Free Speech Movement Hold First “Legal” Rally
The Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley, held its first “legal” rally after a long series of protests, demonstrations, and arrests in the fall of 1964.
See especially October 1, 1964, and December 2, 1964, for two of the most important events in the dramatic struggle in the fall of 1964.
The FSM had been sparked by the university’s promise to “strictly enforce” its ban on on-campus recruiting for off-campus political activity on September 16, 1964. The rally on this day was “legal” in the sense that the university had agreed to abandon the policy and respect the free speech rights of students. Folk singer Joan Baez performed at the rally.
Joan Baez Singing at Berkeley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4wYk3nSs9Y
Read: David Lance Goines, The Free Speech Movement: Coming of Age in the 1960s (1993)
Watch a documentary on the Free Speech Movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28aPyBrP0Yc
For a great perspective on the “long Sixties:” Tom Hayden, The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama (2009)
Learn about the 100 Year fight for free speech in America: Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey Stone, The Free Speech Century (2018)