Many of these protests were a small part of the larger Free Speech Movement, which had national implications and constituted the onset of the counterculture of the 1960s.
In the 1930s, the students at Berkeley led massive demonstrations protesting the United States ending its disarmament policy and the approaching war.
[2] Throughout the course of World War II, these demonstrations continued with the addition of strikes against fascism; however, they were largely symbolic in form.
From 1949 to 1950, students and teaching assistants at UC Berkeley rallied against the anti-communist loyalty oath that professors were forced to take at the university.
Although the demonstration was organized by the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination , a high percentage of individuals involved in the protest were members of the student population of the Berkeley campus.
[3][4] The administration of UC Berkeley believed that on campus political advocacy was partially to blame for the high percentage of student involvement in the widely media publicized Sheraton Palace demonstration.
This intersection had served for years as a gathering place for students to hand out pamphlets and organize for political means.
[3] The student occupation of Sproul Hall on December 2, 1964, was the largest single demonstration organized by the Free Speech Movement.
[3] After several failed attempts due to blockades by police and the National Guard, the Vietnam day committee was able to organize a march on November 21, 1965 through the streets of Oakland, California.
The Free Speech Movement (FSM) was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Jack Weinberg, Brian Turner, Bettina Apthecker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and others.
During this era, many people were influenced by the "antinomian personality", a behavioral style which "places characteristic emphasis on intuition, immediacy, self-actualization, transcendence, and similar themes familiar with Hippie conduct," said Lawrence Chenoweth.
"[7] Chenoweth says that all of these traits then combine into the stereotypical hippie persona, as the antinomian "treats his mind as if it were completely malleable, devalues reality, rejects reason and understanding, and selects certain experiences to create a fantasied, dogmatic cosmic view of the world.
The Black Panther Party used the technique of social agitation, in the form of vigilantism, their survival programs, and more broadly their resistance to accept and conform to influence the Civil Rights Movement.
SLATE & CORE) and the members of the Black Panther Party united to protest outside the hotel while meetings between the administration board were being conducted inside.
The protest proved successful, as the Hotel eventually signed an agreement allowing African Americans opportunities to not only advance but also to be hired into managerial positions.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.