BSU50: The Power of Community

MIT Black Students' Union through the Decades

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Galvanized by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, black student groups begin to form on predominately white college campuses across the country, including MIT.
Poster: "mit bsu" by Dietmar Winkler, c. 1970
Photo: Display/Kind Company

Image crop from Instagram post by Display/Kind Company @thisisdisplay, 23 June 2015: "MIT BSU ['The MIT Black Students Union suggests you consider graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology'] poster" [designed by Dietmar Winkler of the MIT Office of Design Services, c. 1970s]. From the ‘Swiss Style: International Graphic Design’ exhibit at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich [Museum of Design Zurich].

Interactive Timeline

In 1968, the black student community at MIT was small and needed a way to amplify its voice. Formed during that tumultuous year in political and racial history in the US, the MIT Black Students’ Union (BSU) launched a journey of advocacy and community that now continues 50 years later.

"The BSU at 50," MIT Technology Review, November/December 2018

[TIMELINE STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

The BSU has always played a major role in helping the Institute to not fall back from the goals of commitment and participation of black students, faculty, and administration. It’s been a key agent in helping MIT look at itself.
- Clarence G. Williams, Adjunct Professor of Urban Studies & Planning Emeritus and Former Special Assistant to the President of MIT