Black Student Movement

The Black Student Movement (BSM) is an organization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is the second largest student-run organization and one of the largest cultural organizations on the school's campus. The organization was created on November 7, 1967 to combat problems of black recruit, admissions, and integration on UNC-CH campus. Black Student Movement has created many subgroups and committees such as: Opeyo! Dance Company, Celebration of Black Womanhood (CBW), Emphasizing Brotherhood Across Campus Effectively (EmBrACE), Harmonyx A Capella, UNC Gospel Choir, Ebony Reader's Onyx Theatre (EROT), Black Ink and the Political Action Committee (PAC) to name a few.

The Black Student Movement was established on November 7, 1967 as a result Black student dissatisfaction with the NAACP chapter on the campus and because of the slow enrollment of the black population on campus. In 1961 the NAACP chapter had been formed and had actively protested against segregation and discrimination, but by 1967 more militant students led by Preston Dobbins and Reggie Hawkins felt that the NAACP was overly conservative. They voted to disband the chapter and instead form the Black Student Movement. The NAACP's magazine, The Crisis, reported that the chapter president, Kelly Alexander Jr., opposed demands for separate facilities for black students, arguing against "any attempt to re-establish institutionalized segregation". The state NAACP leadership intervened and the two organizations then co-existed. Although the organization had white sympathizers, it was all-black. The Black Student Movement was officially recognized by the UNC administration in December 1967. In the fall of 1967, UNC reported 113 African American Students enrolled out of 13,352.

The Black Student Movement began taking form as the dominant organization who voiced the views and opinions of black students at the university.The ensuing year was momentous black students on the campus because it was within this time frame that the Dixon Resolution and the Phipps Committee were established. The Dixon Resolution, written by Professor John Dixon on May 3, 1968, requested that the Chancellor appoint a five-person committee to generate recommendations for the faculty to help improve the academic climate among Black students. It was the Phillips Committee, led by Professor Dickson Phillips, that recommended an eight-step plan to improve the intellectual climate and remove educational disabilities on the basis of the race of Black students on campus and those to come.

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