Black Student Union at the University of Florida Records

The Black Student Union (BSU) was organized at the University of Florida in 1968 and was officially registered with UF's Student Government in 1969. The BSU was founded as a support system and social organization, and quickly became a voice for issues that affected Black students on campus.

Three years after it was founded, in April, 1971, BSU submitted a list of demands to UF President Stephen C. O'Connell, requesting that a Black Cultural Center be established at UF, that 500 Black students be recruited and admitted to the university, to establish a department of Minority Affairs, to have a Black administrator in the Office of Academic Affairs to coordinate the recruitment of Black faculty, to hire a Black person at the assistant manager level in the personnel division, to hire more Black faculty and staff to better reflect the ratio of Black students on UF's campus, and the fair and equal treatment of Black employees of UF.

These demands were not acted upon, and so student protests and demonstrations were held across campus. The culmination of these protests took place on April 15, 1971, when a large number of students occupied President O'Connell's office. This date would become known as "Black Thursday." Over 60 students were arrested or suspended for occupying the President's office. When amnesty requests for those who were suspended or arrested were denied, the BSU held a rally on April 27, 1971, after several Black students and sympathetic peers withdrew from the University of Florida. Within the next few days, over 100 Black students and their supporters withdrew from the university.

These protests motivated the university administration to act. In the Fall of 1971, the Institute of Black Culture was established and was formally dedicated on February 11, 1972.