The Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) rose in 1968 as a coalition of ethnic student groups on college campuses in California in response to the Eurocentric education and lack of diversity at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University) and University of California, Berkeley. The TWLF was instrumental in creating and establishing Ethnic Studies and other identity studies as majors in their respective schools and universities across the United States.
At the end of the American Civil Rights Movement, the combined determination of the Latin American Student Organization (LASO), the Black Student Union (BSU), the Intercollegiate Chinese for Social Action (ICSA), the Mexican American Student Confederation, the Philippine (now Pilipino) American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE), La Raza, the Native American Students Union, and later the Asian American Political Alliance galvanized California and the rest of the nation with the first student strike, bringing to light the need for wider perspective within educational disciplines. The TWLF strikes for Ethnic Studies in California drew the attention of the universities' administrative leaders as well as the attention of the Governor of California Ronald Reagan. The student strikes to establish these courses started in 1968 and lasted for several months. The establishment of the first College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State, the first Ethnic Studies Department at Berkeley, increased hiring of faculty of color, and efforts to increase minority representation on college campuses all resulted from the actions of the Third World Liberation Front.
Black Student Union & Third World Liberation Front strike at San Francisco State College The student and faculty strike started on November 6, 1968 and lasted until March 21, 1969, making it the longest strike by students at an academic institution in the United States. The strikes arose to protest the perpetual Eurocentric lens on education, as the demands of the strikers included an establishment of an autonomous department for Ethnic Studies, more faculty of color representation, and more representation of students of color on campus. John H. Bunzel writes that the students felt that "education from kindergarten to college under the authority of the white community failed to focus on subject matter that was germane to the life experiences of the people in the minority community."
Origins
The contention between students and administration can be traced to May 2, 1967, when students orchestrated a sit-in at the office of the newly appointed president of the university, Dr. John Summerskill, in protest of the Selective Students Committee's access to students' academic standing. Subsequent events included the suspension and firing of high-profile educators of color. The Black Student Union, and The Black Communications Group, seeing the need of the other ethnic student groups to organize, led the Black student organizers to expedite the formation at San Francisco State College of the Third World Liberation Front.
One year to the day before the strike, the editor of the student newspaper The Daily Gator, James Vaszko, was attacked by several Black students on November 7, 1967. The "Gator incident", as it was called, occurred after he wrote an editorial petitioning the Carnegie Corporation of New York to withhold funds from proposed "service programs" including classes in Black history and culture requested by the Black Student Union. After six assailants were arrested and suspended, the BSU held a press conference in order to elucidate the reasons for the classes they advocated. These programs were to be established to "awaken and develop Black awareness and consciousness," according to the San Francisco Strike Collection. The rising tension between students prompted the formation of a faculty committee by President Summerskill. Individuals sympathetic to the six suspended students began protesting in the administration building at San Francisco State College, leading Summerskill to close the campus. During this period, there were also protests against the Vietnam War, further heightening tensions between the administration and students. On February 22, 1968, Dr. Summerskill resigned from his post as of the following school year, to be later replaced by Dr. Robert Smith.