The Sister Makinya Sibeko-Kouate papers are open for research! Educator and community activist Sister Makinya Sibeko-Kouate (nee Harriet Smith) was celebrated for her efforts to promote Black Studies curricula in the East Bay and to popularize Kwanzaa. Her papers reflect the ways her personal and political lives intersected and offer a window into both Black radical politics and middle class African-American life in the mid-to late 20th century.
Sibeko-Kouate was born into a middle-class family in San Leandro, California on July 1, 1926. Her father, Turner Smith, worked for Calvert Distillers Corp., and her mother, Willette Smith, was active in many African American social clubs and fraternal orders. Sibeko-Kouate grew up in South Berkeley and graduated from Berkeley High in 1947. In the early 1950s, she studied music and teaching at San Francisco State College and ran a small business (Harriet – Ceramic Creations) out of the home she shared with her mother. Sibeko-Kouate attended Merritt College from 1965-1968, where she studied business administration, real estate, and community planning. She received her BA in Black Studies and an MA in Education from Cal State Hayward in the 1970s. At Merritt, Sibeko-Kouate helped develop the Black Studies Department and was the first African-American person elected student body president.
Here are three of the many faces of Sibeko-Kouate. On the left, posing with her ceramic creations, which she advertised on her business card as “hand made gifts to fit your personality”; in the center, pictured with colleagues who also advocated for the discipline of Black Studies and for Black Power: Sid Walton, Ruth Hagwood, and Nathan Hare; and on the right, teaching a class.
Sibeko-Kouate in the classroom (Carton 20, Folder 4)
Sibeko-Kouate was elected president of the Associated Students of Merritt College (ASMC) in Fall 1967. In her welcome address, she notes that “Being a college student in 1967-68 is a bewildering experience…we must proceed toward the future in the context of an unpopular external war and an internal revolution…education should be a maker of a virgin future rather than a slave to an unjust and shopworn past. YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD!” Students like Sibeko-Kouate, and faculty, like Walton, sought to change the world by advocating for an African-American Studies Program at Merritt. The flyer on the right advertises a student-community ceremony to celebrate the first graduates of that program.
Harriet for President flyer, circa 1967 (Carton 1, Folder 6)
Welcome from A.S.M.C. President, 1967 (Carton 1, Folder 11)
A Love Supreme Student-Community African-American Libation Ceremony, Merritt College (Carton 1, Folder 29)
Sibeko-Kouate’s influence went beyond Merritt College. She also served as the President of the National Black Student Union and, in 1968, ran an education workshop on student-community relations for Black students on white campuses at the National Black Power conference in Philadelphia. Sibeko-Kouate’s papers contain materials related to Black curricula and Black Student Unions from many schools in California and, especially, the Bay Area. Examples include a brochure from the Black Students Union at Oakland Tech (in the center and on the right).
National Black Power Conference program, Philadelphia, 1968 (Carton 6, Folder 5)
Black Student Union, Oakland Tech High School (front) Carton 5, Folder 30)
Black Student Union Oakland Tech (Back)
Several celebrations of Sibeko-Kouate’s life referred to her as the “Queen Mother of Kwanzaa,” and her papers contain evidence of her efforts to define and promote the holiday. Examples include these flyers and her notes from an Organizational Committee meeting in Seattle. (Most documents in the collection spell the holiday “Kwanza.” That is the original spelling of the African harvest festival on which the celebration is based. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a seventh letter was added to correspond with the seven African principles honored during the holiday. Both spellings are correct.)
Kwanza: A Black Value System, circa 1971 (Carton 8, Folder 3)
Sibeko-Kouate came into contact with a wide range of political and cultural organizations, either through her direct participation in them, or through ephemera she gathered at events she attended. The materials she collected document decades of African-American cultural life in the Bay Area, including visual arts, music, dance, theater, film, poetry, books, fashion shows, cultural festivals, sporting events, and the culinary arts. Events ranged from the very local (a night of entertainment at Merritt College), to benefits (for the Parent-Infant Neighborhood Center), to appearances by well-known performers and politicians at community events (Nina Simone, the Chambers Brothers, and Congressman Ron Dellums) . The fact that Sibkeo-Kouate collected these flyers and programs reflected her awareness of their historical significance.
“A Night of Black,” Merritt College (Carton 1, Folder 31)
“Fashions to Save Our Children” a benefit, 1973 (Carton 10, Folder 42)
Dignity Day Extravaganza, Oakland Coliseum, 1971 (Carton 10, Folder 42)
The collection documents how Sibeko-Kouate campaigned for politicians, supported the Black Panthers, and was a community organizer. The buttons on the left reflect her politics, the flyer in the middle asks residents to support a boycott to end police brutality, and the notes on the right document a July 1968 incident when Berkeley police assaulted Sibeko-Kouate and her mother after entering their home without permission. It’s not clear whether the assault motivated the boycott or was just another incident of police brutality in the Black community – but the cause of the organizers was very clear: “Our cause is Justice. We reject the idea of supporting businesses that sanction Police Brutality and the disregard for human dignity…Berkeley is run like a plantation…Plantation days are over. Use your dollars to fight your battles…Blacks keep downtown Berkeley in business. We will boycott businesses until JUSTICE flows.”
Political buttons, late 1960s, early 1970s (Carton 28)
Support the Boycott flyer circa 1968 (Carton 8, Folder 24)
The bulk of Sibeko-Kouate’s papers cover the years 1939-1975 and document significant cultural and political changes over that time. The album on the left is from a 1953 Calvert Distillers gathering that Sibeko-Kouate’s father Turner attended. The meeting “represents the first time any industry gathered its men covering the Negro market from all over the country to meet in New York with its top executives for a two-way exchange of ideas on business.” The gathering included a testimonial dinner honoring Thurgood Marshall. Tubie Resnki, an Executive Vice President, said “This trip is another leaf in the Calvert book of leadership in interracial affairs.” A 1969 calendar produced by Seagram Distillers, Calvert’s parent company (on the right), celebrates “Famous Americans and their Significant Contributions” to the history of the United States. Someone (presumably Sibeko-Kouate) crossed out the outdated/offensive term “Negro” and replaced it with “Black.” This item’s contrast with her father’s souvenir from the early 1950s captures a cultural and political shift in rhetoric that can be seen throughout the collection.
Souvenir album, Calvert Distillers Corp., 1953 (Carton 20, Folder 8)
Historical Calendar, 1969 (Flat Box 3)
It is exciting that Sibeko-Kouate’s papers contain nearly 100 home movies (8mm and 16mm) that document vacations, celebrations, and other social gatherings with family and friends (circa 1955-1969). These films, like the Calvert album, other photographs, personalia, and family papers in the collection document the everyday lives of middle-class African Americans in the 20th century. (Please note: the films are not currently available for viewing.)
8mm and 16mm home movies (Carton 26)
Home movie – birthday party, 1956
For more information about the collection, access the catalog record and finding aid for the Sister Makinya Sibeko-Kouate papers (BANC MSS 2019/135) here:
Brianna Iswono is a third-year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley majoring in chemical engineering. In the Fall 2024 semester, Brianna is working with Roger Eardley-Pryor of the Oral History Center to earn academic credits through Berkeley’s Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP). URAP provides opportunities for undergraduates to work closely with Berkeley scholars on cutting edge research projects for which Berkeley is world-renowned. This “From the Archives” article emerged from Brianna’s research in the Oral History Center’s long standing Sierra Club Oral History Project.
Laurence I. Moss, who recorded his oral history in 1992, integrated engineering innovation with environmental protection in ways that inspire me as a chemical engineering student who wants to contribute towards sustainability. Today, efforts to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change are increasingly prominent in academia and technological industries. The surge of various electric cars, solar power installations, and increased sustainability awareness begs the question: how has this shift towards a more green future been feasible? This shift has required, and continues to require, technical developments with environmental goals. Laurence I. Moss was a nuclear engineer who, in the 1960s and 1970s, became a national leader in the Sierra Club. Moss used his technical expertise for advancements in engineering as well as developing processes to prioritize environmental protections.
Laurence I. Moss, a nuclear engineer and Sierra Club President from 1973-1974, recorded his oral history in 1992.
Laurence I. Moss’s early life and education laid the groundwork for his expertise in engineering, equipping him with the technical knowledge to contribute meaningfully to the nuclear industry. Moss was born in 1935 during the Great Depression. He was raised in Queens and Brooklyn in New York City by parents who, as he said, believed deeply in the “American Dream.” He attended the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he studied chemical engineering as an undergraduate. Driven by his passions in math and science, he described wanting a career where “people would be judged on their merits and on their ability to contribute.” Continuing to spark his interests and explore new fields, Moss completed a graduate program at MIT in nuclear engineering, a field he was previously unfamiliar with.
Moss’s work on nuclear reactors, particularly at Rockwell International, highlighted his ability to understand and improve cutting-edge technologies, a key skill that later influenced his advocacy for sustainable energy solutions. Prior to Rockwell International, Moss worked for nearly ten years at the Santa Susana nuclear field laboratory in Simi Hills where he designed and constructed various nuclear power reactors. He focused on developing safer nuclear technologies as the key engineer for testing so-called “critical experiments”—that is, low-power nuclear physics experiments conducted with nuclear reactors that avoid producing large amounts of fission products. This work laid a foundation for broader environmental impacts that he pursued in his later career at Rockwell International. Reflecting on his time at Rockwell, Moss shared, ”It was very rewarding too when you spend several months doing a highly theoretical calculation which makes certain assumptions about physical and nuclear properties, and predicts on the basis of these assumptions that a certain result will happen under these unusual circumstances. And then you go out and test it, and indeed that’s exactly what happens.” After acquiring first-hand experience managing nuclear-scale trials and operations, Moss joined the Sierra Club, and his work efforts soon transitioned towards processes that targeted innovative and renewable energy alternatives.
The personal connection Moss had to nature and his growing awareness of environmental issues, such as pollution and habitat destruction, inspired his shift towards engineering solutions that balanced technical progress with environmental preservation. His admiration of the natural environment grew from his youth in a rural setting where he spent most of his time outdoors. Later in life, seeing the effects of pollution in Los Angeles strengthened his belief that engineering should play a role in protecting the environment. Recalling these aspects, especially from his daily commute, Moss shared, “Another influence was the smog in the L.A. Basin. I remember my feelings at the end of the day, usually driving down from the Santa Susana Mountains to the San Fernando Valley and seeing a blanket of smog over the valley. Thinking about living in that polluted environment and how that had to change.” Seeing the impact of pollution firsthand inspired Moss to turn his personal convictions into action by using his engineering knowledge to advocate for environmental protections.
Moss became a prominent figure in the Sierra Club where he leveraged his engineering expertise for environmental advocacy, including influencing key decisions on energy production and infrastructure through a quantitative approach. He encapsulated his values by asserting, “I wanted to know how many pounds, how many tons, how much toxicity, how many people are at risk, what is the probability of distribution for the hazards, the number of people who can be affected by a single incident, and the consequences of that incident.” Moss joined the Sierra Club in 1959, remained active for over fifteen years, and served as the first non-Californian president of the Club from 1973 to 1974. His leadership was characterized by providing data and analytical information to illuminate the economic and environmental trade-offs of energy production and conservation. During his tenure, Moss opposed construction of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in central California, not in opposition to nuclear power, per se, but by emphasizing its potential dangers in an earthquake-prone area as well as concerns about the plant’s long-term sustainability. In Congressional hearings, he also contributed economic analyses to oppose dams in the Grand Canyon, and instead he advocated for nuclear power as a cleaner, more environmentally sustainable, and cost-effective alternative to burning coal or oil. Moss approached this argument by claiming the dams in the Grand Canyon were not necessary for the economic success of the Central Arizona Project (CAP). He shared, “Those dams were not the key factors in subsidizing the Central Arizona Project. One, we did the calculation that the Bureau of Reclamation did and took out both the costs of and the revenue from the two Grand Canyon dams. At the end of the fifty-year period, you ended up with about the same amount of money with the Central Arizona Project subsidized as with the dams in the calculation.” By merging his analytical mind and engineering expertise, Moss played a key role in broadening the Sierra Club’s mission, helping shift its focus strictly from wildlife conservation to address the broader environmental challenges of his time.
The oral history of Laurence I. Moss offers testimony to the crucial role that engineering and technical expertise can play in creating a safer, more environmentally friendly future. His integration of engineering and environmental protection inspires future generations of engineers like me, who hope to contribute to the sustainable engineering industry. Moss’s life, work, and advocacy emphasized deep interconnections between economics, engineering, and environmental action. He serves as a lasting source of inspiration for students and professionals who share his values in the ongoing pursuit for a healthier planet.
The Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library preserves voices of people from all walks of life, with varying political perspectives, national origins, and ethnic backgrounds. We are committed to open access and our oral histories and interpretive materials are available online at no cost to scholars and the public. You can find our oral histories from the search feature on our home page. Search by name, keyword, and several other criteria. Sign up for our monthly newsletter featuring think pieces, new releases, podcasts, Q&As, and everything oral history. Access the most recent articles from our home page or go straight to our blog home.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Oral History Center if you’d like to see more work like this conducted and made freely available online. As a soft-money research unit of The Bancroft Library, the Oral History Center must raise outside funding to cover its operational costs for conducting, processing, and preserving its oral history work, including the salaries of its interviewers and staff, which are not covered by the university. You can give online, or contact us at ohc@berkeley.edu for more information about our funding needs for present and future projects.
It is with deep sadness that we share the news that Harvey Sharrer, our dear friend and colleague and co-director of the Bibliografia de Textos Antigos Galegos e Portugueses (BITAGAP) for more than thirty-five years, died unexpectedly last month.
Harvey, Professor Emeritus at the University of California Santa Barbara, passed away at his home in Santa Barbara on September 12, 2024. His life was dedicated to teaching, academic research, and world exploration.
Born in Oakland, California in 1940 to Ruth Morehouse and Harvey Sharrer, he spent his formative years in Oakland and Danville, California, graduating from San Ramon Valley High School in 1958. His passion for foreign languages was ignited by his high school Spanish teacher, who inspired him to pursue language studies in college. After graduating from high school, Harvey took a summer course at the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies and spent Fall quarter at the University of San Francisco. He then took a gap year to work with his father’s remodeling business, saving money for a transformative month’s-long European trip with a high school friend—an experience that kindled his lifelong love for world travel.
Returning to the U.S., Harvey earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Spanish from UC Berkeley in 1963 and 1965, respectively, followed by a doctorate in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literature from UCLA in 1970, with a dissertation on “The Legendary History of Britain from its Founding by Brutus to the Death of King Arthur in Lope García de Salazar’s Libro de las bienandanzas e fortunas.” Even before finishing his dissertation he had published a Critical Bibliography of Hispanic Arthurian Material, I: Texts: The Prose Romance Cycles (London: Grant & Cutler, 1977) in Alan Deyermond’s fundamental series of Research Bibliographies & Checklists. He spent his entire academic career at UC Santa Barbara, starting in 1968 as an Acting Assistant Professor and progressing steadily through the canonical ranks to full professor in 1981. He served as chair of the UCSB Department of Spanish & Portuguese in 1978-1981 and then again 2002-2003.
Dr. Sharrer was universally admired for his scholarship and the impressive breadth of his knowledge of medieval literature and culture, encompassing Arthurian literature, the medieval Romance lyric, and, increasingly, the digital humanities—a field in which he was a pioneer. He made significant scholarly contributions to our knowledge of medieval and early modern Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, and Catalan literatures. His expertise in Catalan was honed by the two years (1984-1986) he spent as the director of the Barcelona Study Center (U. of California and U. of Illinois), where he enjoyed the friendship of Vicenç Beltran and Gemma Avenoza, who would become colleagues in PhiloBiblon as the directors of the Bibliografia de Textos Antics Catalans (BITECA).
He collaborated on BITAGAP with his friends Arthur Askins and Martha Schaffer from its beginning in 1989 as one of PhiloBiblon‘s three constituent bibliographies, all three dedicated to uncovering and documenting the primary sources of the medieval Romance literatures of the Iberian Peninsula:
Martha Schaffer and Arthur Askins with Harvey Sharrer in Coimbra in 1999, on the occasion of the investiture of Askins as Doctor honoris causa of the Universidade de Coimbra.
The three colleagues were indefatigable ratones de bibliotecas, systematically quartering Portugal, from Bragança in the north to Lagos in the south, in search of new manuscripts of medieval Portuguese and Galician texts. They found the richest collections, however, in Lisbon: the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, the Ajuda library, and Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. They and their Portuguese collaborators, especially Pedro Pinto and Filipe Alves Moreira, combed through those collections assiduously. Harvey’s most spectacular discovery, in 1990, was the eponymous Pergaminho Sharrer, a parchment fragment with seven lyric poems in Galician-Portuguese, with music, by King Dinis of Portugal (1278-1325) . It had been used as the cover of a bundle of 16th-c. documents in the Torre do Tombo, a not uncommon practice during the period.
Pergaminho Sharrer, with seven poems by King Dinis of Portugal, with music
Retirement came in 2011, but it did little to slow Harvey down. He continued to participate in conferences worldwide and, at UCSB, generously proofread articles for his former department. He remained a respected and admired scholar, mentor, and colleague throughout his life.
Harvey at the microphone
Harvey’s career was commemorated by a splendid volume of homage studies edited by Ricardo Pichel, “Tenh’eu que mi fez el i mui gran ben”. Estudos sobre cultura escrita medieval dedicados a Harvey L. Sharrer (Madrid: Silex, 2022):
Presentation of the homage volume in Santiago de Compostela: (from left): Xavier Varela Barreiro, Ricardo Pichel, Harvey Sharrer, Miguel García-Fernández
Harvey Sharrer will be deeply missed for his extraordinary scholarship, his remarkable mentorship of and generosity toward students and young scholars, and his courteous and congenial personality, um cavaleiro da escola antiga. His work will continue to influence future generations of students and scholars. In recognition of his scholarly career and lasting impact on the Santa Barbara campus, the campus flag was lowered to half-staff on Wednesday, October 2.
Harvey, who never married and considered his scholarly career to be his life’s work, is survived by a sister, Elizabeth Porter, in Upland, California, a brother, William Sharrer, in Louisville, Kentucky, and several cousins, nieces, and nephews who will miss him dearly.
Harvey did not wish to have a formal memorial service, but rather planned to create an endowment in his name at UC Santa Barbara, to be called the “Harvey L. Sharrer Dissertation Travel Grants.” Plans for this endowment are going forward actively, and we will announce them opportunely. It will support future scholars in their research endeavors, particularly in the field of Ibero-Romance languages, reflecting Harvey’s lifelong passion and areas of expertise.
William L. Sharrer Elide V. Oliver Charles B. Faulhaber
In February 2023, Dr. Bridget Cooks and I had the pleasure of interviewing the Los Angeles-based visual artist and songwriter Richard Wyatt, Jr., for the Getty Research Institute’s African American Art History Initiative. Wyatt was a joy to interview, making us laugh constantly and sharing what he called Forrest Gump moments, where he was in the right place at the right time to meet and collaborate with celebrities of all stripes.
A little over a year after this delightful interview, Bridget and I were saddened to hear that Richard had passed away in May 2024. The world has lost a kind and funny man, as well as an talented artist, musician, educator, and thinker.
While I continue to mourn Richard’s passing, I also want to celebrate his life by highlighting the wonderful stories he shared in his oral history about life, art, music, and seeking new challenges.
Joyce and Richard Wyatt, c. 1980s.
Richard Wyatt, Jr.,was an artist whose work includes drawings, paintings, installations, and public art. Wyatt was born in Lynwood, California, in 1955, and lived in the Los Angeles area his whole life. He began his art career early, winning the Watts Chalk-In at twelve years old, and then studying at the Watts Towers Art Center, the Chouinard Art Institute, and the Tutor/Art Program with artist Charles White. Wyatt attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned a BFA in art. Some of his best-known work in Los Angeles includes the mural Hollywood Jazz: 1945-1972 on the Capitol Records Building; the mural City of Dreams, River of History in Union Station; and the installation Ripple of Hope at Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park. Wyatt taught drawing and painting at the University of California, Irvine; the Otis Art Institute; and the Watts Towers Art Center. He also had a career as a songwriter, writing songs for musicians like The Miracles, The Sylvers, and New Edition.
One thing that continues to strike me about Richard is the indelible mark he has left on the world—and I mean that literally. Some of Richard’s best-known work was his public art, which adorned buildings and other public places in the Los Angeles area and beyond. For this reason, Bridget found interviewing Richard almost surreal. In the oral history, she explained, “…your work is part of my Los Angeles,” for indeed, Richard’s public art shaped the city in which she grew up. After our first day of interviews, Cooks and I drove around Downtown Los Angeles, pointing out and visiting sites where Richard’s work dotted the landscape: Union Station, Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park, the Capitol Records Building, and on and on.
“City of Dreams, River of History” mural by Richard Wyatt, Jr., Eastern Lobby of Union Station, 1996. This mural was part of a larger collaboration with artist May Sun and architect Paul Diez.
One of Richard’s most famous murals, Hollywood Jazz: 1945-1972, remains on the Capitol Records Building, although he later replaced the paint on this south-facing exterior wall with ceramic tile to combat the ravages of the sun. When Richard accepted the commission for this work, it was the perfect blend of his love of visual art and his passion for music. In this mural, he memorialized jazz greats, such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, and Nat King Cole. And in one of those Forrest Gump moments, Richard met musician Bonnie Raitt on site at the Capitol Records Building during his original installation. Listen as Richard recounted this moment:
Richard also mused about the role of an artist after unveiling a work of public art, sharing his thoughts on the impact of his public work: “…you can’t control it…Once it’s out there, it’s out there. People are going to interpret it and take pictures.” And while we spoke about the joys of creating art for wide public consumption, Richard also acknowledged some of the challenges inherent in this work. Listen as Richard shared about some of his public art work with collaborator and fellow artist May Sun:
Richard’s talent also extended to music, and resulted in a prolific career as a songwriter for musical artists such as The Miracles, The Sylvers, Peaches & Herb, Tavares, Johnny Gill, and New Edition. Richard wrote his first song, “Keep on Keepin’ On (Doin’ What You Do)” for The Miracles when he was just eighteen years old. But for Richard, visual art and music were always intertwined, as he experienced synesthesia, a sensory condition in which, among other things, allows some people see colors when they hear music. Richard explained his synesthesia this way:
“I didn’t even know that term until somebody else told me…When I’m writing, that’s one thing. But once I start arranging it and getting the bass and guitar, and then you get strings and horns, there are certain sounds that have a color associated with them. I can’t explain it, but…I see colors once I hear a certain sound, you know? And when I’m creating the arrangements, or even mixing or whatever, and I’m going for a certain effect, it’s like once you get mixing, to me it’s like glazing in oil. That’s the easiest way I can explain it.”
Richard was a child prodigy who burst into the art world when he was twelve years old, rubbing elbows with more experienced art world talents like Charles White, John Riddle, George Evans, and Bill Pajaud. Yet, Richard carved out a career all his own. And while he left us too soon, Richard’s art lives on. To celebrate this remarkable man and artist, I suggest spending time in Downtown Los Angeles and experiencing the work of Richard Wyatt, Jr., for yourself.
To learn more about Richard Wyatt, Jr.’s, extraordinary life and work, explore his oral history!
About the Oral History Center
The Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library preserves voices of people from all walks of life, with varying political perspectives, national origins, and ethnic backgrounds. We are committed to open access and our oral histories and interpretive materials are available online at no cost to scholars and the public. You can find our oral histories from the search feature on our home page. Search by name, keyword, and several other criteria. Sign up for our monthly newsletter featuring think pieces, new releases, podcasts, Q&As, and everything oral history. Access the most recent articles from our home page or go straight to our blog home.
Natalie Naylor is a fourth-year undergraduate studying English and Creative Writing. She’s lived in the on-campus dorms, specifically Unit 2, and two Berkeley Student Cooperative properties during her time at UC Berkeley.
Well, it was magnificent! First of all, it was beautiful. I mean, Berkeley in the sixties was just a great place to be. It was very exciting; there were all kinds of new ideas. I loved my classes; I quickly made very good friends.
– Julianne Morris, SLATE Project
Berkeley in the 1960s is a time our campus and its surrounding community look back on with pride. During these years, UC Berkeley students, faculty, and community members participated in civil rights protests, antiwar activism, and, of course, the Free Speech Movement; these efforts are no doubt some of the most significant moments in Berkeley’s history. From the Mario Savio Free Speech Movement Café to the Martin Luther King Jr. Building and Free Speech Monument in Upper Sproul Plaza, the built environment referencing social activism in the sixties incorporates physical tributes to this time throughout UC Berkeley’s contemporary campus.
Sixty years later, as the Fall 2024 semester begins, it’s easy to feel as though that time in our history is completely removed from the present. However, students in the 1960s were concerned with issues familiar to UC Berkeley’s current student body: housing, humanitarianism, belonging, freedom of speech, and community building. This includes many of the members involved in the campus political group SLATE in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Oral History Center’s SLATE Oral History Project documents the experiences and budding political consciousnesses of some of the students involved in on-campus activism at UC Berkeley sixty years ago.
Jackie Goldberg on top of a police car in front of Sproul Hall, 1964. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library’s Michael Rossman Free Speech Movement Photographs, circa 1964.
SLATE was a political party on UC Berkeley’s campus from 1958 to 1966 and, therefore, predated the Free Speech Movement. Its main goal: to present candidates for the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) office who supported racial equality and free speech on campus.
Jackie Goldberg, an undergraduate social science major in the mid-sixties, was one of the most well-known student activists involved in SLATE at UC Berkeley. She initially joined SLATE because of her passion for civil rights, as well as the strong community and support from other student activists on campus at the time. Her oral history is a part of the Oral History Center’s Free Speech Movement Oral History Project but chronicles the work she did with SLATE in detail.
When she arrived on campus, Goldberg underwent a year of dorm living—still a staple of the UC Berkeley freshman experience. After that first year in the dorms, she encountered a lack of housing on and around campus, which is a lasting issue at Cal. To secure housing for her second year, she participated in the sorority rush process and became a member of Delta Phi Epsilon. Goldberg claims that due to her Jewish background, most other houses declined to offer her membership. Experiencing this prejudice firsthand likely later influenced her activism in fighting discrimination in Greek life. In her oral history, she describes her housing journey as such:
I had applied to the co-op. I had applied to the dorms, and I didn’t get any of them. I was on the wait list for both. So my game plan was I would go in for a semester, try to grow up so I could get an apartment, find someone to get an apartment with…but it turned out that I was in this free-wheeling place, with a lot of nice people, some of whom are still my friends…and it was so easy. I didn’t have to cook, I didn’t have to clean, I didn’t have to shop, and it was cheap because I was doing the house bills.
Despite originally joining the sorority for housing reasons, Goldberg grew an affinity for the culture of her house and its lifestyle. In her oral history, she recalls: “I stayed all three years. I had no desire to leave.”
Goldberg thrived in community with other members of Delta Phi Epsilon and SLATE during her time at UC Berkeley. Her activist work and living situation occasionally overlapped, like while advocating for the racial integration of sororities at Cal. At the time, Greek life had a vast political presence on campus; Goldberg both embraced and challenged this precedent to incite political change at UC Berkeley. She succeeded in encouraging other sororities to desegregate, despite the decision sometimes diverging from their national organizations and sister-chapters.
Julianne Morris, another member of SLATE, had a less positive experience in an all-women’s housing arrangement around the University of California, Berkeley’s campus. While studying at UCLA, Morris founded the organization PLATFORM, inspired by conversations she’d had with members of SLATE. After craving more involvement in student politics, she transferred to UC Berkeley in the early 1960s and selected housing based on connections she’d previously made through SLATE. Morris recalls:
My first semester I was in a co-op, Stebbins Hall, and so I met a lot of women friends there. And of course, you know, it was very different then. There was a curfew, where you had to be in—and God forbid that there were any men there at night.
Even in the sixties, the University maintained in loco parentis authority over its female students from which it exempted male students. These unequal restrictions were especially apparent when it came to women’s housing accommodations. Because of this, although she found community both in SLATE and at Stebbins, Morris eventually sought more autonomy by moving to her own apartment after one semester in the co-op system. She explains:
Oh, I liked the idea of being freer. And you know, I hated having to come in at a certain time and no men in the house and the whole way things were at that time. And so I was very happy not to be in a dorm or a co-op anymore and be on my own.
Despite graduating sixty years ago, many of the buildings around UC Berkeley’s campus are part of a continuous built environment that would be physically recognizable to Morris and her peers.
In 2024, there are still two Berkeley co-ops designated for female-identifying students only, but no all-male-identifying cooperatives remain. One historically men-only house was Barrington Hall, which closed in 1989.
An aerial view of the northeast corner of the University of California, Berkeley, 1994. Pictured: e.g. Foothill dining hall and dormitories, Cloyne Court, Kingman Hall, Hearst Avenue, Hearst Mining Circle and Building. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library’s Aerial Photographs Collection.
David Armor, a founding member of SLATE, lived in Barrington Hall while attending UC Berkeley, and participating in student government and campus activism. In 1959, he became the first and only member of SLATE to be elected as ASUC President. Armor describes his experience living at the student cooperative Barrington Hall during his freshman year as such:
Again, as a very poor student, I chose the cheapest housing, which was…a cooperative, Barrington Hall, terrible building, really not in good shape…there was a two-person bedroom, two two-person bedrooms, and then a one-person bedroom, so five people sharing a bathroom. And co-op means that you did the work…You work. You did the food, the serving, the cleaning, and everything, that’s how you paid, why the fees were so low. So you basically worked to provide all the services.
However, after a semester, Armor also decided to transition to an apartment. While making this change, he and his roommates integrated some of the cooperative practices they adopted from Barrington into their new living dynamic. Armor reports this influence as having a positive impact on his development as a young adult:
So we got an apartment in the second semester of my freshman year, and five roommates, and we divided up the chores, cooking and whatever, and that was a great experience, because we [were] becoming independent, and living on our own.
Armor’s desire for strong community and cooperation mirrors the effective practices of SLATE’s grassroots political advocacy approach. Housing was one of the main issues of SLATE’s political platform, and the group supported the Berkeley Fair Housing Ordinance in 1959. SLATE also opposed the University’s compulsory ROTC program for male freshmen and sophomores. Members defined SLATE by its beliefs in student organizations, advocacy, and the right for personal academic freedom on UC Berkeley’s campus and its surrounding areas. Communal living, even on an apartment scale, is still a method of community building for students at UC Berkeley. In addition, cooperative living situations are often regarded as financially accessible for a wide range of students looking for housing in Berkeley. Armor and other SLATE participants likely resonated with communal styles of living because of their political and personal beliefs, as well as their material needs.
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and SLATE protest outside a White Citizens’ Council Meeting, October 28, 1964. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library’s Call Bulletin Collection.
Over the past sixty years, both Barrington Hall and the UC Berkeley chapter of the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority have closed; the physical structures where they were once housed are the largest reminders and evidence of their impact on campus. Stebbins Hall, Morris’s first housing experience at Cal, is still operational as a student cooperative, and has been co-ed since 1971. In short, the built environment since the time of the Free Speech Movement on Berkeley’s campus has both endured and been changed in ways that would feel substantial to former students and members of SLATE.
The activists highlighted here craved more autonomy and less censorship in both their campus and housing climates. They were able to socially campaign for their beliefs as a result of cross-community building practices. Goldberg, Morris, and Armor all lived in houses with a built-in social element; this was likely a great opportunity for idea-sharing and recruitment for SLATE’s cause, as well as a way to foster meaningful connections with their housemates. Their interviews reveal the importance and impact of these connections, as well as the places in which they were formed. What these narrators recall best from their time at UC Berkeley—outside of their work with SLATE—is not classes or grades, but instead the places they lived and the communities of people they built in those places. Indeed, Goldberg, Morris, and Armor’s individual memories of student-led activism and the communities that emerged from, and around, that work have remained strong sixty years on.
About the Oral History Center
The Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library preserves voices of people from all walks of life, with varying political perspectives, national origins, and ethnic backgrounds. We are committed to open access and our oral histories and interpretive materials are available online at no cost to scholars and the public. You can find our oral histories from the search feature on our home page. Search by name, keyword, and several other criteria. Sign up for our monthly newsletter featuring think pieces, new releases, podcasts, Q&As, and everything oral history. Access the most recent articles from our home page or go straight to our blog home.
Sophia Faaland is a third-year student at UC Berkeley studying history. They are an Undergraduate Research Apprentice and Archaeological Field Student for the Nemea Center. Sophia works at the Oral History Center as a student editor.
Crowd grows around police car after Jack Weinberg’s arrest, Michael Rossman Free Speech Movement Photographs, BANC PIC 2000.067:36, Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Freedom Summer in 1964 was a landmark moment in the Civil Rights Movement that challenged systemic racism in the United States. Activists—typically white, college-educated, and from Northern states—volunteered to travel to Mississippi and Louisiana to direct national media attention towards Jim Crow Laws and racist violence that prevented Black people from voting in Southern states. The ultimate goal of Freedom Summer was to end racial inequality in the Deep South, and ensure constitutional liberties for all people living in the United States. Organizations such as CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) all recruited, trained, and coordinated activists for Freedom Summer. Once there, activists faced the legacy of deeply-rooted systemic racism in the United States that had shaped elections.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, politicians in the American South designed excessively complex voter registration forms in order to privilege white people attempting to register over Black people—regardless of the quality of responses. For instance, forms without a dot above the letter “i” would be disregarded entirely if they were filled out by a Black person. To combat this, Freedom Summer activists provided workshops for Black residents to navigate deliberately unforgiving voter registration forms, and taught literacy classes in Freedom Schools.
This moment in history drew on decades of activism from the Black community, accelerating the passage of the Civil Rights Act in July 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in August 1965. The integrated effort of Freedom Summer helped popularize the movement for civil rights legislation across the country, and reached many pockets of American society, including the UC Berkeley campus. On this sixtieth anniversary of Freedom Summer, it is important to acknowledge that the movement did not happen long ago. This recent, violent struggle for civil rights illustrates the aggressive power of white supremacy in American society and its persistence in American politics. UC Berkeley’s Oral History Center features interviews with narrators who experienced this critical moment in civil rights history firsthand. Their memories of civil rights activism include the period before Freedom Summer, during Freedom Summer itself, and the movement’s impact on UC Berkeley. The Oral History Center does not currently have any interviews of Black activists who participated in Freedom Summer.
Before Freedom Summer, UC Berkeley Professor Olly Wilson was a Black participant in civil rights activism across the United States. In the late 1950s, while working to obtain his bachelor’s of music at Washington University, he was also an active member of CORE, where he volunteered for test cases. Civil rights organizations frequently used test cases to prove racial discrimination and, subsequently, define new anti-discriminatory law. Wilson recalls the process of gathering evidence of racial inequality for CORE test cases:
Olly Wilson, African American Faculty and Senior Staff Oral Histories. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
What we would do is to have a Black person go into a hotel or restaurant by himself and he would either be served or not served. Then you’d have a Black and a white person go in and they would be served or not served. Then you would have a white person go in, the same white person go in by themselves, and you are both creating valuable data for legal challenges and pointing out the inanity of it all.
In 1960, Wilson accepted an academic appointment at the University of Florida A&M, and traveled to the Deep South with his wife, Elouise. On this journey, he witnessed Jim Crow laws in action and stark segregation for the first time. In his oral history, Wilson discusses Elouise’s experience of determining the correct car while transferring trains in New Orleans. He describes how segregation was discriminatory and nonsensical:
When she gets in the train, she notices that this is a brand new, beautiful, clean car, and she looked in the corner and nobody else was there but white folks, you know. So, she was wondering, “Well, maybe I am in the wrong car…” Now, Elouise is light skinned, and sometimes, if you don’t look at her right, you know, you might not know what race she is, you know. So, she was afraid people didn’t look at her right, so she came out, because she thought, “Well, if I get on this car and then Olly comes, they are definitely going to send him to the Black car, and I will be up here and he will be at that end…”
One year after the Wilsons’ journey to Florida, Freedom Riders boarded buses and trains through Mississippi to advocate for legislation ending segregation on interstate public transportation. In 1961, Mimi Feingold Real, a civil rights activist with CORE, was jailed for her participation in the Freedom Rides. Feingold Real recalls that the purpose of the Freedom Rides was to draw national media attention to Mississippi’s segregationist laws:
Mimi Feingold Real, Bay Area Women in Politics. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
What we were doing—it was twofold, again—we were testing the system, doing a little stress test. But we were also, by the time I joined, we were also doing sort of a jail-in in Mississippi, that one of the ways to create pressure on the State of Mississippi was to have—first of all, to have all these Freedom Riders flooding into the state. But we all, as a condition of our being accepted, we had to agree that we would stay in jail for forty days. And that had to do with a quirk in the law in Mississippi, that you had forty days to post bail, and if you had not posted bail by forty days, you forfeited that right. So CORE was going to bail us out, but we were going to stay in that full forty days. That would force Mississippi, of course, to house us and clothe us and feed us and put up with all the national publicity that would arouse, and that would be one more way to pressure, at least the State of Mississippi, to discontinue this odious practice of segregated interstate transportation facilities.
Feingold Real extended her career in civil rights activism by continuing to work with CORE in Louisiana. She became a Freedom School teacher in the East Feliciana Parish teaching literacy, and showing Black residents how to navigate voter registration. In her oral history, she describes her philosophy of work as a Freedom School Teacher in 1963:
This wasn’t any sort of top-down endeavor, this is giving people the power to act on their own. It’s not trying to put pressure on the federal government to come in, and from the top-down force the white people in the South to do something that will allow Black people to do something else. I mean, in a way that was one of the ideas. But the basic idea was power to the people, giving people the initiative to make their own decisions and to have control of their lives. And that’s what I was doing on a person-to-person basis.
Chude Pamela Allen began participating in civil rights activism in 1964 when she heard the director of SNCC Freedom Schools, Staughton Lynd, speak in a seminar titled “Nonviolence in America” at Spelman College. Lynd inspired her to travel to Mississippi during Freedom Summer with the SNCC and help ensure Black people’s right to vote. She recalls the shift in political opinion about the protection of civil rights activists after the murder of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney in June 1964:
Chude Pamela Allen, Bay Area Women in Politics. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
And one of the first things we were then asked to do was to divide up by states, and then contact our parents and relatives to contact their congressmen and ask for safety for the civil rights workers. I did that, and my father did contact his congressmen. And later I learned, because his congressman—at least one of them called him up and said, “Get her out of there.” And my father who, as I’ve defined, was not what we think of as a political activist, but he said very clearly to his congressman, “This is not about her safety. It’s about all their safety.” That kind of shift—and that’s just, again, that reference to the fact that when you get involved in something, people around you can also have their own—they grow, too, or they can grow, depending on whether they support you.
To help combat social and political barriers Black activists faced, Freedom Summer activists were an integrated group. In her oral history interview, Allen reflects on adjusting to safety precautions in the Deep South, and becoming more aware of the nature of racist violence. Allen recalls that white activists did not always respect the danger integrated activism created for their Black colleagues during Freedom Summer:
I heard one story, as an example, of a white woman who did not want to hide on the floor under a blanket when riding in a car with a number of Black people, mostly men. I can remember the worker who then said he wouldn’t ride in a car with her anymore, because she insisted on sitting up. She insisted, “I have the right to be seen.” But of course, in that situation, she wasn’t the one that was going to get beaten to a pulp.
Even across the country, Berkeley students and university administrators felt the social and political repercussions of Freedom Summer. In 1964, UC administrators punished students exercising political speech that the university deemed unacceptable—beginning the debate on the limits of campus free speech. Prohibited topics of speech included civil rights and anti-Vietnam War advocacy. One of the first students arrested during the Free Speech Movement, Jack Weinberg, tabled in Sproul Plaza with CORE to raise money for civil rights work after returning from Freedom Summer activism in Mississippi. His arrest for speech on civil rights sparked a spontaneous sit-in protest around the police car detaining him that lasted thirty-two hours until he was released (seen in the first photo). Atop the police car at the protest for Weinberg’s release, Cal student Mario Savio gave a rousing speech to the crowd on the fundamental right to speech, and later became instrumental in organizing the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. Savio had also returned from Mississippi for Freedom Summer before his organization of the Free Speech Movement in 1964. Thus, it was not a coincidence that the Free Speech Movement became a mass protest on the UC Berkeley campus the same year Freedom Summer occurred. This debate on speech and advocacy played a pivotal role in shaping the protections of student and faculty rights to free political speech at UC Berkeley today.
UCB professor Leon F. Litwack witnessed this shift in student activism at the beginning of the Free Speech Movement. In his oral history, Litwack remarks on the similar philosophies of Freedom Summer and the Free Speech Movement:
Leon F. Litwack, History Department, UC Berkeley Oral Histories, Courtesy of the Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.
Of course, Mario Savio had just come back from the Mississippi summer when he came back to Berkeley in 1964. At places like Berkeley and other places around the country significant numbers of young people came to believe that direct personal commitment to social justice was a moral imperative and that social inequities are neither inevitable nor accidental but reflect the assumptions and beliefs and decisions of people who command enormous power, including the university administrators. Well, these were important perceptions. So what began at Berkeley as a protest to obtain a very traditional liberal freedom, freedom of speech and advocacy, soon brought into question the official version of reality.
In all, the legacy of Freedom Summer in 1964 is a historically significant moment that accelerated voting protections for Black people in the United States, and inspired the movement to protect free speech on all university campuses—starting at UC Berkeley. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 solidified the work of civil rights activists, and encoded anti-discriminatory practices into federal law. In the sixty years since Freedom Summer, Berkeley students have utilized their freedom of speech to address many other political issues, and as a result, the university has a reputation for vibrant political dialogue. The debate about the limits of free speech continues to this day as the University of California system grapples with Pro-Palestinian student activism. Indeed, on August 19, 2024, UC Berkeley announced its new policy for “expressive activity,” revising the previous agreements on freedom of speech for the coming academic year.
To learn more about the history of student activism at Berkeley, the Oral History Center collections include many other interviews, including the SLATE and Free Speech Movement oral history projects. For more information on women’s activism throughout the twentieth century, please visit the Women Political Leaders collection. To learn more about Black activists involved in the Civil Rights Movement and their legacies, see Charles M. Payne’s book I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle. Finally, the UC Berkeley Library holds a wide variety of secondary sources on Freedom Summer, available here.
About the Oral History Center
The Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library preserves voices of people from all walks of life, with varying political perspectives, national origins, and ethnic backgrounds. We are committed to open access and our oral histories and interpretive materials are available online at no cost to scholars and the public. You can find our oral histories from the search feature on our home page. Search by name, keyword, and several other criteria. Sign up for our monthly newsletter featuring think pieces, new releases, podcasts, Q&As, and everything oral history. Access the most recent articles from our home page or go straight to our blog home.
From file, “Student Political Parties” (carton 80)
The Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley records are now open to researchers at The Bancroft Library. The Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley (ASUC) is the officially recognized students’ association of the University of California, Berkeley. The ASUC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and is the largest and most autonomous students’ association in the nation. Founded in 1887, the ASUC continues to operate separate from University governance. The ASUC controls funding for all ASUC-sponsored clubs and organizations, provides resources and student programming, oversees commercial activities and student services including the Cal Student Store and Lower Sproul Plaza in partnership with the ASUC Student Union, and advocates for students on a University, local, state, and national level.
The collection includes ASUC constitutions, executive office files, Student Advocate’s Office files, senate bills, agendas, and resolutions, committee files, financial and budget materials, planning and renovation files, ASUC program files, and other material documenting student services, groups, and activities from 1893 to 2012.
The collection also contains materials documenting student activism on campus, including the Free Speech Movement, People’s Park advocacy, affirmative action, the Third World Liberation Front, divestment in South Africa, and LGBTQ rights.
El Diablo de la Gente newspaper, October 20, 1972 (carton 82)
Flyer for the Young Socialist candidates running for ASUC Senate (carton 74)
Free Speech Movement rally flyer (carton 39)
Protest flyer against UC investments in South Africa, 1978 (carton 51)
People’s Park Negotiating Committee flyer (carton 82)
For more information about the collection, access the finding aid and/or catalog record for the Guide to the Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley, records (CU-282). Interested in transferring your student records to University Archives? Find out more here.
Researchers can now access the records of the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws at The Bancroft Library. California NORML is a non-profit “dedicated to protecting and expanding cannabis consumers’ rights.” According to their website, they were founded in 1972 as Amorphia (the Cannabis Cooperative), which organized the effort to repeal laws against adult use, possession, and cultivation of marijuana. In 1974, Amorphia merged with the state chapter of NORML. These days, California NORML lobbies lawmakers, sponsors events, offers consumer, educational and legal advice, and supports scientific research. (For more information, see https://www.canorml.org)
The California NORML records capture the history of marijuana reform nationwide. The bulk of the collection consists of people, organization, subject, and legal files, but there are also administrative records, ephemera, and publications about marijuana. The collection includes mass mailings that document the history of the organization, like this letter from Amorphia:
Amorphia merges with California NORML, 1974 (Carton 33)
Some letters (circa 1974-1980) show how people worldwide used California NORML as a resource. A writer from New Zealand requests (among other things) “a mixture of music to listen to stoned”; another correspondent asks them to send as many packs of rolling papers as they can get for $1.
Letter from New Zealand (Carton 33)
Letter to CA NORML (Carton 33)
Some of the organization’s mass mailings were returned, with the recipients’ clear criticism of California NORML. One is from Howard L. “Chips” Gifford, a “Maverick” Democrat who challenged – and lost to – incumbent California Senator John V. Tunney in the 1976 primary. Gifford wanted to “Stop Pot Rot.” (Tunney was, in turn, narrowly defeated by Republican S.I. Hayakawa in the general election). Another was returned by the folks at Sedition, a radical free newspaper in San José that “sought to revolutionize the nation.” They critiqued California NORML from the left, as a tool of “the established ruling class.” (https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sedition/)
Returned Mail, from U.S. Senate Candidate, c. 1976 (“Unfriendly Mail,” Carton 19)
Returned Mail, from Sedition (“Unfriendly Mail,” arton 19)
A letter from Chuck, “an unreconstructed flower child and reaminent [sic] of the psychedelic sixties,” circa 1978-1979, on the other hand, was complimentary, but also anticipates the changes legalization of marijuana will bring, and the development of the Marijuana Industrial Complex. Chuck writes, “I can recall when grass was a moral and spiritual crusade. It’s somewhat surprising to find that the present strategy involves regulating and taxing a multibillion [sic] dollar industry.”
Letter from Chuck (Carton 20)
The subject files in the California NORML records track legislation in all of California’s counties and in all 50 states. They also document issues that were central to the organization in the 1970s and 1980s, from medical and therapeutic uses of cannabis, to correcting misinformation about marijuana, to the war on drugs, to the dangers of herbicides, such as paraquat. These files also help put the fight for marijuana reform in the context of other struggles for change. They also suggest an interest in coalition building with – or at least support of – other political activists, from the White Panthers, an anti-racist political collective, to COYOTE (Call Off Your Tired Old Ethics), a sex workers’ rights organization. The folder titled “Gay Coalition,” for example, contains a flyer for a sale in Los Angeles “to support the Gay/Lesbian liberation projects of our household.” The members of “our household” included Morris Kight, who co-founded the LA chapter of the Gay Liberation Front and who helped lead a campaign against Dow Chemical and the use of napalm in Vietnam. (https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6w1040bj/)
The California NORML records also include materials from other organizations and ephemera from their own events. These include publications from the Student Association for the Study of Hallucinogens (STASH), and a poster from the “First Right-to-Harvest Festival, “A Day on the Grass,” [1978]. The festival featured Margo St. James from COYOTE and medical marijuana activist Dennis Peron. (STASH formed to provide unbiased information on drugs and drug use by students at Beloit College in Wisconsin in 1968. They moved to Madison in 1974 and disbanded in 1980: https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/9911124865502121)
Cottage Sale to Support Gay/Lesbian Liberation (“Gay Coalition,” Carton 18)
STASH (Student Association for the Study of Hallucinogens), c. 1971-1973 (Carton 22)
“A Day on the Grass” (Oversize Folder 1)
For more information about the collection, access the finding aid and catalog record for the California NORML records (BANC MSS 2009/122) here:
Lanyard with buttons created at the Accessioning Best Practices Symposium at the SAA Annual Meeting, 2024
The Society of American Archivists Annual General Meeting took place in Chicago between August 14th and August 17th. For many of the archivists at The Bancroft Library, this was the first in-person SAA meeting we have attended in years and we had lots to do, talk about, and even celebrate.
Most notably, Bancroft Accessioning Archivist Jaime Henderson helped put on a day-long symposium introducing a new archival standard: the Archival Accessioning Best Practices. The product of a few years of hard remote and in-person work by the Archival Accessioning Best Practices Working Group (of which Jaime is a member), these best practices are the first of their kind. The efforts of the Working Group were made possible by generous funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Archivists all over the country are excited to see dedicated best practices that center archival accessioning as a key component in ethical archival practice and management.
The Archival Accessioning Best Practices were recently submitted to the Society of American Archivists’ Standards Committee (currently chaired by yours truly) for approval as an official SAA standard and will be published as a GitBook document soon.
The Archival Accessioning Best Practices Working Group was also honored with an SAA Council Exemplary Service Award at the annual business meeting this past Saturday. We all congratulate Jaime and her colleagues for this well-deserved honor.
Bancroft Library Accessioning Archivist Jaime Henderson with SAA Council Exemplary Service Award, August 17, 2024.
The archivists of the Bancroft Library are pleased to announce that in the last quarter (April-June 2024) we opened the following Bancroft archival collections to researchers:
![Poster for "A Day on the Grass" listing bands, speakers. Trees and [marijuana buds] are in the background](https://update.lib.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Poster_Large-150x150.jpg)
