How many UC Berkeley students does it take to change a lightbulb?
76. One to change the lightbulb, fifty to protest the lightbulb's right not to change and twenty-five to organize a counter-protest.
One hour away from Los Altos, the University of California Berkeley has always been a major focal point for "liberal" movements. In the 1960s, Berkeley played an important role in voicing student opinions about current political and economic issues, especially during their 1964 Free Speech Movement.
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That winter, thousands of students continued this protest for free speech when they stormed Sproul Hall, the building in front of their typical political activities. There, students and faculty gave speeches about the injustice of the administration's attack on their freedom of speech, one of which was made by movement leader Mario Savio. In his famous speech, he called that they must "put [their] bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus" of government's "machine" if they want it to stop. By the end of the protest, the police arrested 814 of these students.The University officials, taken aback by the amount of disturbance on campus, backed down a month after the Sproul Hall protest. On January 3, 1965, acting chancellor Martin Meyerson allowed political activity on campus and established provisional rules. For certain hours of the day, permitted clubs could use Sproul Hall's steps as an area for open discussion.
The Berkeley Free Speech Movement marked a turning point for college campuses across America. First, it demonstrated that college students had a voice in on campus and could successfully protest against administration. Similar to the Civil Rights Movement, students used media, especially television news and documentary filmmaking, to spread awareness about their cause. Also, as a result of FSM, other universities, like the University of Wisconsin, Madison, led their own strikes against policies restricting their freedom of speech. The Free Speech Movement had an impact on national politics as well- Ronald Reagan had even gained political traction by campaigning on a platform to "clean up the mess in Berkeley".
Sources:
https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~katster/Hist98p.htm
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/CalHistory/60s.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Speech_Movement
https://calisphere.org/exhibitions/43/the-free-speech-movement/#overview
http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/300038/Free-Speech-Movement-timeline/#vars!panel=3000401!
This is a very good post. The joke at the beginning is very characteristic of what Berkeley is known for. The free speech movement is a very important part of US history because it mirrored the actions of the civil rights movement in protesting issues that tended to be overlooked. This movement would spark a revolution of other protests, like the Anti-war movement and women's rights movement. It was also influential because it provoked the definition of the first amendment to the bill of rights: Free Speech.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you made this post was relatable to us. It is interesting to see how the free speech movement was somewhat similar to the civil rights movement, in terms of the extent of its influence. You mentioned in the last paragraph how other universities watched and learned from UC Berkeley's protests, and rallied behind their own causes too. What made the FSM and civil rights movement stand out and have a greater effect on the nation, than the other movements during the 60s? Was it because they were televised more? I found an interesting article about a recent student protest around Sproul Hall which turned violent. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/01/uc-berkeley-campus-protest-milo-yiannopoulos-breitbart/97378104/
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