Some of the first well documented, directed activism occurred on the campuses of black institutions like Fisk and Howard in the 1920s. At Fisk, students' concerns surrounding disciplinary rules designed to undermine black identity coalesced into demands for the resignation of President Fayette Avery McKenzie. Spurred by alum W.E.B. Du Bois' 1924 commencement speech, the students ignored the 10 p.m. curfew to protest, and staged subsequent walkouts. After a committee found Mckenzie's abilities and handling of the unrest poor, he resigned on April 16, 1925. Events at Fisk had wide repercussions, as black students elsewhere began to question the repressive status quo of the postwar black university.
