page_title: History of the University of California, Berkeley
section_title: 1960s and the Free Speech Movement
hierarchical_section_title: History of the University of California, Berkeley / 20th Century / 1960s and the Free Speech Movement
caption_attribution_description: This is a photo of a place or building that is listed on the California Historical Landmark listing in the United States. Its reference number is 946. Doe Library sits in the foreground with Memorial Glade, which sits atop several stories of the underground portion of the library, in the center of this frame. In the distance is Albany Hill and the San Francisco Bay.
context_page_description: The history of the University of California, Berkeley can be traced to the establishment of the private College of California and its merger with the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College to form the University of California in 1868.
context_section_description: In the 1960s, Berkeley gained a worldwide reputation for political activism, beginning with the student-led Free Speech Movement. By tradition and given its proximity to the highly-trafficked main entrance to the university, Sproul Plaza had been, and continues to be, an area for public speeches and similar activities, much like Speakers' corner in London's Hyde Park. However, in 1964, the university administration banned political activity on campus.  On October 1, 1964, Jack Weinberg, who had graduated magna cum laude from Berkeley with a degree in mathematics the prior year, was arrested while manning a Campus CORE booth in Sproul Plaza, prompting a series of student-led acts of formal remonstrance and civil disobedience that ultimately gave rise to the Free Speech Movement. The movement would ultimately prevail and serve as precedent for student opposition to America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. 
  University president Clark Kerr would later write that of all the chancellors with whom he had worked, Roger W. Heyns, who served as Berkeley's chancellor from 1965 to 1971, had the most "tormenting" assignment.
  During this era, the most publicized event in Berkeley was the 1969 protest over People's Park, a conflict between the university and a number of Berkeley students and city residents over a plot of land on which the university had intended to construct athletic fields. A grassroots effort by students and residents turned it into a community park, but after a few weeks, the university decided to reclaim control over the property. Law enforcement was sent in and the park was bulldozed, setting off a protest. California governor Ronald Reagan—who had promised during his gubernatorial election campaign that he would address the so-called unruliness at Berkeley and other university campuses—called in National Guard troops, and the violence that followed resulted in over a dozen hospitalizations and the death of one student. Ever since, People's Park has been used as a community park.  On May 8, 2018, the university announced plans to build student housing on the site and to make a portion of the land available for permanent supportive housing.
caption: Memorial Glade, at the center of the Berkeley campus
exif: {}