Talk:Yale University/Archive 3

message: In the fall of 1969, Jerry Rubin and others gathered in Max's Kansas City bar in New York to hatch a plan to "get Yale" because it was one of the few major college campuses that "had yet to experience a massive, unruly demonstration". They chose the trial of Black Panther founder Bobby Seale as their cause.
John Huggins, Jr., son of the steward of the Fence Club at Yale had joined the Black Panthers in California and been killed in a shoot-out with a rival gang in the UCLA cafeteria. When his body was returned to New Haven, his widow and friends formed the nexus of a Black Panther chapter in New Haven at a time when there were few such chapters in the east. The group ran a free breakfast program for children, stockpiled arms, and placed wiretaps. Bobby Seale came to New Haven in spring 1969 to speak at Battell Chapel. After speaking there he retired to Black Panther headquarters on Orchard Street. That same day, Alex Rackley, suspected of being an informant, was tortured by the Panthers with boiling water, lit cigarettes, and an ice pick. The Panthers took Rackley out of town, shot him in the head, and dumped his corpse in the Coginchaug River, where it was found the next day. Seale and three other Black Panthers were arrested and faced the death penalty. (Seale because an implicated Black Panther turned state's evidence and alleged that Seale had ordered the killing).  In 1970, the New Haven Panther Defense Committee was formed and mapped out plans for a massive demonstration, planned for 1 May 1970. 
On April 4, in a move widely condemned as unduly harsh, Black Panthers David Hilliard and Emory Douglas were sentenced by Judge Mulvey to six months in prison for contempt for passing and reading a note from Seale in the courtroom. On Tuesday, April 21, Hilliard and Douglas apologized to the judge and were released. A rally was quickly arranged at Ingalls Rink. The Yale Daily News's headline was "Mass Meeting Called for Tonight: Student Strike Imminent". Hilliard addressed the crowd of 4000: "There ain't nothing wrong with taking the life of a motherfucking pig." The crowd booed. Hilliard, angered by the hostile response, shouted, "I knew you motherfuckers were racist."
On April 15 at Boston, Abbie Hoffmann, speaking at Harvard, said that, in two weeks, Yale would be burned down. Kingman Brewster consulted Archibald Cox at Harvard, who had investigated the 1968 disturbances at Columbia, and who was Harvard's key player in dealing with student disruptions. Brewster decided on the strategy of welcoming the demonstrators to Yale rather than locking it up. At the April 23 faculty meeting Roy Bryce-LaPorte, spokesman for Yale's black faculty, called for a suspension of academic functions and for a reassessment of Yale's relationship with New Haven and the black community: that is, he requested that the university shut down, and become more engaged with black issues, but did not request active support of the Panthers.  He was followed by Kurt Schmoke, the first undergraduate ever to address the Yale faculty, whose speech asking the faculty for guidance swayed many. "You are older than we are, and more experienced. We want guidance from you, moral leadership. On behalf of my fellow students, I beg you to give it to us." Brewster then urged neutrality, stated that Yale would not contribute to the Panther Defense Fund, but urging free speech regarding the trial and race relations. "So in spite of my insistence on the limits of my official capacity, I personally want to say that I am appalled and ashamed that things should have come to such a pass in this country that I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States."  The eventual faculty resolution was modified from the original black faculty resolution, stated that faculty would be free to suspend their classes but did not dictate that they must do so, and was passed by an overwhelming vote. Brewster's statement that day became the most famous thing he had ever said; he was condemned for it, and praised for it. Spiro Agnew nearly immediately called for his resignation: "I do not feel that students of Yale University can get a fair impression of their country under the tutelage of Kingman Brewster."
And so Yale began to implement its policy of "shutting down to open up."
The city's inhabitants were bombarded with rumors of the impending invasion of up to 100,000 bomb-throwing radicals, right-wing motorcycle gangs, and anarchist saboteurs. Arsonists set fires in the law library and several other spots on campus, and persons unknown stole a truckload of rifles in North Branford; a sizable amount of mercury ($2500 worth; worrisome because mercury is used in bomb making) was stolen from Sterling Chemistry Lab. Connecticut's governor announced that the National Guard would be sent to New Haven, backed up by a reserve force of four thousand marines and paratroopers who had just returned from Vietnam.
Brewster called his classmate William Kunstler, scheduled to speak on the Green at the May Day demonstrations, to find out "who the hell" was "in charge" of them. A meeting was arranged with Chicago Seven defendants David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, John Froines, Ann Froines, William Sloane Coffin, Cyrus Vance, and Kingman Brewster. It was agreed that if the May Day leaders would advise the demonstrators against violence, Brewster would try to arrange to move the National Guard off the Green. (In fact, he had already made this arrangement.)
Yale's Sam Chauncey had conspired with New Haven police chief James Ahern to have the busses chartered by the Weathermen at Boston to be driven by undercover state police officers and to develop "mechanical difficulties" on the Massachusetts Turnpike, leaving two busloads of Weathermen with no way to get to the demonstration.
Between 10,000 to 20,000 demonstrators came to New Haven—fewer than expected. Yale housed and fed them, student volunteers served as marshals, medics, and day-care attendants. Pierson College master John Hersey noted "the provocateur's basic requirement, an inflammable majority, simply was not there."  Non-violence was preached from the rostrum; police maintained order; National Guardsmen were kept some blocks away, at Grove Street Cemetery. Hersey characterized it: "A peaceful demonstration marred an otherwise promising holocaust."  After nightfall, false rumors spread that police were arresting Black Panthers. Minor scuffles erupted, and police used tear gas. At midnight, three bombs exploded at David S. Ingalls Rink, blocks from the lab from which the mercury had been stolen. There were no injuries and damages of about $100,000). The weekend ended with just 37 arrests (only one of these was a Yale student) and no serious injuries. Classes resumed on May 4. Later that day National Guardsmen at Kent State in Ohio fired into a crowd of students, killing four. May Day at Yale and the shootings at Kent State marked the end of the era of widespread national student protest. An action "which started as an affair in support of the Black Panther defendants," John Hersey wrote in Letter to the Alumni, "ended up more or less a memorial to the white Kent State dead." 
A year later, on 26 May 1971, charges against Seale and Huggins were dismissed because of a hung jury.
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Anyway, that's a little something I whipped up. Discuss among yourselves. - Nunh-huh 03:12, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  May Day and the David S. Ingalls Rink bombing 

message: *"Source citations are needed for each of these societies (this tag isn't just tagging Scroll and Key. We could have an individual citation for each society, or a single citation to a reliable source that mentions the entire list. Shouldn't be that hard for these--I don't doubt the existence of Skull and Bones--but is especially important for anything alleged to be "secret". Please do not remove the fact tag until each society mentioned has been sourced."
**That's my comment, and the societies have now been adequately sourced, no problem any more. Dpbsmith (talk) 14:50, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: HTML comments removed