BERKELEY • BIRTHPLACE OF CAMPUS PROTEST
“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious…” — 8,000 students sat down around a police car, and American protest was never the same.
UC banned political tables at Sather Gate. When police arrested CORE volunteer Jack Weinberg, students led by Mario Savio surrounded the cruiser for 32 hours — Weinberg lectured from its roof. 800 later occupied Sproul Hall; 773 arrested, largest mass arrest in California history. Regents caved: free speech restored.
“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part… you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels… and you've got to make it stop.”
— Mario Savio, Dec 2, 1964, Sproul steps
Philosophy junior, Mississippi Freedom Summer vet. Voice of the movement, died 1996; steps named for him.
Organizer + orator who linked civil rights, Vietnam, and women's liberation.
Ran for governor (1966) vowing to “clean up the mess at Berkeley” — and did, sending troops in '69.
FSM → Anti-Vietnam → People's Park → Free Speech → Disability rights (Berkeley's rolling quads) → Occupy → Black Lives Matter. Tactics born here: sit-in, teach-in, microphone check.