On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act, which aimed to prevent discrimination on the basis of race, gender and other identifying factors in regard to obtaining housing. 

Though the bill was widely regarded as a net positive for Black people across the United States, John S. Evans — a Black student at Ohio State during the time — saw it as an empty promise. 

“It’s just something else on a piece of paper,” Evans said in a 1968 Lantern article, which was obtained via the University Archives. “If we followed the Constitution, we wouldn’t need civil rights bills anyway.”

At the time, Evans was an informal spokesperson for the Black Student Union, an “unofficially recognized” organization founded in 1967, in which all Black students were considered members, according to a 1969 Lantern article obtained via the University Archives. 

In protest of the bill due to its perceived inefficacy, members of BSU gathered to express their opposition and demand Ohio State take more immediate action to aid Black student housing access in the Columbus area. According to the 1968 Lantern article, Evans said the white Ohio State community “overreacted” to the demonstration. 

“The overreaction showed that whites are still fearful of Blacks,” Evans said in the article. “Peace groups can have their demonstrations on the Oval without incidents, but look what happens when a black group tries to assemble.” 

That same year, only 14 days later on April 26, BSU organized one of the most notable protests to ever take place on the university’s campus — an attempted encampment inside the Administration Building, now known as Bricker Hall. 

Around 75 members of BSU met with administrators — who worked in the Administration Building — to share their grievances toward the “alleged university acceptance” of cultural- and housing-based discrimination, according to another Lantern article from the same year. Meanwhile, hundreds of others occupied the building in protest.

“About 200 members of the campus Americans for Democratic Action and the OSU Committee to End the War in Vietnam occupied the first floor at the same time the BSU occupied the second floor,” the article states. 

The overall demonstration by BSU has been credited as a direct factor in the creation of Ohio State’s Black Studies Department — now known as the Department of African American and African Studies — and the Office of Minority Affairs — now known as the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. 

These departments have remained since the fight posed by students of color, as well as the gradual change in university policy to accept and accommodate their concerns — that is, until Feb. 27. 

In a University Senate meeting, university President Ted Carter Jr. announced the removal of ODI and the Center for Belonging and Social Change. 

These changes come in light of several executive orders from President Donald Trump’s administration, a notice from the U.S. Department of Education and the progression of Ohio Senate Bill 1. 

In the days following the announcement, students across campus have organized and attended sit-ins and protests — all in opposition of SB 1 and the university’s DEI-related decisions. 

Isaac Wilson, a fourth-year in aerospace engineering and president of Ohio State’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said though the early actions of BSU gave way to greater representation on campus, the members’ struggles have begun to hit a little too close to home. 

“I feel like we are fighting and trying to advocate for the same rights and decisions that we literally overcame back in the ‘60s,” Wilson said. “Like I said [Tuesday] at the protests, it feels like we’re in that ‘70s range, where we technically have rights, but are still trying to fight back for them.”

The same call to action that’s been echoed from BSU also rang from Afro-Am, another Black-led student organization, which was founded in 1969 following the encampment at the Administrative Building by BSU, according to a 1970 Lantern article obtained from the University Archives. 

Afro-Am remained active on campus throughout the ‘70s, focusing its attention and resources on increasing the recruitment and educational rights for Black students and protesting the university’s investments in companies that had business relations with apartheid-era South Africa, according to a 1977 Lantern article obtained from the University Archives. 

 

In May 1974, Afro-Am held an assembly focused on fostering Black unity and creating an open dialogue surrounding the issues students within the community faced, according to the same 1977 Lantern article.

“About 200 Black students, faculty members and administrators attended the rally to hear discussion of the proposed elimination of the Black Education Program in the College of Education,” according to a Lantern article from the same year. 

Though history is seemingly repeating itself with the issues that Black and other minority students are facing, Wilson said the difference between then and now — and what needs to be resolved — is a current lack of community, largely due to the divisiveness rampant in modern society. 

“It is essential that we have that community because at the end of the day, they’re not going to respect us if there’s no numbers behind it,” Wilson said. “If we don’t make ourselves the majority by making the majority of the noise [and] the majority of numbers, they can literally brush us to the side.”

Jacob Jones, a third-year in finance and treasurer for the Black Student Association, said though Black students are calling for the support of all members of the university, he can understand why some may not be sufficiently educated or aware of the issues at hand. 

“It is very interesting, and hard and confusing for individuals who have never been the minority or interacted with minorities to understand what it feels like to be in those minorities — especially those who have never interacted with different types of marginalized groups,” Jones said. 

However, even for those who may not feel like they are directly impacted by the issues Black and other minority students are facing, Jones said there are still ways for them to show support. 

“Just the best thing you can do, it's like the saying: The best thing you can do is show up,” Jones said. “I think that’s really the definition of what I’ve seen throughout my collegiate career.” 

Support from faculty and staff is a key factor that dates back decades. In 1977, William Nelson, former chairman of the Department of Black Studies, demonstrated his backing for students at an on-campus protest, which helped to turn the tide of students’ efforts.

“For too long, Nelson told the crowds in front of the Administration Building, ‘Black faculty and staff have been silent, but with an organization now, we are placing our unity behind yours to fight racism in all its aspects,’” a 1977 Lantern article detailing the protest states.

Wilson and Jones each referenced the consistent guidance seen from Ohio State faculty and staff members in the recent demonstrations across campus. They said their support parallels the same frustrations and demands for change Nelson advocated for 48 years prior. 

“‘We’re not asking for favors,’ [Nelson] told the group. ‘We want our rights, and we’re going to have our rights or this institution as it presently exists will not exist,’” the same Lantern article states. 

When discussing the recent alterations the university announced to its DEI programming, Wilson said students must take it into their own hands to create the change they want to see. 

“Things don’t just happen to you because we all have choices; we all have decisions that we have to make as human beings,” Wilson said. “It is an active decision to stand up. It’s an active decision to push forward, but you and everybody else is going to be the ones who have to make that choice.”

This story was published in collaboration with The Lantern as part of the 2025 Black Voices special edition.