Upendo Lounge

John Sellars on the creation of first office for the Black Student Movement

Excerpt Description: John Sellars describes the significance of the creation of the first office for the Black Student Movement on the second floor of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union.


Interviewee Name: John Sellars

Interviewer: Alex Ford

Excerpt Transcript: “Now, after the BSM was established, we were a working group. We had an office on the second floor of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union, the new one, which is the one that exists now. And we were a fully bona-fide student organization, which was good. Because, by having a place that we could sit and talk and meet, that gave us some authority. I mean, we were not student government, the panhellenic council, but we were another recognized group, and we knew that we had a purpose.”

Organization: Black Student Movement

Excerpt Length: 0:44

Interview Date: 11/8/2015

Interview Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Campus Space: Upendo Lounge

Citation: Interview with John Sellars by Alex Ford, 8 November 2015, N-0043 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.