Berkeley Free
Speech Movement (jan 1, 1964 – dec 31, 1964)
Description:
The protests at the University of California in Berkeley, in the autumn of 1964, brought a lot of media attention and made many Americans aware of the student movement
Some of the volunteers who took part in the Mississippi Freedom Summer were students at Berkeley as well as being members of SDS
When they returned for the new semester in September 1964, they organised protests against racial discrimination on the university campus
The university administration responded by banning students from protesting on university grounds for “off campus political and social action”
The students ignored the ban and continued to protest - a few of them were suspended by the university
The remaining students (around 400) signed a petition and filled the hall of administration building, demanding that they too should be suspended
Police were called and they arrested one of the protestors, Jack Weinberg, but the police car was blocked for 32 hours by students who refused to move and made speeches criticising the university
More police were brought in and threatened to arrest all the protestors, but students negotiated with the university’s president and agreed to leave
Added to timeline:
USA 1945 - 1974
Date:
