Category Archives: Free Speech Mov.

The Forgotten Radicalism of the March on Washington

“As remembered and commemorated by most Americans, the 1963 March on Washington — its 60th anniversary fell on Monday — represents the essence of the civil rights movement, defined in our national mythology as a colorblind demand for neutrality and … Continue reading

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When Segregationists Offered One-Way Tickets to Black Southerners

Reverse freedom riders on their way to New England boarded a bus in New Orleans in 1962. “When two planeloads of asylum seekers were flown to Martha’s Vineyard last month, Peola Denham Jr. recognized an echo of his own experience … Continue reading

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Greensboro sit-ins

The Greensboro Four: (left to right) David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell A. Blair, Jr., and Joseph McNeil. “The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store—now the International Civil Rights … Continue reading

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Robert Penn Warren – Who Speaks for the Negro? (1965)

“In 1965, Random House published Robert Penn Warren’s book titled Who Speaks for the Negro? In preparation for writing the volume, Warren traveled throughout the United States in early 1964 and spoke with large numbers of men and women who … Continue reading

Posted in Black Power, Books, Civil Rights Mov., Dick Gregory, Eldridge Cleaver, Free Speech Mov., Huey P. Newton, James Baldwin, Jesse Jackson, Malcolm X, MLKJr., Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement

“Produced by Blackside, Eyes on the Prize tells the definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, … Continue reading

Posted in Bobby Seale, Civil Rights Mov., CORE, Dick Gregory, Documentary, Eldridge Cleaver, Free Speech Mov., Freedom Summer, Huey P. Newton, Jesse Jackson, Malcolm X, MLKJr., Movie, SCLC, SNCC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter

African American students from Saint Augustine College study while participating in a sit-in at a lunch counter reserved for white customers in Raleigh, North Carolina. Two waitresses pointedly ignore them from the other side of the counter. “One evening nine … Continue reading

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Andrew Kopkind – The Thirty Years’ Wars: Dispatches and Diversions of a Radical Journalist 1965–1994

“In Boston in the 1970s he wrote articles and movie reviews for a range of publications and did regular political commentary for WBCN radio.  … He’d been a contributor to Grand Street, New Left Review, Esquire, Vogue and Il Mani­festo, … Continue reading

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Free Speech Movement

In this Oct. 2, 1964 file photo, standing atop the crushed roof of a campus police car, a University of California student asks Cal students to identify themselves during third day of Free Speech Movement demonstrations in Berkeley, Calif. “The … Continue reading

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How Jazz Helped Fuel the 1960s Civil Rights Movement

A jazz concert at Jackie Robinson’s home “In 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus decided that integration—mandated three years earlier by Brown v. Board of Ed.—constituted such a state of emergency that he mobilized the National Guard to prevent nine black … Continue reading

Posted in Black Power, Civil Rights Mov., Free Speech Mov., Jazz, Malcolm X, MLKJr., Music | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An End To History – Mario Savio (Dec. 7, 1964)

Mario Savio, leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, speaks to assembled students on the campus at the University of California, Berkeley, on Dec. 7, 1964 “Last summer I went to Mississippi to join the struggle there for civil rights. … Continue reading

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Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner

“The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, also known as the Freedom Summer murders, the Mississippi civil rights workers’ murders or the Mississippi Burning murders, involved three activists who were abducted and murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi in June 1964 … Continue reading

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WBOX: Civil rights strife and KKK boycott

“WBOX is a radio station broadcasting on 920 AM in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The station is owned by Best Country Broadcasting, LLC, and carries a country format. In 1965, the station was boycotted by the Ku Klux Klan during a turbulent … Continue reading

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Bloody Tuesday

“Bloody Tuesday was a march that occurred on June 9, 1964 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement. The march was both organized and led by Rev. T. Y. Rogers and was to protest against segregated drinking fountains and … Continue reading

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Martin Luther King Jr. Saw Three Evils in the World

September 10, 1963 in New York, New York. “Three major evils—the evil of racism, the evil of poverty, and the evil of war. These are the three things that I want to deal with today. Now let us turn first … Continue reading

Posted in Civil Rights Mov., CORE, Free Speech Mov., Freedom Summer, MLKJr., Poverty, Religion, SNCC, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nashville sit-ins

Agitators attack a sit-in demonstrator at Woolworth’s lunch counter, February 27, 1960. “The Nashville sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960, were part of a nonviolent direct action campaign to end racial segregation at lunch counters in … Continue reading

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Decolonizing society: the legacy of 1968

Student protesters in Paris, May ’68. “In 1964, students at the University of California at Berkeley staged a sit-in at Sproul Hall to protest campus restrictions on political activism. Shouting through his bullhorn, Mario Savio, the leader of the Free … Continue reading

Posted in Berlin Wall, Black Power, Chicano/Puerto Rican, CIA, Civil Rights Mov., Computing, Cuban Revolution, Czech, Dick Gregory, Eldridge Cleaver, Feminist, Free Speech Mov., Happenings, Hippie, Huey P. Newton, Italy, Jerry Rubin, Mexico, Napalm, Paris, SDS, Street theater, Timothy Leary, Tom Hayden, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jo Freeman

“Jo Freeman (born August 26, 1945) is an American feminist, political scientist, writer and attorney. As a student at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s, she became active in organizations working for civil liberties and the civil rights … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Civil Rights Mov., Feminist, Free Speech Mov., No Nukes, SCLC, SNCC | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Political graphics of the “long 1960s”

Hell no, nobody goes. 1967. Frank Cieciorka, artist. Poster. Collection of Oakland Museum of California. “Posters are among the significant ephemera of the long 1960s. Synonymous with rebellion and visual wit, these fragile documents were densely packed cultural viruses capable … Continue reading

Posted in Chicano/Puerto Rican, Civil Rights Mov., Cuban Revolution, Feminist, Free Speech Mov., Happenings, LSD, Mao, Marijuana, Mexico, Paris, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How LBJ Saved the Civil Rights Act

“On the winter of 1963, as the Civil Rights Act worked its way through Congress, Justice William Brennan decided to play for time. The Supreme Court had recently heard arguments in the appeal of 12 African American protesters arrested at … Continue reading

Posted in Civil Rights Mov., Free Speech Mov., Freedom Summer, Jesse Jackson, John Kennedy, Lyn. Johnson, MLKJr., SCLC, SNCC | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Half the Way with Mao Zedong

“The American left has never produced a group more self-critical than Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). In the years since the organization’s 1969 collapse, its former members have produced an endless stream of mea culpas. Some of this has … Continue reading

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The Bobby Kennedy Pathway

Robert Kennedy campaigning in Philadelphia in 1968. “… But a half-century ago, a champion of civil rights offered a third approach: a liberalism without elitism and a populism without racism. In a remarkable 82-day campaign, Senator Robert F. Kennedy ran … Continue reading

Posted in Civil Rights Mov., CORE, Free Speech Mov., Freedom Summer, Harlem, James Baldwin, Jesse Jackson, Rob. Kennedy, SCLC, SNCC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Memories of Mississippi – Danny Lyon

Danny Lyon outside a movement headquarters in Albany, Georgia, 1962 “It was the summer of 1962. I had just finished my third year at the University of Chicago. My 650cc Triumph motorcycle was damaged, leaving me grounded and bored. One … Continue reading

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“Even poverty is ancient history”: Resurrection City, 1968 By Jill Freedman

Demonstrators in the streets, Poor People’s Campaign, Washington D.C., 1968. “… I knew I had to shoot the Poor People’s Campaign when they murdered Martin Luther King Jr. I had to see what was happening, to record it and be part … Continue reading

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Greyhound Bus Station – Montgomery, Alabama

“The Greyhound Bus Station at 210 South Court Street in Montgomery, Alabama, was the site of a violent attack on participants in the 1961 Freedom Ride during the Civil Rights Movement. The May 1961 assaults, carried out by a mob … Continue reading

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SLATE

FSM leader Bettina Apthecker sits on the police car housing Jack Weinberg, October, 1964. Students surrounding the car prevented the police from taking Weinberg off campus. “SLATE, a pioneer organization of the New Left and precursor of the Free Speech … Continue reading

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Great Cultural Icons Talk Civil Rights: James Baldwin, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte & Sidney Poitier (1963)

“On the day of the historic ‘March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom’ (August 28, 1963), known today as The Great March on Washington (watch it on YouTube in three parts), CBS aired a 30-minute roundtable discussion featuring James Baldwin, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Joseph … Continue reading

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Nancy Kurshan

Nancy Kurshan and Anita Hoffman, W.I.T.C.H. “Nancy Sarah Kurshan (born February 4, 1944 in Brooklyn, NY) is an American activist, raised as a ‘red diaper baby‘, and best known for being a founder of the Youth International Party (whose members … Continue reading

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Dick Gregory

“Richard Claxton ‘Dick’ Gregory (born October 12, 1932) is an American civil rights activist, social critic, writer, entrepreneur, comedian, conspiracy theorist and occasional actor. … Active in the Civil Rights Movement, on October 7, 1963, Gregory came to Selma, Alabama, … Continue reading

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The Forgotten Power of the Vietnam Protest, 1965-1975 by Tom Hayden

“The era of protest against Vietnam – 1965-75 – was unique as the emergence of a nationwide peace movement on a scale not seen before in American history. There were previous war resisters, for example, the Society of Friends, the … Continue reading

Posted in Civil Rights Mov., CORE, Draft board, Feminist, Free Speech Mov., Freedom Summer, Henry Kissinger, John Kennedy, Lyn. Johnson, MLKJr., Pacifist, Peace talks, SCLC, SDS, SNCC, Tom Hayden, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Berkeley Barb

“The Berkeley Barb was a weekly underground newspaper that was published in Berkeley, California, during the years 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers of the late 1960s, covering such subjects … Continue reading

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On the Edge of Radicalism… Berkeley’s 1965 Free Speech Movement

A major confrontation erupted on the UC Berkeley Campus in 1965 known worldwide as the Free Speech Movement. “… I returned to UC in the fall of 1965 excited about my senior year. Two of my former dorm mates, Cliff … Continue reading

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Teach-ins

1965: Vietnam era teach-in at University of Michigan “A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal … Continue reading

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Mario Savio (December 8, 1942 – November 6, 1996)

“Mario Savio (December 8, 1942 – November 6, 1996) was an American activist and a key member in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially the “put your bodies upon the gears” address given … Continue reading

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