Spartan Stories
Tales from the UNCG University Archives
Neo-Black Society
The Black Power Forum, Fifty Years Later
by Erin Lawrimore This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Black Power Forum that was held at UNCG from November 1-3, 1967. Throughout the 1960s, Greensboro served as a key site for the civil rights movement. After the Sit Ins and protests of the early 1960s, the middle of the decade saw the ideals […]
Empowerment Through Song: The Neo-Black Society Gospel Choir
by Sara Maeve Whisnant The Neo-Black Society has several committees which focus on individual opportunities related to the promotion of African American culture, academic success, and community engagement. One of these committees formed the NBS Gospel Choir, which is considered the oldest continuing subgroup of the Neo-Black Society. The NBS Gospel Choir was created in […]
The Black Arts Forum and Black History Month Celebrations at UNCG, 1969-1985
by Erin Lawrimore In its first full year of recognition and funding from the Student Government Association, the Neo-Black Society focused much of its programming on the sponsorship of black cultural events and speakers on the UNCG campus. The 1969-1970 academic year saw the launch of the annual Black Arts Forum, featuring a performance by […]
Restoration of Neo-Black Society Funding and the Ensuing Challenges, 1973
by Erin Lawrimore In the last two Spartan Stories, we looked at the founding of UNCG’s Neo-Black Society (NBS) and the Spring 1973 Student Government Association (SGA) challenge to the organization’s funding. At the end of last week’s Spartan Stories post, UNCG Chancellor James Ferguson formed a faculty committee to investigate the Student Student Senate’s March […]
Neo-Black Society at Risk: The 1973 Challenge of NBS’s Funding
by Erin Lawrimore In last week’s Spartan Stories post, we looked at the 1967 Black Power Forum and its impact on the founding of UNCG’s Neo-Black Society (NBS) in 1968. The founding of the NBS, however, did not come without controversy. Some students accused the NBS of “reverse racism,” claiming that they refused to admit […]
The Founding Years of UNCG’s Neo-Black Society, 1968-1973
by Erin Lawrimore In November 1967, UNCG hosted a Black Power Forum, organized in large part by the UNCG Student Government Association to “inform students and faculty members of this movement and its actions and to give us a chance to discuss Black Power, its history, its political and social implications for us and the […]
African American Studies at UNCG
by Erin Lawrimore When organized in the 1967-1968 academic year, the Neo Black Society at UNCG expressed three primary goals for the new student group. Two social missions were recognized: a desire to help with voter registration drives and to work with the Greensboro United Tutorial Service (a community group aimed at connecting college students […]
Neo-Black Society vs. the student senate, 1973
by Sean Mulligan In 1967, black students at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) formed the student group, the Neo-Black Society (NBS), in response to growing concerns about the support and acceptance of black students on campus. At its founding, the NBS was extremely separatist, calling for parallel university events for black students. […]
