D-Day at Brooklyn College

Thursday October 19, morning. Scene, the lobby of Boylan Hall, Brooklyn College. Two young Navy officers were busy setting up a recruitment table. Across the lobby the Peace Corps also had its table. One hour later, pandemonium. It was impossible to teach even in the fourth-floor classrooms. The anti-war chant trumpeted aggression. Students surrounded the recruiters, demanding their removal from campus. Soon the police were called and started making arrests. The TV cameras showed up. Ugly scenes, students on strike, solemn negotiations with deans and president, babbling of “student freedom,” slogans about police brutality —in short a “Berkeley” had erupted. By the middle of the following week, the last visible ripples of the incident had subsided. But the students had won all along the line, the administration had yielded—and set the precedent for further retreats.

Students a CPUSA Target

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Thomas Molnar

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Thursday October 19, morning. Scene, the lobby of Boylan Hall, Brooklyn College. Two young Navy officers were busy setting up a recruitment table. Across the lobby the Peace Corps also had its table. One hour later, pandemonium. It was impossible to teach even in the fourth-floor classrooms. The anti-war chant trumpeted aggression. Students surrounded the recruiters, demanding their removal from campus. Soon the police were called and started making arrests. The TV cameras showed up. Ugly scenes, students on strike, solemn negotiations with deans and president, babbling of “student freedom,” slogans about police brutality —in short a “Berkeley” had erupted. By the middle of the following week, the last visible ripples of the incident had subsided. But the students had won all along the line, the administration had yielded—and set the precedent for further retreats.

Students a CPUSA Target