Race Returns to Center Stage

Abstract

King’s assassination moved race to center stage on campus, Eugene McCarthy entered the presidential race, Lyndon Johnson withdrew his name from nomination by his party, and Citizens for Racial Justice (CRJ) formed and proposed university action to improve race relations. Antiwar activists hosted ten days of protest with a pray-in, teach-in, and play-in called Gentle Thursday. Peltason accepted the CRJ proposal, hired a dean, and announced plans to enroll more blacks, which the Black Students Association (BSA) condemned as aiming for too few black enrollees and proceeding too slowly. As black students occupied campus buildings across the country, Peltason accelerated and expanded the enrollment program, to be known as Project 500.