Black Cultural Association
| Black Cultural Association | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1968-1973 |
| Leaders | Colston Westbrook |
| Headquarters | California Medical Facility |
| Area of operations | Vacaville, California |
| Became | Symbionese Liberation Army |
The Black Cultural Association (BCA) was an African American inmate group founded in 1968 at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, a California state prison, and formally recognized by prison officials in 1969. The primary purpose of the BCA was to provide educational tutoring to inmates, which it did in conjunction with graduate college students from the nearby San Francisco Bay Area. Outsiders were allowed to attend meetings of the BCA, and tutors provided remedial and advanced courses in mathematics, reading, writing, art, history, political science, and sociology. In time, radical political organizations such as Venceremos infiltrated the BCA, giving rise to BCA factions such as Unisight, which eventually gave birth to the Symbionese Liberation Army.
The 1960s were famous for numerous social movements, including the Black Panther Party in California. This increase in racial tension across the nation fed to rising concerns about the African-American population. The Black Panther Party was created to watch the actions of police forces in Los Angeles making sure that they were protecting the public as a whole, not a specific race. In Oakland, the number of arrests dramatically increased, which led to an increase in prison populations. In the State of California's prisoners statistics it states that the populations of inmates on December 31, 1960 was 21,660 persons. 8 years later on December 31, 1968 the population had increased to a high of 28,462. During the 1960s the black distribution in California prisons was 20.8 percent but gradually increased to 34.1 percent by the 1980s. The same people who were demanding social reforms found themselves in jail demanding prison reforms for those of color. From this rise in black inmate population came the Black Cultural Association, or the BCA. Their goal was to educate black inmates on basic educational skills as well as foster an environment for black empowerment.
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