CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

On March 16, 1970 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) issued a press release announcing their approval of the appointment of Richard Trent as the president of the newly established Medgar Evers College, CUNY in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. In the press release, the authors criticized the stances and tactics taken by the Bedford-Stuyvesant community leaders originally delegated two years earlier to engage in negotiations with City University of New York (CUNY) officials, holding the community leaders responsible for delaying and jeopardizing the establishment of the new college in and for Central Brooklyn. The press release concluded with the NAACP’s call to the Bedford-Stuyvesant community’s “silent majority” to support the new college in the face of continued controversy over its founding and leadership that they anticipated.