Bill Burwell
Student Activist/Professor, 1967-1981
William Burwell Jr., born in Birmingham, Alabama, graduated from San Fernando Valley High School and went on to study sociology at San Fernando Valley State College in 1967. An ardent Black nationalist, he and other activists established the Black Student Union in 1967 and organized protests, which led to the creation of the Pan-African Studies Department in 1969. He taught at CSUN until 1981, when he resigned his professorship to pursue a Masters of Divinity Degree at Talbot Theological Seminary, where he also assisted in the development of a Minority Ministers Program. He organized and served as pastor to the First Berean Christian Church in Los Angeles, California, then became dean of the North American School of Theology in Knoxville, Tennessee. This interview was conducted on March 21, 1990.