Week 7

Elizabeth Chang

Week 7

Section 1

This week’s reading was Robby Cohen's "Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the way for campus activism”. The reading is about the first freedom of speech movement on a university campus. It started in University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s. Students at UC Berkeley were protesting for their right of participating in political activities and to have support on campus for the civil rights movement, because the higher authorities on campus were against students being involved in such activities. This movement was what started the “Berkeley Free Speech Movement”, and it was a peaceful tactic to achieve the student protestor’s goal.

After reading this article, I found it very interesting to get to know about the events that happened that lead to the formation of the "Berkeley Free Speech Movement". It made me realize that even though the United States is a free country that encourages free speech, it was not always like this. Fifty years ago, there were people in places of power that tried to take control and manage the ways people talked and thought. I have to be honest. Since I am an international student, my US history knowledge is limited and I don't know what if there was a drastic change in political parties. The reason I talk about political parties is because one party might be afraid of being substituted, so they try to control people's education and freedom of speech.

Question: Fifty years ago, students at UC Berkeley protested to have freedom of speech. Since then, freedom of speech in universities has become a given. Do you think that even though freedom of speech has come a long way, it is freedom in its totality?

References

Cruz, J. (n.d.). Credit: StudyBay in freedom of speech collection. Retrieved May 15, 2017, from https://clipartfest.com/download/5139ef2205f04c9eced7b9d83ae67523614cc17e.html

Cohen, R. (1985). Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the way for campus activism. OAH Magazine of History,1(1), 16-18.