Samuel Anderson Oral History

In the first interview session, which took place on April 6th, 2021, Samuel Anderson and Obden Mondesir discussed Andersons’ early upbringing, exposure to both segregation and racism at a young age, education, and his career that lead to his contributions to the SEEK program at Queens College. Anderson moved several times during his youth, and spent time in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Long Island, Panama, and Connecticut. He attended Pratt Institute and then transferred to Lincoln University for college, which he attended until graduating in 1966. After graduating from Lincoln University, Anderson worked with the Black Arts Movement and the Black Student Movement. In 1968 he was hired to work in the Queens College SEEK program, and during his time with the program he took part in the takeover of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University.

In part two of the interview, which took place on April 13, 2021, Samuel Anderson discussed the early history of the Black Panther Party in New York City, starting with the group’s founding in May 1966. He discussed multiple facets of the Black Panther Party including the party’s roots in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the influence of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity, and the disruption of the group due to police infiltration. Anderson then discussed his time organizing Black student efforts, and elaborated on the 1968 takeover of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. He continues by describing the goals and character of the SEEK program circa 1968-1969, as well as several protests led by the Black and Puerto Rican students at Queens College, for which the CUNY administration framed him as the instigator and fired him.