Berkeley's Political History
Those looking for traces of Berkeley's politically charged past need go no further than Sather Gate. Both the Free Speech Movement and the fledgling political life of actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan have their roots here. It was next to Sather Gate, on September 30, 1964, that a group of students defied an administrative order that all organizations advocating "off-campus political and social action" keep their information tables off campus. Citation of the tablers brought more than 400 sympathetic students into Sproul Hall that afternoon. They stayed until nearly 3 am, setting a precedent of protest that would be repeated in the coming months.
Conservative U.C. president Clark Kerr eventually backed down, but by then, the Free Speech Movement had gathered momentum, and the conflict had made a national hero of student leader Mario Savio. Political newcomer Ronald Reagan played on Californians' unease about the unruly students in his successful 1966 bid for governor, promising to "clean up the mess in Berkeley."
By the end of the 1960s, the cohesion of the groups making up the Free Speech Movement had begun to fray. The Black Panthers, headquartered just over the border in Oakland, were ascending into the national spotlight, and their "take no prisoners" approach appealed to some Berkeley activists who had seen little come of their nonviolent efforts to affect national policy.
By 1969, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were dead, and the issue of the day—stopping the flow of troops heading to Vietnam—was not as easy as overpowering a school administration's resistance to free speech. But a more dramatic clash with the university came when it sent construction crews and police units to bulldoze and repossess People's Park, a university-owned plot of land at Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street that students and community members had transformed into a park. On the afternoon of May 15, 1969, nearly 6,000 students and residents moved to reclaim the park. In the ensuing riot, police and sheriff's deputies fired tear gas and buckshot, blinding one observer and killing another. Governor Ronald Reagan ordered the National Guard into Berkeley. Crowds continued to gather and march in the days after the first riot. The park remains a place for the people, but not without occasional debate.
A colorful mural on the side of Amoeba Records (Haste Street at Telegraph Avenue) offers one version of park history. Although the areas around People's Park and Sather Gate may seem quiet now, issues such as affirmative action and tuition increases still bring protests to the steps of Sproul, and protests over civil rights, war, and other inequities march through the center of the campus.
