Project Overview
On October 1, 1964, student demonstrators gathered at Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus to protest the arrest of former student Jack Weinberg for disseminating political information on campus. Over the next 32 hours, more than 7000 students and demonstrators joined the effort. The Free Speech Movement emerged from the black freedom struggle and inspired later student movements.
As part of the 50th anniversary of this culturally defining movement, UCBHSSP sponsored the development of a curricular unit on student activism in the 1960s to be piloted at the California Preparatory Academy, an Aspire Public School in Berkeley, CA. Students enrolled in the Ethnic Studies class, mentored by graduate students from UC Berkeley, conducted oral histories of local residents who participated in the Free Speech Movement and Third World Liberation Movement.
Use the menu on the left to explore the curriculum tools and interviews conducted by high school students in the Spring of 2015. And, explore this link to resources compiled by the university in commemoratin of the 50th anniversary of the FSM.
This project was funded through a grant from the Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund.