BSM Founding: November 1967

In 1967, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was the main campus organization at UNC supporting African American students, who comprised less than one half of one percent of the student body. Viewing the NAACP as "antique" and growing dissatisfied with the rule forbidding the NAACP from participating in partisan activities, Preston Dobbins introduced a motion at one of the meetings to disband the NAACP and begin a new organization. The majority of students at the meeting voted yes, and the Black Student Movement was born. Members elected Preston Dobbins chairman of the BSM. According to Black Ink, the official Black Student Movement newsletter, by the fall of 1968, the majority of African American students at UNC were active members of the BSM.

-- Photo: 1969 Yackety Yack, p. 127