On April 26, 1968, Black students at Columbia University in New York City took over Hamilton Hall in protest of the university’s ties to military research and the planned construction of a segregated gym in Harlem. Led by the Student Afro-American Society (SAS), the occupation was part of a broader student movement demanding racial justice, community accountability, and university reform. The students peacefully removed white protesters to ensure their demands remained centered on Black issues. This pivotal moment marked one of the first large-scale student protests led by African Americans on an Ivy League campus, inspiring similar actions nationwide.
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