This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
A collection of over 340 pieces of original material related to the demonstrations at Columbia University and their aftermath, focused on activities led by the Columbia Students for a Democratic Society (Columbia SDS) to protest the Vietnam War, end the construction of a Columbia gymnasium on public park land in Harlem, and include University students in institutional decision-making. Most items date to the spring and fall of 1968, including newspaper and magazine clippings, flyers for protests and demonstrations, letters, leaflets, journal and newspaper issues, essays, notices, press releases, memos, meeting minutes, proposals, and many other items, all collected and archived by Stuart Gedal, a student at Columbia (1966-1969) and prominent SDS member. The collection also includes numerous SDS related material such as founding documents (Port Huron Statement), conference materials, and educational pamphlets. There is also some content concerning the Weatherman Underground Organization, an off-shoot of SDS, including a rare first printing of the booklet Prairie Fire.
Series I: Columbia Strike Materials, 1966-1969
This series contains hundreds of original documents collected by Columbia College student Stuart Gedal that analyze social issues and the Vietnam War, announce meetings, rallies, and demonstrations, and reflect the sometimes fractious internal debates among student movement activists. The materials reflect Gedal's slow but steadily growing enthusiasm for anti-war, civil rights and "Black Power" organizing. It also marks his own personal journey from aspiring attorney and liberal Democratic politician to full-time student movement organizer and militant activist.
The documents trace a nearly two-year long crescendo of activism that burst into the Columbia Strike of Spring 1968. Documents of note include a transcript of Columbia President Grayson Kirk's appearance on an hour-long national news broadcast during the Strike, a "subpoena" and questionnaire sent to student strike leaders by the official "Fact-Finding Commission" (The Cox Commission), counter-commencement and liberation school documents. The documents also trace the fracturing of the Columbia Strike into three separate movements – Student Afro-American Society's (SAS) focus on Black admissions, curriculum and human rights issues at the University; Students for a Reconstructed University (SRU) focus on the creation of student-faculty bodies they hoped would become part of University governance; and students involved with Society for a Democratic Society (SDS) focused on continuing the militant spirit of the Strike by linking demands and activism of SDS at Columbia to SDS groups across the country, and transforming SDS into a national movement for all out social change.
Materials were re-housed from individual sleeves in binders into acid-free folders and boxes. The original order provided by Gedal was maintained as closely as possible, but some individual materials were grouped together into subject-specific or publications specific files while others were re-housed at the item level as originally received.
Series II: Movement Pamphlet Collection, 1960s-1970s
This series contains copies of published pamphlets, journal, and magazine articles on various topics of interest to Stuart Gedal in his work with SDS and as a militant activist. The series is divided into four subject specific sub-series as follows: sub-series II.1: anti-war movement, student movement and International pamphlets; sub-series II.2: African-American liberation educational and outreach materials; sub-series II.3: Women's Liberation educational and outreach materials; sub-series II.4: May 2nd Movement, American Liberation League, Progressive Labor Party, and National Caucus of Labor Committees. This last sub-series also includes proposals to SDS, outreach and educational materials. Many writings by CLR James, Fidel Castro, and Mao Zedong.
Pamphlets were kept in the original order provided by Gedal but re-housed from individual sleeves in binders into acid-free folders and archival boxes.
Series III: Students for a Democractic Society (SDS), 1965-1969
This series is divided into two sub-series of SDS materials. Series III.1: SDS National and Regional Materials includes original copies of the Port Huron Statement (founding manifesto of Students for a Democratic Society) and the SDS constitution. It also features agendas and discussion papers from SDS national conferences and NY Regional SDS meetings attended by Columbia student activists. Series III.2: Radical Education Project (REP) contains readings and pamphlets created and distributed as part of the Radical Education Project (REP). REP was set up to get people like Gedal into the SDS fold.
Materials were re-housed from individual sleeves in binders and the original order provided by Gedal was maintained as closely as possible.
Series IV: Weatherman, 1969-1976, 2003
This series contains publications, fliers, and documents from the primary off-campus grouping of SDS, the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM). The more militant group within RYM, to which former Columbia activists belonged, was nicknamed "Weatherman", after a song by Bob Dylan. Quickly – from July to December 1969 – Weatherman evolved from small groups of very visible street fighters spread across the country into a clandestine organization. The renamed Weather Underground Organization (WUO) carried out bombings well into the mid-1970s. Their targets included corporate headquarters and city, state and federal government offices, including the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The series contains a compendium of "communiques" written by WUO and publicized by both mainstream media as well as the surviving "underground" or "alternative" press on the occasion of their major actions.
Materials includes a copy of Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism - Political Statement of the Weather Underground
Materials were re-housed from individual sleeves in binders and the original order provided by Gedal was maintained as closely as possible.
Series V: Power Structure Research, 1970-1980
This series contains a collection of documents and serial publications from the prolific North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) and the Africa Research Group (ARG). Power structure research helped movement activists identify the alignment of international studies programs and federally-funded research with specific U.S. Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency, and military activities. This content enabled student activists to identify specific university policies and activities that had negative social and political impacts. The activists waged months-long and even years-long campaigns to convince other students to oppose and act against "the university-military complex".
Materials were re-housed from individual sleeves in binders and the original order provided by Gedal was maintained as closely as possible.
The collection is arranged rooughy in chronological order in five series based on thematic binders originally organized by the donor.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Stuart Gedal Columbia University 1968 Strike Collection; Box and Folder; University Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
University Protest and Activism Collection, 1958-2018 [Bulk 1968-1972] (UA#0007)
University Archives 1968 Crisis Research Guide
No additions are expected
2017.2018.M007: Source of acquisition--Stuart M. Gedal. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--7/7/2017.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
This collection processed by Jocelyn Wilk between 2022-2023. Finding aid written by Jocelyn Wilk in January 2024.
Stuart Gedal was admitted to Columbia College as a member of the Class of 1970. He was a student at Columbia during the 1968 protests and strike and a prominent member of Columbia's chapter of Students for a Democractic Society (SDS). He left Columbia at the end of the 1969 academic year and became a blue collar worker (US Steel) and community organizer (tenants' rights and antiracism) into the 1980s. As a program designer and consultant, he then worked with industry and government to link diversity, teamwork, and technology to workforce development. A Harvard-trained executive coach and language trainer, today, he focuses on skill development for non-native English speakers working in the U.S. and global businesses.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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