Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s

Epilogue: Where Are They Now?

Epilogue Where Are They Now? Whenever one reads a history about the 1960s, one wonders what those activists and militants from yesteryear are doing now. One also wonders whether the agitators still feel the same way about the issues that they did in their younger years. Finally, one wonders if those demonstrators from the 1960s are still active in their struggles against racism, war, and poverty. The answer in the case of the Columbia rebels is overwhelmingly affirmative. The following is an attempt to locate some of the demonstrators in the four decades after the rebellions of the late 1960s. In April 2008 nearly two hundred Columbia demonstrators came back to the Morningside Heights campus for a commemoration of their activities forty years earlier. Over the course of the commemoration, there were scholarly panels that analyzed the lasting impacts of the Columbia controversy. The topics that the panels covered included the Vietnam War and the current wars in the Middle East; current issues of race on Columbia’s campus; feminism in larger society; campus activism. Although the scene was reminiscent of a college reunion at times, the event was very telling. For the very first time since 1968, Columbia University officially recognized and hosted an event commemorating the activities of the student rebels. Just as the current president, Lee Bollinger (who came to Columbia as a student in the fall of 1968), acknowledged that fact, an older, long-haired man stood up and shouted: “Bollinger is overseeing the expansion project of West Harlem . . . in Manhattanville! Shame on him!” While the long-haired man, who was not an alumnus of Columbia, was shouting, some of the crowd booed and hissed the president. Others in the audience, however, attempted to shout down the man who interrupted the president. That scene was replayed at several different events where the president made an appearance. Ironically, many of Columbia’s 1968 agitators grew flustered and upset with the community people who kept raising the issue of Manhattanville and the potential loss of homes that may occur with the university’s current acquisition of many acres of land in West Harlem. In this way, some of the 1960s demonstrators had become counterdemonstrators. Perhaps the former protesters understood the frustration of those who sat in the audience in 1968 when Rudd seized the microphone at the King memorial or of those who did not approve of the demonstrators who took over buildings. Still, the politics of many of the Columbia rebels seem not to have changed. Most of the demonstrators oppose the current war in Iraq as they did that in Vietnam during the 1960s. Mark Rudd, who currently lives in New Mexico, considers himself still active. After having gone “underground” in 1969, Rudd resurfaced in 1977 and participated in political struggles regarding Nicaragua and Native Americans. At the time of the commemoration, he was revising his memoirs. Ron Carver, who was a member of SDS in 1968, has gone on to do union work with the Teamsters. While in 1964 and 1965 he worked with people like Julian Bond in Atlanta and Mississippi, Carver currently works with groups like the NAACP to ensure fairness in hiring and promotion at large companies. Laura Pinsky, who also occupied a building during the demonstrations, is a counselor at Columbia and an AIDS-awareness activist. Bob Feldman, who was a community activist and SDS member while at Columbia , continues to vigorously protest war and U.S. foreign policy today. Many of the demonstrators have entered the halls of the academy. Lewis Cole, recently deceased, taught at Columbia, where he won teaching awards. Hilton Obinzinger, also an SDS member, teaches at Stanford University. Other educators who were members of or followed SDS include Josh De Wind (Hunter College), Les Gottesman (Golden Gate University), Michael Klare (Hampshire College), Mark Naison (Fordham University), and Michael Wallace (City University of New York). Frances Fox Piven, who was not a member of SDS but who entered Low Library with her daughter, also teaches at the City University of New York. Several of the members or followers of SAS have also become educators. Bill Sales of SAS teaches at Seton Hall University. The late Henry Jackson of SAS taught at Hunter College. Some black women who were in Hamilton have gone on to educate as well. Cheryl Leggon teaches at Georgia Tech University, while Christine Clark-Evans teaches at Penn State University. More than a few activists from the time have become authors and artists. 194...