On April 22, 1968, arising from a climate of frustration and miscommunication, Trinity College's chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) along with the Trinity Association of Negroes (TAN) rallied together a group of 168 students to hold the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and President Albert C. Jacobs captive for several hours. In their manifesto, the demonstrators requested that President Jacobs and the Board consider increasing scholarship support for black students, additional classes focusing on urban studies, and community development, amid other requests. The manifesto ended, “We firmly advocate immediate implementation of this proposal and if the Executive Board of the Trustees fail to support the students and the College in this effort, we feel that there is no other viable alternative open to us but to emphatically demonstrate our concern through the means advocated by the late Dr. Martin Luther King.” Unknown to the demonstrators, President Jacobs and the Board not only had the same mandate in mind, but they were working at that time to achieve the same goal as the students. Due to a series of miscommunications, this information was undisclosed at the time of the sit-in.

Following the Sit-in,

Steven H. Keeney papers

Trinity College in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Peter J. Knapp, pp. 344-365.

Trinity Tripod, April 30, 1968.

Trinity Tripod, April 24, 1968.

Trinity Tripod, April 23, 1968.