August 27, 2011: Jack Weinberg at the Berkeley Art Museum for the Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary Celebration
Gar Smith reports in the Berkeley Daily Planet
FSM Jack Weinberg and the 32 hours in the Police Car, October 1, 1964
On Sept 30th eight students were suspended for operating a table on campus without a permit, and raising money for unauthorized purposes: Brian Turner, Sandor Fuchs, Arthur Goldberg, Elizabeth Gardner, David Lance Goines, Mark Bravo, Don Hatch, and Mario Savio.
On Oct. 1, 1964 Jack sat at a CORE table near the steps on Sproul Plaza. A recent UC grad in Mathematics, he was a nonstudent in the fall of 1964.
This was a deliberate tactic to provoke arrest by the FSM, and, a Rally had been scheduled for noon. Below: Read, Listen, View, See:Jack Weinberg and the Police Car chapter from David Goines, The Free Speech Movement
The Birth of the Free Speech Movement by Michael Rossman
Transcript of KPFA Recordings
Weinberg: ....I want to tell you about this knowledge factory that we're all sitting here now.
It seems that certain of the products are not coming out the standard specifications, and I feel the university is trying to purge these products
Hal Draper comments:
Weinberg was here taking off from a talk I had given for the Independent Socialist Club that week on "Behind the Ban: Clark Kerr's View of the University as a Knowledge Factory." A number of other FSM activists-to-be had been at the meeting too. But in any case the idea was in the air: twice during the preceding week the Daily Cal had published letters from students which were along similar lines even though without reference to Kerr's theory at all.Daily Cal Chronology of the Day
October 1, 1964 clip from Berkeley in the Sixties by Mark Kitchell
see Press Bibliography at bottom on this page
NOTE: Almost all photos are posted at greater resolution than appears. Use browser magnification to see more detail.
DON'T BUY SEGREGATION Jack Weinberg, Summer 1964. photo by Harvey Richards
10/1/2020 Jack Weinberg via Facebook:
“Not as spontaneous as it seemed. Hundreds of us had a sit-in in Sproul Hall the night before. But we decided it was premature to continue the protest there because we could so easily become isolated. We decided around 1:00 AM to leave and move the protest to the steps of Sproul Hall and to start setting up tables there right before noon the next day.
We also decided not to cooperate when asked to leave.”
At 11:15 p.m. small groups of anti-demonstration demonstrators began converging on the mall from all directions, swelling the crowd to about 2,500. At this point, the demonstration degenerated into a shouting, singing, swearing and egg throwing contest. The demonstrators sang "We Shall Overcome!" The anti-demonstration forces shouted "Mickey Mouse ! "
At approximately 11:45 a.m. Deans George S. Murphy and Peter Van Houten, with University Police Lieutenant Merrill F. Chandler approached and spoke to a man who was soliciting funds at the Campus CORE table at the foot of Sproul Hall steps [Jack Weinberg]. The crowd chanted "Release him! Release him!"
Anonymous photographer: 11:50 am Jack Weinberg's arrest
JACK ARRESTED Oakland Tribune Goines Book. Photo by Les CohenWeinberg: "We feel that we, as human beings first and students second, must take our stand on every vital issue which faces this nation, and in particular the vital issues of discrimination, of segregation, of poverty, of unemployment; the vital issue of people who aren’t getting the decent breaks that they as individuals deserve . . ." (The cops grab him and he goes limp.) from Goines book
Police Car Arrives at CORE Table on Sproul 10-1-1964 11:59 am
Tension spreads as demonstrators link arms and police move toward police car. October 1, 1964 photo by Ron Enfield
Steven Marcus, The Crowd in Sproul Plaza 10/1/1964
Photographer unknown Just after arrest 10-1-1964
Photographer unknown Just after arrest 10-1-1964 crop
Oct. 1 1964 Atty Peter Franck consults with Jack Weinberg. Photo by Mike Friedman
Jack Weinberg in police car. Steven Marcus Oct. 1, 1964
Unit ID: BANC PIC 2000.002—NEG Strip 2:10
NOTE: In Goines, page 169, identified as photo by Al Silbowitz
© Ronald L. Enfield. Used with permission.
Don Kechely: Savio Addressing Students 10/1/1964
Mario Savio (in socks) speaking from top of police car by Steven Marcus
October 1, 1964, Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
UC student body president Charlie Powell gets a hand up to the police car roof from Mario Savio
This photo was taken by Daily Cal photographer Ron Enfield and is posted here with his permission.
Jackie Goldberg by Ron Enfield © Ronald L. Enfield. Used with permission.
Counter-demonstrator holds up sign near police car. Sproul Plaza, October 1, 1964. photo by Ron Enfield © Ronald L. Enfield. Used with permission.
Brian Turner speaking from top of police car by Steven Marcus
Jack Weinberg speaking from top of police car. Mario Savio standing on ground in foreground.
Creator/Contributor:Steven Marcus Oct. 1, 1964 Bancroft Library
Audio of Jack talking his way out of car Start at 19 minutes in
mp3 of same sequence from Mario's intro about a minute before Jack Transcription
Oct. 2: Ann Fagan Ginger speaks; Burton White holds microphone. Tom Kuykendall photo
Steven Marcus: Dick Roman, Brad Cleaveland and Art Goldberg, on car surrounded by students 10/1/1964 (slightly cropped)
Tom Kuykendall photo: among others: Dick Roman, Brad Cleaveland, Art Goldberg, KPFA's Burton White with microphone (slightly cropped)
Singer Terry Garthwaite by unknown photographer. Barbara Dane also sang but no photos are known to exist. But you can hear Barbara Dane sing here
J Weinberg sleeping in car by Mike Friedman
Steven Marcus, Art Goldberg and other students surrounding and on top of the police car during night of 10/1/1964
REVOLT ROCKS UC Oakland Tribune 10-2-1964 photo by Lonnie Wilson and Russ Reed
Tom Kuykendall photo: The car's work is done. Who will donate the hubcaps to the Archives? Ditto the air from the tires.
October 2, 1964, Sproul Plaza: The students sweep up. Tom Kuykendall photo.
"When the sun came up people folded their blankets, picked up leaflets, and swept up all around the Plaza and the steps; it's a thing with us." The Birth of the Free Speech Movement by Michael RossmanBettina F. Aptheker, Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech and Became A Feminist Rebel (Seal Press, 2006; New York: Perseus Books)
This is a very short excerpt from the memoir that contains two extensive chapters on the Free Speech Movement.
Cited with permission of the author. p152:
“We also gave over a thousand dollars to the campus police department to pay for the damage to the roof of the police car all the way back in October.”
10/3/1964, New York Times, Concession Ends Three-Day Protest At U. of California, Wallace Turner
"BERKELEY, Calif., Oct 2.--A three-day student demonstration on the University of California campus ended tonight with a minor concession from the university administration. Clark Kerr, president of the university system, said the school would review the duration of suspensions imposed on eight students. The suspensions had been "indefinite." It also would not press tresspass charges against the man arrested by the Berkeley police yesterdayand held all night in a police car. 'But the district Attorney may want to prosecute him,' said Mr. Kerr. The charge was lodged against Jack Weinberg, 24 years old, a Congress of Racial Equality member but not a student. Students were responsible for his being held in a police car on the campus from 11:45 A.M. yesterday until about 8 tonight."
10/14/1964, Daily Californian, FSM Represents Many, Ann Lubar
"However, since FSM's formation, many additional groups have been given representatives on the Executive Council. The following political organizations have two representatives each on the Executive Council: California Council of Republicans, Citizens for Independent Political Action, Congress of Racial Equality, Independent Socialist Club, Students for Fair Housing, Students' Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, W.E.B. DuBois Club, Women for Peace, Young Democrats, Young Republicans, and the Young Socialists' Alliance. In addition, there are seven representatives from the Independent Student Group, an organization of students who do not belong to any political clubs, and three representatives from the Independent Graduate Students, non-affiliated graduate students. The Inter-Faith Council has three representatives on the Executive Council, supposedly one Protestant, one Jewish, and one Catholic, although the FSM press secretary said he was unclear on this point. Also on the Executive Council is Jack Weinberg, the only non-student representative on the Council. He was given a vote because he was arrested, according to an FSM spokesman. Similarly, three of the eight students suspended by the University do not belong to any organizations. Since the other five are representatives of various groups and have votes on the Executive Council, the three were also given votes. There are also two representatives from Particle, an undergraduate science and math organization. The Steering Committee, which currently has nine members, was elected by the Executive Council from among the representatives on the Executive Council. It is the Steering Committee which has been negotiating with the administration."
"For if there was one common trait among all the Free Speechers I talked to, it was a deep involvement in the movement itself, fond memories of that involvement and the sense that if the occasion demanded, that experience-its techniques and its emotions-was something to draw upon for renewed activism." [eds note: Persons interviewed: Manuel Glenn Abascal, Bettina Aptheker, Duncan Ellinger, Art Goldberg, Matthew Hallinan, Carl and Myra Riskin, Michael Rossman, Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Jack Weinberg, Steve Weissman]
12/04/1996, San Francisco Chronicle, Reluctant Hero (Letter), David Lance Goines
"Eight of us had just been expelled from the University of California at Berkeley. Jack Weinberg had been arrested at noon sharp, and we sat around the police car for 32 hours and that's how it started. Mario spoke at all the rallies, and he said what we all meant. He made a great and stirring speech as we filed into Sproul Hall and 800 of us were taken to jail. We got headlines all over the world. Sixteen thousand students and professors saw policemen drag Mario off the stage of the Greek Theatre. When we finally won, he spoke for each one of us, as he had all along. Mario Savio didn't set out to be the spokesman for the Free Speech Movement, but he was good at it and without meaning to, it just happened."
5/12/2001, L'Unita, Berkeley Dove il '68 e nato nel '64, Franco Farinelli
"Mai fidarsi di nessuno sopra i 30 anni". Oggi Jack Weinberg ne ha piu' del doppio e lavora per Greenpeace. Ma ricorda ancora vividamente il settembre del 1964, quando coniò lo slogan che segnò il battesimo, a Berkeley, di un nuovo soggetto politico internazionale: gli studenti. La cui comparsa in Europa è nota come il movimento del 1968."
Spring 2002, the MCLI newsletter, Jack Weinberg details moment that launched Free Speech Movement, Monica Alanis
"Weinberg was placed under arrest. For the next 32 hours, the New York native remained in the car whose roof served as a platform for numerous speakers, including student Mario Savio and Ann Fagan Ginger, then employed by UC Extension/CEB. "By that point, the police would have liked me to leave. I felt like the cat who ate the canary," Weinberg said. Student representatives and University officials soon reached an agreement: the students would leave, Weinberg would be booked but charges dropped, and the University would begin what became a four-month period of negotiations with students. Although the Bancroft-Telegraph issue was the "opening salvo," Weinberg said the matter quickly transformed from being about tables and leaflets to "students' right to be heard on campus.'"
6/9/2002, San Francisco Chronicle, Timeline, Part Two: 1961-1965 Student Unrest, Seth Rosenfeld
"1964 ... Berkeley protests reined in Sept. 14: UC Berkeley officials announce a new policy prohibiting political action at the campus entrance at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue. UC police arrest student Oct. 1: Former graduate student Jack Weinberg is arrested for conducting political activity on campus, but students surround the police car and prevent the officers from leaving. Mario Savio, a junior, addresses the crowd from the car. Free Speech Movement born Oct. 2: Kerr meets with students, including Savio (center), and reaches an agreement that includes dropping charges against Weinberg. Over the next two days, student leaders create the Free Speech Movement."
10/2/2002, Berkeley Daily Planet, UC students mark civil rights anniversary, Judith Scherr
"On Oct. 1, 1964, former student and Congress of Racial Equality worker Jack Weinberg was passing out flyers at Sproul Plaza after the college had forbidden the distribution of literature for non-university causes. Police arrived and put Weinberg in a squad car. But they couldn't take him away. A group of students had surrounded it, and they held the car captive until the college agreed to lift the distribution ban. 'The students won,' said Matt Murray of the student ACLU Tuesday to about 50 people celebrating the 38th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley."
3/4/2004, The Chicago Sun-Times, Dropped T's, trou in at Harvard, Lynn Sweet
"I'm part of the Vietnam War generation, though I never took seriously the slogan of our time, 'Don't trust anyone over 30,' suspecting that I would live long enough to regret the arbitrary cutoff. I don't think I had the word 'ageism'' in my vocabulary at the time. (I just checked, and the man who coined the phrase -- Jack Weinberg, who came out of the University of California at Berkeley's free speech movement -- went on to a life of political activism and is in his 60s.)"
"Any attempt to mark the 'anniversary' of the UC Berkeley Free Speech Movement requires that you first identify its genesis. Was it the mid-September 1964 announcement by Dean of Students Katherine Towle that advocacy literature and activities on off-campus political issues would no longer be permitted within 'the 26-foot strip of brick walkway at the campus entrance on Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue'? Was it the Oct. 1 arrest of Jack Weinberg on Sproul Plaza (followed by the 32-hour immobilization of the police car in which he was placed) that took place after much debate and demonstration in response to Towle's directive? Or the arrival on campus, a day later, of some 500 police and Highway Patrol officers, some armed with riot sticks, as the crowd of onlookers and protest sympathizers swelled to more than 7,000?"
10/1/2004, Berkeley Daily Planet, From Atop a Police Car, A Revolution Was Born, Richard Brenneman
"I remember him [Savio] saying that the principle was freedom of speech on campus, not the tables. So he suggested moving the tables to Sproul Plaza. That was when the police car came," she [Aptheker] said."
10/1/2004, The Globe and Mail, SOCIAL STUDIES: A DAILY MISCELLANY OF INFORMATION, Michael Kesterton
"It was a joke? On this day 40 years ago, University of California student Jack Weinberg was arrested for distributing civil-rights leaflets on the Berkeley campus. Before the police car could take him away, more than 2,000 students sat down around the vehicle and remained there for 32 hours. It was the beginning of the Free Speech Movement, which helped shape a generation. Mr. Weinberg later coined the phrase: 'We don't trust anyone over 30,' when officials appointed a youngish man to negotiate with the FSM, thinking he might be more acceptable to them. In 1988, Morgan Spector of Pasadena wrote The Los Angeles Times that the student radical was just stalling negotiations with his remark -- which students treated as a joke -- but the press seized on the catchphrase and kept it alive. Years later, reporters even tracked down Mr. Weinberg on his 30th birthday, to his apparent embarrassment."
"Brannam recalls seeing Weinberg loaded into a police car. He said another student, David Goines, who later became a leader in the Free Speech Movement, turned to him and said, "What can we do?" 'I'd been reading some of the stuff Gandhi had written, so I said, We could sit down,' Brannam recalled."
9/12/2006, Los Angeles Times, From Berkeley, challenge to authority spreads, James Ricci
"Considering the circumstances and the sometimes violent nationwide student protest movement the incident was to help spawn, the arrest of Jack Weinberg was a decorous affair. Campus police officers took shifts sitting with Weinberg. They permitted students to pass him food and water, and empty cartons he concealed under his coat while relieving himself. Graduate student Savio took off his shoes before climbing atop the car to speak."
3/7/2008, Workers' Liberty, Learning more in 32 hours than in 32 ordinary months, Tom Unterainer
"Jack Weinberg was arrested for trespass on the morning of 1 October 1964. His real "crime" was to be the loudest, most outspoken critic amongst a large group of students and campaigners who'd gathered to challenge restrictions against political campaigning at the University of Berkeley. Weinberg was typical of a number of students who'd started to question not only the world around them but the significance and relevance of their day-to-day lives. These students were influenced by and involved in the civil rights movement where their exposure to brutal, institutional racism armed them with the ability to resist oppression no matter how it was manifested."
9/9/2010, Boulder Weekly, If you can count a crowd and keep your virtue, Paul Danish
"On Aug. 31, [sic] campus cops arrested a student member of the Congress for Racial Equality who wouldn't abandon his table, and hundreds of sit-in protesters immobilized the police car he had been taken to, the roof of which becoming an impromptu speakers' platform. (The student, Jack Weinberg, emerged from the car two days later and went on to coin one of the defining one-liners of the '60s: "Don't trust anyone over 30.") After that, there were protest rallies almost daily. The size of the crowds at the rallies was routinely estimated at 3,000 or 3,500. In December, there was an occupation of the administration building, followed by mass arrests, and crowds at the rallies visibly swelled. Somebody - the press or the campus police - estimated attendance at one of the largest ones at 7,000 to 10,000. Protesters howled that the count was being low-balled. That prompted Herbert A. Jacobs, a Cal journalism professor, to obtain an aerial photograph of the rally, divide it into 1-inch squares, and, with the aid of a magnifying glass, count the crowd. His final number was 2,804."
 speaking from top of police car by Steven Marcus.jpg)
