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The 1960s Berkeley protests were a series of events at the University of California, Berkeley, and Berkeley, California. Many of these protests were a small part of the larger Free Speech Movement, which had national implications and constituted the onset of the counterculture of the 1960s. These protests were headed under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Jack Weinberg, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and others.
The events at Berkeley can be generally defined by three single yet interrelated social topics: the Civil Rights Movement, the Free Speech Movement, and the Vietnam war protests in Berkeley, California. [1]
The Berkeley protests were not the first demonstrations to be held in and around the University of California Campus. Since before World War II, students had demonstrated at the university. In the 1930s, the students at Berkeley led massive demonstrations protesting the United States ending its disarmament policy and the approaching war. [2] Throughout the course of World War II, these demonstrations continued with the addition of strikes against fascism; however, they were largely symbolic in form. [2] This can be inferred, as the student groups leading these demonstrations did not necessarily seek, nor did they expect, their demonstrations to result in change. Nevertheless, this passive approach to demonstration changed in the 1950s at the height of the McCarthy era. From 1949 to 1950, students and teaching assistants at UC Berkeley rallied against the anti-communist loyalty oath that professors were forced to take at the university. Until the Berkeley riots, these demonstrations were the largest student protests witnessed in the United States. [1] Considering the relatively high presence of demonstrations on the Berkeley campus in its history, and the fact that it had already been the site of the largest student demonstration in the United States, it provided a perfect site to nurture the Berkeley riots.
The Berkeley protests ultimately occurred in and around the University of California Berkeley Campus.
The Sheraton Palace Demonstration was essentially the first event. The protests were in response to the racially discriminatory hiring practices used by the hotel. The protesters sought equal hiring practices, and for the hotel to have black individuals in executive positions. Approximately 4000 people were involved with the protest and occupation of the hotel. Although the demonstration was organized by the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination , a high percentage of individuals involved in the protest were members of the student population of the Berkeley campus. [3] [4]
The administration of UC Berkeley believed that on campus political advocacy was partially to blame for the high percentage of student involvement in the widely media publicized Sheraton Palace demonstration. In response to such student political activity, on September 16, 1964, Dean of Students Katherine Towle released a letter stating that political organization was no longer permitted on the corner of Bancroft and Telegraph. This intersection had served for years as a gathering place for students to hand out pamphlets and organize for political means. In protest of the recent ban on political activity and on-campus political organizations, the student group, CORE, erected a table in front of Sproul Hall. [3]
On Thursday October 1, 1964, Jack Weinberg, the chairman of Campus CORE, was sitting at the CORE table in front of Sproul Hall and was arrested for violating the University's new rules regarding student political activism. Before the police car containing Weinberg could leave the plaza, students around the car sat down, preventing it from leaving. Throughout the night and into the next day, students, including Mario Savio, gave speeches from atop the car calling for free speech on campus. During that time, as many as 7000 people (mostly students) congregated in the plaza watching the spectacle and listening to the speeches. [5] On the evening of October 2, 1964, approximately twenty-four hours later, representatives of political groups on campus signed an agreement with the administration regarding student free speech, which was dubbed the Pact of October 2. [3]
The student occupation of Sproul Hall on December 2, 1964, was the largest single demonstration organized by the Free Speech Movement. [3] The demonstration was in response to the proposed expulsion of Jack Weinberg and other members of the Free Speech Movement and other student political groups for their involvement in the recent protests on the Berkeley campus, as well as for the University's refusal to drop charges against student political group leaders. The initial plan was to occupy the hall for a single night; however, the protesters were prepared for a two- to three-day demonstration and siege of Sproul Hall. [5] Ultimately, 1500 students occupied Sproul Hall before being removed by police. In all, 773 student activists were arrested for their involvement in this event. [3]
The Vietnam Day Committee was formed on May 22, 1965, during a two-day-long protest of the Vietnam War on the Berkeley campus, with the ultimate goal of organizing a large-scale march against the war at a later date. [3] After several failed attempts due to blockades by police and the National Guard, the Vietnam day committee was able to organize a march on November 21, 1965 through the streets of Oakland, California. With over 10,000 participants, it was the first large-scale demonstration of negative public opinion of the Vietnam War. [3]
The Vietnam Day Committee (VDC) was a coalition of left-wing political groups, student groups, labor organizations, and pacifist religions in the United States of America that opposed the Vietnam War. It was formed in Berkeley, California, in the spring of 1965 by activist Jerry Rubin, and was active through the majority of the Vietnam war, organizing several rallies and marches in California as well as coordinating and sponsoring nationwide protests.
Stemming from TASC (Towards an Active Student Community), SLATE was the main "New Left" student group for the Berkeley campus throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Founded in February 1958, the SLATE Coordinating Committee aimed to promote students running for the Associated Students of University of California (ASUC) who were committed to engage in issue-oriented political education both on and off campus. SLATE was involved with both on-and off-campus issues such as "fair bear" minimum wages for students and affordable housing for students. SLATE led protests against compulsory ROTC, demonstrations against the death penalty, protests against the California House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and protests against racial discrimination. [6]
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is a U.S. civil rights organization that played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement from its foundation in 1942 to the mid-1960s. Membership in CORE is stated to be open to "anyone who believes that 'all people are created equal' and is willing to work towards the ultimate goal of true equality throughout the world." From 1968 until his death in 2017, CORE was led by Roy Innis.
The Free Speech Movement (FSM) was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Jack Weinberg, Brian Turner, Bettina Apthecker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and others. In protests unprecedented at the time, students insisted that the university administration lift a ban on on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom.
The idea was that if enough Americans believed the war was wrong, they could end it. [3] This was the central driving goal of the movement as a whole. Through marches, protests, and riots the protesters aimed to bring awareness to injustices happening in the war with hopes to end it permanently. Common events were protests around the drafting/induction centers and marches through town, which were often accompanied by speeches against the war in Vietnam. These protests were often met with police force in full riot gear which in turn sparked more angry riots. At one point the National Guard was called in to assist the local police force in riot control. Tear gas was used to control the crowds and left a haze of gas over the campus for days at a time. Classes were canceled, or sometimes held in off-campus sites including students' apartments.
As women became more involved in the inner workings of the Berkeley protests, they began to move up in the ranks of the positions as well. However, as time progressed they began to face opposition, even from their peers. An organization based upon promoting the advancement of human rights was now rejecting women the opportunity to lead. This created a new branch of advancement for the Women's Rights Movement.
Traditionally, antinomianism has been used to refer to the idea that members of a Christian religious group are under no obligation to obey the laws of ethics or morality as presented by religious authorities. However, a few scholars began to use the term in a secular context.
During this era, many people were influenced by the "antinomian personality", a behavioral style which "places characteristic emphasis on intuition, immediacy, self-actualization, transcendence, and similar themes familiar with Hippie conduct," said Lawrence Chenoweth. [7] He said that those settled into this psychological state embrace the present, while rejecting the past and "fearing" the future. Chenoweth claims that the antinomian takes on a holistic attitude which results from the "confusion as to whether he is an agent or an agent to be acted upon and serves to compensate for the isolation he suffers." [7] The antinomian often confronts "forces which make the individual aware of his impotence." [7] Chenoweth says that all of these traits then combine into the stereotypical hippie persona, as the antinomian "treats his mind as if it were completely malleable, devalues reality, rejects reason and understanding, and selects certain experiences to create a fantasied, dogmatic cosmic view of the world." [7] In doing so, says Nathan Adler, "the individual internalizes an objective world which he perceives to be reliable and consistent." [8] As the individual now views the world in this fashion, he or she is easily agitated when the outside world deviates from his or her ideal and seeks to control its movements.
The Black Panther Party, founded by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in late 1966, aimed to improve civil rights of African Americans and to rid police brutality against African Americans, especially in the Oakland area. Through their Ten Point Program, the Black Panthers were able to establish a foundation for their organization as a whole. The Black Panther Party used the technique of social agitation, in the form of vigilantism, their survival programs, and more broadly their resistance to accept and conform to influence the Civil Rights Movement.
Their organization and establishment inspired the Berkeley students, and led to cohesion between the two groups. The event epitomizing this cohesion was the Sheraton Palace demonstration, in San Francisco, California. The Berkeley Students involved in the various student groups (I.E. SLATE & CORE) and the members of the Black Panther Party united to protest outside the hotel while meetings between the administration board were being conducted inside. The goal of the protest was to advance the job opportunities of African Americans within the hotel through the use of social agitation. The protest proved successful, as the Hotel eventually signed an agreement allowing African Americans opportunities to not only advance but also to be hired into managerial positions.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. There is evidence that many of the students involved in the Berkeley protests acquired their spirit of dissent and learned techniques of civil disobedience through prior involvement in civil rights groups.
Many of the musicians during this era contributed widespread influence on the young people. This led to a young counterculture that questioned authority and its ability to set boundaries around them.
Clark Kerr was an American economist and academic administrator. He was the first chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and twelfth president of the University of California.
Mario Savio was an American activist and a key member of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially the "Bodies Upon the Gears" address given at Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley on December 2, 1964.
Sproul Plaza is one center of student activity at the University of California, Berkeley. It is divided into two sections: Upper Sproul and Lower Sproul. They are vertically separated by twelve feet (3.7 m) and linked by a set of stairs.
Lenni Brenner, formerly known as Leonard Glaser or Lenny Glaser, is an American Trotskyist writer. In the 1960s, Brenner was a prominent civil rights movement activist and vocal opponent of the Vietnam War. Since the 1980s, his activism has focused on anti-Zionism. He has published widely on the history of Zionism, in particular asserting that the movement collaborated with the Nazis.
Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social movement over the ensuing several years. This movement informed and helped shape the vigorous and polarizing debate, primarily in the United States, during the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s on how to end the Vietnam War.
The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, which were predominantly characterized by the rise of left-wing politics, anti-war sentiment, civil rights urgency, youth counterculture within the silent and baby boomer generations, and popular rebellions against state militaries and bureaucracies.
The Vietnam Day Committee (VDC) was a coalition of left-wing political groups, student groups, labour organizations, and pacifist religions in the United States of America that opposed the Vietnam War during the counterculture era. It was formed in Berkeley, California in the spring of 1965 by activist Jerry Rubin, and was active through the majority of the Vietnam war, organizing several rallies and marches in California as well as coordinating and sponsoring nationwide protests.
Southside, also known by the older names South of Campus or South Campus, is a neighborhood in Berkeley, California. Southside is located directly south of and adjacent to the University of California, Berkeley campus. Because of the large student presence in the neighborhood, proximity to Sproul Plaza, and history of the area, Southside is the neighborhood most closely associated with the university.
SLATE, a pioneer organization of the New Left and precursor of the Free Speech Movement and formative counterculture era, was a campus political party at the University of California, Berkeley from 1958 to 1966.
The history of the University of California, Berkeley begins on October 13, 1849, with the adoption of the Constitution of California, which provided for the creation of a public university. On Charter Day, March 23, 1868, the signing of the Organic Act established the University of California, with the new institution inheriting the land and facilities of the private College of California and the federal funding eligibility of a public agricultural, mining, and mechanical arts college.
Occupy Cal included a series of demonstrations that began on November 9, 2011, on the University of California, Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California. It was allied with the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City, San Francisco Bay Area Occupy groups such as Occupy Oakland, Occupy Berkeley, and Occupy San Francisco, and other public California universities. "Cal" in the name "Occupy Cal" is the nickname of the Berkeley campus and generally refers specifically to UC Berkeley.
The Free Speech Movement (FSM) was a massive, long-lasting student protest which took place during the 1964–65 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The Movement was informally under the central leadership of Berkeley graduate student Mario Savio. Other student leaders include Jack Weinberg, Tom Miller, Michael Rossman, George Barton, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Michael Teal, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg and others.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships and parliamentary procedure, the founders conceived of the organization as a broad exercise in "participatory democracy". From its launch in 1960 it grew rapidly in the course of the tumultuous decade with over 300 campus chapters and 30,000 supporters recorded nationwide by its last national convention in 1969. The organization splintered at that convention amidst rivalry between factions seeking to impose national leadership and direction, and disputing "revolutionary" positions on, among other issues, the Vietnam War and Black Power.
The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as feminism, gay rights, drug policy reforms and the rejection of traditional family values, social order, and gender roles. The New Left differs from the traditional left in that it tended to acknowledge the struggle for various forms of social justice, whereas previous movements prioritized explicitly economic goals. However, many have used the term "New Left" to describe an evolution, continuation, and revitalization of traditional leftist goals.
Students for Justice in Palestine is a pro-Palestinian college student activism organization in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. It has campaigned for boycott and divestment against corporations that deal with Israel and organized events about Israel's human rights violations. In 2011, The New York Times reported that "S.J.P., founded in 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley, has become the leading pro-Palestinian voice on campus."
Jack Weinberg is an American environmental activist and former New Left activist who is best known for his role in the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in 1964.
The 2017 Berkeley protests were a series of protests and clashes between organized groups that occurred in the city of Berkeley, California, in the vicinity of the University of California campus. Violence occurred predominantly between protesters opposed to then-President Donald Trump, including activists such as antifa groups and socialists; and pro-Trump groups such as Republicans, members of the alt-lite and alt-right, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists. The majority of the participants were peaceful.
Alliance of Libertarian Activists (ALA) was a libertarian student organization primarily located in the San Francisco Bay area, mostly active at University of California, Berkeley, established in 1965–1966, and considered the first campus group to adopt the term “libertarian.” ALA gained members from both the purged Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) Moïse Tshombe chapter and the Cal Conservatives for Political Action (CCPA) at UC Berkeley, which was a continuation of the 1964 Cal Students for Goldwater, both founded and first chaired by Dan Rosenthal.
Vivian Leburg Rothstein is a labor rights activist, feminist, and community organizer. She was instrumental in the civil rights movement and the peace movement. She also cofounded the Chicago Women's Liberation Union.