University of Michigan and the Berkeley Free Speech Movement

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FSM Campus Press

SUMMARY: Mario Savio, Steve Weissman, Suzanne Goldberg and Bettina Aptheker visited the campus on December 10, 1964.


Jo Freeman, "At Berkeley in the Sixties," (Indiana University Press, 2004), p223
"Mario, Bettina, Steve and Suzanne went east on a speaking tour of college campuses. The ABC television network paid their fare to New York City so that they could appear on a TV show, and they used the opportunity to talk about the FSM at several campuses. The press generally reported this trip as a flop because only hundreds, not thousands, of students came to hear them speak. But for hundreds to turn out for anything political on most campuses was a lot, especially the last week of classes before the Christmas break, which was also exam week for some. They left the evening of December 9th and spoke at Michigan, Wisconsin, Brandeis, Columbia, and of course Queens College, where Mario had once been a student. All but Steve were from New York."


October 3, 1964: The Michigan Daily, pp 1-2
Students, Berkeley Reach Accord Ending Protests By David Marcus


October 28, 1964: The Michigan Daily, p01
School Fails To Reinstate Protestors by Bruce Wasserstein


December 11, 1964: The Michigan Daily, p01
In Diag Speech Savio Criticizes Kerr's Concept of Education Factory By LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM
Mario Savio, Steve Weissman, Suzanne Goldberg and Bettina Aptheker visited the campus on December 10, 1964.
In Informal Talk Later, Weissman Condemns 'Multiversity,' Sees Reform By KENNETH WINTER, Managing Editor
'U' Issuing No Reprisal


December 11, 1964: The Michigan Daily, p09

These and many more references can be found here.

12/10/1964, Berkeley Daily Gazette, Savio Off on Tour,

"Mario Savio and three prominent members of the FSM student leadership, boarded a jet plane this morning bound for Eastern colleges and universities to tell students firsthand about the FSM movement on the local University of California campus. ¶ Hardly pausing for that 'sleep' he talked about Tuesday night after the UC Academic Senate overwhelmingly voted to endorse student demands for freedom to advocate and raise money for off-campus political activities, Savio will speak to students at the University of Michigan, Columbia University and other New York area schools, and Harvard. ¶ Savio has withdrawn from UC for the remainder of the semester. ¶ The other FSM leaders, Suzanne Goldberg, Steven Weissman, and Bettina Aptheker, will speak at the Universities of Chicago and Wisconsin while Savio will complete his whirlwind tour by visiting his family in Glendora in Southern California. ¶ Savio said his costs were being paid by the American Broadcasting Co., and that he was scheduled to appear on several television shows which so far appear to be a tentative bid for the Les Crane Show and a program in Los Angeles. ¶ He also said that he would be paid for his television appearances, and that he was donating the money to the defense fund of the hundreds of students arrested last Thursday in the Sproul Hall sit-in."

12/10/1964, San Francisco Chronicle, Savio Off to Spread FSM Gospel,

"Mario Savio, the leader of the University of California revolt, took off on a transcontinental tour early today to spread the gospel of his Free Speech Movement to other American campuses. ¶ Savio, a 22-year-old UC philosophy major, left with three of his followers for the University of Michigan, Columbia University and other institutions of higher learning in the New York area, and last of all to Harvard. ¶ The cost of his air line tickets, Savio told reporters who joined a bearded and sandaled throng of well-wishers at San Francisco International Airport, is being paid by the American Broadcasting Company, although he will appear on the TV shows of other networks in Los Angeles. ¶ Savio said he would be paid for his brief stints as an entertainer, but that any funds he receives would go to the defense coffers of the 781 UC students arrested last week during the Sproul Hall sit-in."

12/11/1964, The Harvard Crimson, Mario Savio To Talk Tonight in Lowell Lec, unattributed

"Mario Savio, leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, will speak at 8 p.m. tonight in Lowell lecture Hall. The address is sponsored by the Harvard chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society. ¶ Savio, who has called the settlement proposed by the Berkeley Faculty Senate an 'FSM victory,' will arrive in Boston at 5 p.m. today. He will attend and address a dinner here before his appearance at Lowell Lecture Hall. ¶ Savio will also visit Brandeis University, probably between 9 p.m. and midnight. His trip to the East coast is being paid for by a New York television station." [eds note: Jo Freeman, "At Berkeley in the Sixties," (Indiana University Press, 2004), p223: "Mario, Bettina, Steve and Suzanne went east on a speaking tour of college campuses. The ABC television network paid their fare to New York City so that they could appear on a TV show, and they used the opportunity to talk about the FSM at several campuses. The press generally reported this trip as a flop because only hundreds, not thousands, of students came to hear them speak. But for hundreds to turn out for anything political on most campuses was a lot, especially the last week of classes before the Christmas break, which was also exam week for some. They left the evening of December 9th and spoke at Michigan, Wisconsin, Brandeis, Columbia, and of course Queens College, where Mario had once been a student. All but Steve were from New York."]

12/11/1964, Lewiston Morning Tribune, Michigan Students Asked To Back California Group, unsigned

"ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP)-- Some 1200 University of Michigan students heard leaders of the University of Ca1ifornia Free Speech Movement plead Thursday [12/10/1964] for support for a possible student-faculty strike against regents of the Ca1ifornia school. ¶ Steve Weissman, a former Michigan student, called on the rally to march on University President Harlan Hatcher's house here, if necessary, and demand that he support the California protest. ¶ Weissman led a three-day Berkeley campus strike."

12/12/1964, The New York Times, Berkeley Youth Leader Warns Of Protests at Other Campuses, Thomas Buckley

"The comments were made by Mario Savio, a philosophy student at the university's Berkeley campus, at a news conference at the Overseas Press Club, 54 West 40th Street. ¶ He arrived here Thursday night with three other members of the executive committee of the Free Speech Movement, an organization representing 20 political and civil rights groups at the university, to tape a television interview. ¶ They also hope to obtain financial and moral support for the 814 students arrested in a sit-in strike at the university on Dec. 2. On their way East the four leaders spoke at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. ¶ After the news conference, they addressed rallies at Columbia and Queens College."

 


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