Taking the Mic
Taking the Mic: 50 Years Later
Interviews with participants in a transformative Stanford event.
Taking the Mic protest April 1968. Frank J. Omowale Satterwhite speaks from the podium.
(Painter / Stanford News Service)
Mary Bacon, Warren Hayman, Omowale Satterwhite, and Keni Washington share memories of the Taking the Mic protest by black students at a convocation in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. The four alums shed light on interactions between the administration and the Black Student Union prior to King’s assassination, reflect on the impact the assassination had in galvanizing the black community at Stanford, and describe the process of drafting the demands and the role that the broader context of protest in the Bay Area and nationally played in the administration’s response. They also speak about the meaning of Taking the Mic to the black community at Stanford today. You can also read or listen to individual interviews with each of the panel participants.