Late 1970s: Anti-prison and Racial Justice Activism at Barnard
In one of the first and few events held by Barnard administration centering conversations on prisons, in 1974 Barnard invited the then-superintendent of the New York City Correctional Institution for women to speak about women in prison. Or more specifically, how “Criminal and judicial officials...discriminate against women. They give women advantages men do not enjoy.”
Such a talk was a huge departure in tone from students who were, for example, joining thousands of students from campuses across the country to participate in the 1975 conference by the National Student Coalition Against Racism in Boston, where they discussed issues of racism and prisons, and organized an upcoming rally. In Celebration of International Women’s Day in February 1976, student groups such as BOBW (Barnard Organization of Black Women, now called Barnard Organization of Soul and Solidarity), LASO WOMEN’S CAUSUS, LAB (Lesbian Activists at Barnard), and the Women’s Collective hosted speakers from the groups “Ashata Sekkor” and “Women Against Prisons.” The women's center, while an office within Barnard, was independent in thought and programming from Barnard’s upper administration and took a more radical direction than the college. While these events by both students and the Women’s Center engaged with the topic of prisons and racism within the prison system, they were not necessarily using an abolitionist framework to do so.
The late 1970’s was an important moment for Black Barnard students, who felt empowered by revolutionaries such as Angela Davis, and the liberatory struggles of the previous decade. In the 1974 edition of Mortarboard, Barnard’s yearbook, Marsha Coleman (Ngozi) ‘74 wrote a letter to her Black peers:
The sixties were a decisive turning point for most young African-Americans. The period encompassed a decade of hopes, desires and dreams of a tired and oppressed Black nation. The Black women of the class of 1974 emerged from this decade, which included the Black Panther Party, Angela Davis, the assassinations of malcolm [sic] and martin [sic] and african liberation day [sic] demonstrations. It was a period of redeļ¬ning our values and reassessing our roles as Black women. It was the time when objectivity became subjectivity, and subjectively we decided that Black people would have to be free. Many of the Black women in this class decided that the classroom in Harlem was as important as Milbank (but teachers just couldn’t understand when you told them that you missed their class to attend a memorial for Adam Clayton Powell). Nevertheless, it took the love and strength of all the sisters to remain at Barnard in oftentimes unbearable situations. The Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters, the resilient organization of Black women that always pulled us together in times of tragedy, struggle, and reading week; seven Brooks and Hewitt, the notorious Black floors, were all a part of the challenge of the past four years at barnard [sic]. As Black women we have involuntarily faced a hostile european society almost entirely alone. Our love and sense of responsibility has borne a whole nation.
In the Fall of 1976, coverage on student activism around prisons slowed and came to a near stop, following the trial of Susan Saxe. Susan Saxe, who identified herself as a “lesbian, a feminist and an Amazon,” was charged with bank robbery and felony murder after her involvement in a bank heist in 1970, joining the FBI’s most-wanted list. Her trial created divisions within women’s communities between those who advocated for or against her acquittal, and caused what the Barnard Bulletin termed a “feminist rift.”
Yet, if activism began to splinter, or at least, did not garner as much attention from Barnard student publications, the Women’s Center did not show it, as they began to pick up on the momentum created by student activists. In November of 1976, the Women’s Center hosted a Reid Lecture on the issue of forced sterilization in prisons. They hosted the “Women Seeking Justice,” series, inspired by the Barnard-sponsored writing course at the Bedford Hills women’s prison. During the 1980 Scholar and Feminist conference on “Class, Race and Sex—Exploring Contradictions, Affirming Connections,” there was a workshop titled “Women in Prison: A Sociological Perspective.” At some events, prisons were mentioned as examples of broader discussions on racism and economic injustice, such as in the 1981 Scholar and Feminist Conference: “Dynamics of Control,” during the talk: “Women on Welfare: Public Policy and Institutional Racism,” delivered by Bettylou Valentine. Indeed, the Women’s Center showed a growing commitment to addressing racism and prisons in the late 70s and early 1980s. While this may not have been from what we today call an abolitionist perspective, it laid the groundwork for where we are now in our understanding of abolition. By the 1980s, however, the political context as well as the tone of students in Barnard publications began to drastically change, standing in almost complete opposition to the activism of the previous decade.
