Latino students' role in the '69 Straight takeover

Ileana Durand
Jason Koski/University Photography
Ileana Durand '72 talks about participating in the 1969 Willard Straight Hall takeover.

The student takeover of Willard Straight Hall April 19, 1969 is one of the most significant events in Cornell’s history. More than 100 students of color seized the hall, ejecting university employees and visitors residing in the hall for Parent’s Weekend. The students did so to demand recognition, validation and human rights as black students in a university dominated by whites.

At the Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Nov. 20, alumna Ileana Durand ’72 spoke publicly for the first time about her experience as a Latina participant in the takeover. While the majority of students involved in the takeover were black, Durand, who is of Puerto Rican descent, spoke to the involvement of Latino students.

Durand remembers seven Puerto Rican students and one Dominican student participated in the takeover and related actions. Durand said events leading up to the takeover impassioned her to seek justice for minority students.

Earlier in the month, a cross was burned outside Wari House, a cooperative for black women students, Durand said. The burning “scared everybody that was a minority here. It touched us all because then we felt in danger,” she said. The burning reiterated that prejudice, discrimination and resistance to accept the minority students was present and real, and students became more unified in their efforts, she said.

The students’ strategy to occupy the Straight was not concrete, Durand said. At 5 a.m. they marched in silence across campus and entered the straight through the side, she recalled.

Originally, the occupation was unarmed. However, Durand explained, “we received threats from fraternity men that wanted us to leave the Straight. After that, a group of blacks went out and came back with guns so we could protect ourselves. When we saw the guns, we realized ‘hey, this is do-or-die,’” she said.

“Being in the Straight for me was participation in unity,” Durand said. She said the takeover was their way to demand justice for minorities and explained that the takeover was successful in large part because of strong leadership from black students.

“When you have somebody who is deeply, deeply committed and is looking to make changes in the world and promote human rights, people will follow,” Durand said. In hindsight, Durand said the students were trying to achieve recognition of their rights. “We wanted to validate our existence on campus,” Durand said. “Back then I think we really wanted acceptance of our identity and history.”

Despite the high-stress situation, “from what I remember, there were not conflicts among us,” Durand said. During the 36-hour takeover, the students came together stronger than ever, she said.

The takeover had long-lasting effects as well as immediate outcomes that continue to shape the Cornell community. The campus code of conduct, Student Assembly and student government, and the addition of student-elected trustees resulted from the takeover, she said.

Fighting injustices and inequality today reminds us that the fight “is not just about color or ethnicity, but it’s about humanity,” Durand said.

Durand resides in Puerto Rico where she recently retired as a Department of Defense schoolteacher. She has spent the last three months in Ithaca, researching and networking for a nonprofit organization whose goal is to develop a sustainable future project in Puerto Rico. She can be reached at ileanadurand@hotmail.com.

Abigail Warren ’15 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.

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