Free Speech Movement
The Free Speech Movement (FSM) emerged in the fall of 1964 at the University of California, Berkeley, catalyzed by civil rights activism and student discontent with institutional restrictions. After the administration banned student-led political activities on campus, a diverse coalition of student groups mobilized to protest against this perceived violation of free speech. The movement gained momentum with the arrest of activist Jack Weinberg, leading to significant sit-ins and rallies organized by leaders like Mario Savio. A pivotal moment occurred when students occupied Sproul Hall, resulting in over 800 arrests and eventually prompting faculty support for the students' demands.
By January 1965, the university revised its policies to allow greater freedom for student organizations to engage in political activities. The FSM not only marked a significant shift in student activism but also served as a precursor to broader movements, including the anti-Vietnam War protests that followed. This period saw many students, influenced by FSM tactics, actively opposing U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. The movement is often viewed as a key moment in the evolution of the New Left, connecting civil rights activism to subsequent anti-war efforts on college campuses across the nation.
Free Speech Movement
The first major student protest movement in the post-World War II era. It occurred at the University of California, Berkeley, in October, 1964, and marked the beginning of the student movement’s use of direct-action techniques on college campuses.
Origins and History
Although there had been five years of student protests at the University of California, Berkeley, no one predicted the activism that occurred in the fall of 1964. The catalyst was the Civil Rights movement and the participation of students in the movement, especially during the summer of 1964. Students who had participated in the MississippiFreedom Summer project, including Jack Weinberg and Free Speech movement leader Mario Savio, brought back to college campuses a knowledge of civil disobedience and a dislike of bureaucratic highhandedness.
The action that led to the Free Speech movement occurred in September, 1964. The Dean of Students at the University of California, Berkeley, banned student tables on a small strip of land that had been used by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to raise money and to recruit personnel. A coalition of student groups ranging from the Young Republicans to the youth group of the Communist Party protested what they saw as a denial of freedom of speech. In October, 1964, campus police arrested Weinberg for soliciting funds for CORE without university authorization; however, students blocked the police car for more than thirty hours until Weinberg was released. Free Speech movement leaders led by Savio then used rallies, marches, and sit-ins to protest the administration’s actions. In December, 1964, students occupied Sproul Hall, the main administration building. Following the arrest of more than eight hundred students, a student strike occurred. The faculty senate then voted to support the Free Speech movement’s demands. In January, the university relented to the students’ demands, and new rules were established that allowed student groups to set up tables, solicit money, and recruit on the campus.
Colleges and universities experienced large increases in enrollment during the 1960’s as the first baby boomers (born 1946-1964) entered college. In 1964, college enrollment increased by more than 35 percent. Earlier generations of college students were conservative and apathetic, however, many of the students in the 1960’s were more radical and activist oriented. They perceived the rapidly growing university as having become dehumanized. Professors and administrators were isolated from undergraduates, and the university was characterized as a factory turning out products needed by government and industry. Therefore, although the immediate issue was free speech, the more radical students began to see the university as a symbol of the oppressive corporate state and representative of the corrupt society.
Impact
The Free Speech movement marked the beginning of the student movement’s use of direct-action techniques on college campuses. Many members of the New Left, including Berkeley students Weinberg and Savio, had learned these techniques while working in the Civil Rights movement in the South during the summer of 1964. Studies showed that the movement received its greatest support from liberal and radical students and the bulk of these activists had previously been involved in civil rights or political protests. The Free Speech movement marks the climax of the developmental stage of the New Left and served as a link between the Civil Rights movement in the first half of the decade and the antiwar movement in the second half.
In 1965, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War escalated, and many students became involved in the antiwar movement using the tactics and methods of the Free Speech movement. The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) became a major organization on college campuses and began to focus its activities on Vietnam. During the 1967-1968 academic year, an estimated 75 percent of U.S. universities experienced major demonstrations. A confrontation led by SDS members at Columbia University in New York City in 1968, increased the national profile of SDS and resulted in even more campus demonstrations. In the first half of 1969, the National Student Association reported 221 major demonstrations at more than one hundred colleges and universities, and when U.S. troops entered Cambodia in May, 1970, four million students took part in antiwar protests. The convergence of the student movement and the antiwar movement was complete.
Additional Information
See Hal Draper’s Berkeley: The New Student Revolt (1965) for information on the Free Speech movement. For a broader overview of the context of the era, see Lawrence Lader’s Power on the Left: American Radical Movements Since 1946 (1979).