BC Bookstore – McElroy Hall

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September 20 1971 - A white security guard, who previously “permitted cars onto the upper campus to unload students’ possessions, refused entry to a car driven by [black students attempting to deliver food for a Black Talent Program picnic].”  “According to witnesses, a verbal exchange took place between the guard and the students … Several students threw small objects at the guard, including a pebble-size stone which allegedly struck him in the head. The guard was not injured.” Though Dean of Students Edward Hanrahan, SJ, claims the guard’s actions were “in keeping with policy,” students saw this action as “the latest in a series of harassment directed against them by university officials. They … cite the alleged ‘shadowing’ of black browsing in the bookstore by bookstore personnel, the attempt by the housing office to replace the new pillows in the black dorm with old ones, and the tirades directed against their new appointment to the Black Studies program by the A&S faculty chairmen during the summer.” (Bernard Bellon, “Blacks charge administration harassment,” The Heights)