Background on Black Mass Communications Project
The Black Mass Communications Project (BMCP) was formed in October 1970 as students of color at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst (UMass) were organizing and protesting around several shared concerns, both on campus as well as in larger social movements nationwide. As one of the earliest Black-organized student organizations formed at UMass, BMCP students aimed (and continue) to provide a forum for workshops, events, lectures, social gatherings, and radio programming emphasizing Black representation and connections. The record of the BMCP is historically significant both on campus and within the context of the larger Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s
The events that led to the formation of BMCP began on Saturday September 21, 1968 when a fight broke out between white and black students following a party at Mills House, a dorm on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The event was sponsored by the Student Afro-American Student Association (SAASA), which met there. A Black student was accused of using foul language by a white student and a fight broke out. This escalated into a near riot after several students appeared to get involved. Rumors circulated around campus and the situation continued to escalate. Assistant Dean Mark Noffsinger de-escalated the situation and met with the Black students at Mills House until 4am Sunday morning. Later that afternoon, Sunday September 22, two meetings were held to discuss the incident that included Dean of Students William Field.
Later that same semester following the 1968 election, an alleged racial incident between white and black students led to the march of 85 students and faculty allies to the Whitmore administration building. The students brought a list of demands to address racism on campus. The list of 21 demands included several items of import to the students including the disarming of campus police, the hiring of more Black officers, sensitivity orientations for students, the establishment of a comprehensive black studies program, and permission to use Mills House as a Black cultural center. The SAASA subsequently discovered that the incident that triggered the protest was a hoax, but the underlying concerns about racism on campus remained. This incident, which exacerbated already existing tensions between Black and white students on the predominately white campus, set off a course of events that would lead to several changes on campus, including the creation of the Black Mass Communications Project or BMCP.
14 months later in Feb 1970, no action had been taken by university administration to address the student’s concerns. Students at UMass and the other campuses in the 5 colleges (Mount Holyoke, Hampshire, Smith, and Amherst College) joined together to address the fact that student demands were not being taken seriously. On Feb 18, 150-200 students took over buildings at Amherst College. UMass students took over Mills House, the dorm where the incident happened in 1968, and demanded that it be turned into a Black cultural center. Mills was chosen due to the fact that it was already the meeting place for the Student Afro-American Student Association and it was transitioning from being a dorm to a student center. Chancellor Oswald Tippo made the decision to agree to these demands on March 1, 1970 and Mills House was rechristened New Africa House, a designation that remains today.
Amherst, Massachusetts is located in the western part of Massachusetts. Although the region has urban centers, Amherst is somewhat rural, reflecting the agricultural origins of UMass as the Massachusetts Agricultural College, which was founded as part of the Morrill Act following the Civil War. Although there were Black students on campus as early as the late 1890s, there were very few by the late 1960s. It was at this time that Randolph Bromery, a geologist, and later, UMass’ first African American Chancellor, was hired by UMass’ first Black faculty member, Edwin Driver, who was hired by the Sociology Department in 1948. Nearly twenty years after Driver's arrival, Bromery was only the sixth African American faculty member hired by the University. But even more remarkable was the fact that in 1967 there were only 36 African American students among a population of nearly 17,000. When the assassination of Martin Luther King in April of 1968 compelled the university to respond to the lack of diversity, a committee was formed called the Committee for the Collegiate Education of Black Students (CCEBS). By 1969, the Black student population had risen to 180 freshman and about 300 in total. By 1975 it was approximately 600.
Out of this campus turmoil, several campus cultural and political organizations were formed including the W. E. B. Du Bois Dept. of Afro-Am Studies (1970), New Africa House Cultural Center, the CCEBS program, Drum magazine, Nummo News, Ahora, Third World Women’s organization, African American Students Association, Che Lumumba School for Truth, the Malcolm X Center, the New World Center and Third World Caucus within Student Senate and BMCP.
Black Mass Communications Project was formed in October of 1970 by Lorne Cress Love, Pat Gardner, Tom Sellers, and others. Lorne Cress Love was a veteran civil rights activist from Chicago, who helmed the Southern Nonviolent Coordinating Committee chapter there. She coordinated rides from Chicago to the March on Washington in 1963, and participated in Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964. She was hired by UMass in 1970, helping to build New Africa House (formerly known as Mills House). BMCP's focus was music, news, interviews, lectures, conference proceedings and rebroadcasting recordings from subscription services such as the Pacifica Radio Network and the Southern Christian Leadership Council, who had a series called Martin Luther King Speaks. They would sometimes broadcast live speeches by distinguished Black visitors to Western Mass such as Angela Davis, Dick Gregory, Shirley Chisholm and others. In 1970, BMCP members Lorne Cress Love and Tom Sellers traveled to New Haven, CT to cover a press conference given by Huey Newton of the Black Panther Party during the trial of Bobby Seale and Erika Huggins.
BMCP's flagship show was entitled Colors, a showcase of the Black experience through speeches, music, interviews, and public affairs and Ujamaa-Drum. Produced initially at the facilities of 88.5 WFCR, the regional NPR affiliate which had facilities on the UMass campus, it later settled into regular slots on 91.1 WMUA, the student radio station. Their original time slots consisted of three 3 hour slots, 7-10pm Mon, Wed, Fri and steadily grew to 15.5 hours per week. Initially, the organization had no funding. Once they became a registered student organization, they received funding from the Student Government Association with a FY 1972 budget of approx. $14,000. This was used for equipment, tape and, eventually, salaries. At its peak in the late 1970s it reached almost 140 hours of airtime per week, which was over half the airtime on WMUA.
In 1972, WMUA began broadcasting over the summer for the first time. BMCP-produced shows such as Latin Contrast and Sunday Gospel that debuted over the summer were then added to the regular WMUA rotation as an effort to appease requests by minority students to have more “third world” programming on the station. This created tensions in the station between white students who wanted to “integrate” black music and public affairs into the general schedule and BMCP members, who felt it was important to have a platform and space where Black students could discuss matters of importance to them and the wider community without editorial interference from the station’s governing body.
Students would initially train at WEBD, the low-power FM station that operated out of New Africa House. Here, students would get their initial training in equipment, production, and fulfilling the requirements of obtaining a Federal Communications Commission 3rd class license before moving over to WMUA.
This campus debate over accurate and community-driven representation and coverage of women and minorities spilled over into all campus media. In April of 1974 at the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, a Black Affairs section and a supplement called Nummo News were created to cover Black issues following charges of racism and lack of coverage. This pressure from underrepresented students on campus found its way into the radio station as well. Women from a student group called the Women’s Media Project met with management of WMUA during the spring of 1974 to discuss limited airtime, pre-emption of shows without notice and lack of training sessions for women. There was some disagreement about how receptive the station leadership was to the women’s requests, who then submitted grievances to the Student Senate. This was happening simultaneously as negotiations with BMCP and other Third World student groups were taking place to establish a Third World Affairs Director at the station. At one point, the women and the Third World Affairs group submitted a letter to the SGA accusing the station of non-compliance with Affirmative Action guidelines. WMUA’s Board of Directors disagreed. The SGA responded by threatening to freeze the station budget and then suspended the station’s constitution over the summer. They then established a provisional government. Eventually, the issues were sorted out to everyone’s satisfaction, but it established a dynamic that followed BMCP throughout its history.
For example, in February of 1979 there was an incident in which police were called to the station to remove BMCP members who had a dispute over a timeslot that was revoked. Eric Myers, the Station Manager at the time, denied the claim of the students.
BMCP continues to operate as of 2025, however in the late 1980s and 1990s they became more focused on music (mostly hip-hop) and less on news/public affairs. They sponsored live hip-hop shows and lectures on campus but were mostly known for throwing large parties on campus such as the Funk-A-Thon and the Jeans n' T-Shirt dance. Eventually, the BMCP slots on WMUA disappeared completely.
