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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.

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. The gathering of around 60 former students returned for a weekend where they attended classes, participated in a faculty discussion, musical performances, 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. Namely, in 1992, repeated incidents of racial and sexual discrimination against black women by white men on campus were reported during this year, 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 Tom 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 taken seriously.

In 1994, the PAA, as part of the Minority Coalition of Trinity College, petitioned the Student Government Association (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.

Imani has been funded from a variety of sources. For instance, in 2004 funding came from the Student Government Association, the Tutorial College, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Faculty Club.