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Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

Free Speech Movement (1964)

The Free Speech Movement was part of the student anti-war activism in the 1960s. As activism increased, universities imposed regulations and limitations around students’ political activities on campus. Resistance to these restrictions spurred protests in universities throughout California. The arrest of hundreds of Berkeley students during an anti war protest resulted in pressure on the administration to crack down on political organizing near the campus by issuing orders against them.

Berkeley students led by student organizer Mario Savio challenged these orders. Salvio and other campus representatives from Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) came together to protest the order. The movement reached its peak in December of 1964 when 1,500 students and activists entered the Berkeley administration building for a nonviolent sit-in demonstration. Police violently removed the demonstrators, as bystanders and faculty witnessed the action Berkeley faculty voted to support the Free Speech Movement.

Sources:

Aichinger, Karen. “Berkeley Free Speech Movement.” The Free Speech Center, 20 Sept. 2023, firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/berkeley-free-speech-movement/.

“Free Speech Movement.” UC Berkeley Library, www.lib.berkeley.edu/visit/bancroft/oral-history-center/projects/free-speech-movement. Accessed 25 Oct. 2023.

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From her time as student leader in the Free Speech Movement to her work as a classroom teacher in Compton, and through her leadership on the LAUSD School Board, the Los Angeles City Council, and in the California State Assembly, Jackie Goldberg has been a dedicated champion of quality public education and working families for her entire adult life. A Los Angeles native, Jackie was raised in Inglewood and educated in public schools. She graduated from Morningside High School before going on to the University of California at Berkeley and then pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from the University of Chicago. While at UC Berkeley, Jackie became a leader in the Free Speech Movement in 1964, sparking a lifelong passion for political activism and community organizing.
The Free Speech Movement (FSM) was a massive, long-lasting student protest which took place during the 1964–65 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The Movement was informally under the central leadership of Berkeley graduate student Mario Savio. With the participation of thousands of students, the Free Speech Movement was the first mass act of civil disobedience on an American college campus in the 1960s. Students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom. The Free Speech Movement was influenced by the New Left, and was also related to the Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement. To this day, the Movement's legacy continues to shape American political dialogue both on college campuses and in broader society, influencing some political views and values of college students and the general public.