Columbia UNI
Protests

• Columbia Uni Protests

  • Opposed the university's involvement in weapons research as this research assisted the government
  • Controversy about the relationship between the university and adjacent Harlem and its Black and Hispanic populations
• Since 1958, Columbia University's expansion programmes had led to eviction of several thousands of Harlem residents from properties owned by the university
• 1968- the university planned to construct a gym in the public park


  1. The Harlem population would be able to access the gym, through a separate door

  2. Students interpreted this as a segregationist policy and opposed the construction of 'Gym Crow'

  3. Defenders said that the separate door was necessary because the gym was on a hill
• Student protests

  • 1,000 of Columbia's 17,000 students participated
  • Students seized 5 university buildings and covered the walls with Malcolm X and communist heroes such as Karl Marx and Che Guevara
  • The police used clubs and made 692 arrests
  • The university shut down for that term and abandoned the gym and many defence contracts
  • Hundreds of similar occupations followed across the USA