Feb. 1, 1971: 51 years ago, Feb 1 1971, students at Oakland's Merritt College began a [...]

51 years ago, Feb 1 1971, students at Oakland’s Merritt College began a strike by occupying the administration building. The “Revolutionary People’s Occupation Forces,” led by Black Panther Doug Miranda, demanded the community college stay in the Black, working class flatlands

The decision to move Merritt from North Oakland to the Oakland Hills had been made in 1960. In the following decade, the school became a hub of militant anti-racist student organizing, leading to the creation of the country’s first Black Studies courses
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The process of moving the college began in earnest in the late 60s. The Black Panthers (who had been founded by Merritt students in 1966) sent Miranda, a Party leader from New Haven, to Oakland to direct efforts by the Black Student Union against the school’s relocation

Despite a student strike, multiple sit-ins, sabotage, and confrontations with police, the BSU was ultimately unsuccessful in preventing the move to the hills. The new campus, which still operates, was dedicated in October