“Our Support Will Not End with the Occupation”: The 1988 Dakin Takeover

An exhibition, jointly hosted by The Harold F. Johnson Library and the Lebrón-Wiggins-Pran Cultural Center, and opening on April 18, 2018

On February 23,1988 members of the Students Of Underrepresented Cultures (SOURCe) at Hampshire College seized control of the Dakin Master House, denouncing institutional racism and demanding that the administration address these issues. Presenting a twelve point plan on how the administration could better support students of color at Hampshire, SOURCe students organized a disruption of the all-community meeting to demand that the wider Hampshire community exercise their solidarity by occupying the Dakin Quad.

From The New York Times to The Boston Globe, the following morning SOURCe made national headlines for their fight against institutional and systemic violence as they and their supporters marched to Cole Science Center to discuss their demands with president Adele Simmons and the College administration. Out of that discussion, and many others, SOURCe received the Lebrón-Wiggins-Pran Cultural Center and a full-time Director.

This exhibit presents a small selection of the College’s archival collections related to “The Dakin Takeover: much more is available for students, staff and faculty to use for teaching, research, and building an understanding of our institutional history, linking past and present. These materials reveal how the strategizing, organizing, and brilliance of the SOURCe community in 1988 catalyzed and supported an increase in staff, faculty and students of color at Hampshire College over the following years. It remains an ongoing process: this is why “Our Support Will Not End with the Occupation.”

Dykee Gorrell,
Research Alumni Fellow for the Knowledge Commons and SOURCe alum

Further information:

SOURCe was established in 1972 as the Third World Organization and changed its name in 1981. We invite you to explore the Students of Under-Represented Cultures and Ethnicities (SOURCE) records, 1978-2001 along with more documentation of Hampshire’s history, in Archives and Special Collections.