1968 protests
The 1968 protests were big and complicated, much like the political unrest that was spreading through the country at the time. The events were ostensibly set off by planned construction of a gym in Morningside Park. The gym itself, dubbed 'Gym Crow' by protesters, would or perhaps would not have been segregated.
After the initial protests began, they expanded and split into several factions. Far from being the unified activities of a organized and unified group, each faction had different reasons for participating and different goals.
Columbia sharing student information with the local draft boards during the Vietnam war was also somehow a part of this. Columbia kids getting the shit beat out of them by the NYPD certainly was.
Every subsequent campus protest has been measured against this one.
Further Reading
- Chapter 7 of The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York by Vincent Cannato
- Up Against the Ivy Wall: A History of the Columbia Crisis by Jerry L. Avorn
