At UC Berkeley

About

The TWLF Strikes at UC Berkeley significantly reshaped the campus and community by setting the foundation to establish such critical campus spaces as the Department of Ethnic Studies, the Multicultural Community Center, and the Center for Race and Gender, among others. The strikes' legacy has also prioritized the study of race and ethnicity in both research and teaching. Learn about the direct ties between the establishment of these influential centers, organizations, and departments and the TWLF strike. You may also visit our About page to learn about how these organizations helped develop this website.

If you have insights, resources, or stories related to the impact of TWLF on policy and legislation, especially those that may not be widely known, please share them with us through our submission form. Your contributions will enrich our understanding and help others grasp the full scope of TWLF’s legacy in shaping legislative landscapes.

African American Studies Department

Grounded in the broader national and global struggle for human and civil rights, the institutionalization of Black Studies at Berkeley created the space for African Americans (and other hyphenated Americans) to be included in the university curriculum. In the process, it changed the fundamental character of higher education forever.

Since its inception in 1970, African American Studies at Berkeley has continued to alter the very fabric of university life and teaching. The women and men of this field have integrated the study of the African Diaspora into the university in a way all people can participate and feel a part of. Over a span of 40 years, the Department has evolved into an academic unit that is respected as a model among departments nationally. That is, it has become an interdisciplinary, multi-racial intellectual center that hosts, attracts, and produces some of the most diverse, complex thinking, scholars and scholarship in the world. Learn more

The Department of Ethnic Studies

The Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) Strikes of 1968 and 1969 played an essential role in the establishment of Ethnic Studies through its activism and advocacy. During these strikes, students demanded academic curricula that reflect the histories, identities, and contributions of African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicano and Latino Americans, and Native Americans. Students challenged the university’s dominant Eurocentric education, which lacked a relevant education for students of color.

In response to these strikes, which were among the longest and most violent in the history of the U.S., the UC Berkeley administration agreed to establish the first Ethnic Studies department in the nation to confer degrees in African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano Studies, and Native American Studies. Ethnic Studies has since served as an entry point for students to engage with decolonial thinkers and to see themselves and their histories reflected in academic curricula.¹ This discipline, born out of a “pedagogy of liberation, is the legacy of the radical Third World Liberation Front.”² Students committed to the radical, community-centered mission of Ethnic Studies have continued to strengthen this vision.³

The legacy of the TWLF lives on in those who gain a critical consciousness doing this work, and use this knowledge to transform their communities. Learn more

Multicultural Student Development Offices (MSD)

The seeds that were planted by the Third World Liberation Front and the struggle for Ethnic Studies led to the creation of various Multicultural Student Development Offices (MSD), including the Asian Pacific American Student Development (APASD), Chicanx Latinx Student Development (CLSD), African American Student Development (AASD) and Native American Student Development (NASD). According to an oral history interview, 1969 TWLF student striker, Francisco Hernandez, drew connections between the TWLF and the Multicultural Student Development offices. He recalled that immediately following the creation of the Chicanx Latinx Studies Program (then called Chicano Studies), the students began to organize after recognizing that their needs and their community members’ needs were being unmet, tackling the issue of recruitment. The Berkeley chapter of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán) staged a sit-in in California Hall, insisting that the administration not go back on their word to recruit and admit more Latinx students. It was students advocating for recruitment and retention that eventually led to the establishment of the various MSD offices.

These MSD offices serve the changing needs of the diverse student body by providing students with accessible academic, campus and mental health resources. These offices also provide students with support navigating UC Berkeley and a space to help them cultivate community.⁹ Learn More

Ethnic Studies Library

The Ethnic Studies Library(link is external) is the departmental library of the Department of Ethnic Studies. It was established in 1997 by merging the Asian American Studies Library, the Chicano Studies Library, and the Native American Studies Library. Since the founding of the Department in 1969, the collections of these libraries grew from student interest in collecting and preserving a perspective by and for racialized communities that they saw as lacking or marginalized in other campus libraries. The specialized ethnic studies books and serials, archival collections, posters, and audio collections from those three libraries live in a centralized space on the ground floor of Stephens Hall, a short walk from the Social Sciences Building. The library consists of four collections: Asian American Studies Collection; Chicano Studies Collection; Native American Studies Collection; and Comparative Ethnic Studies Collection.⁴ Learn More

Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI)

The Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI) is an organized research unit dedicated to fostering innovative, community-engaged research on social justice issues.

ISSI assists faculty in securing funding, and promoting faculty and graduate student research. It also offers training, mentoring, and professional development for graduate student research. Faculty looking to engage with interdisciplinary networks can explore the Institute’s seven interrelated centers(link is external), colloquia, conferences, data archives, and training programs.

American Cultures Requirement

During the 1980s, the enrollment of students of color increased at UC Berkeley. By 1981, the idea of an Ethnic Studies Requirement for the entire campus had grown from the momentum developed after the creation of the Department of Ethnic Studies. However, it wasn’t until 1986, that the idea of a campus-requirement embodying an Ethnic Studies curriculum drew campus attention. Students protested UC’s investment of pensions in South African apartheid businesses, and after the success of the Boycott, Divest & Sanctions (BDS) movement, graduate and undergraduate students turned their deep political education and mobilizing skills to “desegregating” the curriculum.⁵

In 1987, a Special Committee on Education and Ethnicity was formed consisting of faculty and undergraduate students. Instead of the initial demand for an Ethnic Studies campus-wide requirement, the committee proposed the American Cultures (AC) campus-wide requirement, aiming to incorporate multiple and comparative racial-ethnic and cultural experiences into courses across all UC Berkeley disciplines. In what many said was the highest number of attendees meeting of Academic Senate faculty since the Vietnam War, the Academic Senate narrowly passed the proposal (227-194) on April 25, 1989.⁶

Today, AC courses are the campus’s signature undergraduate curriculum, offered in over fifty departments and enrolling over 13,000 students yearly. AC courses have, in the words of Ling-chi Wang, emeritus professor of Asian American Studies, “challenged each discipline to raise questions that they had never raised before, and in the process, they have uncovered unknown aspects of their own disciplines. AC is one of the most important curriculum-reform projects in the history of this campus.” AC courses continue to embody TWLF’s community-based vision of higher education by offering American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) courses, designed to partner with local community-based organizations developing research questions and projects that address some of the nation's most pressing social issues. Learn More

Center for Race and Gender (CRG)

The Center for Race and Gender (CRG) at UC Berkeley, similar to the Multicultural Community Center, was established in response to the demands of the 1999 twLF strike. Following a successful hunger strike, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl appointed a founding committee, including three faculty members and three twLF student strikers to outline the creation of CRG. Today, CRG “enables faculty, researchers, students, organizers, and artists to research and collaborate on vital issues locally and globally through developing rigorous, creative, and community-engaged intellectual projects.”⁸ It advances innovative scholarship through research initiatives, publications, a multimedia platform, symposia, and other events. This distinct focus complements TWLF's initiatives spurred by the same activist spirit that gave rise to the MCC, highlighting the varied but interconnected paths of progress initiated by the 1999 twLF strike. Learn more

Multicultural Community Center (MCC)

The Multicultural Community Center (MCC) at UC Berkeley exists today as a part of TWLF’s enduring legacy. Established in the aftermath of the 1999 twLF Strike, which echoed the demands and spirit of the 1969 TWLF strike, the MCC was born out of student-led activism aiming to counteract cuts to UC Berkeley’s Department of Ethnic Studies. Since its inception, the MCC has been deeply rooted in the principles of TWLF, embracing a student-led vision that has been shaped by a “dynamic history of struggle” striving to expand its impact and nurture a community dedicated to justice, community empowerment, and self-determination.⁷ The MCC serves as a community space for student and community engagement offering a wide range of programs, events, and community resources. As it looks to the future, the MCC is committed to ensuring the legacy of TWLF remains a living and evolving at UC Berkeley. Learn more

Footnotes

¹Maria Ramirez and Nina Genera, “Ethnic Studies Historical Legacy,” in Power of the People Won’t Stop: Legacy of the TWLF at UC Berkeley (Berkeley, CA: East Wind Books of Berkeley, 2020), 191.

²Ziza Delgado, “Embracing the Politics of Education: Celebrating 50 Years of Ethnic Studies as a Praxis of Liberation by Ziza Delgado,” in Power of the People Won’t Stop: Legacy of the TWLF at UC Berkeley (Berkeley: East Wind Books of Berkeley, 2020), 171.

³Ziza Delgado, “Embracing the Politics of Education: Celebrating 50 Years of Ethnic Studies as a Praxis of Liberation by Ziza Delgado,” in Power of the People Won’t Stop: Legacy of the TWLF at UC Berkeley (Berkeley: East Wind Books of Berkeley, 2020), 165.

⁴UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library. “About the Ethnic Studies Library | Ethnic Studies Library.” eslibrary.berkeley.edu. Accessed April 3, 2024. https://eslibrary.berkeley.edu/about-the-ethnic-studies-library.

⁵David Yamane, “The Long March to American Cultures at UC Berkeley.” In Student Movements for Multiculturalism: Challenging the Curricular Color Line in Higher Education, 47-56. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002).

⁶David Yamane, “Long March,” 75.

⁷Multicultural Community Center, “MCC | Centers for Educational Justice & Community Engagement,” cejce.berkeley.edu, accessed March 22, 2024,https://cejce.berkeley.edu/mcc

⁸Center for Race and Gender, “About | Center for Race and Gender,” crg.berkeley.edu, accessed March 25, 2024, https://crg.berkeley.edu/about

⁹Francisco Hernandez, TWLF Oral History Interview with Francisco Hernandez, interview by Douglas Parada, 2019.

¹⁰Ariel Gomez, “Centro Legal de La Raza - FoundSF,” www.foundsf.org, 2014,https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Centro_Legal_De_La_Raza

¹¹LaNada War Jack, Native Resistance: An Intergenerational Fight for Survival and Life (Brookfield, MO: The Donning Company Publishers, 2019), 132.