Mayday 1970
A number of us classmates were in New Haven on the weekend of May 1, 1970, be it for grad school, working, finishing our undergrad work or just visiting. The rest of us read about it.
It was definitely a scary time — three weeks before, violent protests erupted at Harvard and major destruction followed. The Weather Underground promised to destroy Yale, and the announcement of a rally in support of Bobby Seale, chairman of the Black Panthers, who had been arrested in New Haven and who faced murder charges attracted many of the most extreme leaders of the day — Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, and others. Professor Ken Mills (pictured) lit up the crowd with an incendiary speech. David Dellinger (Chicago 7) spoke.
Kingman Brewster astutely decided to co-opt everyone by opening the colleges, offering free food for everyone and uttering the famous phrase that got him into so much trouble with some alums — “I am appalled and ashamed that things have come to such a pass that I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States.” He also asked students to capture the film that led to this 22 minute documentary.
The weekend passed without major incident.
Kent State happened on Monday.
The film itself (22-mins):
Discussion with the filmmakers:
Celebrating the 50th anniversary just a few weeks ago, the filmmakers held a panel discussion.
Both films courtesy of the Yale Film Archives
If you were there, please leave a comment and share your perspective. Be sure the press the “Follow Comments” button near the bottom to be notified if others leave a comment.
Other Miscellaneous Pictures from the film itself:
I visited my brother Joe, a Davenport senior. I remember the swirl of anger and liberation that coursed all day, and then in the evening we took mescaline and put a lighter spin on the activity. Is it correct to say I had fun? The campus was a safe space for acting out all sorts of behavior.
In the very first thirty seconds of the Yale Archive film, the camera zeros in on the New Haven Green speakers’ podium with WYBC stickers. We were there from the beginning, carrying every speech live (a journalistic decision that eventually led to a court decision clarifying that a news outlet could not be punished by the FCC for the word “motherfucker” if broadcast without preplanning during a live news event).
Were we brave, or foolhardy? We had the foresight, realizing that our Hendrie Hall location on the Green was vulnerable to the unknown, to station someone at the transmitter atop the Payne-Whitney Gym and provide alternate audio lines in case our studios were stormed, shut down by the National Guard, or tear-gassed.
New Haven was my home town. The city was boarded up for that weekend, and the contrast with the open gates of Yale was exhilarating. I have a clear multimedia sense memory of walking through the Elm Street gate next to Battell Chapel, coming onto an Old Campus full of students and protesters together, indistinguishable, massing for the day while someone had hung speakers out a dorm window in Farnam Hall blasting the Beatles’ “Oh-Bla-Di, Oh-Bla-Da.”
I mentioned the first thirty seconds of the Yale Archive film. In the last scenes, standing behind the speaker at the podium (again with WYBC stickers), his arms folded, is Tom Hayden. That weekend was the first time I met Tom. Later, after we both moved to Santa Monica, he was my state senator, a mentor, a friend, and a political supporter, who drove around town with my campaign lawn signs in the window of his car.
Which brings this reminiscence full circle. Ten days ago, as Mayor of Santa Monica, I watched Black Live Matters demonstrations march along the oceanfront, while unrelated and highly organized looters used the distraction to empty downtown stores. I found myself on the other side of the National Guard line. I have had to have brutally frank conversations with young people who are now the age we were in 1970, and admit, from the day of the Black Panthers to the day of Black Lives Matter, our generation never quite got it. We didn’t fix it. I don’t know if we could have. But I regret every day I didn’t try harder.
Kevin McKeown ’69
Thanks putting all this together.