It was through the Black Student Union on campus, officially known as “For Members Only” (FMO), which operated that student political action organization from a small frame former residence lovingly—and sarcastically— called “The Black House.”
Back in the day, black students were the only student demographic on the NU campus whose student associations— be they social, political, religious or other— were not officially recognized or funded by the university’s administration (even though they quite readily took our tuition money).
It was only after months of protests, boycotts, peaceful marches, a sit-in at the bursar’s office (think money, folks), and threats of black students being expelled if they did not “cease and desist their embarrassing display,” that the black students of NU prevailed and won political recognition and clout on campus and in the Evanston community at-large.
To save a trip to the dictionary, “reparations” is a political justice concept that supports that financial compensation should be paid to the descendants of people from sub-Saharan Africa (that would be all present-day African Americans) who were captured, then enslaved and brought to the Americas as part of the Atlantic slave trade.
You might ask how much reparations to the 30 –plus million American descendants of African slaves would cost the U.S. government in 2020.
