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Imani: Trinity College Black Student Union

Previous Names: Trinity Association of Negroes (TAN), 1967-1968; Trinity Coalition of Blacks (TCB), 1968-1989; Pan-African Alliance (PAA), 1989-1997.

Imani: Trinity College Black Student Union is the current name for a student organization dating back to the late 1960s which provides awareness, community, and support for the entire College community, particularly to “foster a welcoming environment to its students of color, provide representation for these students, and to promote coalescence amongst the greater Trinity College community, as well as the Hartford community.” Imani means “faith” in Swahili.

Trinity Association of Negroes (TAN)

In April 1967, Trinity College's thirteen Black students joined together to form the Trinity Association of Negroes (TAN) “[t]o foster an awareness of their heritage, responsibility, and capabilities as [B]lack students.” The group promoted the social, political, cultural, and educational lives of Black students at Trinity. They sponsored lectures, put on plays and performances, organized dances, and facilitated Black History Month events on campus.

On April 22, 1968, arising from a climate of frustration and miscommunication, TAN, along with members of Trinity College's Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) rallied together a group of 168 students to stage a sit-in, holding the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and President Albert C. Jacobs captive for several hours during a regularly scheduled meeting in Downes Memorial.

Trinity Coalition of Blacks (TCB)

Members of TCB, ca. 1977. Photo credit: The Trinity Ivy

Changing their name from TAN to the Trinity Coalition of Blacks (TCB) later in 1968, the group, on multiple occasions, made demands to the administration to create a better environment for Black students. In January 1969, they submitted a 12 point ultimatum. Among these 12 points was the request for at least 11% of incoming freshmen classes to be made up of Black students, at least one Black professor to be hired for every undergraduate department, and a curriculum revision to make courses more relevant to Black lives and culture. The ultimatum was met with a response from President Theodore Lockwood and increased communication between members of the TCB and the administration about implementing the points.

In March 1971, the TCB delivered another list of seven demands to the administration. The list focused again on the implementation of Black studies in the curriculum, the group wanting a Black Studies Program officially organized. This list also focused heavily on the need for financial aid and support from the College for Black students, with the TCB moving forward to advocate for the development of Black Scholarships. TCB also played a major role in calling attention to racism displayed by the school. In 1973, they organized a sit-in and strike at WRTC, the campus radio station, following the cutting of Black programming. The group was also vocal about the profiling and discrimination students of color had experienced by campus security and guards.

In the fall of 1973, the TCB mobilized toward international causes like African Liberation, prison conditions in the U.S. (at New York’s notorious Attica prison, in particular), and the plight of political prisoners around the world. The group established an alternative educational program, outside of Trinity’s official academic curriculum, which was run entirely by student participants in the TCB and brought in speakers, screened films, and facilitated dialogue on subjects important to TCB. Jim Gillespie, chairman of the group at the time, made a statement to the Tripod explaining the coalition’s impetus for instating the grassroots educational campaign, saying, “The U.S. in its advanced technology is now imposing an inhumane situation on us that we will resist…. Our very existence will be threatened.”

In the same semester, the group partnered with several other student groups on campus to canvass among Connecticut’s congressmen for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. After a meeting of the student body during which a call was put forth for Nixon’s impeachment, the Political Education Committee of the TCB published a statement on their own position in the Tripod: “As an organization which has historically been a campus catalyst intent upon increased awareness and eradication of the oppressive conditions faced by Blacks, we feel the recent All-College move to be in our best interests in achieving these goals.”

TCB was also heavily involved in a student-led push in the early 1970s and throughout the 1980s to increase Trinity’s minority student population. After minority admissions declined from 25 in 1969 to 15 in 1974, the group raised concerns in a student meeting in January 1974, with TCB member David Barthwell ’74, stating that “Trinity is beginning to stray away from liberal, militant black students in admissions. This is a very serious problem and I hope the seriousness of it isn’t taken lightly.” In a piece published in the Tripod by the TCB, they criticize Trinity for having “succumbed to racist pressures from above and a lack of sense of what is ‘right’ and allowed itself to sink even deeper into the quicksand” and demanding that the administration embrace a more diverse student body. Numerous letters from the TCB like this were published in the Tripod throughout the 1973-74 school year, imploring the administration to change its attitude toward minority prospective students, as well as other issues like discrimination against Black people on campus.

In 1973, the TCB devoted a great part of its energy toward organizing the first Black Culture Week, inviting artists, musicians, and political speakers to campus to bring Black culture directly to Trinity students. The festival began with a concert co-featuring the Elvin Jones Quartet and the soul a capella quintet, The Persuasions. Two lectures were delivered by James Turner, chairman of the African Studies Institute at Cornell University, on the rise of Black nationalism and by Herb Edwards, professor at Harvard Divinity School, on trends in Black theology. TCB would continue to hold similar annual week-long celebrations of Black Culture well into the following decade.

During the 1980-81 school year the TCB, in conjunction with the Student Coalition and the Student Government Association (SGA), helped to organize and sponsor the College’s first Student Awareness Day, during which all classes were cancelled and a school-wide forum centering on discrimination against minorities was to take place. The idea for an Awareness Day was born of recurring instances of intolerance to minorities on campus as reported by many individuals and student groups. After a meeting between minority student groups, the SGA, and the Board of Fellows, the concept of a school-wide forum began to take form. According to a letter to faculty appealing for support for the project, the need for Awareness Day was due to a “marked increase in intolerance and insensitivity at Trinity, manifesting itself in vandalism, noise, thinly disguised racist and sexist attitudes, and a host of other forms.” The day featured an offering of 26 panels dealing with wide-ranging social and political topics. All students, faculty, and administrators were alphabetically assigned to a discussion group centering on the “rights and valid expectations of the Trinity community and their attendant duties.” Community organizations like Amnesty International and Big Brothers/Sisters had tables set up where students could sign up for volunteer work, and the day concluded with a picnic on the Quad accompanied by musical entertainment.

Throughout the second half of the decade, TCB continued to advocate for more diversity at Trinity, participating in a protest march and sit-in in the spring of 1986, during which they read their demands to the Vice President of the College, which were aimed at increasing minority enrollment.

Pan-African Alliance (PAA)

From 1989 until 1997 the group, now under the name Pan-African Alliance (PAA), was an active force in raising awareness of racial discrimination on campus, organizing various instances of peaceful protest and civil disobedience to draw attention to fraught race relations at Trinity throughout the 1990s. It was around this time that Trinity’s admissions department made a concerted effort to increase the racial diversity of the student body, resulting in a 45% increase in minority student applications from 1986 to 1989. However, racism at Trinity was still a major issue for many students throughout these years, who often reported that they felt unwelcome and “suspected as outsiders” on campus. ¹⁾

In 1989, the PAA participated in a sit-in at the office of the Dean of Students. Thirty-five Black students occupied the room from 8:20 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., dressed in black and refusing to speak. Around midday, a representative from the group read aloud a letter stating that the administration knew racism on campus existed but that they refused to acknowledge or fix it. President James English responded with a written letter reading, “The time has come for a campus-wide change in attitude. It must start now. This College will not tolerate abuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind.” The President also vowed to put more sophisticated measures in place to regulate racial discrimination on campus, later forming a committee of six faculty and administrators to write a new policy proposal on racial harassment by the end of June 1989. In the fall of that year, the policy was introduced to the student body on the first day of classes in a pamphlet entitled “Against Racism.”

Members of the Pan-African Alliance, 1996. Photo credit: The Trinity Ivy, 1996

The group also contributed to organizing Trinity’s first Black Alumni Gathering in September 1990. Around 60 former students returned for a weekend where they attended classes, a faculty discussion, musical performances, a panel discussion on the future of Trinity, and sporting events. Later in the semester, the PAA invited Beverly Anderson-Manley to deliver a lecture about women’s issues in Jamaica. This lecture brought to the forefront many issues which were pertinent to black women on campus at the time. For example, in 1992, repeated incidents of racial and sexual discrimination against black women by white men on campus were reported during, leading the PAA to collaborate with the Trinity Coalition of Black Women Organization (TCBWO) on a letter to the administration urging them to take these issues more seriously. Following the letter, the groups met in person with President Thomas Gerety to present their demands upon the administration in the form of a comprehensive plan of action to remedy sexual harassment on campus. Meetings with administration such as these were frequent for the PAA, who made it their responsibility to advocate for black students who had experienced discrimination that they felt was not being properly addressed.

In 1994, the PAA, as part of the Minority Coalition of Trinity College, petitioned the SGA to add six new voting seats to the existing 48 seats on SGA. The new seats, they proposed, were to be dedicated to a member of each of the minority groups on campus: PAA, the Asian Student Association, La Voz Latina, Hillel, the Indian Cultural Society, and the Trinity Coalition of Black Women Organization. The PAA had already held a seat on SGA since 1968, and their involvement in this movement was out of solidarity with the other groups making up the Minority Coalition as they pushed for more active representation in Student Government affairs.

Imani: Trinity College Black Student Union

The group was renamed Imani: Trinity College Black Student Union sometime in or before 1997. In that year, Imani had to react quickly to the College's hasty plan to demolish Umoja House and build a new one further down Vernon Street. This plan was modified through the efforts of the Black Alumni Organization, Imani, and the Trinity College Black Women's Organization. Instead of suffering the fate of demolition, the building which is now occupied by Umoja House was lifted from its foundations and moved down the street next to Campus Safety, where the College remodeled and renovated it in the fall of 1997. In February 1999, Imani helped sponsor the visit of Reverend Jesse Jackson to speak about re-energizing activism on campus and beyond. In November of that year, the College hosted the first Black Student Union conference, in which Imani's leaders played a significant role. In the fall of 2000, Imani joined other student groups—La Voz Latina, the Caribbean Students Alliance, Hillel, MOCA, TCBWO, AASA, and EROS—in support of a proposal to create a multicultural requirement within the curriculum.

In February 2001, Imani helped to sponsor Black History Month events throughout the month, which kicked off with a performance by the Trinity Gospel Choir and a series of speeches and original presentations about black history, leaders, and culture. An open mic event featured student poetry and music. Imani organized several screenings of films showcasing Black culture, including Malcolm X, The Nutty Professor, and Shaft. Today, Imani continues to help organize Black History Month.

Throughout the 2002-03 school year, Imani leaders continued to work with the Multicultural Affairs Council, which they had joined in 2000, to promote the expansion of multicultural education at Trinity. In a statement made to the Tripod in its September 24, 2002 issue, Vice President of Imani, Haron Atkinson explained the group’s desire for more student interest in multicultural affairs, saying that “One of the greatest obstacles is that our work seems inherently one-sided…. No matter how explicit the ‘All are welcome’ sign is on our fliers, after seeing the multicultural group sponsor, they immediately assume ‘That’s not for us.’” One of the great challenges to Imani’s prosperity as a student group was this lack of interest expressed by Atkinson, and they spent much of their energy trying to garner support from the broader Trinity community throughout the early 2000s. As part of these efforts, Imani participated in a Unity Party in 2005 which was cosponsored by other cultural clubs and fraternities and sororities, and aimed at helping students feel more comfortable intermingling with social groups they may not have been familiar with. This event came after a formal discussion forum held by the Diversity Quad on discrimination, during which minority students expressed feeling alienated from Trinity’s Greek culture. Imani has continued to organize such events that aim to foster a sense of unity among all students, while voicing the specific concerns and needs of Black students.

The group has historically embraced an intersectional presence on campus, forming bonds with other minority and social justice groups on campus to co-sponsor events and protest movements. In December of 2012, alongside a wide-ranging list of other student organizations, Imani participated in Voices Raised in Power, an annual event to raise awareness about sexual violence. Imani also continued to be a part of the Multicultural Affairs Council, which represents a diverse array of student cultural groups and has organized events to bring these groups together. Even as they have partnered with other groups to organize events, Imani has had distinct events of its own creation. One event that was a staple at Imani’s Umoja House was the Love Jones Poetry Slam and Talent Showcase, hosted annually near Valentine's Day from 2011 to 2014. The event featured an array of student performers sharing their work following the theme of love. Blackout, Imani’s gala, is another social event that the group continues to organize annually. The most recent Blackout gala, held in March 2024, received a glowing review from Cornelia Ehlebracht in the Trinity Tripod, who wrote that “The night was nothing short of magical,” praising the space Imani cultivates for students as deeply unifying.

In 2020, among racial unrest following the death of George Floyd and ensuing riots across the country, Imani participated in submitting a list of demands to President Joanne Berger Sweeney that outlined what they viewed would be the College’s proper response to the rampant racial tensions overtaking the country. Berger-Sweeney, in response to the letter, laid out several commitments that would later be implemented, including a plan to require anti-racist, unconscious bias, and equity education for the entire Trinity community, developing an anti-racist summit, and supporting anti-racist programming.

Following the shooting in the Fall of 2023 of three Palestinian college students in Burlington, Vermont, one of whom was a Trinity undergraduate, Imani released a statement on their Instagram account (@imanibsu) criticizing the administration’s response to the tragedy, which in their view should have put heavier emphasis on the shooting as a hate crime. Imani echoed a view shared by many on college campuses across the country, that the shooting was motivated by rising intolerance towards Palestinian nationalism sparked by Israeli-Palestinian conflict which has been dramatically inflamed in recent years. As the group is a supporter of the pro-Palestine movement at Trinity, Imani’s statement expressed that “As Trinity’s Black Student Union, it is our responsibility to point out the college’s failure to adequately protect its students, in particular those identifying as people of color.”