Black United Students (BUS) was born on the Kent Campus of Kent State University in spring 1968, shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., when a campus organization called Students for Democratic Society held a meeting and invited two members of a group called the Deacons for Self-Defense. Out of that meeting, BUS was formed.
Fall 1968 brought the first major event on campus for BUS, the student walkout, in protest of the Oakland Police coming to campus to recruit officers. In light of previous incidents of police brutality in that police department, Black students asked administrators to stop them from coming.
Silas Ashley was president of BUS in 1974. “They (the administration) was very rigid and decided to not even deal with the demands that these students were making in terms of this police department coming," he said. "And so, the students got together and expanded their demands. They expanded them to include more Black faculty, more Black students.”
From left to right, former BUS presidents E. Timothy Moore and Silas Ashley, with Mwatabu S. Okantah
The BUS walkout
Mwatabu S. Okantah, Kent State professor and Chair of the Department of Africana Studies, said, “When the university refused, they came together and walked off campus and the university had to negotiate with them.”
The BUS student walkout, November 18, 1968. Photo by Layfayette Tolliver.
From those protests in 1968 eventually came the formation of the Department of Pan-African Studies (now the Department of Africana Studies), as a direct result of the advocacy of Black United Students. Another demand made by the students was that they participate in selecting who would come in to create the program, which led to the hiring of Edward Crosby in 1969.
“When Dr. Crosby was selected to be the chairman of this initiative, one thing, even throughout the time that I was there, he always said is that the goal is to make this a department, we have to make this a department," Ashley said. "You can’t leave it hanging out there like this. And the reason why there’s a Department of Pan-African Studies now, that occupies a whole building, as opposed to other universities and colleges in the country, is because they didn’t get a department. They got a program; they got a couple of courses. Well, as time goes on, any president can cut a program. You can cut a program easily, but you can’t cut a department. “
“The House that BUS Built”
The Institute for African American Affairs was established in 1969, the Center of Pan-African Culture (CPAC) in 1970 and the Department of Pan-African Studies in 1976. When the program became a department, the former Student Union building was rededicated and named Oscar Richie Hall. It was named for Kent State alumnus and faculty member Oscar Ritchie, who was the first Black professor at a state university in Ohio.
“Ritchie Hall became a safe space, where you could come and decompress," Okantah said. "Because it was difficult for us being in, what for us, was essentially a hostile environment. The cultural center became our home on campus. We’ve always called it 'The House that BUS built,' and we continue to call it that.”
Black History Month
Lamar Hylton, senior vice president for Kent State's Division of Students Affairs, said, “One of the most notable achievements of BUS is its creation of Black History Month. And I don’t think that’s a story we lift up nearly enough.”
Okantah said, “National Negro History Week was begun by Carter G. Woodson, I want to say in 1916. Woodson was a historian. He was the second African American, I think, to graduate from Harvard. He went to Harvard and learned nothing about our experience in this country. He started National Negro History Week to highlight African-American contributions.”
Woodson chose February because Abraham Lincoln was born in February, as was Fredrick Douglas. “Here in Kent,” Okantah said, “students learning about our history felt that there was more to our history than could be discussed or talked about in a week. They started celebrating Black History Month, I think, in February of 1970. And it caught on.”
It soon “caught on,” starting on college campuses and then nationwide. In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month.
Recent controversies on campus
Tayjua Hines, who was president of BUS in 2019, said, "Kent State is a microcosm of the world we live in. So literally everything that we go through outside of campus, we go through on campus. The movement, in itself, is literally our lives.”
So, when racist messages were painted on the Rock, the 80-plus-year-old landmark on Kent State’s Front Campus, in fall 2020, BUS and the campus community became united in action.
Hylton said, “The Rock, at the beginning of the fall 2020 semester became the focal point, and the starting point, for our discussions in this conversation about race equity. I’ve experienced a lot of conversations in a lot of very poignant moments with our students. None have been as poignant as the moment began to address the issues at the Rock.”
“I think what the Rock did was allow for the university to come together,” said Amoaba Gooden, vice president of Kent State’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, “to talk about how we can respond to hate on campus, right? I think people were surprised it was so visceral.”
The university’s first official action was to issue a statement. “I think you’ll see that’s what’s common around institutions of higher education, where we send this broad-based communication out to our campus community alerting them of what happened and reminding them of living our values. And that wasn’t enough,” said Hylton.
BUS initially issued several statements. “We put out four statements and then I got tired of putting out statements," said Hines. “So, then it was like ‘okay, I’m not putting out any statements.' We have to address this with the university.”
A force for positive change
BUS wrote a list of demands, based on things that had happened in that fall semester and the summer before. University administrators reacted swiftly and representatives from BUS met with Kent State President Todd Diacon, Gooden and Hylton. The group talked about addressing the short-term demands and the items that were more long-term, with scheduled follow-up meetings.
"So, they really moved on the demands,” said Hines. “And I feel that was really big for us because it shows that you are actually putting in the initiative to change.”
Okantah said, “When Black United Students went to President Diacon with their list of demands after the whole thing with the Rock and all of that, unlike previous KSU presidents, he received them. He accepted their demands and he pledged to work with them. That’s progress.”
Hines said that one of her goals as BUS president was to unify the community. “And we did see an aspect of that,” she said. "And I wanted to grow to where every student knows what BUS is, or at least knows where we are, and knows the concept of BUS.”
‘You need to have the big dreams in the way your predecessors had big dreams.’
Ashley said, “We didn’t want to be just another organization on campus, it was about a movement and a plan to improve the Black experience on Kent State’s campus.”
It started as, and continues to be an agency of change and became the organization that responds to the needs of Black Students, but is also so much more. Gooden said, “So here we have students that are actually pushing for change for all, but are using their own experiences to do that and serve as a catalyst for change institutionally, but also nationally and globally.”
"It’s a political organization, it’s a cultural organization, it’s a social organization," said Okantah.
Junior computer science major De’Anna Baccus is the current president of BUS. She identifies the organization as a safe space for students and faculty; a group that cares about the mental, physical and academic well-being of Black Students.
De'Anna Baccus, current BUS president
“I don't know where I would be without Black United Students,” Baccus said. “I truly did feel lost before BUS came into my life and I don't want any other student to feel the way I felt. Black United Students is to serve and unify all Black students at Kent State University by addressing their needs.”
She said that BUS seeks to identify relevant issues and initiate appropriate action to reduce or eliminate any impediments to students and their continued well-being and matriculation. “I want this mission to always be the focal point of BUS. We serve our students over anything else, and I want BUS to continue building relationships and longtime bonds with Black students."
Okantah said, “I try to get the current generation of Black United Students to not be so frustrated and to realize that the work that you are doing is valuable, and it will, in fact, help the students who come here after you. And this is what I tell the current generation of Black United Students: You need to have the big dreams in the way your predecessors had big dreams.”
An “essential voice” at Kent State
It’s not hyperbole to say that Kent State would not be the institution it is today without the changes brought about by the continued work of BUS.
Diacon said, “At Kent State, BUS has been an important part of Kent State’s history, and through their ongoing efforts, will continue to be an essential voice in shaping Kent State’s bright future.”
