Black Cultural Association
Encyclopedia
The Black Cultural Association (or BCA) was an African American
inmate group that was founded in 1968 at the California Medical Facility
at Vacaville
, a California
state prison
, 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
. Outsiders were allowed to attend meetings of the BCA, and tutors provided remedial and advanced courses in mathematics
, reading, writing, art
, history
, political science
, and sociology
. These courses made the BCA popular with inmates as well as outsiders; 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
.
There is evidence that the BCA was a front for CIA domestic activities. Colston Westbrook who served from 1962-1969 in the CIA run Phoenix Program of assassination and psychological warfare returned to the US and became the head of the BCA and was so at the time Donald Defreeze
was at Vacaville. Another future SLA member and UC Berkeley student who may have been recruited by Westbrook [his instructor at UCB] to serve as a BCA teacher was, Willie Wolfe, an upper-middle class kid from the East Coast who had little prior connection to the black community, no educational credentials and was said by his father Dr. Wolfe to have had no political inclinations before then.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
inmate group that was founded in 1968 at the California Medical Facility
California Medical Facility
California Medical Facility is a male-only state prison located in the city of Vacaville, Solano County, California. It is older than California State Prison, Solano, the other state prison in Vacaville.-Facilities:...
at Vacaville
Vacaville, California
Vacaville, California is a city located in the northeastern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area in Solano County. The city is nearly half way between Sacramento and San Francisco on I-80. It sits approximately from Sacramento, and from San Francisco...
, a California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
state prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
, 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
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. Outsiders were allowed to attend meetings of the BCA, and tutors provided remedial and advanced courses in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, reading, writing, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, and sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
. These courses made the BCA popular with inmates as well as outsiders; in time, radical political organizations such as Venceremos
Venceremos Organization
Venceremos, Spanish for "We Will Overcome", or "We Will Prevail", was a radical left political group which took its name from the battle cry of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a revolutionary communist leader from Argentina and high ranking member of Fidel Castro's communist government in Cuba.Venceremos...
infiltrated the BCA, giving rise to BCA factions such as Unisight, which eventually gave birth to the Symbionese Liberation Army
Symbionese Liberation Army
The Symbionese Liberation Army was an American self-styled left-wing urban militant group active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a revolutionary vanguard army...
.
There is evidence that the BCA was a front for CIA domestic activities. Colston Westbrook who served from 1962-1969 in the CIA run Phoenix Program of assassination and psychological warfare returned to the US and became the head of the BCA and was so at the time Donald Defreeze
Donald DeFreeze
Donald David DeFreeze , also known as Cinque Mtume, was the leader of the American guerilla group Symbionese Liberation Army, a group operating in the mid-1970s, under the nom de guerre "Field Marshal Cinque."...
was at Vacaville. Another future SLA member and UC Berkeley student who may have been recruited by Westbrook [his instructor at UCB] to serve as a BCA teacher was, Willie Wolfe, an upper-middle class kid from the East Coast who had little prior connection to the black community, no educational credentials and was said by his father Dr. Wolfe to have had no political inclinations before then.