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On the weary night of April 24th students of Columbia University gathered in Hamilton Hall geared with blankets, guitars and other activities to occupy them while they planned to stay in the hall overnight. Little did they know this night would go down in history. In addition to sieging Hamilton Hall, they even held the dean hostage at some point in the night. This turned out to be the most impact night in the weeks of protests that shaped Columbia University’s active voice. This culture is still a cornerstone of modern day ideals of the University.
The Protests
The protests did not only consist of the night at Hamilton Hall but they ranged throughout the last week of April. As the protests progressed they got more powerful and structured. Columbia students made sure they advocated their feelings every time they did not agree with what was occurring at the school. For example they even broke into a construction site on their campus and tore down a fence because they did not agree with a gym being built to separate Harlem and Columbia.
The protesters had always been passionate about what they were fighting for. When given a choice after weeks of protesting to either go peacefully or resist they decided to resist until their bodies go numb and they would have to be carried out by the police. They stood down for nothing. They piled furniture up against the door in order to halt police from getting into the hall in an easy manner.
Another protest about housing on campus even lead to 1100 students being arrested. And that still was not enough for students. As soon as the police had left, campus erupted again with the students who still had been there. This time windows were smashed, cars were crushed and a 15- foot- high barricades were set on fire.
Through all these protests and given the rough year that the school had, the class of 1968 was still able to graduate. Some graduates even walked with speakers under their gowns blasting “The Times they are A’Changing.” This just shows the fire that these students emitted.Columbia students were praised for their energetic lead throughout the year and had inspired many other students (Students on April 24 1968 in Hamilton Hall Protesting)
to represent the campus.
Today
Activism was in schools is very much in direct result of the Columbia University protests and can be seen today at schools such as Berkeley University and even our own school, North High. Fifty years later students are still partaking in voicing their opinion, this was seen especially true in Berkeley during the presidential elections. During that time many groups clashed together hoping to express their ideals through protests. Protests were seen throughout Berkeley, in order to create change. Even more recently the issue of gun violence has become a huge topic in modern politics due to an unreasonable amount of school shootings. In reaction to this students took matters into their own hands creating movements such as “March for Our Lives” which consisted of a march in downtown L.A. to try to advocate stricter gun control.
Not only was this seen at a large scale level, but our school, (Students Protesting Outside of Washington D.C)
North High School, participated in a walkout to honor the victims and
also push for stricter gun control. Our school was not the sole high school
that partook in a protest but many high schools across the entire nation led there own protests with the same goal: honoring the victims and advocating for a better system of gun control.
These events expand on those seen in the 1968 Columbia University protests, which consisted of student run protests, but they were only at one school and it was regarded as one of the top schools in the country. Today, 50 years after the Columbia protests student protests occur across the nation. Protests range from high schools all the way to the top schools in our nation such as Berkeley, a massive change compared to only a few schools that partook in protests in the late 1960’s. Overall the protests of Columbia University marked our nation with a effective way of protests, lead by our youth which continued to grow into what it is today 50 years later.
Works Cited
Admin, A. T. (2018, January 17). David Cortright: Military Resistance to the War.Retrieved from http://vietnamfulldisclosure.org/index.php/david-cortright-military-resistance-war/
Auerbach, S. (n.d.). The Little Generation That Could, and Did.
Black Power at Columbia. (1968). New York, NY: Stephen Donadio
Cruz, F. D. (1998, April). COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 1968. Retrieved June 7, 2018, from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/1968/
Demonstrators Crowd Hamilton Hall Lobby. (2011). Columbia Spectator. Retrieved June 7, 2018, from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_8603880_000/pages/ldpd_8603880_000_00000002.html?toggle=image&menu=maximize&top=200px&left=70px
Lusky, L., & Lusky, M. (1969). Columbia 1968: The Wound Unhealed. Political Science Quarterly, 84(2), 169-288. doi:10.2307/2147260