Sproul Hall sit-in documentation 1968 (Part 1 of 2)

Actuality of the anti-racism demonstration at the Berkeley campus. In the fall of 1968, students at University of California at Berkeley invited Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver to come to U.C. Berkeley to teach a course on racism. The Regents of the University of California and Governor Ronald Reagan blocked this movement and sent down a decision that students who took the course would not be given credit for the course. This suppression of the student body's wishes came on the heels of many racially-fueled events on the U.C. Berkeley campus, and finally students decided to protest by staging a sit-in at Sproul Hall on October 22, 1968. The students of the proposed course to be taught by Cleaver, SA139X, organized to fight what they saw as institutionalized racism. 121 people were arrested, and the next day, another protest in Moses Hall led to 77 more arrests. Included in this reel of the recording are narration of events as they unfold by the reporter; the students' discussions and voting on group decisions regarding resisting arrest and whether or not to go on a hunger strike if they are arrested; an interview with the Public Affairs Officer for the University of California; actualities of the arrival and activities of the police; interviews with supporters outside and demonstrators inside Sproul Hall; an interview with Charles Palmer, President of the Associated Students of the University of California. Part one.