Steven H. Keeney papers

The Steven H. Keeney papers is a small collection of fourteen folders, with the bulk of the material dated 1967-1969. It is centered on Trinity student Steven Keeney’s involvement with the short-lived activist group, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and their involvement at Trinity College. At the time these papers were collected, Keeney was president of the Trinity College chapter of the SDS. Most, but not all, of the material is either addressed to Keeney, or refers to him in some manner.

In this collection, the SDS activities are documented through primary source materials such as letters and memos, newspaper clippings, and "ditto" copies of various materials -- from Student Senate minutes to budgets, organizational structures, and flyers created by the SDS to publicize their events -- the most important of which to the Trinity community (and which gained nation-wide attention) was the April 1968 student sit-in.

Arising from a climate of frustration and miscommunication, the SDS along with the Trinity Association of Negroes (TAN) rallied together a group of 168 students on April 22, 1968, to hold the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and President Jacobs captive for several hours. In their manifesto (included in folder 3 of this collection), the demonstrators requested that President Jacobs and the Board consider increasing scholarship support for black students, additional classes focusing on urban studies, and community development, amid other requests. Unknown to the demonstrators, President Jacobs and the Board not only had the same mandate in mind, but they were working at that time to achieve the same goal as the students. Due to a series of miscommunications, this information was undisclosed at the time of the sit-in.