Graying activists return to Berkeley to mark '64 free speech protests
I was younger than these folks, but I remember it as if was yesterday. Where do the years go? It's encouraging to know that not all of our generation have forgotten.
LA Times
Fifty years ago, Jack Weinberg was the first to be arrested in an unprecedented student protest over free speech restrictions on the UC Berkeley campus. Thousands of demonstrators surrounded the police car in which Weinberg was detained for 32 hours. Subsequent protests went on for months.
While UC authorities had hoped for a quick return to order, a seminal youth rebellion — the Free Speech Movement — was born on Sproul Plaza instead. Historians say its national influence persists through decades of political activism, on and off college campuses.
This week, the university that once sought to censor Weinberg and other leaders of that movement is welcoming them back as heroes and historical figures.
Berkeley is commemorating the half-century anniversary of that tumultuous fall 1964 semester with lectures, classes, concerts, exhibits and other activities that will culminate with a rally Wednesday at Sproul Plaza."Fifty years have passed, and it's pretty safe to be a supporter of the Free Speech Movement now," said Weinberg, 74, who is a consultant to groups seeking to clean up environmental pollution. As in many disputes, the losing side now embraces the cause it had fought, he said.
<snip> Read more at:
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-berkeley-free-speech-20140928-story.html#page=1
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Mahalo mimi~
