Never before have students marched for more Romantic Literature courses. Nor have they done so asking for more sections of Wolfman chemistry. But since before its inception in 1970, Boston College students marched with conviction and pride demanding the University—which prides itself on a multi-faceted liberal arts education—make room in its curriculum for black studies.

Nearly half a century ago, BC delivered what students had long been advocating for when the University’s first comprehensive black studies program was forged as the brainchild of BC’s Black Forum, which met with the University administration for eight weeks in 1969 to form black studies. As a result, BC’s current African and African Diaspora Studies program (AADS)—a growing academic and social program only just reaching its full potential almost 50 years later—was born.

In 1969, the Black Forum began by presenting demands for a sweeping education on black studies. It wasn’t until September of the following year that BC created a foundation for AADS with the approval of three University black studies courses: African Art, The History and Psychological Development of the Black Family, and African Nationalism Since World War II.

These three courses turned into an established black studies minor in 1985, and the first independent black studies minor graduated from the University in 1990. Still, major progress in black studies education stalled until its transformation into the AADS program.