WASHINGTON — The national tumult of 1968 was marked by iconic images, including the campus takeover: students occupying critical campus buildings and shutting down institutions for days.
The Columbia University takeover in April of that year was the best-known, but it appears the first one happened in D.C. 50 years ago this past week.
About 1,000 students at Howard University took over the administration building, leading to the shutdown of the school from March 19 through March 23, 1968.
As the anniversary approached, two leaders of the protest — Adrienne Manns Israel (then Adrienne Manns) and Anthony Gittens — spoke with WTOP in separate interviews about how the demonstration unfolded, why it happened and how it affected the rest of their lives.
In addition to these interviews, the events have been reconstructed with the use of contemporary accounts from The Washington Post and The Washington Evening Star, as well as the 1987 documentary “Eyes On the Prize” and the 1968 public television documentary “Color Us Black!”
It was far from the first protest at Howard. The takeover was the result of months of planning and years of grievances, the two organizers said.
Gittens, now the director of the D.C. International Film Festival, said, “There was a number of demonstrations at Howard when I was there, some of them I was involved in.” Then, with a laugh, he said, “Most of them I was involved in.”
