Past in Perspective

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

― George Orwell

“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious —  makes you so sick at heart — that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part.”

–Mario Savio, key activist in the Free Speech Movement

It is October 1964, Berkley. A student protest has just been launched on the campus of University of California.

The protest comes in response to the sudden termination of any venue for on-campus political advocacy by the university officials. During a time when awareness and passion for civil rights flew high among the student body, the move was taken as a direct threat to freedom. Initiated by left leaning students, the Free Speech Movement would have long-lasting effects on Berkley as well as other places where students had now come to realise the potential of demonstration. As the movement grew further, and involved a massive sit-in, speeches made by students, the arrest of almost 800; the university finally conceded to the students’ demands, and the ban

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