[3 articles]
'Days of Rage' conference revisits unrest of May 1970
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20101020/NEWS/101019519
Panel to recount UA protest linked to Kent State killings
By Tommy Stevenson
October 20, 2010
TUSCALOOSA | On May 6, 1970, University of Alabama students set fire
to an abandoned building on the UA campus, touching off nearly two
weeks of unprecedented unrest at the Capstone.
The protest against the deaths of four students killed in an anti-war
rally at Kent State University led to the arrest of dozens of
students by UA police, Tuscaloosa police and the Alabama National Guard.
The events of May 6-19, 1970, during which the university was locked
down and under virtual martial law, will be remembered from 1-4:30
p.m. Friday as part of "Days of Rage: A 40 Years' Perspective"
mini-conference at the Hotel Capstone.
The conference is sponsored in part by the UA's department of history
and is free and open to the public.
The building set on fire was the abandoned Dressler Hall, where the
Ferguson Center now stands. The building had served as the ROTC
headquarters on campus and was scheduled for demolition.
Details of the chaos of that night, which included student occupation
of two buildings on campus, slowly unraveled in court during the next
year. Charlie Grimm, at the time a member of the Crimson Tide
wrestling team, was alleged to be an FBI informant and an agent
provocateur in the torching of Dressler.
Several of the participants in the "days of rage" will return to UA
for Friday's roundtable panel discussion.
The discussion will follow keynote addresses by UA history professor
Andrew Huebner, who will speak about anti-war protests across the
U.S., and adjunct history professor Earl Tilford, who will speak
about dissent at the Capstone.
Tilford said the university was not a hotbed of anti-war sentiment
until the country erupted over the shootings at Kent State University
on May 4, 1970.
"In fact, in 1969, 5,000 students signed a petition supporting
President Richard Nixon in Vietnam," said Tilford, who also served
two terms in Vietnam as a member of the Air Force. "But there was a
very active and very smart anti-war contingent on campus and they
were able to rally the students in a different direction."
Some of that anti-war leadership will participate in the roundtable discussion:
Jack Drake, now a Birmingham attorney who squared off with
then-Tuscaloosa City Attorney Richard Shelby, now Alabama's senior
United States senator, in defense of one of those arrested during the protests.
Louisiana clinical psychologist Carol Ann Self, a former UA
cheerleader, homecoming queen and founding member of the Tuscaloosa
Women's Movement, which sponsored the anti-war rally in front of the
president's mansion the night of the fire.
Eugenia Twitty Crosheck, a former UA student activist and now a
University of Iowa administrator.
Tom Ashby, a Vietnam veteran who returned to campus from the war and
became involved in the anti-war movement.
Wayne Greenhaw, an Alabama author who covered the protests for the
Montgomery Advertiser as a young reporter.
At the time of the incidents at UA, the anti-war effort was nearing
its peak, after the revelations that the United States had secretly
made incursions from Vietnam into Cambodia without authorization from
Congress.
Jerry Rubin, one of the Chicago Seven acquitted of conspiracy and
incitement to riot charges at the 1968 Democratic National
Convention, spoke at Foster Auditorium on the UA campus on May 3. His
speech is remembered as a call to arms just one day before National
Guard troops opened fire on student protesters at Kent State in Ohio,
killing four of them.
The deaths of college students at the hands of the government was
seen as a turning point in public attitudes toward the war, even
though President Richard Nixon did not pull all U.S. troops out of
Vietnam for another five years.
--
Reach Tommy Stevenson at [email protected] or 205-722-0194.
--------
UA conference to focus on campus unrest in 1970
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20101019/NEWS/101019567
By Tommy Stevenson
October 19, 2010
TUSCALOOSA | On May 6, 1970, University of Alabama students
protesting the deaths of four students killed in an anti-war rally at
Kent State, set fire to an abandoned building on the UA campus,
touching off nearly two weeks of unprecedented unrest at the Capstone
and the arrest of dozens of students by UA and Tuscaloosa Police and
the Alabama National Guard.
The building was the abandoned Dressler Hall near The Quad, which had
served as the ROTC headquarters on campus.
As the chaos of that night, which also included the occupation of two
buildings on campus, was slowly unraveled in court over the next
year, it was determined a student named Charlie Grimm, at the time on
the Crimson Tide wrestling team, was allegedly an FBI informant and
may actually has served as an agent provocateur in the torching of
Dressler Hall.
The nearly two weeks from May 6 until May 19, during which the
university was locked down and under virtual martial law, will be
remembered Friday as part of "Days of Rage: A 40 Years' Perspective"
mini-conference at the Hotel Capstone.
The conference, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. is sponsored in part by the UA's
department of history and is free and open to the public.
Several participants in the events will return to the Capstone for a
round-table discussion or the "days of rage."
The discussion will follow two keynote addresses, the first by UA
History Professor Andrew Huebner on "Anti-War Protests Across
America," and the second on "The Uniqueness of Dissent at the
Capstone," by UA adjunct history professor Earl Tilford.
Participating in the roundtable discussion will be:
-Jack Drake, now a Birmingham attorney who squared off with then
Tuscaloosa City Attorney Richard Shelby, now Alabama's senior United
States senator, in defense of one of those arrested during the protests;
-Louisiana clinical psychologist Carol Ann Self, a former UA
cheerleader, Homecoming Queen and founding member of the Tuscaloosa
Women's Movement, which sponsored the anti-war rally in front of the
President's Mansion the night of the fire;
-Eugenia Twitty Crosheck, a former UA student activist and now a
University of Iowa administrator;
-Tom Ashby, a Vietnam veteran who returned to campus from the war and
became involved in the anti-war movement;
-And Wayne Greenhaw, an Alabama author who covered the protests for
the Montgomery Advertiser as a young reporter.
At time of the incidents, the anti-war effort was nearing its peak,
following the revelations that the United States had secretly made
incursions from Vietnam into Cambodia without authorization from Congress.
Jerry Rubin, one of the Chicago Seven tried for violence at the 1968
Democratic National Convention and eventually acquitted, spoke in
Foster Auditorium on the UA campus on May 3 in what is remembered as
a call to arms just one day before National Guard troops opened fire
on student protesters at Kent State in Ohio, killing four of them.
The deaths of college students at the hands of the government was
seen as a turning point in public attitudes toward the war, even
though President Richard Nixon did not pull out all American troops
for another five years.
--
Reach Tommy Stevenson at [email protected] or 205-722-0194.
--------
EDITORIAL: Little-known event is getting attention
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20101021/NEWS/101029980
October 21, 2010
You probably have to be of a certain age and maybe even a resident of
Tuscaloosa to recall the great student unrest of May 6-19, 1970, when
University of Alabama students, enraged by the killings at Kent State
and perhaps egged on by an FBI agent provocateur, set fire to a
building on campus and occupied at least two other buildings.
The turmoil here included the torching of abandoned Dressler Hall,
which had served the ROTC headquarters on campus. The incident got
little national attention because it was only one of dozens of
eruptions of protests, even violence, in the wake of the Ohio
National Guard shooting to death four unarmed students protesting the
widening of the war in Vietnam to Cambodia. There were also two
deaths that week at the hands of the authorities at Jackson State
College, in Jackson, Miss., and massive demonstrations, sit-ins and
occupations of college and university buildings across the United States.
And even though the war was to go on another five years before
President Gerald Ford ordered those last helicopter evacuations of
the United States Embassy in Saigon, the deaths of students on native
soil at the hands of our government is seen by many as a turning
point in national sentiment for a war that would claim more than
50,000 American dead.
On May 6, unoccupied Dressler Hall where Ferguson Center now stands
was torched, and it took nearly two weeks of police and Alabama
National Guard patrols to completely restore order.
This somewhat hidden history will be remembered in vivid detail
Friday in a 'Days of Rage' conference at the Capstone Hotel. Several
of those who participated or observed what happened on the UA campus
will engage in a roundtable discussion to bring those 40-year-old
memories back to life.
The roundtable will follow two keynote speeches by UA historians, the
first being 'Anti-War Protests Across America' of a more general
nature by Andrew Hueber. The second will be 'The Uniqueness of
Dissent at the Capstone,' in which Earl Tilford will set the stage
for the roundtable featuring six people involved in the
demonstrations and subsequent shutdown of the university, where a
martial law-like atmosphere took hold for 13 days.
On the roundtable will be Jack Drake, now a Birmingham attorney but
then a key student organizer; Carol Ann Self, now a Louisiana-based
psychologist and then founder of the Tuscaloosa Women's Movement;
Eugenia Twitty, an administrator at the University of Iowa who was
arrested during the demonstrations; Billy Field, now a history
professor at the Capstone; Tom Ashby, a Vietnam veteran who returned
to UA as a dissident; and Alabama author and journalist Wayne
Greenhaw, who covered the events for the Montgomery Advertiser.
The 'Days of Rage' conference organized by the UA history department,
will be from 1-4:30 p.m. and will be free and open to the public.
.
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