Protests
In March of 1967, Columbia University student Bob Feldman found documents containing information about Columbia’s association with the Institute for Defense Analyses, or the IDA. The IDA was a think-tank on weapons research, and the discovery of the documents linking it to Columbia was one was the two factors that set off the protests of the Columbia students. The students now demanded that Columbia resign from its membership in the IDA. To make their point, a peaceful protest was organized in Columbia's Low Library, where students demanded an end to Columbia's IDA involvement. As a result, six Columbia students, who came to be known as the "IDA six," were suspended. They were charged with breaking school policies on indoor demonstrations.
The
second contributing factor to the uprising at Columbia was in response
to
Columbia’s plan to build a gym in Morningside Park, which was public land. Columbia students
were
enraged by the plans for the new gym. As the gym was to be built on a
hill, it included a lower, back entrance, designated for the residents
of Harlem, and an elevated, front entrance, through which the Columbia
students would enter. These plans resulted in an outcry from the
protesting students at Columbia, who condemned the "back door" as
despicably racist, and the equivalent of the Jim Crow laws, cleverly nicknamed "Gym Crow."
Protestors led by students like Richard Waselewsky and Richard Forzani retaliated by marching on the gym site, where they met conflict with the police, and one was arrested. They then returned to the Columbia campus, where they took Hamilton Hall in order to protest. Further conflict arose here, however, as the 60 African American Columbia students that were protesting asked the white student protestors to leave the hall. These black students were part of the Black Power movement, and claimed that the white students didn't really understand the problems with the gym, as it was designed in such a segregationist way. They also believed the white protestors to have a different agenda in their protest, thinking that they wanted merely to halt the gym construction, rather than stop Columbia from ever building the gym.
Protestors led by students like Richard Waselewsky and Richard Forzani retaliated by marching on the gym site, where they met conflict with the police, and one was arrested. They then returned to the Columbia campus, where they took Hamilton Hall in order to protest. Further conflict arose here, however, as the 60 African American Columbia students that were protesting asked the white student protestors to leave the hall. These black students were part of the Black Power movement, and claimed that the white students didn't really understand the problems with the gym, as it was designed in such a segregationist way. They also believed the white protestors to have a different agenda in their protest, thinking that they wanted merely to halt the gym construction, rather than stop Columbia from ever building the gym.
A second, smaller movement took place at Columbia on May 17th and 18th of 1968, when students gathered again at Hamilton Hall to protest the fact that the University had suspended the six students that had been suspended during their protest of Columbia's involvement with the IDA. These six students became known as the "IDA six," and several other students and police officers were injured in this second protest.
