In honor of Black History Month, our Laurentians Inspire series for the month of February celebrates Black Laurentians who have made a difference and left their mark on St. Lawrence.
“The BSU helped us all stay attached to what the issues were—being Black in America, being Black students at an American institution, and being Black, period,” says Don Pearman ’74, an original member of St. Lawrence’s Black Student Union (BSU), a student organization established in 1969 to celebrate, support, and advocate for Black students at the University.
In the late 1960s, the St. Lawrence campus was embroiled in much the same political and social upheaval that had swept university campuses across the entire country, including anti-war activism, the Women’s Liberation Movement, and the Civil Rights Movement. African-American students represented a very small percentage of the student body, but this small group was critical in organizing and advocating for St. Lawrence to address the serious racial disparity on campus and in the community.