The Archives’ digital collections are open to the public and consist of documents, photographs, negatives, and publications. These collections represent a fraction of the historical material housed at the Archives and continue to grow as we collect, digitize, and make new media accessible to researchers. For more information or permission to use these images, please contact archives.library@pratt.edu.
- Archives Image Collection
- Archives Negatives Collection
- Buildings Image Collection
- Yearbooks
- Student Publications
- Records and Manuscripts
Protest at Pratt
The Pratt student strikes in 1968 and 1969 were sparked in response to a tuition hike and the proposed purchase of Willoughby buildings. The scope of the protests broadened to address the administration’s disregard for student and staff interests, breeding a new desire in students to restructure the Institute as a whole. The Strike of 1972 picked up where the strikes of ‘68 and ‘69 left off, in a way, by focusing more on the mistreatment of Black and Puerto Rican students in addition to administrative grievances.
Black Student Union
The Black Student Union (BSU) played an instrumental role in Pratt’s early student strikes as their activism helped propel each movement forward. Black students were fighting for additional causes on top of those that the general student body was addressing, such as Black representation among students and staff, awareness of the Black community in classes and within the administration, accessibility for Black students, and the protection of Black students from harassment and assault. This was a major call for the Institute to stop being complicit in racial injustice.
Preserving Activism 