California-Berkeley Essay, Research Paper

During the 60?s, there were social unrest on campuses across America as students became active in politics. Students at UCB organized sit ins and other demenstrations against the racial discrimination. When the university banned the students from the demenstrations, students gathered together to form the Free Speech movement. The university acted on the university charter law to ban politics on the college campus. Even though the law was not supposed to be interperated in that way, the university started enforcing the law. This made the students very angry and rebelled towards the university. The students began their free speech movement against the unconstitutional restrictions. The largest sit in happened at Sproul Hall, were police had to intervene, arresting more than 700 people. These were mostly students that wanted to advocate freedom of speech, but instead were dragged off to jails. The university soon changed its policies and allowed free speech as long as the demenstations were annonced ahead of time. Mario Savio, the leader of the movement advocated non violence, but this would not be upheld. The movement at UCB led way to many other campuses across the country. By the 70?s, the movement ended across college campuses.

Black Radicalism was on the move during the 60?s as the Black Panthers formed. This group under Huey Newton and Bobby Seale represented African Americans in a different way other then the Civil Rights Movement. The group felt that African Americans were being wrongly targeted by white police officers. They were sick of the racism and wanted to be able to protect themselves as much as possible. The intentions of the Black Panther were to use non violence to defend themselves. Although they were non violent, they would carry guns just in case violence broke out. The Panthers were not a racist group, but one that is for protection from all harm no matter who it was. They believe that they are fighting a class struggle and not a race struggle. The hostility between the Panthers and the police erupted in the late sixties. These conflicts led to violence and deaths on both sides. By the 70?s, the Panther?s radicalism declined due to inner conflict between Newton and another group member by the name of Cleaver.

Latin Americans also had their share of challenges in America during the 60?s. The Bracero program had brought in temporary labor from Mexico to help in the fields. This led to exploitation of the workers by giving them low wages and inhuman living conditions. In 1959, the AFL fought for the rights of the laborers and asked the farmers to become a union. The farm workers were skeptics at first because they didn?t want to lose there source of income if they went on strikes. Cesar Chavez led the way as he organized an independent union called the NFWA(National Farm Worker?s Association) He wanted the owners of the farm to provide fair wages as well as better benefits. In 1965, Chavez joined in on the strike at Delano. It was hard for him to win because strike breakers were brought in to end the problem. As the movement progressed, it got stronger and stronger. They had convinced stores to not buy their grapes and the dock workers would not load them. Chavez had won and the farm owners signed contracts that led to a better life for the latino farmers.