The Berkeley riots were a series of protests at and near the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s. Many of these protests were a small part of the larger Free Speech Movement, which had national implications. These riots were headed under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Apthecker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and others.
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The Berkley riots can be defined by three single, yet interrelated events: the civil rights movement, the Free Speech Movement, and the Vietnamese war protests in Berkeley, California.[1] The Berkeley riots 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. Up 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.
Traditionally, antinomianism has been used to refer to the idea that members of a particular religious group are under no obligation to obey the laws of ethics or morality as presented by religious authorities. However, 20th century 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.”[3] Those settled into this psychological state embrace the present, while rejecting the past and fearing the future. 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.”[3] The antinomian often confronts "forces which make the individual aware of his impotence.”[3] All of these traits are then combined 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.”[3] In doing so, “the individual internalizes an objective world which he perceives to be reliable and consistent.”[4] As the individual now views the world in this fashion, he is easily agitated when the outside world deviates from his ideal and seeks to control its movements. Somehow, this mindset spread across all of America, in an almost fad-like fashion, and many shifted their minds into an antinomian state.
Many of the musicians during this era reflected antinomian ideas in their work, contributing its widespread influence on the young people of their era. This led to a young counterculture that embraced antinomianism, influencing their distaste for authority and its ability to set boundaries around them.
Jefferson Airplane was one of the groups advocating antinomian ideals. In their work, they found themselves unable to “accept restrictions imposed by love even though they advocated it”.[3] As they found that love was too fallible to be construed as a source for happiness, they sought to find joy in a “sense of individuality and yet obliterate the pain of aloneness”.[3] In order to achieve this, Jefferson Airplane suggested an antinomian definition of love which put an “emphasis on a present state of fusion, sensation, and escape”.[3] The antinomian feel is perfectly described in the song, "White Rabbit”, in which the “reason and teachings of an older generation” were rejected, so that “truth and transcendence” could be found, suggesting drugs as a viable way to do so.[3]
Fluctuating from a time ruled by conventional religion, the 1950s, to an era of doubt and dismissal of those beliefs, Jimi Hendrix, besides gaining a reputation as one the greatest musicians in American history, became a kind of high priest for a spiritual journey into new, mystical worlds. Permeating throughout his lyrics was evidence of his own antinomian personality. In the beginning of his first album, Are You Experienced, songs such as “Love or Confusion” and “Purple Haze” expressed Hendrix’s inability to understand or receive love, leading him to a resolution that his life was unimportant in the songs “Can You See Me” and “Burning of the Midnight Lamp”.[3] In line with the antinomian personality, Hendrix came to this deduction as his inability to have power over his love life garnered a feeling of weakness within him. In order to counter this, Hendrix dismisses any thought of close relationships or responsibility, instead turning to purely sexual relationships at the end of the album in the songs “Fire” and “Foxey Lady”.[3] The path this album takes - from defeat to self-loathing to empowering the self through unorthodox means - perfectly illustrates the psychological path of the antinomian. Hendrix continued along this vein as he ended his second album, “Axis: Bold as Love”, with a song of the same name. This song further promoted his antinomian themes by “rejecting reason and tradition in favor of finding truths through sensory faculties, and building a protective fantasy through manipulation of the mind”.[3] As people were rejecting the former moral system taught to them by their parents—conventional Christianity -- they were eager to accept the teachings of this new spiritual guide.
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 make a name for themselves in the Civil Rights Movement. Their organization and establishment inspired the likes of the Berkeley students and lead to cohesion between the two groups. The event epitomizing this union 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; greater opportunity than present previously.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) (pronounced /ˈsnɪk/) was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. There is substantial evidence that many of the students involved in the Berkeley riots acquired their spirit of protest and learned techniques of civil disobedience through prior involvement in civil rights groups.
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. 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 60’s. 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.[5]
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." Since 1968, CORE has been 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, 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.[6] 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, marches through town centrals, and even riots which usually stemmed from one of the first two. These protests were usually met with police force and in turn sparked a violent riot.
As women became more involved in the inner workings of the Berkeley Riots, 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.
The Berkeley Riots were ultimately several different student activist protests in and around the University of California Berkeley Campus.
The Sheraton Palace Demonstration was essentially the first event in the Berkeley Riots. 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. Though 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.[6][7]
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 activity and 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.[6]
On October 1, 1964, Jack Weinberg, one of the members of CORE, was sitting at the 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 flee, 7000 students and demonstrators descended on the car. Throughout the night and into the next day, students gave speeches from atop the car calling for free speech on campus.[8] 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.[6]
The student occupation of Sproul Hall on December 2, 1964 was the largest single demonstration organized by the Free Speech Movement.[6] 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 Universities 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.[8] Ultimately, 1500 students occupied Sproul Hall before being removed by police. In all, 773 student activists were arrested for their involvement in this event.[6]
The Vietnam Day march was the ultimate achievement of the Vietnam Day Committee. The committee was formed on May 22, 1965 during a two-day long protest of the Vietnam War on the Berkeley campus.[6] The march occurred on November 21, 1965. After several failed attempts due to blockades by police and the National Guard, the Vietnam day committee was able to organize a march through the streets of Oakland, California. This march was monumental, as over 10,000 people marched showing their protest of the war, thus making it the first large-scale demonstration of negative public opinion of the Vietnam War.[6]
• March down Telegraph Lane - October 15, 1965 Berkeley, CA
• March on Oakland Army Terminal - November, 1965 Berkeley & Oakland, CA
• Stop the Draft Week - October, 1967 Oakland, CA