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SJUS - Woodstock West
- 2. MLK at DU
- 3. Sit-in at DU Registrar
- 7. DU, 6:00 p.m., Monday, May 4, 1970 What do you do?
- 13. Thursday, May 7
- 15. Friday, May 8
- 16. Friday, 12:00,p.m., May 8 What do you do?
- 26. Woodstock
- 30. Monday, May 11, 1970
- 31. Monday, May 11, 1970 What do you do?
- 32. Woodstock West II Monday, May 11, 1970
- 34. Gov Love
- 36. Tuesday, May 12 What do you do?
- 37. Wednesday morning, May 13
- 42. Soldiers and police occupy campus for five days.
- 43. Woodstock West is not rebuilt.
Editor's Notes
- Pre-A Break into 5 groups / Hand out Gene Sharps 168 Methods / Hand out index cards with roles. Word gets out that the Chancellor is calling in Denver PD and state troopers to clear out the camp tomorrow morning
- A May 18, 1967 Having given the Vietnam speech a little over a month earlier, MLK delivers speech, “The Future of Integration,” at the old University of Denver Arena. (The arena is about half full.) The Denver Post reports that a group of students outside hold up a “Rights for Whites” sign, while another burns two crosses and two cars, one of which has a sign that says “Kill Martin Luther King.” King endorses conscientious objection, to mixed boos and applause.
- A April 1968. Students stage a sit-in over disagreements regarding the election of a grad student to the all-undergrad Student Associate Senate. A sign of the growing radicalization of campus, sponsored by SDS. A sign of global student radicalism: e.g., Columbia, Berlin, Paris. SDS was a major player in protests against the war (and against domestic injustice), but in pressuring universities, specifically, to get out of the war business.
- A On Thursday, April 30, after revelations published in the New York Times, the administration of President Richard Nixon admits that it has been carpet-bombing Cambodia since March 19. This is arguably (or more than arguably) a war crime.
- A On May 4, 1970, students meet at what’s now Driscoll South to talk about this secret, probably illegal escalation of the Wat in Vietnam.
- A On the same day as the DU meeting (Monday, May 4), four students protesting the secret bombing at Kent State University are killed (at 11:24 a.m., Denver time) by members of the National Guard.
- A What do you do?
- B Students go on strike, starting Wednesday, May 6. picketing the General Classroom Building (now Sturm) and urging other students (and faculty) not to cross the picket line and instead to join the strike. A statewide student org (which promotes the vote and student participation in state political processes), the Colorado Collegiate Association, comes out in favor of a statewide student strike. Strikes are breaking out nationwide. (NB Student/worker strikes in France in '68 brought the nation to a standstill and very nearly toppled the gov't.) SHOW NEXT SLIDE
- B Here's the Clarion front page. CONTINUE TO MITCHELL
- B But DU Chancellor Maurice Mitchell opposes the strike in no uncertain terms, issuing a statement that say: “No one is free to interfere with the ongoing scholarly activities here.” (SEE NEXT SLIDE.)
- B Here's Mitchell's statement. In response, what begins on the afternoon of the 6th as a strike rally ends with a march on Mitchell’s office.
- B Not all students who supported the antiwar agenda supported the strike. E.g., BSA, which was opposed to the war, ultimately decided not to support the strike, because the white radical left has historically asked for Black support on this or that particular issue that connects with issues affecting the Black community, only to walk away after their own limited objectives have been met. Note also that BSA talks about numerous other instances wherein Black activists have been shot killed (at S. Carolina State, by the Nat’l Guard), but received nowhere near the attention that white students at Kent State received.
- B On the Thursday, May 7, a homemade firebomb is thrown into an office in John Greene Hall (behind what’s now the new Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science). This may have to do with the Denver Research Institute, which was housed in that building and which was rumored (it later turned out to be true) to be involved in military research. Again, SDS was very much against that, and had been taking an increasingly revolutionary position. (Sterling Hall is next side.)
- B
- B May 8, in response to the unrest, the Chancellor leads a convocation (at the University of Denver Arena, where MLK spoke). Packed house: 5000 people attend. Mitchell doesn’t back down — he applauds students passionate involvement in the issue, but not the strike (and now bombs) strategy. Students aren’t satisfied. They gather on Carnegie Green. There’s talk among some — but not all — of making more bombs and burning more buildings. . . .
- B What do you do?
- C We would now call what they did an "occupation" a la Occupy. It's a combination of three precendents.
- C Another view of Woodstock West.
- C The Columbia Takeover. Woodstock West was outdoors, didn't involve taking over buildings.
- C DU's legal marshals put together info about the right to protestors, what to do if you’re arrested, a legal defense fund, etc.
- C. Teach-ins
- C 1968. King was involved in the planning but was assassinated before it happened.
- C DU - outdoor "city."
- C DU tent city
- C Likewise aimed to provide amenities, etc.
- C Like Woodstock in 1969, was a cultural "happening."
- C Bands, etc.
- C Hippie culture: ”The celebration is the revolution.”
- C The Chancellor calls in Denver PD and state troopers on Sunday, May 10, to clear out the camp. . . . (Next slide)
- C . . . And by the morning of Monday, May 11, they tear it all down and throw it in the dump.
- B What do you do?
- D Monday, May 11, afternoon. Woodstock West II: the students rebuild . . .
- D . . . Except now there are police and state troppers everywhere.
- D Tuesday, May, 12. Governor John Arthur Love comes to campus, to talk with the students about crafting a compromise so that the National Guard doesn’t have to be called in. To no avail.
- D In downtown Denver, Woodstock West supporters and antiwar activists stage a massive protest.
- D May 13: Chancellor Mitchell calls Gov. Love to say that he’s lost control of the campus, and requests that the Governor send in the National Guard. You know they’re coming. What would you do?
- E Protesters have already abandoned the camp when, early on the morning of May 13, the National Guard arrives. . . .
- E . . . They tear down Woodstock West II . . . .
- E (another view of the teardown of Woodstock West II)
- E The Guard establishes a presence, to insure that the camp isn’t rebuilt.
- E (another view of the Guard on campus)