In the fall semester of 1969, the first courses were taking place in the newly formed Black Studies program at Stony Brook. This course advertisement from the student newspaper, the Stony Brook Statesman, lists three of the first courses offered to undergraduate students. The Black Studies program was the result of a number of actions led by the Black Students Union in 1968 and 1969, calling for the creation of a “Black Institute” that would center the experiences of Black students on campus. These actions were part of a larger Black students movement sweeping the nation in the late 1960s and early ’70s. At Douglass College in New Jersey, Frank Bowling, who was on the arts faculty, was part of similar efforts to create an African American studies program.