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  1968 - Movement and Legacy

  A history of activism, journalism and ethnic studies at SF State

Building steam

RISING TENSIONS OVER SOCIAL ISSUES SUCH AS RACE, CLASS, AND THE DRAFT LED TO STUDENTS TAKING A STAND AT THEIR SCHOOL.

Key Players

John Summerskill

President of San Francisco State University (then SF State College) from 1966 to 1968. Presiding during the rising tensions of the mid-to-late sixties, Summerskill quickly found himself the subject of ire from both conservatives and liberals. In early 1968, he announced that he would be resigning at the end of his term, but wound up leaving several months early.

S.I. Hayakawa

Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was president of SF State from 1968 to 1973. His tenure came at the height of the turmoil surrounding the student strikes of 1968-69. Hayakawa quickly became a towering figure of the opposition to the strikes. In one particularly memorable incident, Hayakawa disrupted a protest by ripping the wires out of the demonstration’s loudspeakers. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1977.

James Garrett

Civil rights activist, author and former student at SF State. Garrett became president of the then-named Negro Student Association and renamed it the Black Student Union. It was the first BSU in the nation. Garrett guided the organization to unprecedented levels of power and influence on campus.

Jim Vaszko

The editor of SF State student paper The Gater in Fall of 1967. In his sports writing, Vaszko made remarks about boxer Muhammad Ali that offended black students on campus. On Nov. 6, 1967, Vaszko became the central figure of a fight that broke out in the newsroom between the paper’s staff and members of the Black Student Union.

Lynn Ludlow

Journalist, staff writer at the San Francisco Examiner and faculty adviser to The Gater in 1967. Ludlow was directly involved during the fight in the office of the student paper. He broke his finger in the scuffle.

The BSU and The Gater

AS THE BLACK STUDENT UNION GREW, THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER WAS LESS THAN ACCEPTING OF THEIR INCREASING INFLUENCE.

Archives

Select articles from The Gater, 1967

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Legacy

THE STRIKES OF 1968 INFLUENCED THE consciousness OF SF STATE and launched ethnic studies programs across the country. 50 years later, HAVE THE GOALS OF THE STRIKERS BEEN fully REALIZED?

Produced by

Kelly Rodriguez Murillo ▪ Carolina Diaz ▪ Boone Ashworth