Sydnee Burns
Humanities 2600-002
S00737298
11.29.2012
Berkeley in them 60’s: Critical Analysis
The main Concepts covered in this documentary are the six social movements. They are, first, Civil
Rights Movement, second, Student Movement with emphasis on Free Speech and third, the Anti-War Movement.
Next, there is the Counter Culture Movement, the Black Power Movement (Black Panthers), and last, the
Women’s Movement. These movements were key in developing our social culture then and they have played a
large part in how we approach our social culture now as well.
The two major basic Assumptions which were wrong were that American capitalism did not solve all our
problems at home, and that communism was our most urgent danger. This was to be realized soon enough, but not
before tearing apart the very fabric of American society. The years of consensus (1955-1965), when there was
virtually no difference between conservative and liberal thinking, presented 20th-century America with the most
serious challenge to the authority of American institutions. The most conspicuous challenge came from two
groups: upper-middle-class youth (especially college students) and the urban poor. The two groups did not always
work together, but a set of very special circumstances led them along parallel paths that occasionally intersected.
The Purpose of this documentary is to illustrate how Berkeley, a quiet school became the site of massive
political activism. The 1960's alumni of Berkeley share and tell their stories about the students fighting for their
right of political expression on campus and then against the Vietnam War. The insights shared clearly define just
how important and how definitive the decade of the 60’s was.
The Question of what really motivated the students was asked. The answer, I feel, is that the students
were given hope by Kennedy's New Frontier that they could actually accomplish something by standing up for
what they believed in. Since they lived in a time in which there were many social issues that could be protested,
students managed to find an issue that they felt strongly about and joined the cause.
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There is so much Information presented. As the war began escalating in 1965, anti-war protestors felt
called to inform the public about the reasons behind the war and explain why it should be stopped. Student
activists at UC Berkeley were inspired. As a great number of people involved in the prior year’s Free Speech
Moment were facing legal troubles, a new group of leaders emerged, forming a new group called the Vietnam
Day Committee. They created a sit-in event that attracted more than 30,000 people—the largest number of any of
the 35 other university teach-ins that took place that year. The invited guests at UC Berkeley included Dr.
Benjamin Spock, California Assemblymen Willie Brown and John Burton, philosopher Alan Watts, comedian
Dick Gregory, student activist Dave Dellinger, journalists I.F. Stone. Writer Norman Mailer’s comment that
“President Johnson was a bully with an air force,” was widely reported in the national media.
Berkeley’s Vietnam Day Committee strategized throughout 1965 on how to make a war that was taking
place across the Pacific Ocean visible to Americans at home. That May, several hundred students marched down
to the Berkeley Draft Board carrying a black coffin. Forty students burned their draft card, an act not yet made
illegal by Congress. The Vietnam Day Committee also organized demonstrations along the Santa Fe railroad
tracks running through West Berkeley and Oakland taking new inductees to the Oakland Army Induction Center.
They were joined by more than 15,000 demonstrators to march toward Oakland where they were met by
policemen in full riot gear.
Throughout 1967, organizers of “Stop the Draft Week,” along with 3000 demonstrators, focused again on
the Oakland Army Induction Center. During the four day protest that grew to more than 10,000 demonstrators, the
building was surrounded as protestors handed out leaflets to the inductees, asking them to change their minds and
refuse to serve.
The Implications of the movements were The Berkeley riots. The Berkeley Riots were ultimately several
different student activist protests in and around the University of California Berkeley Campus. They included The
Sheraton Palace Demonstration. It was essentially the first event in the Berkeley Riots. There was also the Ban of
tables on Bancroft and Telegraph, the arrest of Jack Weinberg, Occupation of Sproul Hall, and the Vietnam Day
march. Other notable events were the March down Telegraph, March on Oakland Army Terminal and Stop the
Draft Week.
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