Student Activism in the 1960s
A unit created under the direction of the UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project.
Mario Savio atop a police car in front of Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley, October 1, 1964.
Credit: Courtesy of UC Berkeley, The Bancroft Library.
Miroslaba Velo
Natalie Mendoza
Teacher, Tennyson High School
Graduate Student, Department of History
Hayward Unified School District
University of California, Berkeley
Find online: ucbhssp.berkeley.edu/FSM
2014 © UC Regents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Unit Overview
1
Resources and References for Classroom Activities
4
Unit Map
5
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom Struggle
The COFO Freedom Schools
7
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus
The Free Speech Movement
34
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State College
The Third World Liberation Front
46
Assessment
69
Acknowledgements
74
UNIT
OVERVIEW
This unit, composed of three multi-day lessons, was constructed by high school teacher Miroslaba Velo
and graduate student Natalie Mendoza, in consultation with the UC Berkeley History-Social Science
Project to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) and as part of a larger
collaboration with the students enrolled in the Ethnic Studies class at CAL Prep, an Aspire Public School.
It was funded through a grant from the Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund.
In positioning an exploration of the FSM amidst a larger study of student activism in the 1960s, it
highlights the FSM as a key event in the evolution of student demands in the 1960s. Students will need to
understand a basic chronology of the black freedom struggle and explore the significance of student
activism during the 1960s. Mario Savio, one of the early leaders of the FSM, participated in the
Mississippi Summer Project, sponsored by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). Additionally,
the conflict over free speech at UC Berkeley extended from the increased civil rights activism of the
university’s students. After exploring the demands of the FSM, students will explore the emergence of the
Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) at San Francisco State, which eventually led to the creation of the
College of Ethnic Studies. Through these lessons, students will be able to compare and contrast how each
group reimagined the role of schools and education as well as make connections to their own experience
as high school students.
Unit Topic: Student Activism in the 1960s
Unit Focus Question: What did student activists in the 1960s believe the role of schools should be?
Unit Teaching Thesis: During the 1960s, student activists demanded that their schools provide them
with relevant education that could lead to societal change. Students in freedom schools were taught
African American history and leadership skills that would equip them in furthering the black freedom
struggle. The students of the Free Speech Movement protested and sat in at Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley’s
administration building, to force the university to allow students to freely engage in political activity on
campus. The Third World Liberation Front, a coalition of students of color, pushed for the creation of a
College of Ethnic Studies that would provide them with the tools to improve communities of color.
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom Struggle - The COFO Freedom Schools
Focus Question: How did the actions of student activists build momentum within the black freedom
struggle?
Goal: Using primary and secondary texts, students will develop a basic understanding of the
chronology of the classic period of the black freedom struggle, 1954-1965, specifically focusing on
the significance of student activism.
Lesson Components:
1. Read a textbook excerpt on student activism during the black freedom struggle.
2. Create a chronology of student activism and determine significance.
3. Analyze the goals of the Mississippi Summer Project and the freedom school curriculum.
Extension: Compare the freedom school prospectus with the course requirements at your school,
including the A-G requirements. What types of courses should be added to the current curriculum?
Page | 1
UNIT
OVERVIEW
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus - The Free Speech Movement
Focus Question: How did the Free Speech Movement reflect new ideas about what students should
expect from colleges and universities?
Goal: Using primary and secondary texts, including a film clip, students will identify the demands
of student activists at UC Berkeley and how they initiated a new relationship between students
and university administrators.
Lesson Components:
1. Watch the film clip from “1964”, an American Experience documentary (11 minutes), discuss
media analysis (worksheet), and answer text-based questions.
2. Analyze Mario Savio’s speech, “An End to History,” to explore differing perspectives on the role
of the university.
3. Compare and contrast the distinct and evolving demands of the FSM.
Extension: Investigate what rights students have to express their personal and political beliefs on
their current school campus. What limits should be placed on student rights at school?
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Focus Question: How did the TWLF expand upon the demands expressed by earlier student
activists?
Goal: Using primary and secondary sources, students will identify the distinct and overlapping
goals of activist groups within the TWLF coalition and explore how these students demanded an
education that would have a positive impact on their communities.
Lesson Components:
1. Evaluate a timeline of TWLF events to determine historical significance and continuity and
change.
2. Identify the problems and solutions defined by the TWLF.
3. Compare and contrast the demands of member groups in the TWLF coalition.
Extension: Create protest signs about current concerns in education. What is missing from
education today?
Final Assessment: Using what they learned about the freedom schools, the Free Speech Movement, and
the Third World Liberation Front, students will be able to identify continuities and changes with regard
to student activists’ expectation for their education.
Writing Question: What did student activists in the 1960s believe the role of schools should be?
Page | 2
UNIT
OVERVIEW
California History-Social Science Content Standard:
11.10 Students analyze the development of federal civil and voting rights.
5. Discuss the diffusion of the civil rights movement of African Americans from the churches of the rural
South and the urban North, including the resistance to racial desegregation on Little Rock and
Birmingham, and how the advances influenced the agendas, strategies, and effectiveness of the quests
of American Indians, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans for civil rights and equal opportunities.
12.2 Students evaluate and take and defend positions on the scope and limits of rights and obligations as
democratic citizens, the relationships among them, and how they are secured.
1. Discuss the meaning and importance of each of the rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and
how each is secured.
California Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills:
Chronological and Spatial Thinking
2. Students analyze how change happens at different rates at different times; understand that
some aspects can change while others remain the same; and understand that change is
complicated and affects not only technology and politics but also values and beliefs.
Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View
4. Students construct and test hypotheses; collect, evaluate, and employ information from
multiple primary and secondary sources; and apply it in oral and written presentations.
Historical Interpretation
1. Students show the connections, casual and otherwise, between particular historical events and
larger social, economic and political trends and developments.
Common Core Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12: Grade 9-12 Students:
RI.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.
RI.11-12.7. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media
or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve
a problem.
Common Core Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12: Grade 9-12 Students:
WHST-01 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
WHST-04 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style
are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Page | 3
RESOURCES AND REFERENCES FOR
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Part 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
Henkin, David, and Rebecca M. McLennan. Becoming America: A History for the 21st Century. Volume II: From
Reconstruction. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, [2015]. *
COFO brochure, “Mississippi Freedom Summer.” Undated. Box 1, Folder 9. Alice Kaplow Papers, 1964-1968, MSS
507. Archives Main Stacks. Wisconsin Historical Society.
http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15932coll2/id/6787. Accessed August 14, 2014. ‡
“Prospectus for a Summer Freedom School Program.” Undated. Box 1, Folder 5. Jerry Tecklin Papers, 1964, MSS
538. Archive Main Stacks. Wisconsin Historical Society.
http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15932coll2/id/9537. Accessed August 14, 2014. ‡
Part 2: Student Rights on Campus - The Free Speech Movement
Excerpt from 1964. American Experience. WGBH Educational Foundation. http://youtu.be/Y-qPWDjOS3A. Posted
by “UCBerkeleyUGIS,” April 21, 2014. Accessed September 24, 2014.
Savio, Mario. “An End to History.” In Humanity: An Arena of Critique and Commitment, No. 2, edited by Charles
McCoy. Berkeley: Pacific School of Religion, December 1964.
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt067n97c2&&doc.view=entire_text. Accessed August 14, 2014.
“Free Speech Now!” Undated. Free Speech Movement Archives. http://www.fsma.org/FSM%20Documents/FSM%20Sept-Oct%20Documents/Webpages/detail.np/detail-01.html. Accessed
August, 14, 2014. †
“FSM Demands,” October 12, 1964. Free Speech Movement Archives. http://www.fsma.org/FSM%20Documents/FSM%20Sept-Oct%20Documents/Webpages/detail.np/detail-10.html. Accessed
August 14, 2014. †
“Acknowledge These On-Campus Rights.” October 28, 1964. Free Speech Movement Archives. http://www.fsma.org/FSM%20Documents/FSM%20Sept-Oct%20Documents/Webpages/detail.np/detail-41.html. Accessed
August 14, 2014. †
Part 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University – The TWLF
“Chronology of Events.” The San Francisco State College Strike Collection. Special Collections and Archives, J. Paul
Leonard Library. San Francisco State University.
http://www.library.sfsu.edu/about/collections/strike/chronology.html. Accessed August 14, 2014. §
TWLF Demands and Coalition Position Papers. The San Francisco State College Strike Collection. Special Collections
and Archives, J. Paul Leonard Library. San Francisco State University.
https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/strike/bundles/187979. Accessed August 14, 2014. §
Page | 4
UNIT MAP
Last Unit
Current Unit
Next Unit
Student Activism in the 1960s
Student Activism & COFO
Freedom Schools
How did the actions of student
activists build momentum within the
black freedom struggle?
-Overview of student-led events
(textbook)
1. Greensboro sit-ins
2. Founding of SNCC
3. Freedom Rides
4. Birmingham Children’s March
5. Mississippi Summer Project (MSP)
- Analysis of freedom schools as a
key component of the MSP
(leaflet/prospectus)
is about students demanding an
education that is relevant and
empowering.
The Free Speech Movement (FSM)
How did the Free Speech Movement reflect new
ideas about what students should expect from
colleges and universities?
- Overview of the FSM (documentary)
- Analysis of Mario Savio’s critique of the
university (speech)
Third World Liberation Front
(TWLF)
How did the TWLF expand upon
the demands expressed by earlier
student activists?
- Determine significant events
that led to the establishment of a
College of Ethnic Studies at SF
State College (timeline)
- Analysis of the competing and
overlapping interests of different
student groups within the TWLF
(documents)
-Comparison of demands UCB student activists
made upon the university (documents)
Unit Focus Question: What did student activists in the 1960s believe the role of schools should be?
Thinking Skills:
Teaching Thesis: During the 1960s, student activists demanded that their schools provide them
with relevant education that could lead to societal change. Students in freedom schools were
taught African American history and leadership skills that would equip them in furthering the
black freedom struggle. The students of the Free Speech Movement protested and sat in at Sproul
Hall, UC Berkeley’s administration building, to force the university to allow all students to freely
engage in political activity on campus. The Third World Liberation Front, a coalition of students of
color, pushed for the implementation of a College of Ethnic Studies that would provide them with
the tools to improve the community.
Continuity & Change
Cause & Consequence
Significance
Perspective
Source Material:
Movement Timelines Protest Speeches
Documentary Film
Student Demands
Page | 5
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
World War
II
(1939-1945)
Allies (USA,
Great Britain,
France &
Soviet Union)
fought against
the Axis
Powers
(Germany,
Japan)
1939
1945
Cold War (1945 – 1991)
The political tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The goal of the U.S. was to contain communism,
whereas the Soviet Union tried to spread it.
Part 2: The Free
Speech Movement
(1964-65)
In the fall of 1964,
thousands of UC
Berkeley students, led
by Mario Savio,
protested the
university’s decisions
on limiting free
speech.
1954
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1991
The Civil Rights Movement (1954 – 1968)
A movement in which African Americans fought to gain civil rights.
Part 1: The
Mississippi Freedom
Summer Project
(1964)
Mostly northern
students travelled to
the South to register
African Americans to
vote and volunteer in
local organizations.
Part 3: The Third
World Liberation Front
(1967-69)
A series of protests took
place at San Francisco
State College in which
different coalitions of
students demanded the
implementation of a
School of Ethnic Studies.
Page | 6
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
Unit Focus Question: What did student activists in the 1960s believe the role of schools should be?
Unit Teaching Thesis: During the 1960s, student activists demanded that their schools provide them
with relevant education that could lead to societal change. Students in freedom schools were taught
African American history and leadership skills that would equip them in furthering the black freedom
struggle. The students of the Free Speech Movement protested and sat in at Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley’s
administration building, to force the university to allow all students to freely engage in political activity
on campus. The Third World Liberation Front, a coalition of students of color, pushed for the
implementation of a College of Ethnic Studies that would provide them with the tools to improve the
community.
Lesson Focus Question: How did the actions of student activists build momentum within the black
freedom struggle?
Goal: Using primary and secondary texts, students will develop a basic understanding of the chronology
of the classic period of the black freedom struggle, 1954-1965, specifically focusing on the significance of
student activism.
This multi-day lesson will 1) provide students with a foundational understanding of student activism
during the classic period of the black freedom struggle, 2) build deeper knowledge of the Council of
Federated Organizations, a coalition of civil rights organizations in Mississippi that heavily relied on the
organizers and leadership of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 3) and the freedom
schools COFO conducted for Mississippi youth during the summer of 1964. By the end of the lesson,
students should be able to make a connection between the founding of SNCC, and its more strident
actions and demands, and the ideas incorporated into the outreach of COFO and the proposed freedom
school curriculum.
Lesson Components:
4. Read a textbook excerpt on student activism during the black freedom struggle.
5. Create a chronology of student activism and determine significance.
6. Analyze the goals of the Mississippi Summer Project and the freedom school curriculum.
Extension: Compare the freedom school prospectus with the course requirements at your school,
including the A-G requirements. What types of courses should be added to the current curriculum?
Page | 7
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
Name: ____________________________________
Directions:
1) Read the first paragraph from the Becoming America text and underline evidence that shows how
student activists shaped the freedom movement.
2) Use the provided chart to organize your notes.
Focus Question: How did the actions of student activists build momentum within the black freedom
struggle?
Excerpt: These impassioned youths pushed the freedom movement toward a bolder, more
confrontational strategy by physically integrating lunch counters, bus terminals, and other public spaces
around the South. Segregationists met their efforts with an epidemic of violence, which in turn, publicized
African Americans’ plight. Tens of thousands of white Northerners joined the freedom movement, and
President Kennedy finally called for new civil rights legislation to stop the violence.
David Henkin and Rebecca McLennan, Becoming America: A History for the 21st Century (2014), 794.
Historical Actors
Actions
pushed the freedom movement
Consequences
met their efforts
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X
joined the freedom movement
publicized African Americans’
plight.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X
finally called
Page | 8
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
Worksheet page 1/2
3) Read the full text from Becoming America and underline evidence of how students were involved.
4) Select the five student-led events that you think are most important and complete the chart below.
5) Based on your answers to both charts, respond to the focus question.
Focus Question: How did the actions of student activists build momentum within the black freedom
struggle?
Determining Significance:
Signal Words:
Chronology, chain of
events
Time Markers/
Transition Words
Signal words:
First, second, next, finally, subsequently, afterwards, until, previously, before,
until, during
Event
Significance to Content Question
Page | 9
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
Worksheet page 2/2
Page | 10
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
Paragraph Frame for Writing
Focus Question: How did the actions of student activists build momentum within the black freedom
struggle?
Topic Sentence:
Supporting Evidence #1
Analysis of Evidence #1:
Supporting Evidence #2:
Analysis of Evidence #2:
Supporting Evidence #3:
Analysis of Evidence #3:
Concluding Sentence:
Page | 11
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
TEACHER KEY
Note: Below we have listed a number of possible answers based on the reading. We have provided a
sample answer for significance as well as direct quotes from the text. Teachers could also use excerpts
from their own textbooks rather than the provided text.
Directions:
1) Read the first paragraph from the Becoming America text and underline evidence that shows how
student activists shaped the freedom movement.
2) Use the provided chart to organize your notes.
Focus Question: How did the actions of student activists build momentum within the black freedom
struggle?
Excerpt: These impassioned youths pushed the freedom movement toward a bolder, more
confrontational strategy by physically integrating lunch counters, bus terminals, and other public spaces
around the South. Segregationists met their efforts with an epidemic of violence, which in turn, publicized
African Americans’ plight. Tens of thousands of white Northerners joined the freedom movement, and
President Kennedy finally called for new civil rights legislation to stop the violence.
David Henkin and Rebecca McLennan, Becoming America: A History for the 21st Century (2014), pg 794.
Historical Actors
These impassioned youths
Actions
pushed the freedom movement
Consequences
toward a bolder, more
confrontational strategy by
physically integrating lunch
counters, bus terminals, and other
public spaces around the South.
Segregationists
met their efforts
with an epidemic of violence,
which in turn,
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX publicized African Americans’
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX plight.
Tens of thousands of white
Northerners
joined the freedom movement
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
President Kennedy
finally called
for new civil rights legislation to
stop the violence
1) Read the full text from Becoming America and underline evidence of how students were involved.
Page | 12
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
2) Select the five student-led events that you think are most important and complete the chart below.
3) Based on your answers to both charts, respond to the focus question.
Focus Question: How did the actions of student activists build momentum within the black freedom
struggle?
Determining Significance:
Signal Words:
Chronology, chain of events
Time Markers/
Transition Words
Signal words:
First, second, next, finally, subsequently, afterwards, until, previously,
before, until, during
Event
Significance to Content Question
in 1954
the Supreme Court ordered
schools to desegregate
This case built momentum for the freedom
movement since the Supreme court set a precedent
that “separate but equal” was illegal and therefore
the future actions of students would try to apply this
ruling to other public places as their expectations
increased and they were placed on the front lines of
integration.
In the spring of 1960
four African American
freshmen from North
Carolina A&T staged a sit in
The actions of these students built momentum for
the freedom movement because “twenty-three other
students” had joined the sit-ins the following day
including “some white students from a local women’s
college.” Furthermore, “reporters began covering the
sit-in, and within weeks, similar protests had spread
to fifty-four southern cities . . . . In the North, too,
thousands of whites and African American students
sat in at Woolworth’s counters to protest the chain’s
enforcement of southern segregation.”
Consequently, the “tactics gave news teams plenty of
vivid footage-- and won the protestors plenty of
publicity.”
a few months after the
Greensboro sit-ins
The Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) - pronounced
“Snick”, was founded in
Raleigh, North Carolina
The founding of SNCC gave young people an
organizational home from which they could set their
own agenda. The actions of these students built
momentum for the freedom movement because it
“influenced other civil rights organizations” such as
CORE to carry on the freedom rides.
In the spring of 1961
the Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE) -founded in
1941 - organized the first
freedom rides to test the
federal court order to
desegregate buses and
terminals
The actions of these students built momentum for
the freedom movement because the violent attacks
endured by the freedom riders were televised and
“undermining the United States’ image abroad at an
especially tense stage of the Cold War.” This put the
government under immense pressure to act and
address the situation.
Page | 13
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
[after the freedom rides]
In 1962
in April 1963
in the summer of 1964
On August 28, 1963
the Kennedy administration urged
SNCC to focus on voter registration
SNCC started focusing on not just
desegregation but also voter
registration, more young people got
involved and had experiences in the
Deep South
SNCC sent hundreds of activists to
This would lay the groundwork for
the South to register voters
the Mississippi Summer Project
(Freedom Summer) as SNCC knew
it needed to bring national
attention to the low voter
registration rates in Mississippi
Protestors boycotted local
Even after being careful of
department stores and a street
“depriving the protestors of a
march by hundreds of worshippers newsworthy event,” Bull Connor’s
from the Sixteenth Street Baptist
use of dogs and fire hoses made the
Church [in Birmingham, Alabama].
nightly news; “television images of
uniformed men attacking
nonviolent children triggered mass
outrage.” This event “turned the
tide” as the United States was
internationally embarrassed and
more importantly, “hundreds of
thousands of previously hesitant
African Americans across the nation
joined the movement.”
hundreds of northern students
Three young activists were
fanned out across the South,
murdered -- “These acts broadcast
particularly Mississippi, during the
the message that some
Freedom Summer to register
segregationists were prepared to
African American voters
use any means necessary” and not
only increased more national
attention but also pushed more
people to join the movement.
a quarter of a million people
Although the original speech of
gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in SNCC’s John Lewis was never read,
Washington, D.C. for the March on
“cameras strung from atop the
Washington for Freedom and Jobs – Washington Monument captured
SNCC’s John Lewis was scheduled to the length and breadth of the
speak [and asked to tone down his
protest beneath. The images of a
speech by movement elders and the sprawling, racially integrated
Kennedy administration]
crowd assembled peacefully on the
Mall were unprecedented.” “The
March on Washington brought
African Americans and whites
together as never before” and
“galvanized individuals of all
backgrounds.”
Page | 14
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
Paragraph Frame for Writing
TEACHER KEY
Focus Question: How did the actions of student activists build momentum within the black freedom
struggle?
Topic Sentence:
The actions of student activists provoked violent responses from southern segregationists, and public attention
to this violence placed pressure on the federal government to finally pass and enforce civil rights legislation.
Supporting Evidence #1:
Hoping their actions would build momentum for the freedom movement, they attracted the national
media, which aided them in pressuring the government to pass important legislation. For example,
starting in 1960, four African American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina decided to sit-in
at a segregated lunch counter at a Woolworth’s store.
Analysis of Evidence #1:
This courageous act inspired twenty-three other students to join them the next day. Within weeks, the
four college students had inspired students in fifty-four southern cities to implement similar protests.
Supporting Evidence #2:
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was established just a few months after the sit-ins.
Analysis of Evidence #2:
SNCC, as it became known, would play a vital role in organizing the Mississippi Summer Project, which
also brought further attention to the movement when three young volunteers were violently murdered.
Supporting Evidence #3:
Perhaps the most compelling event in continuing to build the freedom movement was the Children’s
March in Birmingham, Alabama.
Analysis of Evidence #3:
Children being attacked by dogs and fire hoses made the national evening news thus continuing to build
the momentum for the Civil Rights Movement; not only was the country outraged, but also internationally
embarrassed.
Concluding Sentence:
Younger activists, like the students in SNCC and participants in the Children’s March, were willing to take
new and daring risks that pushed the United States government to enact new civil rights laws.
Page | 15
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
David Henkin and Rebecca McLennan, Becoming America: A History for the 21st Century. New York:
McGraw-Hill Education, 2015, pages 794-797.
YOUTH AND THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT
Back on the domestic front, as President Kennedy stalled on civil rights reform, a younger generation of
activists gained momentum in the South. These impassioned youths pushed the freedom movement
toward a bolder, more confrontational strategy by physically integrating lunch counters, bus terminals,
and other public spaces around the South. Segregationists met their efforts with an epidemic of
violence, which in turned publicized African Americans' plight. Tens of thousands of white Northerners
joined the freedom movement, and President Kennedy finally called for new civil rights legislation to
stop the violence.
STUDENTS EMPOWER THE MOVEMENT
Prosperous Greensboro, North Carolina, home to excellent public schools and two leading black colleges
seemed like the last place where the African American freedom movement would confront Jim Crow.
Greensboro’s white leaders prided themselves on their relatively progressive politics and the civility
with which townspeople treated one another, even across the color line. African Americans voted and
ran for office, and when the Supreme Court ordered schools to desegregate in 1954, the city complied.
Despite appearances, though, segregation still held sway. Only a few African Americans had been
admitted to white schools by 1960, and blacks remained subject to segregation in restaurants,
employment, and public amenities.
In the spring of 1960, four African American freshmen from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical
College courageously demonstrated that Jim Crow was alive and well in Greensboro. Respectably
dressed in suit and tie, the students entered a Woolworth's store and, after buying a few items, sat at
the segregated lunch counter. Refused service, the four remained at the counter for almost an hour
before leaving. The following day, they returned with twenty-three other students - and they repeated
their action every day through the end of the week, by which some white students from a local women's
college had also joined the protest. Reporters began covering the sit-in, and within weeks, similar
protests had spread to fifty-four southern cities. Several thousand young African Americans were
arrested, and many more assaulted by enraged whites. Nonetheless, the protests continued. In the
North, too, thousands of whites and African American students sat in at Woolworth's counters to
protest the chain's enforcement of southern segregation.
The sit-ins marked a change of strategy, aims, and personnel for the freedom movement. Unlike the
carefully planned actions of the 1950s, the new protests began as spontaneous acts of defiance,
uncoordinated by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) or other
established civil rights groups and led by young people, mostly college students. The protesters bravely
used their bodies to integrate lunch counters and, eventually, all kinds of segregated spaces. Perfectly
suited for the television age, such tactics gave news teams plenty of vivid footage-and won the
protesters plenty of publicity. The new approach provoked white segregationists into spectacular acts
of violence that appalled many northerners, mobilizing popular support for change. Such actions
empowered individual protesters by letting their voices be heard and changing the national
conversation.
As the sit-ins spread, their message also became far more ambitious: not only must the South end
segregation, but the entire nation, including the federal government, must do whatever was necessary
to reverse centuries of discrimination and inequality. A new organization, the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced “Snick"), was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina, a few
Page | 16
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
months after the Greensboro sit-ins. The first student-led civil rights organization, SNCC became the
driving force of the freedom movement. Idealistic and brimming with confidence, SNCC founders
understood that they were making history and believed that their courage and moral rectitude would
triumph over injustice.
Thousands of young African Americans joined SNCC. In the North, many white students who were
previously uninterested in politics also signed up. The remarkable sight of African American youths
quietly exposing the brutality of Jim Crow shook many people out of their complacency and showed
them that positive change was possible. . . . .
GOVERNMENT INDECISION
SNCC's strategy influenced other civil rights organizations. In the spring of 1961, the Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE, founded in 1941) organized the first of several freedom rides in which interracial
groups traveled by public buses across the South to test the enforcement of federal court orders to
desegregate buses and terminals. CORE's founder, James Farmer, knew that the riders were likely to
provoke violence among whites . . . . True to expectations, white segregationists viciously beat the
activists at almost every stop, even firebombing the buses. Local police rarely intervened and on more
than one occasion gave Ku Klux Klansmen time to beat riders before stepping in to "protect" them . . . .
Attorney General Robert Kennedy, brother of JFK, requested that Alabama’s governor ensure that
activists proceeded without harassment through his state. Despite assurances, however, local police
stood by as white segregationists bat riders senseless.
The Kennedys also urged SNCC members to focus on registering black voters instead of staging sit-ins.
SNCC eventually agreed, sending hundreds of young African American and white activists out across the
South in 1962. Mississippi, a Deep South state with a brutal record on race relations, became the testing
ground. With the help of the NAACP and Harlem-born activist Robert Moses, students worked with
locals there, opening "freedom schools" that taught reading, math, and history as well as strategies for
passing the literacy test that had been used to deny African Americans the vote since 1890. Thousands
of la borers and farmers passed the test, but state registrars failed them anyway. Organizers were
beaten and even killed, and registration rates remained low . . . .
TURNING THE TIDE
Neither the freedom movement nor southern whites backed down. Indeed, 1963 saw more mass
protests and more violence against nonviolent African American citizens than any other year in the
movement's history.
In the first half of the year, Martin Luther King, Jr., and leaders in the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference a black civil rights organization . . . , had identified Birmingham as the ideal place in which to
intensify the struggle. Thoroughly segregated, the city had a history of against African Americans. Police
chief Eugene "Bull" and his force were allied to the local Klan and enjoyed the support of the most
outspoken segregationist in the South, Alabama governor George C. Wallace. Confronting segregation in
Birmingham would provoke Connor into a savage crackdown--and thrust the freedom movement back
into the national spotlight.
The Birmingham protests began in April 1963 with a boycott of local department stores and a street
march by hundreds of worshippers from the Sixteenth Street Baptist SCLC's organizing base. On this
occasion, Bull Connor's acted cautiously, depriving the protesters of a newsworthy After Martin Luther
King, Jr., defied a local court order to demonstrations, he was arrested and jailed for nine days . . . .
Page | 17
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
After King's release, the SCLC redoubled its efforts to provoke Connor. Leaders organized a children’s
march which over a thousand youngsters, aged six to eighteen, out of the Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church while joyously singing "We Shall Overcome." Connor again ordered police to refrain from
intervening. But when the children marched the next day, too, Connor’s men unleashed the full force of
their fury. Police attack dogs dragged some youngsters to the ground, while firemen used highpressure hoses to disperse others. Television images of uniformed men attacking nonviolent children
triggered mass outrage. President Kennedy declared that the "shameful events" had been "so much
more eloquently reported by the news camera than by any number of explanatory words.” The images
disgraced Birmingham, and the name Bull Connor became synonymous with segregationist hate.
The children's march turned the tide. Embarrassed by international spectacle of brutality - and worried
that it might damage trade deals with the city's steel industry - Birmingham’s business elite prevailed
on stores and restaurants to desegregate and to hire African Americans at all ranks. Now emboldened,
hundreds of thousands of previously hesitant African Americans across the nation joined the
movement. Protests against equality in housing, education, and employment erupted in 186 cities,
including Birmingham, Alabama. And for the first time, President Kennedy endorsed the goals of
desegregation and equal rights, ordering his advisers to draft the most comprehensive civil rights
legislation in history . . . .
Then in 1964, as hundreds of northern students fanned out across the South during the Freedom
Summer to register African American voters, Klansmen murdered three young activists, including two
white volunteers. These acts broadcast the message that some segregationists were prepared to use
any means necessary – including terrorism – to stop the country’s “second Reconstruction.”
MARCHING FOR FREEDOM AND JOBS
The well-publicized events in Birmingham and Mississippi reverberated just as loudly in African
American communities outside the South . . . . On August 28, 1963, a quarter of a million people
gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The largest public demonstration in U.S. history to
that time, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was broadcast live, reaching a national
audience of tens of millions and millions more overseas . . . .
That day, Martin Luther King delivered a more powerful version of a speech he had given during the
Great March in Detroit. "I have a dream," the leader proclaimed, "[that] my four children will one day
live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their
character." Young SNCC chairman John Lewis had planned to demand "Justice Now!" for African
Americans and to criticize President Kennedy's civil rights promise as "too little, too late." At the last
minute, however, King and fellow SCLC leaders persuaded Lewis to temper his anger . . . . The March on
Washington brought African Americans and whites together as never before. King's conciliatory vision
of the American dream galvanized individuals of all backgrounds. Nevertheless, according to Gallup
polls, over a third of the nation's population still held an unfavorable view of the civil rights leader, and
even more disapproved of the freedom movement. Moreover, the disagreement between SNCC and
older-generation activists over John Lewis’s intended speech foreshadowed a deeper split in the
freedom movement. Younger activists were losing patience with nonviolence, particularly as more and
more SNCC organizers suffered beatings, harassment, and killings. They also doubted that voter
registration drives and efforts to integrate schools and restaurants were enough to address the plight of
most African Americans, and believed that ambitious economic, educational, welfare, and health
reforms were also urgently needed . . . .
Page | 18
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The COFO Freedom Schools
Name: ________________________________________
Mississippi Summer Project (1964)
Directions: Read the following pamphlet and complete the primary source analysis worksheet and
answer the focus question.
Focus Question: How did the Council of Federated Organizations attempt to gain the support of
Mississippians for the Summer Project?
Context: The Mississippi Summer Project, or “Freedom Summer,” a coalition of civil rights organizations
in Mississippi, called COFO, recruited nearly one thousand volunteers to travel to Mississippi during the
summer of 1964. These volunteers, many of whom were college students, helped full time organizers and
local people improve opportunities for black Mississippians. One aspect of the summer’s programming
was freedom schools.
COFO brochure, “Mississippi Freedom Summer.” Undated. Box 1, Folder 9. Alice Kaplow Papers, 1964-1968, MSS 507. Archives
Main Stacks. Wisconsin Historical Society. http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15932coll2/id/6787.
Accessed August 14, 2014.
Page | 19
ANALYZING A PRIMARY SOURCE
Focus Question: How did the Council of Federated Organizations attempt to gain the support of Mississippians for the Summer Project?
Title of Source: _____________________________________ Author: ____________________ Genre (letter, cartoon, photo, etc.): ________________
WHEN & WHERE
WHO
Place and Time: Where and When was it published?
Author: Background, sex, race, social class, education; What is his/her
perspective?
Historical Context: What was going on during this event or era/period?
Audience: Who is the intended audience?
OBSERVATIONS
DESCRIPTION OF SOURCE
What I see…
Evidence of...
MEANING
What the objects, words, etc. mean
MESSAGE/ARGUMENT
The author is trying to tell me…
QUESTIONS
I wonder…
My reaction to the source is…
Page | 20
INTEGRATING PRIMARY & SECONDARY TEXTS
Directions: Answer the focus question using evidence from the textbook and the primary source.
Focus Question: How did the Council of Federated Organizations attempt to gain the support of Mississippians for the Summer Project?
_
Page | 21
ANALYZING A PRIMARY SOURCE
TEACHER KEY
Focus Question: How did the Council of Federated Organizations attempt to gain the support of Mississippians for the Summer Project?
Title of Source: __Mississippi Freedom Summer________ Author: ___COFO___ Genre (letter, cartoon, photo, etc.): ____Pamphlet_____
WHEN & WHERE
WHO
Place and Time: Where and When was it published?
State of Mississippi, Spring, 1964
Author: Background, sex, race, social class, education; What is his/her
perspective?
Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of civil rights
organizations in Mississippi
Historical Context: What was going on during this event or era/period?
Audience: Who is the intended audience?
SNCC, which had been founded in 1960, invited nearly one thousand
mostly white volunteers to Mississippi. Mississippi was seen as one of the
most opposed states to black civil rights.
The people of Mississippi, particularly black Mississippians who lived in
Clarksdale, Columbus, Greenwood, Hattiesburg, and Meridian.
OBSERVATIONS
DESCRIPTION OF SOURCE
What I see…
Evidence of...
MEANING
What the objects, words, etc. mean
MESSAGE/ARGUMENT
The author is trying to tell me…
Questions
I wonder . . .
1. An outline of the state of
Mississippi with a black and white
hand shaking in the middle of it
and the words “Council of
Federated Organizations” printed
around the image
1. The outline of the state of Mississippi is
showing the location of where Freedom
Summer is taking place. The shaking black
and white hand represents an agreement/
cooperation between whites and blacks. The
words “Council…” represent the
organization in charge of trying to
implement Freedom Summer.
1. The goal of Mississippi Freedom
Summer (MFS) is to bring whites and
blacks together in the state of
Mississippi.
Note: Students should
use this column to
generate questions and
extend their thinking
Samples:
*What don’t I see/know
after reading the source?
What’s missing?
Page | 22
2. A section titled “For more
information”
2. Contact information in case a person is
interested
2. An interested person can call or write * Is there anything about
a letter to the address provided. This is the source that caught
an effort to recruit supporters.
my attention/seemed
unusual? Anything I can
research on my own,
especially if we don’t
come back to it in this
lesson?
3. A section titled “Other offices
near you”
3. Addresses of where the offices are
located, in different areas of the state
3. An interested person in the state of
Mississippi can go to the office that they
are the closest to; it also shows that
COFO is aware of the needs of their
targeted audience and has tried to open
offices all over the state of Mississippi
for access to information.
4. A section called “What You Can
Do:”
4. The reader is informed of what he/she
can do to get help
4. Summer Project created to empower
black Mississippians, but it won’t work
unless they participate.
5. A section called “COFO is your
organization…”
5. The reader is informed that this is an
organization that is working for them but
also needs them; the word “your” implies
ownership
5. Places Mississippi, not the federal
government, as the target. Empower
black Mississippians to make change.
6. Image of an older African
American man with a straw hat
and a cigarette in his mouth with
fields in the background.
6. The fields imply fieldwork; the clothing
and straw hat suggest that he is from a
lower socio-economic class and a worker,
perhaps a sharecropper.
6. The author is trying to connect to its
audience by showing an image COFO’s
targeted audience.
Page | 23
INTEGRATING PRIMARY & SECONDARY TEXTS
TEACHER KEY
Directions: Answer the focus question using evidence from the textbook book and primary source.
Focus Question: How did the Council of Federated Organizations attempt to gain the support of Mississippians for the Summer Project?
Mississippi Freedom Summer, a program organized by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), an organization of civil rights and
local citizen groups, hoped that by bringing volunteers from the North, more local Mississippians would become empowered to create
change through their involvement in the black freedom struggle. COFO offered lots of opportunities for local people to support the summer
work – provide housing, find buildings that could be used for freedom schools, recruit students to participate in freedom schools, and help
spread the word through bringing speakers to meetings. They made it clear that black Mississippians knew that “COFO is your organization”
and that by working with COFO, “you will be working to get yourself the better conditions you deserve.”
Page | 24
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The SNCC Freedom Schools
Prospectus for a Summer Freedom School Program (1964)
Directions: Read the assigned prospectus excerpts. After reading and answering the questions, complete
the primary source analysis worksheet.
Focus Question: How did the freedom schools attempt to correct the long history of discrimination in
Mississippi?
Context: In the summer of 1964, the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) coordinated the
Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. Charles Cobb, a black college student and SNCC field secretary,
suggested that education be a part of the summer’s programming. In the freedom schools, Cobb created a
supplemental curriculum for black Mississippians. Staughton Lynd, a white history professor at Spelman
College, an all-black college for women, wrote the “Guide to Negro History” to be used in the freedom
schools. Lynd became the statewide director of the freedom schools. The following excerpts were all
taken from the freedom school prospectus.
“Prospectus for a Summer Freedom School Program.” December 1963. Jerry Tecklin Papers, 1964, MSS 538. Archive Main
Stacks. Wisconsin Historical Society. http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15932coll2/id/9537.
1. According to the prospectus (a document used to propose and establish a plan for a new idea), why
were freedom schools needed in Mississippi?
Page | 25
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The SNCC Freedom Schools
2. What purpose would northern students and educators serve in the freedom schools? Why was this
important to the black freedom struggle?
Page | 26
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The SNCC Freedom Schools
3. How would leadership development classes help the freedom movement in Mississippi?
Page | 27
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The SNCC Freedom Schools
4. How would this remediation program provide students with the skills to be a stronger student?
Page | 28
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The SNCC Freedom Schools
5. How would the study of contemporary issues and a non-academic curriculum help the freedom
movement in Mississippi?
Page | 29
ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES: Evidence, Analysis, Relevance
Focus Question: How did the freedom schools attempt to correct the long history of discrimination in Mississippi?
Title of Source: _____________________________________ Author: ____________________ Genre (letter, cartoon, photo, etc.): ________________
WHEN & WHERE
WHO
Place and Time: Where and When was it published?
Author: Background, sex, race, social class, education; What is his/her
perspective?
Historical Context: What was going on during this event or era/period?
Audience: Who is the intended audience?
Directions: Select the three pieces of evidence that most help you answer the focus question.
Evidence:
Facts and Quotes
Analysis:
This means that . . .
This reveals that . . .
Relevance to focus question:
This proves that . . .
This is relevant because . . .
Questions:
I wonder…
Page | 30
WRITING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES
Directions: Using the evidence you selected as most relevant, answer the lesson focus question.
Focus Question: How did the freedom schools attempt to correct Mississippi’s long history of discrimination?
Page | 31
PART 1: Student Activism in the Black Freedom
Struggle – The SNCC Freedom Schools
Prospectus for a Summer Freedom School Program (1964)
TEACHER KEY
Directions: Individual students or groups of students should read one or more of the prospectus
excerpts. After reading and answering the questions, everyone should share out and fill out the primary
source analysis worksheet.
Focus Question: How did the freedom schools attempt to correct Mississippi’s long history of
discrimination?
Context: In the summer of 1964, the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) coordinated the
Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. Charles Cobb, a black college student and SNCC field secretary,
suggested that education be a part of the summer’s programming. In the freedom schools, Cobb created a
supplemental curriculum for black Mississippians. Staughton Lynd, a white history professor at Spelman
College, an all-black college for women, wrote the “Guide to Negro History” to be used in the freedom
schools. Lynd became the statewide director of the freedom schools. The following excerpts were all
taken from the freedom school prospectus.
1. According to the prospectus (a document used to propose and plan for a new idea), why were
freedom schools needed in Mississippi?
Mississippi education is “grossly inadequate” for both black and white students. But, the education
provided to black students is of a particularly bad quality. Curiosity is stifled and inquiry is not
encouraged. There is no freedom of expression for students or teachers, particularly those who are
interested in civil rights.
2. What purpose would northern students and educators serve in the freedom schools? Why was
this important to the black freedom struggle?
Professional educators and college students from the best colleges would lead the freedom schools. The
schools would focus primarily on 10th and 11th grade students. These teachers could share their expertise
with students who needed it most. This age of student will be most able to carry on what was shared in
the freedom schools.
3. How would leadership development classes help the freedom movement in Mississippi?
These classes would provide freedom school students with the skills they needed to more fully
participate and lead the freedom struggle such as public speaking and canvassing.
4. How would this remediation program provide students with the skills to be a stronger
student?
Because this remedial program focuses on reading and math, in addition to history, science, and the arts,
freedom schools would held students develop basic skills as well as provide a well-rounded education
based on deeper learning.
5. How would the study of contemporary issues and non-academic curriculum help the freedom
movement in Mississippi?
These two areas of the curriculum focus on making sure students understand the world they live in and
to provide them with the tools to ask questions and find their own answers to problems. They also help
prepare them to be part of the freedom movement by practicing in student government and informal
communication through performance.
Page | 32
ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES: Evidence, Analysis, Relevance
TEACHER KEY
Focus Question: How did the freedom schools attempt to correct the long history of discrimination in Mississippi?
Title of Source: __Prospectus for a Freedom Summer Program Author: _Charles Cobb___ Genre (letter, cartoon, photo, etc.): __prospectus_
WHEN & WHERE
WHO
Place and Time: Where and When was it published?
December 1963
Author: Background, sex, race, social class, education; What is his/her
perspective?
Black college student, activist
Historical Context: What was going on during this event or era/period?
Audience: Who is the intended audience?
COFO is working together to change the situation for black Mississippians.
SNCC was founded a few years earlier. COFO is recruiting a large number
of volunteers to come to Mississippi.
It was submitted, but we don’t know to whom. The audience could be
funders, COFO, or potential volunteers. In general, it is probably to
supporters and planners of the freedom movement.
Directions: Select the three pieces of evidence that most help you answer the focus question.
Evidence:
Facts and Quotes
Analysis:
This means that . . .
This reveals that . . .
Relevance to focus question:
This proves that . . .
This is relevant because . . .
Questions:
I wonder…
“Mississippi education, for black
and white, is grossly inadequate
in comparison with education
around the country. Negro
education in Mississippi is the
most inadequate and inferior in
the state.”
The situation in Mississippi,
particularly education for black
students, is bad.
It helps to identify a particular
problem of discrimination in
Mississippi – education
What do schools look like? Do
students like school?
Northern volunteers – “some of
the best minds in the country”
Take advantage of a resource
coming to the state.
“supplement what they aren’t
learning”
Bringing in the “best minds of the
country” to address the problem
of black education in Mississippi.
Need more than they are currently When not being taught a rigorous
being taught in school.
curriculum it is hard to develop
solutions
How will the students in
Mississippi feel about the new
people?
Do they want to learn these
things?
Page | 33
“bring back to fellow students”
Teach a small group who will
They are looking to grow the
share information with others.
movement by training young
They will learn tools to be activists people.
in the movement.
How eager were the students
to learn and share with
others?
“basis for state-wide student
action” and “educate students in
the general goals of the
movement”
Need to learn about the protests
that are happening and come up
with ideas for their own protests.
Educate in the movement in
order to be a part of it.
Who become the student
leaders?
“train students in specific
organizational skills that they
need to develop Southern Negro
communities.”
Learn skills to continue the
movement.
The movement requires specific
skills be taught.
How do they practice these
skills?
“give student more sophisticated
views of some current issues”
Broaden their understanding of
current events.
What they are learning in school
is not enough to further the
movement
What issues are they most
interested in?
WRITING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES
Directions: Using the evidence you selected as most relevant, answer the lesson focus question.
Focus Question: How did the freedom schools attempt to correct Mississippi’s long history of discrimination?
The freedom schools that were a part of the Mississippi Summer Project recognized that the schools in Mississippi, particularly for black
students, were bad. If the movement was to continue, students needed to gain basic skills as well as new ones. The freedom schools taught
students what they should be learning in school, an expanded curriculum, and the skills needed for building a movement. In the end, they
hoped that the students in the freedom schools would be able to teach others and develop their own protest actions to carry on the
movement.
Page | 34
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus –
The Free Speech Movement
Unit Focus Question: What did student activists in the 1960s believe the role of schools should be?
Unit Teaching Thesis: During the 1960s, student activists demanded that their schools provide them
with relevant education that could lead to societal change. Students in freedom schools were taught
African American history and leadership skills that would equip them in furthering the black freedom
struggle. The students of the Free Speech Movement protested and sat in at Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley’s
administration building, to force the university to allow all students to freely engage in political activity
on campus. The Third World Liberation Front, a coalition of students of color, pushed for the
implementation of a College of Ethnic Studies that would provide them with the tools to improve the
community.
Lesson Focus Question: How did the Free Speech Movement reflect new ideas about what students should
expect from colleges and universities?
Goal: Using primary and secondary texts, including a film clip, students will identify the demands of
student activists at UC Berkeley and how they initiated a new relationship between students and
university administrators.
The Free Speech Movement took place over the course of one semester in 1964 at UC Berkeley. Over
time, it represented a broad coalition of students, representing perspectives across the political
spectrum, who found common ground around the right to free expression on their college campus. The
leadership of the FSM drew significantly from students who had been active both in the local and
southern black freedom struggles. Movement leader, Mario Savio, in fact, had volunteered in Mississippi
during the summer of 1964.
This multi-day lesson will 1) provide students with an overview of the Free Speech Movement, 2)
compare and contrast the perspectives of the role of the university as a place for free expression and
exploration versus solely preparation for future employment, and 3) allow students to trace the language
of student demands from specific complaints to broader concerns with regards to constitutional rights
and finally becoming incorporated into the language of “freedom.”
Lesson Components:
1. Watch the film clip from 1964, an American Experience documentary (11 minutes), discuss
media analysis (worksheet), and answer text-based questions.
Link to video clip: http://youtu.be/Y-qPWDjOS3A
2. Analyze Mario Savio’s speech, “An End to History,” to explore differing perspectives on the
role of the university.
3. Compare and contrast the distinct and evolving demands of the FSM.
Extension: Investigate what rights students have to express their personal and political beliefs on their
current school campus. What limits should be placed on student rights at school?
For more materials, check out the FSM Digital Archive hosted by the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/FSM/.
Page | 35
ANALYZING A DOCUMENTARY FILM
Title:_ 1964, American Experience_________________________
Name: _____________________________________________
Intended Audience:_____________________________________________
Source of Content (Publisher/Producer/Agency/Location): ________________________________
Publication Date: _______________________
Historical Context (What period of history is examined? What else was going on during this era?): ______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What do you see? Record the images that stand out.
What is/are the main message/s or idea/s in this film?
Key images (Setting, people(s), symbols, objects, captions)
What reaction do these visuals have on the viewer? Why are these images
highlighted or included?
What do you hear? Record the sounds that stand out.
What is/are the main message/s or idea/s in this film?
Script (Key words, phrases, information), speakers (interviewees, narrator, etc.), and
sounds (Music type, sound effects, etc.)
What reaction do these sounds have on the viewer? Why are these sounds
highlighted or included?
Historical Content: List key people, events, and ideas presented in
the film.
What is/are the main message/s or idea/s in this film?
Why are these events highlighted or included?
Historical Analysis: What is the overall message of the film?
Through the discussion of _____________________________________, ____________________________________, and _____________________________________ and the
(historical content)
(historical content)
(historical content)
use of ________________________________________ and ___________________________________________ the film argues that ______________________________________
(description of sound)
(description of imagery)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Worksheet page 1/2
Page | 36
MEDIA ANALYSIS: Five Core Concepts and Teacher Guided Discussion Questions
Sourcing
1. Author/Creator
Concepts
All media messages are
“constructed.”
2. Audience
Different people experience the
same media message differently.
Who is the intended or target audience?
What does this source mean to me? How might other people understand this
differently from me?
3. Historical Context
Media messages give insights into
the historical time period in which
they are constructed.
When and where was this created?
What do I know about the time period in which the film was created?
What do I know about the time period discussed in the film?
How might the symbols, values, or points of view represented in this message be a
reflection of the time period of production?
4. Message
Media have embedded values and
points of view.
What is the argument or message?
What symbols, values, or points of view are represented in this message? What is
omitted?
What is the appeal? (emotional, political, logical)
5. Medium/Production Media messages are constructed
Techniques
using a creative language with its
own rules.
What is the medium? (visual, text, moving images/ film, audio /song, speech, etc.)
What production techniques are used to attract my attention?
 Visual Images: Examine color, perspective of viewer, light, space,
movement, composition, etc.
 Text (perhaps with images): Note format features like headlines, colors,
font styles/size.
 Audio: Note word choice, musicality, other sounds, volume and range of
sound. Analyze word choice.
 Film/ Moving Images: Note lighting, camera angle/s, composition, sound
(music, narration, dialogue, silence), movement and pace, tone, etc. What
is the relationship between the images, words, accompanying sounds &
composition?
1. Motive/Purpose
Why was this message created? What is the purpose of it?
What does the author/production company hope to gain by creating it?
Is it trying to tell me something? Sell something or persuade me?
Media are organized to gain profit
and/or power.
Focus Questions
Who created this message?
Who is the author? Who is the publisher?
Adapted from the Center for Media Literacy.
Worksheet page 2/2
Page | 37
ANALYZING A DOCUMENTARY FILM
TEACHER KEY
Title:_American Experience, 1964_________________________
Intended Audience:____students of history/public television viewers___
Source of Content (Publisher/Producer/Agency/Location): ____WGBH (public television station)_____ Publication Date: ____2014_______
Historical Context: black freedom struggle, Freedom Summer, the Vietnam War
What do you see? Record the images that stand out.
Key images (Setting, people(s), symbols, objects, captions)
The University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s
Sather Gate with tables and students passing out information
Protest signs – “Discrimination . . . Job . . . We Advocate Free Speech”
Sheraton Hotel
Oakland Tribune
Crowds of protesting students
Students speaking with a bullhorn on top of a police car without their shoes
Police arresting students
Police dragging protestors
What is/are the main message/s or idea/s in this film?
What reaction do these visuals have on the viewer? Why are these images
highlighted or included?
Feel the aggression of police toward student protestors.
Images of students make their demands seem reasonable.
Shows a lot of activism among students.
Contested spaces.
What do you hear? Record the sounds that stand out.
Script (Key words, phrases, information), speakers (interviewees,
narrator, etc.), and sounds (Music type, sound effects, etc.)
What is/are the main message/s or idea/s in this film?
Historical Content: List key people, events, and ideas presented in the film.
What is/are the main message/s or idea/s in this film?
Why are these events highlighted or included?
Debate about whether students can set up tables on campus.
“Veterans of Mississippi Summer”
“Violation of First Amendment Rights”
Dialogue between police and students
Students demanding police “Let him go” – Jack Weinberg
Coalition of two groups that usually never work together
Students singing
Mario Savio speech “putting bodies on the machine”
Song, “We Shall Overcome”
“Bay Area Civil Rights Movement”
“Suspensions were dropped.”
That the FSM was a precursor to future student movements.
Chancellor Clark Kerr
Mario Savio
Jack Weinberg
Mississippi Freedom Summer
Historical Analysis: What is the overall message of the film?
What reaction do these sounds have on the viewer? Why are these sounds
highlighted or included?
Contentious atmosphere.
Student voices.
Triumphant.
Student activists negotiated with administrative leaders.
Through the discussion of ___the influence of the black freedom struggle (especially Freedom Summer)_, discussion of the first amendment___, and local civil rights organizing,
(historical content)
(historical content)
(historical content)
combined with the use of __powerful oratory and freedom songs__ and students getting to be arrested________ the film argues that the Free Speech Movement was a turning point
(description of sound)
(description of imagery)
(important event)
in the struggle for civil rights and inspired other student movements such as the opposition to the Vietnam War and the women’s movement.
Page | 38
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus –
The Free Speech Movement
Directions: Read through the excerpted article. Deconstruct the first two sentences of the article. Then
read the rest of the excerpt. Underline evidence that helps reveal the differences and similarities
between the perspectives of Mario Savio and Clark Kerr, president of the University of California.
Focus Question: According to Marion Savio, what was the purpose of the university?
Context: The Free Speech Movement took place on the UC Berkeley campus in the fall of 1964. Mario
Savio emerged as one of the most visible leaders of the Free Speech Movement. He was recognized for his
ability to use words to describe the interests of student activists.
An End to History by Mario Savio
Last summer I went to Mississippi to join the struggle there for civil rights. This fall I am engaged in another
phase of the same struggle, this time in Berkeley . . . .
Time Marker
Last summer
Event
This fall
The university is the place where people begin seriously to question the conditions of their existence and raise
the issue of whether they can be committed to the society they have been born into. After a long period of
apathy during the fifties, students have begun not only to question but, having arrived at answers, to act on
those answers. This is part of a growing understanding among many people in America that history has not
ended, that a better society is possible, and that it is worth dying for.
This free-speech fight points up a fascinating aspect of contemporary campus life. Students are permitted to
talk all they want so long as their speech has no consequences.
One conception of the university, suggested by a classical Christian formulation, is that it be in the world but not
of the world. The conception of Clark Kerr by contrast is that the university…stands to serve the need of
American industry; it is a factory that turns out a certain product needed by industry or government. Because
speech does often have consequences which might alter this perversion of higher education, the university
must put itself in a position of censorship. It can permit two kinds of speech, speech which encourages
continuation of the status quo, and speech which advocates changes in it so radical as to be irrelevant in the
foreseeable future. Someone may advocate radical change in all aspects of American society, and this I am sure
he can do with impunity. But if someone advocates sit-ins to bring about changes in discriminatory hiring
practices, this cannot be permitted because it goes against the status quo of which the university is a part. And
that is how the fight began here.
Many students here at the university, many people in society, are wandering aimlessly about. Strangers in their
own lives there is no place for them. They are people who have not learned to compromise, who for example
have come to the university to learn to question, to grow, to learn—all the standard things that sound like
clichés because no one takes them seriously. And they find at one point or other that for them to become part of
society, to become lawyers, ministers, businessmen, people in government, that very often they must
compromise those principles which were most dear to them. They must suppress the most creative impulses
that they have; this is a prior condition for being part of the system. The university is well structured, well
tooled, to turn out people with all the sharp edges worn off, the well-rounded person. The university is well
equipped to produce that sort of person, and this means that the best among the people who enter must for
four years wander aimlessly much of the time questioning why they are on campus at all, doubting whether
there is any point in what they are doing, and looking toward a very bleak existence afterward in a game in
which all of the rules have been made up, which one cannot really amend.
Mario Savio, Humanity (December 1964) http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/savioendofhistory.html.
Page | 39
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus –
The Free Speech Movement
Historical Perspectives
Title of Source: “An End to History”
Name: __________________________________
Author: ______________________________________________
Date and Historical Context: ______________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Time Marker
Last summer
Event
This fall
Focus Question: What is the role of the university?
Historical Figure
Evidence of Perspective
Identify quotes that reveal
perspective.
Analysis
How does this perspective help you
answer the focus question?
Mario Savio/FSM
Clark Kerr and university
administrators
(according to Mario
Savio)
Thesis Statement: Mario Savio, a leader of the Free Speech Movement, believed that he and Clark Kerr,
the president of the University of California, differed _________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Page | 40
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus –
The Free Speech Movement
Historical Perspectives
TEACHER KEY
Title of Source: “An End to History”
Author: ____Mario Savio______
Date and Historical Context: Students who grew up in the 1950s, during a long period of conformity,
have begun to ask questions. Often these questions were provoked by the events of the black freedom
struggle and participation in it. This statement was written in December 1964, two months after the start
of the FSM.
Time Marker
Last summer
This fall
Event
I went to Mississippi to join the struggle there for civil rights.
I am engaged in another phase of the same struggle, this time in Berkeley.
Focus Question: What is the role of the university?
Historical Figure
Mario Savio/FSM
Evidence of Perspective
Identify quotes that reveal
perspective.
Analysis
How does this perspective help you
answer the focus question?
“The university is the place where
people begin to seriously question the
conditions of their existence and raise
the issue of whether they can be
committed to the society they have
been born into.”
Savio sees the university as a place for
personal development and exploration.
The end product isn’t as important as
the journey and period of study. Also,
he expects the university to be a place
“Students are allowed to talk all they
want so long as their speech has no
consequences.”
where students can learn to think
critically about the community/society
they live in.
“be in the world but not of the world”
Clark Kerr and university
administrators
(according to Mario
Savio)
“come to the university to learn to
question, to grow, to learn”
“serves the needs of American
industry”
“a factory that turns out a certain
product needed by industry or
government”
“turn out people with all the sharp
edges worn off”
According to Savio, Kerr is developing
students who can easily find jobs and
be hired by employers. They are being
prepared for industry and government.
This means there needs to be a certain
level of conformity to maintain the
status quo.
Thesis Statement: Mario Savio, a leader of the Free Speech Movement, believed that he and Clark Kerr,
the president of the University of California, differed with regard to the role of the university. Savio
thought it should be a place for personal exploration while he argued that Kerr saw the university as a
place to develop students who are appealing to employers.
Page | 41
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus –
The Free Speech Movement
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
Name: _______________________________
The Free Speech Movement and Its Demands
Directions: Read the following three documents and underline the demands made by the students.
Complete the continuity and change chart below.
Historical Context: ______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Focus Question: How did the student demands reflect their expectations about a college education?
Date
Key Demands
How would you characterize student
demands? How did they change? Stay the same?
Thesis Statement: Over the course of the fall in 1964, participants in the Free Speech Movement
continued to demand _________________________________________________________, but over time _____________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Page | 42
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus –
The Free Speech Movement
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
TEACHER KEY
Historical Context: School officials at UC Berkeley limited the ability of students to organize and share
information about political events. When police arrested outspoken leaders, the students on campus
formed a coalition to support free speech on campus.
Focus Question: How did the student demands reflect their expectations about a college education?
Date
Sept. 28,
1964
Key Demands
 Right to hear any person speak on campus
so long as doesn’t cause a traffic issue or
interfere with classes
 Right to participate in political organizing
on campus, not just voting
 Students and non-students have the right
to set up tables for political causes
 Eliminate arbitrary rules (72 hour notice,
police protection, faculty moderator)
How would you characterize student
demands? How did they change? Stay the
same?
Demands reflect students’ ideas about what
political rights they should have on campus,
which include hosting speakers, political
organizing beyond voter registration, and
setting up tables about political causes.
Students appear to not want to cause
disruption through their political activities
(first bullet point), and only want to be
treated fairly (last bullet point).
Oct. 12,
1964
 Only the courts can decide on free speech.
 University should be “at least as” free as
off campus
 There should be an “impartial body” not
totally dominated by the administration,
or its “hand-picked” faculty to decide
See the university as more repressive than
off campus.
Oct. 28,
1964
 “Freedom” to 1) advocate off campus
actions, 2) recruit for off campus
organizations, 3) from harassment of
particular rules (72 hours, faculty
moderators)
Use the language of “freedom” to discuss
specific issues on campus. Very focused on
being able to organize and advocate for off
campus issues. Not just about issues on
campus.
Lack of democratic processes.
Thesis Statement: From September through late October 1964, participants in the Free Speech
Movement continued to demand specific rights to organize on campus for off campus causes, but over
time their language spoke more broadly about the role of the university to respect rights and establish
democratic structures to make decisions and, by using “freedom” as part of their demands, connected the
FSM to other “freedom” movements.
Page | 43
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus –
The Free Speech Movement
Focus Question: How did the student demands reflect their expectations about a college education?
Historical Context: On October 1, 1964, student demonstrators gathered at Sproul Plaza on the UC
Berkeley campus to protest the arrest of a former student for passing out political information on
campus. Over the next 36 hours, more than 7000 demonstrators filled the campus. This demand led to a
series of protests during the fall semester.
Document #1: “Free Speech Now!” September 28, 1964 found in Free Speech Movement Archives,
University of California, Berkeley.
Page | 44
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus –
The Free Speech Movement
Focus Question: How did the student demands reflect their expectations about a college education?
Historical Context: On October 1, 1964, student demonstrators gathered at Sproul Plaza on the UC
Berkeley campus to protest the arrest of a former student for passing out political information on
campus. Over the next 36 hours, more than 7000 demonstrators filled the campus. This demand led to a
series of protests during the fall semester.
Document #2: “FSM Demands,” October 12, 1964 found in Free Speech Movement Archives, University
of California, Berkeley.
Page | 45
PART 2: Student Rights on Campus –
The Free Speech Movement
Focus Question: How did the student demands reflect their expectations about a college education?
Historical Context: On October 1, 1964, student demonstrators gathered at Sproul Plaza on the UC
Berkeley campus to protest the arrest of a former student for passing out political information on
campus. Over the next 36 hours, more than 7000 demonstrators filled the campus. This demand led to a
series of protests during the fall semester.
Document #3: “Acknowledge These On-Campus Rights,” October 28, 1964 found in Free Speech
Movement Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Page | 46
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Unit Focus Question: What did student activists in the 1960s believe the role of schools should be?
Unit Teaching Thesis: During the 1960s, student activists demanded that their schools provide them with
relevant education that could lead to societal change. Students in freedom schools were taught African
American history and leadership skills that would equip them in furthering the black freedom struggle. The
students of the Free Speech Movement protested and sat in at Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley’s administration
building, to force the university to allow all students to freely engage in political activity on campus. The Third
World Liberation Front, a coalition of students of color, pushed for the implementation of a College of Ethnic
Studies that would provide them with the tools to improve the community.
Lesson Focus Question: How did the TWLF expand upon the demands expressed by earlier student activists?
Goal: Using primary and secondary sources, students will identify the distinct and overlapping goals of activist
groups within the TWLF coalition and explore how these students demanded an education that would have a
positive impact their communities.
The Third World Liberation Front organized protests at San Francisco State College for more than two years.
Their overall goal to create a College of Ethnic Studies extended the demands made by participants in the FSM
to include the specific concerns facing college students of color. The demands of the TWLF incorporated ideas
stemming from the black power movement, Chicano organizing, and protest against the Vietnam War.
This multi-day lesson will 1) provide students with an understanding of the extensiveness of the protest as
they analyze a chronology of events that occurred over two years, involving students, faculty, college
administration and state and local elected officials; 2) to identify how college students of color characterized
their education and how they proposed to improve it through increased access to channels of power; 3) infer
how different racial and ethnic groups prioritized distinct issues based on their history and experience in the
United States.
Lesson Components:
1. Evaluate a timeline of TWLF events to determine historical significance and continuity and change.
2. Identify the problems and solutions defined by the TWLF.
3. Compare and contrast the demands of member groups in the TWLF coalition.
Extension: Create protest signs about current concerns with education. What is missing from education today?
(Examples of protest signs can be found at the SF State Strike Collection, SFSU:
https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/strike/7429)
These materials can be augmented through the use of videos and images, in particular, available through the
online SF State Strike Collection: http://www.library.sfsu.edu/about/collections/strike/essay.html §
Page | 47
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Chronology of the S.F. State Strike, 1967-1969
Adapted from http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=S.F._STATE_STRIKE_1968-69_CHRONOLOGY.
Directions: Read through the chronology and record your general impression of events. Then select 5-7
events that reveal what TWLF students (and supportive faculty) believed about how colleges and universities
should educate students.
Focus Question: What did supporters of the Third World Liberation Front want from their education?
Context: Between 1967 and 1969, a series of protests took place at San Francisco State College, now San
Francisco State University. The coalition of students leading the protests called themselves the Third World
Liberation Front (TWLF). The protests drew both support and opposition from members of the college
(administration, faculty, and students) and the surrounding community (governor, state legislature, mayor).
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
May 2, 1967. Sixty students sit in at the office of the newly appointed President of San Francisco State College, Dr.
Summerskill, to protest the college’s practice of providing student information to the selective service office, which
drafts students into the armed forces and eventually to fight in the Vietnam War.
June 22, 1967. Students and faculty picket campus administrative offices to protest the Chancellor’s order to continue to
share records with the selective service office.
June 22, 1967. A "major corporation" (the Carnegie Corporation of New York) invites San Francisco State College to
apply for funds to develop programs for teaching black history, art, and culture.
November 6, 1967. Several black students attack the editor of the Gator, the campus newspaper, because he wrote an
editorial asking the Carnegie Corporation not to grant money to the college's "service programs," which included Black
Student Union-sponsored programs.
November 11, 1967. Six of the black students who attacked the editor are booked on felony charges.
November 17, 1967. Members of the Black Student Union hold a press conference to discuss their programs, which
have been designed to develop black awareness and consciousness.
November 18, 1967. San Francisco State College's Board of Appeals and Review holds closed hearing on the suspension
of the students. Sympathetic students picket outside the hearings.
November 29, 1967. Dr. Summerskill appoints a faculty committee to investigate the causes of campus tension that
resulted in the attack on the school newspaper editor.
December 6, 1967. Students protest the suspension of the black students and break into the administration building.
The college president closes the campus.
February 22, 1968. Dr. Summerskill resigns as president of the college, effective September 1969.
February 29, 1968. 300 high school and junior college students of color come to the campus to ask for waivers of
admission requirements for the fall semester.
Page | 48
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
March 23, 1968. The Third World Liberation Front (a coalition of the Black Student Union, the Latin American Students
Organization, the Filipino-American Students Organization, and El Renacimiento, a Mexican-American student
organization) occupies the YMCA office on campus.
March 31, 1968. Dr. Summerskill tells the Third World Liberation Front to move out of the occupied YMCA offices.
May 21, 1968. Police are called in to remove students from the administration building after a nine-hour sit-in. Several
hundred students were demanding: 1) An end to Air Force ROTC on campus, 2) Retention of [Professor] Juan Martinez,
3) Programs to admit 400 high needs students in the fall semester, and 4) The hiring of nine faculty members of color.
May 24, 1968. The chancellor asks Dr. Summerskill to resign immediately.
June 1, 1968. Dr. Robert Smith, a professor of education, becomes President of San Francisco State College.
September 10, 1968. George Mason Murray, a graduate student in English and a member of the Black Panther Party, is
rehired as a teaching assistant as a result of student protests. He had previously taught special introductory English
classes for special needs students who were admitted to the college.
September 18, 1968. President Robert Smith announces the creation of a Black Studies Department. Dr. Nathan Hare is
named Acting Chair.
September 26, 1968. California State College trustees vote to ask President Smith to reassign George Murray to a nonteaching position. President Smith refuses.
October 24, 1968. The chancellor orders President Smith to suspend Murray temporarily. President Smith delays.
October 31, 1968. Again, the chancellor orders President Smith to suspend Murray. President Smith again delays. The
Black Student Union threatens a strike on November 6 and presents their demands.
November 1, 1968. President Smith finally suspends George Murray.
November 6, 1968. Student strike begins. The strike is led by the Black Student Union and Third World Liberation Front
and is a protest for a larger black studies program and for the reinstatement of George Murray. Most students attend
classes. Police are called in after students march on the administration building.
November 13, 1968. The campus is closed after a week of confrontations between students and police. Some faculty
members consider joining the strike.
November 14, 1968. At a faculty meeting in the Main Auditorium, Dr. S.I. Hayakawa, Professor of English, speaks on
racism. He urges the faculty to support President Smith. President Smith appeals to the chancellor to reinstate George
Murray. The Academic Senate debates the issues, and requests the chancellor’s resignation.
November 18-19, 1968. Governor Ronald Reagan wants the campus reopened. The trustees order President Smith to
reopen the campus immediately. President Smith wants the students to return for discussion, not formal classes. The
faculty does not want to reopen the campus, but wants to have a campus-wide meeting to discuss the issues. A faculty
grievance committee says that George Murray was suspended without due process.
November 20, 1968. Approximately 10% of the students return to campus for departmental discussions. Few classes
are held.
Page | 49
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
November 26, 1968. Black Student Union leaders confront the faculty panel and President Smith at a campus-wide
meeting. The leader of the Black Student Union calls President Smith a 'pig,' and is booed by the audience. President
Smith resigns. Dr. S.I. Hayakawa is named Acting President. His first official act is to close the campus.
December 2, 1968. Campus is reopened. Striking students urge others to join them and not attend class.
December 10, 1968. A mediator is called in to help end the strike. The mayor of San Francisco also organized a
committee to help settle the strike.
December 15, 1968. Trustees meet with union representatives to hear their grievances.
January 4, 1969. Acting President Hayakawa bans meetings and gatherings on the central campus, bans unauthorized
persons from the campus, and states that picketing must be limited to the edges of the campus.
January 6, 1969. Campus reopens. About 350 instructors strike and form a picket line around the campus. They want
educational reform, removal of police from the campus, agreement to student demands, and a collective bargaining
contract for the California State College teachers.
January 8, 1969. A judge orders the striking teachers to call off their strike, but the strike continues.
February 3, 1969. Acting President Hayakawa speaks before a subcommittee of the state legislature concerning campus
unrest.
February 4, 1969. A judge orders the teachers to end the strike, but the strike continues.
February 24, 1969. The teacher’s union announces a tentative strike settlement.
February 29, 1969. Black Studies Department Chair Nathan Hare and English instructor George Murray are not rehired
for the following year. The strike continues.
March 20, 1969. An agreement is signed between “representatives of the Third World Liberation Front, the Black
Student Union, and the members of the Select Committee concerning the resolution of the fifteen demands and other
issues arising from the student strike at San Francisco State College."
March 21, 1969. Strike ends.
General Impression:
Page | 50
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
TEACHER KEY
Chronology of the S.F. State Strike, 1967-1969
Adapted from http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=S.F._STATE_STRIKE_1968-69_CHRONOLOGY.
Directions: Read through the chronology and record your general impression of events. Then select 5-7
events that reveal what TWLF students (and supportive faculty) believed about how colleges and universities
should educate students.
Focus Question: What did supporters of the Third World Liberation Front want from their education?
Context: Between 1967 and 1969, a series of protests took place at San Francisco State College, now San
Francisco State University. The coalition of students leading the protests called themselves the Third World
Liberation Front (TWLF). The protests drew both support and opposition from members of the college
(administration, faculty, and students) and the surrounding community (governor, state legislature, mayor).
General Impressions could include:





The protests took place over a long period of time, especially when compared to the Free Speech
Movement.
Lots of different groups were involved (students, faculty, administration).
Administrators, even those sympathetic to the protestors, became seen as the opposition when they
fell to the pressure of state leaders.
Power was used from the bottom (students) and the top (Chancelor) to influence decisions.
Not all students supported the protests.
There is no right answer here. This space can be used for students to explore what is confusing, what there
gut says is most important, etc.
Page | 51
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: Timeline Analysis
Name: _____________________________________
Focus Question: Focus Question: What did supporters of the Third World Liberation Front want from their education?
Topic/Title of Timeline: _______________________________________________________________________________________________
Date Range: ________________________ to ___________________________
Time Frame: What is the significance of this starting and ending date?
Historical Context: What do you know about student activism at this time?
Complete the opposite side of this form, and then answer the two questions below.
Change: Using the timeline, describe the changes that occurred during this period.
Continuity: Using the timeline, what stayed the same?
Page | 52
Determining Significance: Timeline Analysis
Focus Question: What did supporters of the Third World Liberation Front want from their education?
Date
Events
Issue
1.
1.
1.
2.
2.
2.
3.
3.
3.
4.
4.
4.
5.
5.
5.
6.
6.
6.
7.
7.
7.
a) Circle three events that you think are most important for understanding how the TWLF wanted their education to change.
b) Answer the questions on the other side of this page.
c) Make a claim: Based on the 3 events you circled, what did supporters of the Third World Liberation Front want from their education?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page | 53
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: Timeline Analysis
TEACHER KEY
Focus Question: What did supporters of the Third World Liberation Front want from their education?
Topic/Title of Timeline: _____SF State Strike, 1967-1969_______________________________________________________
Date Range: ______May 2,1967______ to _____March 21, 1969______
Time Frame: What is the significance of this starting and ending date?
Took place two years after the FSM and the freedom schools. Lasts for more than two years.
Historical Context: What do you know about student activism at this time?
College students were very involved in activism. Protests against the Vietnam War were increasing. The Black Panthers had been founded.
The FSM had taken place at UC Berkeley, and students were very involved in the black freedom struggle in the South.
Complete the opposite side of this form, and then answer the two questions below.
Change: Using the timeline as reference, describe the changes that occurred during this period.
Student protestors were able to get SF State to establish a Black Studies Department. After two years of protest, the administration agreed
to the TWLF demands. Students were able to build support with faculty and some members of the administration.
Continuity: Using the timeline as a reference, what stayed the same?
Not everyone agreed about how the school should be run – administrators, some students.
Page | 54
Determining Significance: Timeline Analysis
TEACHER KEY (Answers will vary.)
Focus Question: What did supporters of the Third World Liberation Front want from their education?
Date
1. June 22, 1967
2. November 6,
1967
3. Nov. 17, 1967
4. February 29,
1968
5. May 21, 1968
6. September 18,
1968
7. November 6,
Events Answers will vary.
1. Students and faculty picket campus administrative offices
to protest the chancellor’s order to continue to share
records with the selective service office.
2. Several black students attack the editor of the Gator
because he had written an editorial against funding the
college’s "service programs," including programs sponsored
by the BSU.
3. The Black Student Union members hold a press conference to
discuss their programs, which have been designed to awaken
and develop black awareness and consciousness.
Issue
1. Don’t want the university tied to the war in Vietnam.
2. Want to receive funding for programs that expand the
current scope of college programming.
3. BSU sees role as consciousness raising not just book
knowledge.
4. Seeking broader enrollment of students of color.
4. 300 high school and junior college students of color come to
the campus to ask for waivers of admission requirements
5. Wants military off campus, more instructors of color,
5. Police are called in to remove students from the
broader enrollment of students.
Administration Building after a nine-hour sit-in. Approximately
400 students were demanding: An end to Air Force ROTC on
campus, retention of [Professor] Juan Martinez, programs
to admit 400 high needs students in the fall semester, the
hiring of nine faculty members of color.
6. Administration responds to some student demands.
6. President Robert Smith announces the creation of a Black
Studies Department. Dr. Nathan Hare is named Acting Chair.
7. Larger black studies program and faculty committed to
7. Student strike begins. The strike is led by the Black Student
students of color.
Union and Third World Liberation Front and is a protest for a
larger black studies program and for the reinstatement of
George Murray.
1968
a) Circle three events that you think are most important for understanding how the TWLF wanted their education to change. (Ex.
Broader enrollment of students, faculty of color, relevant curriculum (Black Studies), no military on campus)
b) Answer the questions on the other side of this page.
c) Make a claim: Based on the 3 events you circled, what did supporters of the Third World Liberation Front want from their education?
TWLF supporters wanted an education that was relevant to them, including faculty of color, Black Studies Program, and more students of color.
Page | 55
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Historical Perspectives: TWLF Demands
Name: ____________________________
Directions: Use the document “Third World Liberation Front: School of Ethnic Area Studies” to
determine the perceived problems in California education and the proposed solutions of the Third World
Liberation Front. Read the document and select specific evidence that suggests the identified problems
and the TWLF’s proposed solutions.
Title of Source: _____________________________________________________________ Author: __________________________
Historical Context: _____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Focus Question: Why was the establishment of a School of Ethnic Studies important to the TWLF?
Problem
People of color
missing from
school
curriculum
Racism and
hatred
Evidence
Identify quotes that reveal
the problem.
Solution
Evidence
Identify quotes that reveal the
solution.
School of Ethnic Area
Studies
Developed,
implemented and
controlled by Third
World people
Thesis Statement: The TWLF saw _____________________________________________________________________________
as key problems in the California education system and felt a School of Ethnic Studies would provide a
solution by _____________________________________________________________________________.
Page | 56
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Historical Perspectives: TWLF Demands
TEACHER KEY
Directions: Use the document “Third World Liberation Front: School of Ethnic Area Studies” to
determine the perceived problems in California education and the proposed solutions of the Third World
Liberation Front. Read the document and select specific evidence that suggests the identified problems
and the TWLF’s proposed solutions.
Title of Source: Third World Liberation Front: School of Ethnic Area Studies Author: TWLF
Historical Context: Following a rise in student activism in the black freedom struggle, the FSM’s
demands for more student rights on college campuses and the ramp up of the Vietnam War and black
power movements.
Focus Question: Why was the establishment of a School of Ethnic Studies important to the TWLF?
Problem
People of color
missing from
school
curriculum
Racism and
hatred
Evidence
Identify quotes that reveal
the perspective on this
issue.
“Throughout the entire
educational system in
California, a complete and
accurate representation of
minority peoples’ role in
the past and present . . . is
nonexistent.”
“negligence and ignorance
by the state’s educational
systems is clearly an
integral part of the racism
and hatred this country
has perpetuated on nonwhite peoples”
Solution
School of Ethnic
Studies
Developed,
implemented and
controlled by Third
World people
Evidence
Identify quotes that reveal the
perspective on this issue.
“The school’s function is as a
resource and an educational
program for those minority
peoples actively concerned with
the lack of their peoples’
representation and
participation in all levels of
California’s educational
institutions.”
“the people of an area study
will have sole responsibility and
control for the staffing and
curriculum of their ethnic area
study.”
Thesis Statement: The TWLF saw the lack of curriculum about communities of color and
institutionalized racism and hate as key problems in the California education system. They felt a
School of Ethnic Studies would provide a solution by increasing the courses relevant to the
experiences and history of students of color and provide students and faculty of color power in
making decisions.
Page | 57
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Context: Between 1967 and 1969, a series of protests took place at San Francisco State College. The
coalition of students leading the protests called themselves the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF).
The protests drew both support and opposition from members of the college (administration, faculty, and
students) and the surrounding community (governor, state legislature, mayor). The TWLF’s demands
reflected, in particular, the concerns of students of color on the campus.
“Third World Liberation Front: School of Ethnic Area Studies” found in The San Francisco State College Strike Collection. Special Collections
and Archives, J. Paul Leonard Library. San Francisco State University. https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/strike/bundles/187979.
Page 1/2
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PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Page 2/2
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PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Historical Perspectives: TWLF Coalition Members
Title of Source: _______________________________________
Name: ______________________________
Author: __________________________________________
Historical Context: ______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Focus Question: How did the demand for a School of Ethnic Area Studies unite different groups on campus?
Coalition Member
Evidence of Perspective
Identify quotes and specific demands
that reveal the perspective of this
coalition member.
Analysis
How are the perspectives of coalition
members the same or different? What is
most unique about this coalition
member’s demands?
Black Student Union
(Demands and
Explanations)
Mexican American
Student
Confederation
Asian American
Political Alliance
Intercollegiate
Chinese for Social
Action
Phillipine (sic)
American Collegiate
Endeavor
Latin American
Student Organization
Thesis Statement: While the TWLF coalition members agreed ______________________________________, each
member group __________________________________________________________________________________________________
(Provide a general statement of differences with a few examples of specifics.)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
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PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Historical Perspectives: TWLF Coalition Members
TEACHER KEY
Title of Source: Demands and Explanations (and more) Author: TWLF Coalition Members/multiple
Historical Context: Students of color at SF State College formed a broad coalition to demand changes to
the school’s instruction. In general, they all wanted a greater voice in their education and wanted it to
better reflect their community’s history and experience.
Focus Question: How did the demand for a School of Ethnic Area Studies unite different groups on campus?
Coalition Member
Black Student Union
(Demands and
Explanations)
Mexican American
Student
Confederation
Asian American
Political Alliance
Evidence of Perspective
Identify quotes and specific demands
that reveal the perspective of this
coalition member.
 All Black Studies courses be taught
through the Black Studies
Department
 Bachelor’s Degree be granted in
Black Studies
 All black students that apply be
accepted
 More faculty for Black Studies
 Black staff in financial aid office
 Keep black faculty despite political
views
 Support BSU and others
 Ties between Chicano and Black
working people
 Work with off campus groups for
Third World liberation
 Increase Latino students
 Establish Mexican American and
Latin American Studies
 Mexican and Latin American
students and faculty control
department
 Latino professor rehired with
tenure to teach “History of La Raza”
 Japanese American Studies
 Role of Japanese in historical
development of US
 Cultural and social influences on US
 “eventually” obtain BA and MA –
now concentration demanded
Analysis
How are the perspectives of coalition
members the same or different? What
is most unique about this coalition
member’s demands?
 Very focused on black students.
 Not just courses but also
business offices
 Protect free speech of faculty
 More black students
 Centralize courses on black
experience/history
 Support BSU but see as part of
broader coalition
 Connect their needs to black
students/working people
 Faculty and student control/power
 Relevant courses
 Much less aggressive language
 Not about what has been done to
Japanese Americans but how they
have influenced
Page | 61
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Intercollegiate Chinese for Social
Action
Phillipine (sic) American
Collegiate Endeavor
Latin American Student
Organization
 Moral vacuum oblivious to
community
 Serve Chinese people of SF
 Bridge “street culture”
(Cantonese) university
(Mandarin)
 Courses that deal with the
real life needs of Chinese in SF
(cramped in Chinatown)
 Chinese Studies program
“begin to attack the problems
that exist”
 “come to realization” struggle
is connected among all Third
World peoples
 Filipinos in low wage work
even when have degrees
 Develop Filipino Studies
 Accept any Filipino student
that applies
 “for our survival” “necessary
to unite”
 Implement a program
relevant to Latin American
students
 “We can no longer request,
we must demand.”
 LA Studies aimed at “the
needs of Latin American
people.”
 Department of LA Studies
within school for Ethnic
Studies
 Structured and implemented
by students
 Provided adequate resources
 Accept all Latin American
student applicants
 Aggressive language
 Strong ties to Chinatown SF
 Want courses that deal with
real world issues
 Bridge college and
community
 Part of coalition, all tied
together
 Economic situation of
community
 Aggressive language
 Student control and influence
 Need adequate resources
not just a department
Thesis Statement: While the TWLF coalition members agreed on the need for a School of Ethnic Area
Studies, each member group highlighted issues specific to the experiences of its community and used
different styles of communication.
Page | 62
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Context: Between 1967 and 1969, a series of protests took place at San Francisco State College. The
coalition of students leading the protests called themselves the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF).
The protests drew both support and opposition from members of the college (administration, faculty, and
students) and the surrounding community (governor, state legislature, mayor). The TWLF’s demands
reflected, in particular, the concerns of students of color on the campus.
Black Student Union, “Demands and Explanations” found in The San Francisco State College Strike Collection. Special Collections and
Archives, J. Paul Leonard Library, San Francisco State University, https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/strike/bundles/187979.
Page 1/2
Page | 63
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Page 2/2
Page | 64
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Context: Between 1967 and 1969, a series of protests took place at San Francisco State College. The
coalition of students leading the protests called themselves the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF).
The protests drew both support and opposition from members of the college (administration, faculty, and
students) and the surrounding community (governor, state legislature, mayor). The TWLF’s demands
reflected, in particular, the concerns of students of color on the campus.
“Phillipine American Collegiate Endeavor” found in The San Francisco State College Strike Collection., Special Collections and Archives, J.
Paul Leonard Library, San Francisco State University, https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/strike/bundles/187979.
Page | 65
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Context: Between 1967 and 1969, a series of protests took place at San Francisco State College. The
coalition of students leading the protests called themselves the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF).
The protests drew both support and opposition from members of the college (administration, faculty, and
students) and the surrounding community (governor, state legislature, mayor). The TWLF’s demands
reflected, in particular, the concerns of students of color on the campus.
Asian American Political Alliance, “A Position Paper on the Proposed Institute of Japanese American Studies and the School of Ethnic Area
Studies,” found in The San Francisco State College Strike Collection, Special Collections and Archives, J. Paul Leonard Library, San Francisco
State University, https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/strike/bundles/187979.
Page | 66
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Context: Between 1967 and 1969, a series of protests took place at San Francisco State College. The
coalition of students leading the protests called themselves the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF).
The protests drew both support and opposition from members of the college (administration, faculty, and
students) and the surrounding community (governor, state legislature, mayor). The TWLF’s demands
reflected, in particular, the concerns of students of color on the campus.
Intercollegiate Chinese for Social Action, Position Paper” found in The San Francisco State College Strike Collection, Special Collections and
Archives, J. Paul Leonard Library, San Francisco State University, https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/strike/bundles/187979.
Page | 67
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Context: Between 1967 and 1969, a series of protests took place at San Francisco State College. The
coalition of students leading the protests called themselves the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF).
The protests drew both support and opposition from members of the college (administration, faculty, and
students) and the surrounding community (governor, state legislature, mayor). The TWLF’s demands
reflected, in particular, the concerns of students of color on the campus.
“Mexican American Student Confederation” found in The San Francisco State College Strike Collection, Special Collections and Archives, J.
Paul Leonard Library, San Francisco State University, https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/strike/bundles/187979.
Page | 68
PART 3: Developing Ethnic Studies at San Francisco
State College – The Third World Liberation Front
Context: Between 1967 and 1969, a series of protests took place at San Francisco State College. The
coalition of students leading the protests called themselves the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF).
The protests drew both support and opposition from members of the college (administration, faculty, and
students) and the surrounding community (governor, state legislature, mayor). The TWLF’s demands
reflected, in particular, the concerns of students of color on the campus.
“No Title [Latin American Students Organization Demands]” found in The San Francisco State College Strike Collection. Special Collections
and Archives, J. Paul Leonard Library. San Francisco State University. https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/strike/bundles/187979.
Page | 69
ASSESSMENT
Final Assessment: Writing Prompt
Student Activism in the 1960s
Context:
As the black freedom struggle progressed during the late 1950s and early 1960s, young
people from all backgrounds increasingly became involved in organizing and
demonstrating for change. These protests often emerged from the particular interests of
students. The Mississippi Summer Project’s freedom schools (1964), the Free Speech
Movement at UC Berkeley (1964), and the Third World Liberation From at San Francisco
State University (1967-69) all sought to improve education by expanding the role of
schools and schooling.
Question:
What did student activists in the 1960s believe the role of schools should be?
Expectations: Write a paragraph that includes a thesis, supporting evidence from the three movements
studied, an explanation (analysis) of your thesis, and a concluding sentence.
Evidence should include:
 The demands made by student activists.
 How these demands reflected changing expectations for schools and schooling.
 The connection between the student demands of the 1960s and the current state of
schools (optional).
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ASSESSMENT
Writing Organizer
Movement
Participants
Changes to Education
Freedom Schools
Free Speech Movement
Third World Liberation Front
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ASSESSMENT
WRITING FRAME: What did student activists in the 1960s believe was the role of schools?
Thesis:
(What was the role of schools according to student activists?)
_______________
Supporting Evidence #1:
(Cite specific evidence from the “Prospectus for a Summer Freedom School Program.”)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Analysis of Evidence #1:
Supporting Evidence #2:
(Cite specific evidence from Mario Savio’s speech or the FSM demands.)
Analysis of Evidence #2:
Supporting Evidence #3:
(Cite specific evidence from TWLF documents.)
Analysis of Evidence #3:
Concluding Sentence:
_
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ASSESSMENT
Writing Organizer
Movement
TEACHER KEY
Participants
Changes for Education
Freedom Schools
 Black college students/full
time organizers
 College professors
 Northern college students
 School age students
 Expand upon basic skills
 Include relevant and rigorous
curriculum
 Skills for organizing
 Education to be shared with
others
 Advance black freedom
struggle
Free Speech Movement
 Students at UC Berkeley
 Community activists
 Right to organize for off
campus issues
 Autonomy from faculty
control
 Democratic processes on
campus
 Benefit from an education
that can lead to
improvements in society
Third World Liberation Front
 SF State students
 SF State faculty
 Coalition members
 School of Ethnic Studies
 Student and faculty control of
courses and hiring
 Connection of courses to
community needs
 More students of color
 More faculty of color
 Respect political views of
faculty
Page | 73
ASSESSMENT
TEACHER KEY
WRITING FRAME: What did student activists in the 1960s believe was the role of schools?
Topic Sentence:
Student activists in the 1960s demanded that their education be made more relevant to them.
Supporting Evidence #1: In Mississippi, the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) understood the
importance of a strong education, especially to further the black freedom struggle. They set out to establish
freedom schools in which students would be taught by both white and black college students. The curriculum was
built around four categories: leadership development, a remedial academic program, contemporary issues, and a
non-academic curriculum. In the leadership development course, students would focus on public speaking and
canvassing for political causes, giving them the tools to continue and build the movement.
Analysis for Evidence #1:
This shows that the role of freedom schools was to not only remedy the long history of discrimination in
Mississippi, but also to develop leaders in order for the movement to be sustained. Freedom schools acknowledged
that students needed to be able to critically think and analyze their world in order to make it better.
Supporting Evidence #2:
During the Free Speech Movement students were banned from engaging in political activity at the University of
California, Berkeley. Students responded to this by stating that the University of California “is under a moral
obligation to ensure that full discussion of the important ideas and issues affecting our society and world
continue.” Their demands, such as being able to recruit for off campus political activities on campus, reflected their
belief that the university was a place where students ought to be able to learn, express, and act upon ideas that
would lead to radical change in a society they viewed as conformist.
Analysis for Evidence #2:
This shows that some students hoped that their university education would not only allow them to discuss issues
in “abstract intellectual terms” but also “advocate actions.” Students, increasingly aware of the social issues during
the 1960s, wanted to be a part of making the United States a place that respected the rights and choices of all.
Supporting Evidence #3:
The Third World Liberation Front, a diverse coalition of student groups at San Francisco State, staged protests over
two years to establish a College of Ethnic Studies.
Analysis for Evidence #3:
The TWLF believed that these new offerings were a solution to many of the problems in California education by
establishing more courses about communities of color, increasing the hiring of faculty of color, and providing more
autonomy to students and faculty of color.
Concluding Sentence:
Because of the actions of student activists, the idea of what education should provide significantly changed during
the 1960s, leading to the teaching of more diverse courses and increasing the voice of students and faculty on
college campuses.
Page | 74
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Permissions for educational use:
* Becoming America excerpt printed with the permission of McGraw-Hill Education and the authors.
† Used
with the permission of the Free Speech Movement Archive: http://www.fsm-a.org
‡ Used
with the permission of the Wisconsin Historical Society: www.wisconsinhistory.org
§ Used
with the permission of San Francisco State University Collections.
The creation of this unit was generously funded through the UC Berkeley
Chancellor’s Community Partnerships grants program, 2014-2015.
© UC Regents 2014
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