The Black Cultural Association (BCA) was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

inmate group founded in 1968 at the

California Medical Facility California Medical Facility (CMF) is a male-only state prison medical facility located in the city of Vacaville, Solano County, California. It is older than California State Prison, Solano, the other state prison in Vacaville. Facilities CMF ...

Vacaville Vacaville is a city located in Solano County in Northern California. Sitting approximately from Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is within the Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, Vacaville had a population of 102,386, making it th ...

, a

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

state

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

, and formally recognized by prison officials in 1969. The primary purpose of the BCA was to provide educational tutoring to inmates, which it did in conjunction with graduate college students from the nearby

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Outsiders were allowed to attend meetings of the BCA, and tutors provided remedial and advanced courses in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically Epigraphy, inscribed, Printing press, mechanically transferred, or Word processor, digitally represented Symbols (semiot ...

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

, and

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

. In time, radical political organizations such as Venceremos infiltrated the BCA, giving rise to BCA factions such as Unisight, which eventually gave birth to the

Symbionese Liberation Army The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a small, American far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the ...

Origins

The 1960s were famous for numerous social movements, including the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

in California. This increase in racial tension across the nation fed to rising concerns about the African-American population. The Black Panther Party was created to watch the actions of police forces in Los Angeles making sure that they were protecting the public as a whole, not a specific race. In Oakland, the number of arrests dramatically increased, which led to an increase in prison populations. In the State of California's prisoners statistics it states that the populations of inmates on December 31, 1960, was 21,660 persons. 8 years later on December 31, 1968 the population had increased to a high of 28,462. During the 1960s the black distribution in California prisons was 20.8 percent but gradually increased to 34.1 percent by the 1980s. The same people who were demanding social reforms found themselves in jail demanding prison reforms for those of color. From this rise in black inmate population came the Black Cultural Association, or the BCA. Their goal was to educate black inmates on basic educational skills as well as foster an environment for black empowerment.

Timeline

*1954: The

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

Begins *1968:

Civil Rights Act of 1968 The Civil Rights Act of 1968 () is a landmark law in the United States signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots. Titles II through VII comprise the Indian Civil Rights Act, which applie ...

, which prevented "by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone…by reason of their race, color, religion, or national origin." *1968: The Black Cultural Association is founded. *1971: The Black Cultural Association becomes an officially recognized prison group under the tutoring system put in place by linguistic professor

Colston Westbrook Colston Richard Westbrook (1937–1989) was an American teacher and linguist who worked in the fields of minority education and literacy. At the University of California, Berkeley, he established a program of prison outreach and approved students ...

. *1972: The BCA gains popularity with white radicals through the help of William Wolfe. White activists begin to attend BCA meetings with the approval of Colston Westbrook. *1972: The Maximum Psychiatric Diagnostic Unit at the Vacaville prison begins doing illegal experimentation on inmates, sparking controversy over fair treatment. *December 1972: Rumors spread within the BCA that Westbrook was connected to the Central Intelligence Agency, therefore part of administering drug tests to black inmates. *1973: The group gains peak attendance, with about 100 inmates part of the BCA.

Education, tutors, and members

Educational tutoring and politics

The main purpose of the BCA was to provide educational tutoring for inmates. For two years the BCA operated without much direction. However, in 1971 the BCA was officially recognized by the

University of California-Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

linguistic professor,

was recruited to organize an educational tutoring system for the group. Westbrook's goal was to instill racial pride in the prisoners and provide self-help. Westbrook brought in a group of tutors to teach math, reading, writing, art, political science, black sociology, and African heritage. A majority of the BCA tutors were white students from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

that held leftist and radical beliefs. BCA tutors included Russell Little and William Wolfe. As well as

Patricia Soltysik Patricia Monique Soltysik (May 17, 1950 – May 17, 1974) was an American woman who was best known as a co-founder and activist in the Symbionese Liberation Army, a far-left militant group based in Berkeley and Oakland, California. She participat ...

Nancy Ling Perry Nancy Ling Perry (September 19, 1947 – May 17, 1974, born Nancy Ling) was also known as Nancy Devoto, Lynn Ledworth, and Fahizah while a founding member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small leftist terrorist group based in northe ...

, and

Patty Hearst Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954) is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found a ...

(who used a fake ID with the name

Mary Alice Siem Mary Alice Siem was a student at the University of California, Berkeley when she became involved in 1973 with a prisoner outreach program at Vacaville Prison. She became the girlfriend of Thero Wheeler, an inmate who escaped in August 1973. He was ...

), according to Lake Headley, a private investigator. The group began to grow and started to meet two to three times a week. Over time, the BCA evolved from an educational group into more of a political group that focused on radical ideals and black empowerment. Because the focus of the group shifted away from the conventional educational group, no statistics could be found on how successful the program was at improving the education of prisoners.

Donald DeFreeze

One notable member of the BCA was a black prisoner named

Donald DeFreeze Donald David DeFreeze (November 16, 1943 – May 17, 1974), also known as Cinque Mtume and using the nom de guerre "General Field Marshal Cinque", was known as the "spokesman" of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small, American far-left gro ...

. Defreeze became close with Westbrook and quickly embraced the revolutionary fantasy that was fostered in the BCA. Eventually, DeFreeze was transferred to

Soledad State Prison Correctional Training Facility (CTF), commonly referenced as Soledad State Prison, is a state prison located on U.S. Route 101, north of Soledad, California, adjacent to Salinas Valley State Prison. Facilities The institution is divided in ...

where he then escaped. Following his escape he teamed up with fellow BCA members Russell Little and

William Wolfe William Cuthbertson Wolfe (22 February 1924 – 18 March 2010) was a Scottish accountant, manufacturer and Scottish National Party (SNP) politician. He was the National Convenor (leader) of the SNP from 1969 to 1979, playing a central role in ...

, as well as Bill and

Emily Harris Emily Harris (born February 11, 1947 as Emily Montague Schwartz) was, along with her husband William Harris (1945–), a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), an American left-wing terrorist group involved in murder, kidnapping, and b ...

and

Angela Atwood Angela DeAngelis Atwood (February 6, 1949 – May 17, 1974), also known as General Gelina, was a founding member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), an American terrorist group which kidnapped Patricia Hearst and robbed banks. She was ki ...

, to create the

List of tutors and members

BCA Coordinator:

Member and Inmate:

BCA Visitor/Tutor:

BCA Visitor/Tutor: Russell Little BCA Visitor/Tutor:

BCA Visitor/Tutor:

aka Mary Alice Siem

Group evolution

The Black Cultural Association met regularly with outside volunteers, some of which did not teach basic educational skills. Tutors and prisoners tended to have discussions on radical ideas, often influencing inmates to join their way of thinking.

was one inmate who converted his political ideas after attending BCA meetings. Soon after, DeFreeze broke off from the Black Cultural Association and created his own group within the prison. Willie Wolfe and Russ Little were two white volunteers that joined the small group DeFreeze set up, as well as ex-Black panther and inmate Thero Wheeler. This small group of radical-left's is considered the beginning of the Symbionese Liberation Army, or the SLA. Other volunteers at Vacaville prison were members of the Venceremos, a radical Chicano political organization. When the Venceremos political group became inactive, it joined forces with DeFreeze and the SLA to fight for prison reforms and black rights.

Conspiracy

Because the BCA operated with major political overtones under the pretense of education, many feared the group as a means to control the inmates and fuel the social unrest of the time. Various conspiracy theories involved the accusations that the group was transformed into an assassin group rather than one based purely for education. With inmates cut off from the outside world and their only information being fed to them by the radical tutors, it is believed by some that the group plotted revolution and other drastic means for social change. Louis Nelson, warden at

San Quentin San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the o ...

stated in a memo:

We are reading in the public press, and hearing via television and radio, that the best breeding and/or recruiting ground for neo-revolutionaries is in the prison system…. I am witnessing the deterioration of our ethnic organizations, which were once dedicated to the educational improvement of our men inside San Quentin, to para-military organizations with revolutionary overtones…. I do not believe that as the propagation of revolutionary acts or material. In fact, I believe it to be the exact opposite of my duty…. I intend to draw the line at revolutionary education.

Suspicions gained truth when radical groups calling for revolution such as the SLA branched off from and eventually took over the BCA. It abandoned education as its purpose and focused instead on political revolution.

References

{{Reflist Organizations established in 1968 African-American organizations Prison-related organizations Vacaville, California Symbionese Liberation Army