'Mau Mau Tech': The Making of a Black University in Oakland, California, 1960-1970

During the late 1960s, Black students at predominantly white and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) radically transformed higher education in the United States. Disappointed with the failures of integration, Black students challenged racist curricula and hiring practices, and called on universities to serve their Black Communities. Merritt College, a small community college on seven acres of land in the flatlands of North Oakland, California, holds significance for the Black Studies, Black Campus, and Black Power Movements as home to the first Black Studies Department and home of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Unfortunately, Black students’ efforts to gain community control of Merritt College to establish a “Black University” have been overlooked. Changing demographics and a recognition of the limited power wielded by Black staff and Black Studies Departments within the predominantly white institution led students to seek complete community control of Merritt College as an independent and reimagined Black university that would serve the needs of the adjacent Black community. This study uses archival materials to uncover the related political and spatial struggles for Black Power at Oakland’s Merritt College. Further examination of the Black Campus Movement on community colleges and other campuses within proximity to Black communities, like Merritt College, will enable a deeper understanding of the geographical as well as political dimensions of the Black Power Movement. (See PDF for full essay).