRBW) began to increase their
involvement with NABS. LRBW, which
was founded by Black union workers
from the auto shop plants of Detroit,
MI, was originally comprised of revolu-
tionary Black Nationalist workers and
Marxist-Leninist intellectuals who ad-
dressed the plight of the Black worker.
By the height of the League develop-
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71
ment, Black workers involvement in-
cluded postal, hospital, and newspaper
workers, and NABS became the student
wing of the LRBW and aggressively
promoted the concept of revolution-
ary student-worker alliances (Ahmad
LRBW, 20)
Also by mid-1970, NABS identifed
with the workers’ struggle and, the or-
ganization experienced an upsurge in
momentum, and students from around
the country began to gravitate to the
Black student organization. The collec-
tive informed students that:
Only when students develop a
proletarian consciousness, give up
bourgeois aspirations, and join the
ranks of Black workers which is the
true background and history of our
people in this country since slavery,
a people’s vanguard of workers will
emerge...students come into contact
with workers everyday – janitors,
housekeepers, cooks, etc., who are
working on college campus. With a
proper and correct analysis students
should not be arrogant or paternal-
istic to workers...the true student
worker is able to repudiate the small
material rewards that may be pro-
vided to her or him no matter what
diploma or degree that she/he re-
ceives...we must engage in the day to
day struggle of workers tin order to
be able to organize them (NABS The
Heightening of Consciousness 1969-
1970).
Seizing this surge of operational
strength of the newly found alliance,
NABS held its first national confer-
ence in Detroit in the first week of July
72
of 1970. Largely assisted by LRBW, the
conference was held to discuss and es-
tablish the concepts and political ac-
tivities of student and worker alliances
in the Movement. The conference at-
tracted over three hundred partici-
pants, including a broad base of activ-
ists, students and workers. However,
this level of attraction also drew the
critical interest of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) who in turn be-
gan its concerted efforts to survey and
infiltrate NABS. In March of 1971, the
FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania was
burglarized and many documents were
taken that uncovered the FBI’s Counter-
Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO).
Amongst the documents taken, NABS
was able to learn that the FBI alerted
agents to attend the first NABS confer-
ence in Detroit and that the FBI was to
initiate its counterintelligence programs
of infiltrating the NABS with the help of
informants and agents (“FBI Covered
Convention” 1971, 1). Though unde-
terred by the actions of the FBI, the or-
ganization was aware that NABS was
targeted by the government. For many
in the organization, this was an inevi-
table find, but many of the membership
were also wary of infiltration by other
groups such as the Progressive Labor
Party (PLP), a Marxist-Leninist splinter
group of the Communist Party, which
formed in 1962. Members such as Pat-
ton had strong reservations about the
PLP involvement, which she maintained
throughout the duration of NABS exis-
tence (Patton ASC NABS 1969-1972).
Nevertheless, NABS increased its
programmatic activity with LRBW,
which by the start of 1971 began to un-
dergo organizational differences, which
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Phylon 54 (1)
amounted to forms of sectarianism in
the LRBW. As the ideological clashes
festered, LRBW evolved into the Black
Workers Congress (BWC) and began to
broaden the organization with affiliate
chapters across the country. BWC estab-
lished an international program, “and
put in place strong support programs:
Book Club Forums as educationals,
which easily drew over 300 Black and
white workers in Detroit, and the Inter-
national Black Appeal (IBA) fund-rais-
ing apparatus. NABS was the student
alliance in this development with a seat
on the steering committee of the BWC”
(Patton ASC NABS 1969-1972).
NABS continued its progression in
heightening the effectiveness of pro-
gramming. Upon securing an addi-
tional $20,000 from a corporate sponsor,
the organization purchased a separate
facility to launch the Frantz Fanon Ed-
ucational Institute for community de-
velopment. NABS would also apply
for membership to the International
Student Union and expand the already
established work-study programs. The
organization also continued the work of
connecting with other students of color
by implementing innovative program-
ming. This included organizing meet-
ings with the Young Lords Party, New
York chapter and additional planning
for a women’s meeting to address the in-
teresting roles of imperialism and male
chauvinism. From August 26 – Septem-
ber 2, 1971, the organization held its
second annual conference at Malcolm
X College in Chicago to further the or-
ganizational line of Marxism-Leninism,
scientific socialism and the program of
the student worker (Patton ASC NABS
1969-1972; Patton correspondence to
Richard D. Benson II
Mike, Congress Chairman 1971).
With a developed national presence,
NABS attempted to establish more sus-
tainable enterprises in the form of proj-
ects that included record shops (twelve
record shops for each NABS region) to
sell books, t-shirts, and NABS parapher-
nalia and a cable television station. Of
all of the intended ventures, none came
to fruition as infighting and sectarian-
ism propelled the organization toward
its demise by 1972. According to a
number of accounts, steering students
to factory work and blue-collar posi-
tions to organize workers eventually
dismantled the leadership of NABS and
produced fractured Marxist-Leninist
collectives of students around the coun-
try with no base of operations as NABS
ceased to exist (Ibid; Patton correspon-
dence to Nathan Hare; Alkalimat Search
for a Vanguard – NABS).
Conclusion
During the existence of NABS, the or-
ganization provided a significant pres-
ence to an ever-evolving Black Freedom
struggle that by the early 1970s was
also experiencing ideological growth,
organizational fracture, government
interference and transnational promi-
nence. Black student collectives, such
as NABS, underwent a period of hefty
political involvement that identified in
many ways as an extension of the origi-
nal tenets of Black Power. However, as
Black students enhanced their critiques
of structural and institutional racism,
the pronouncements of anti-imperial-
ism became more prominent through-
out the Black Student Movement. Con-
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73
sciousness raising included a foray into
Marxism-Leninism that in turn birthed
multiple ideological streams of inter-
facing with the Left. NABS fell victim
to intra-organizational strife that per-
vaded many Black Left student collec-
tives of the era. The sectarianism that
NABS suffered was a by-product of
ultra-Leftist organizational chauvinism.
Thus, the sectarianism that NABS suf-
fered was a by-product of ultra-Leftist
organizational chauvinism and person-
ality differences (Johnson 2003; Benson
2015a).
The sectarianism that festered in
NABS, was eventually exploited by
the FBI which began targeting NABS
in 1970. According to the FBI files of
Gwen Patton, the Bureau’s counter-
intelligence program (COINTELPRO)
aimed at collecting intelligence on the
organization through surveillance and
through informants and provocateurs.
Consequently, it was not uncommon
for NABS and groups of the like to be-
come victims of COINTELPRO which
worked incessantly to ensure the neu-
tralization of organizations and the
death of student leaders to prevent the
rise and development of the Black Free-
dom Struggle.
The role of Gwen Patton as a radical
Black woman student leader during the
pinnacle of the Black Freedom struggle
is critical to the discussion of the NABS
demise. An aspect significant to the
intra-organizational turmoil of NABS
is heavily attached to the paternalism
of the Black Freedom struggle of which
NABS was not immune. Patton, who
was the first female to become student
body president of Tuskegee Institute
and later a key figure and student leader
74
with SNCC, later emerged as founder of
NABS and faced a significant amount of
pressure and marginalization as a radi-
cal woman and as a leader and tactician
in a vanguard organization. As it relat-
ed to the demise of NABS, Patton would
remark that because of, “this raging po-
lemic, petty jealousies and organized at-
tacks on female leadership, NABS died
untimely in 1972” (Patton NABS Devel-
opment & Demise, 1969-1973; Patton
ASC NABS 1969-1972). And for her pro-
active input and creative activism, Pat-
ton ascended to found, lead, and work
for the development of NABS, but was
purged shortly before the end of NABS.
Though not absent of FBI provocation,
the climate for male chauvinistic agita-
tion targeting Patton and other Black
women of the organization, supplement
the causes for NABS dissolution (Patton
NABS Development & Demise, 1969-
1973; Patton ASC NABS 1969-1972).
On reflection, as an anti-imperialist
Black student organization, NABS was
founded by unprecedented radical ac-
tion. NABS critiqued institutional and
structural racism and received financial
reparations for their activism. How-
ever, while exceptional, this action pro-
vided the organization with a cache of
financial resources that while extensive,
required sustainability. The program-
ming of NABS included ties to corporate
grants and church related grants, how-
ever these associations drove a wedge
in NABS leadership due to admitted
contradictions between organizational
theory and practice as identified Marx-
ist-Leninists. These actions (and others)
led to schisms and members such as
Patton being purged from NABS due to
the lack of an organizational consensus
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Phylon 54 (1)
on the matters regarding funding, cor-
porate partnerships and financial sus-
tainability of the organization (Patton
NABS Development & Demise, 1969-
1973; Patton ASC NABS 1969-1972; Al-
kalimat Search for a Vanguard – NABS).
Acknowledgements
This essay has benefited largely from
the advice and conversations of move-
ment activists and colleagues in the
fields of Black studies, education history
and the social foundations of education.
Providing the extensive history of NABS
was made possible because of the inter-
view and conversation granted by Dr.
Gwen Patton – thank you so much for
taking time and may you rest in power.
You were a true warrior. I owe a debt
of gratitude to Dr. Cynthia Spence of
Spelman College and the HBCU/Mel-
lon program for the support I received
from the 2013 faculty grant that allowed
for data collection in the James Forman
papers at the Library of Congress in
Washington D.C; data collection at the
Reuther Archives in Detroit, MI and
the National Council of Churches pa-
pers located at the Presbyterian Histori-
cal Society in Philadelphia, PA. Many
thanks and note of major gratitude go
to my writing family of the la Phoeni-
kera Writers’ Guild (laPWG): Director,
JoEllen Hutchinson, Erica Davila, Ann
Aviles and David Stovall. The 2014 laP-
WG summer writer’s retreat in Phoenix,
AZ allowed for much needed uninter-
rupted time to craft out the framework
for this piece. Thank you to the Spel-
man College Teaching Resource and
Research Center faculty speakers’ series
Richard D. Benson II
for inviting me to present an early ver-
sion of this work to the Spelman College
community in the spring of 2016. Lastly,
thank you to Dr. Geneva Baxter for your
editorial assistance and insightful con-
versations about student activism.
___________________________________
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