Contents and Arrangement Collection View
Description:

This page provides information, photographs, and posts about and by the Black Justice League, an organization of Princeton University students that formed in the fall of 2014 in response to the August 9, 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson.

Description:

This page, which is intended for the general Princeton community, contains blog posts written by the Black Justice League pertaining to the group's #OccupyNassau protest and the university's response regarding the status of several buildings named for Woodrow Wilson. Also included is an open letter to black students of the Class of 2020, published on the occasion of their first week on campus.

Description:

This petition, published in November of 2015, states the demands of the Black Justice League as students occupied the office of Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber on November 18, 2015, and November 19, 2015.

Description:

This page provides streamed Twitter content shared by the Black Justice League, an organization of Princeton University students that formed in the fall of 2014 in response to the August 9, 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson.

Description:

These are the administrative files of the BJL. They include planning docuements, meeting minutes, video of meetings and events, and photographs.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of the organization's Google Drive, two of the organization's social media webpages as well as an online petition that states the organization's demands.

Collection Creator Biography:

Princeton University

The Black Justice League (BJL) is a coalition of undergraduate students at Princeton University with the stated purpose of standing in solidarity with Ferguson (Missouri) and dismantling racism on the Princeton University campus. Princeton students created the organization, which is neither registered with nor funded by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, in the fall of 2014 as a response to the August 9, 2014, shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson and spent part of its first year organizing direct actions on campus, including die-ins and #BlackBrunch initiatives at local Princeton businesses.

On November 18, 2015, BJL organized and led a two-day sit-in at Nassau Hall in which student members occupied the office of University President Christopher L. Eisgruber. The sit-in was a protest of, among other things, the use of Woodrow Wilson's image and name on campus, for which the group began a poster campaign earlier in the Fall 2015 semester. Other significant points of emphases for BJL in the fall 2015 semester, which the group highlighted in its petition and negotiations with President Eisgruber, included the push for mandatory competency training for all faculty and staff, amendment to the distribution requirement that would require students to take a class about a marginalized group, and dedicated cultural affinity spaces.

Acquisition:

The social media websites were captured in November of 2015 (Crawl ID 185189 and Crawl ID 184674) as part of the Archiving Student Activism at Princeton (ASAP) initiative. The online petition was captured in January of 2016 (Crawl ID 190840). The Google Drive was transferred to Mudd Library in 2018 (AR.2019.072).

Appraisal

No materials were separated from the collection at the time of accessioning.

Processing Information

The websites in this collection were described by Jarrett M. Drake in 2016. Finding aid written by Jarrett M. Drake in January 2016. Finding aid updated by Valencia L. Johnson in November 2019.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. The Trustees of Princeton University hold copyright to all materials generated by Princeton University employees in the course of their work. For instances beyond Fair Use, if copyright is held by Princeton University, researchers do not need to obtain permission, complete any forms, or receive a letter to move forward with use of materials from the Princeton University Archives.

For instances beyond Fair Use where the copyright is not held by the University, while permission from the Library is not required, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

Credit this material:

Black Justice League Records; Princeton University Archives, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/fq977x41r
Location:
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
65 Olden Street
Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
(609) 258-6345
Other Finding Aids

Full text searching of the Black Justice League archived websites is available through the Archive-It interface.

Subject Terms:
African Americans -- Civil rights.
Minorities -- Education -- Social aspects.
Genre Terms:
Web sites.
Names:
Princeton University. Black Justice League