CUNY Rallies for Reparations

President of the Black Legacy Club

By Melissa Green

The Bronx Journal Staff Writer

Lehman College held a conference September 20 to discuss reparations for people of African descent. Organized by the Black Student Union and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, members spoke to Lehman’s student body about the history behind CUNY transitioning blacks into their colleges.

President of Black Legacy, Aleo Laureano Peruyero Bracero, stated the main purpose for this meeting was to inform students that reparations are owed to Pan African descendants after the crimes beginning with slavery and ending with the “educational genocide,” created in the CUNY system. “We want power over this university. No institutions belong to us.”

Reparations For Pan-Africans

Supporters of the organization urged participates to join in their fight for a free CUNY as reparations for the oppression of Pan-African students. Civil rights attorney Ronald B. McGuire educated students on CUNY’s proven history of discrimination.

McGuire was expelled from Harlem University (now known as City College), in 1969, after his involvement in rallies that led to CUNY officials opening their gates to a more diverse group of CUNY scholars. ”I witnessed a group of white students chasing the handful of black students attending school off the campus,” says McGuire. “That’s how bad it was back then.”

Before the City College of New York (CCNY) was recognized, it was first called the Free Academy. The intention of the school was to give higher education to immigrant working class families. Although the Free Academy was founded in 1847, it did not accept black and Latino students until the mid-1960’s.