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.
Box 1 Folder 1
College Correspondence, 1966-1967
Box 1 Folder 2
SDS Fliers, ca. 1966-1967
Box 1 Folder 3
Project Double Discovery ID Card, 1967
Box 1 Folder 4
Columbia College Press Release, 1967 May 8
Three freshmen chosen to serve as officers for Class of 1970
Box 1 Folder 5
"Columbia University: A Political Monograph", ca. 1967
By Sharon Krebs and Ed Lemansky. Distributed by the C.U. chapter of the American Liberation League.
Box 1 Folder 6
Vietnam articles and pamphlets, 1966-1967
Box 1 Folder 7
The New Republic, 1967 February-March
Box 1 Folder 8
Draft Resistance, 1966-1967
Box 1 Folder 9
Fliers issued by Columbia Vietnam Summer, 1967
Box 1 Folder 10
"New Left May Day Manifesto", 1967
Box 1 Folder 11
"…Treason!", 1967 Summer
Box 1 Folder 12
"Viet-Nam Information Notes", 1967 July
Office of Media Services, Bureau of Public Affairs, Department of State. Numbers 7 and 8 of this newsletter.
Box 1 Folder 13
The Columbia University Forum, 1967 Summer
"Vietnam, the State of our Feelings" by Eric Bentley
Box 1 Folder 14
Feedback: A Journal of Social Commentary, 1967 May
Box 1 Folder 15
American Bar Association Journal--"U.S. Intervention in Vietnam in not legal", 1966 July
Box 1 Folder 16
Gadfly, 1966-1968
Newsletter published by Postcrypt Press at Columbia University
Box 1 Folder 17
The Junior Paper Tiger: Journal of C.U. Students for a Democractic Society, 1967-1968
Box 1 Folder 18
Anti-Recruitment Articles and Fliers, 1967
Box 1 Folder 19
New Left News: The Journal of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society, 1967 October 9
Box 1 Folder 20
SDS - Transit Workers and Fare Hike Information, 1968
Box 1 Folder 21
An Appeal from Black Americans: Do not turn your back, Senator McCarthy, 1967-1968
Box 1 Folder 22
SDS Fliers and Proposals, 1967-1968
Box 1 Folder 23
Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), 1967-1968
Box 1 Folder 24
Viet-Report, 1968 January
Box 1 Folder 25
Orangeburg Massacre, 1968
Box 1 Folder 26
Morningside Park, 1968
Fliers, articles and one photograph of students ripping down fencing from April 1968.
Box 1 Folder 27
"Second Civil War", 1968 February 16
Box 1 Folder 28
Class Rank and Draft Boards, 1968 March
Box 1 Folder 29
Moratorium Coalition and Moratorium Day, 1968 March
Box 1 Folder 30
Press Release - Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Service, 1968 April
Box 1 Folder 31
Liberation News Service, 1968 March 25
Box 1 Folder 32
Connection: Magazine Supplement of Spectator, 1968 April 11
Box 1 Folder 33
SDS Proposal for a Spring Offensive Agains Columbia Racism, 1968 April
Produced by the Labor Committee
Box 1 Folder 34
Letter to Gedal from Grayson Kirk's Office, 1968 April 19
Box 1 Folder 35
SDS Fliers re: Sundial Rally, 1968 April
Box 1 Folder 36
SDS Fliers re: Judicial Council, 1968 April
Box 1 Folder 37
Strike Demands, 1968 April
Box 1 Folder 38
Student and Faculty Statements, 1968 April
Box 1 Folder 39
Strike Coordinating Committee Minutes, 1968 April 28
Box 1 Folder 40
Statement of Striking Students, 1968 April 29
Box 1 Folder 41
Five Point Proposal, 1968 April
Box 1 Folder 42
Statements re: Police Bust, 1968 April 30
Box 1 Folder 43
"Why It Began", 1968 April
Box 1 Folder 44
"Why We Strike" pamphlet, 1968 April-May
Box 1 Folder 45
Fliers re: Strikers and Picketers, 1968 April-May
Box 1 Folder 46
Strike Coordinating Committee Minutes, 1968 May-July
Box 1 Folder 47
Columbia University Press Releases, 1968 May-August
Box 1 Folder 48
Support Telegrams and Letters, 1968 May
Box 1 Folder 49
"Know Your Brothers and Sisters in Struggle" pamphlet, 1968
Box 1 Folder 50
Strike Coordinating Committee Statements, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 1
Statement by Students of The School of Architecture, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 2
Newspaper Opinion Articles, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 3
Statements by Local Community, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 4
Strike Education Committee Proposals, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 5
Faculty of Columbia College Resolutions, 1968 May 8
Box 2 Folder 6
Face the Nation broadcast transcript, 1968 May 5
Interview with Dr. Grayson Kirk
Box 2 Folder 7
Strike Coordinating Committee Letter to Executive Committee of the Joint Faculty, 1968 May 5
Box 2 Folder 8
Independent Faculty Group Statements, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 9
A Message to Alumni, Parents and Other Friends of Columbia from Grayson Kirk, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 10
"Some Documents: The Administration Speaks for Itself", 1968 May 6
Copies of documents and letters mailed to the Stike Committee from Anonymous Sources
Box 2 Folder 11
Striking Students Press Release Draft, 1968 May 6
Box 2 Folder 12
Letter from Columbia Concerned Parents, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 13
Statement by Columbia SDS Labor Committee, 1968 May 6
Box 2 Folder 14
Statement by NYPD Committee for Community Relations, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 15
French Student Resistance Movement, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 16
WIN: Peace and Freedom Through Nonviolent Action (Vol. IV, No. 9), 1968 May 15
Box 2 Folder 17
Recommendations of Columbia University Joint Committee on Disciplinary Affairs, 1968 May 9
Box 2 Folder 18
Student Petitions, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 19
West Side News (Vol. XIX, No. 3), 1968 May 9
Box 2 Folder 20
The Nature of a University Speaker Series Fliers, 1968 May
Sponsored by the Independent Faculty Group of Columbia University
Box 2 Folder 21
Restructuring / Reconstruction at Columbia - proposals, 1968 May-October
Box 2 Folder 22
A Recommendation for Student Participation in Decision-Making at Columbia, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 23
Open letter from Serge Lang to David Truman, 1968 May 15
Box 2 Folder 24
Resolution of the Joint Committee on Disciplinary Affairs, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 25
Response to Joint Disciplinary Committee, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 26
"The Confrontation Crisis: A Statement of the Independent Faculty Group", 1968 May 24
Box 2 Folder 27
Statement by Students for a Restructured University, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 28
Proposal for a Graduate Student Union (GSU) Program, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 29
Statements and Responses to the Fact Finding Commission, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 30
Statement of the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Columbia University, 1968 May 15
Box 2 Folder 31
Students for a Reconstructed University, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 32
"A Demonstration is Not a Strike", 1968 May
Published by the Independent Committee of Students and Faculty
Box 2 Folder 33
Student and Faculty Response to the Columbia Crisis: A Preliminary Report Based on Partial Returns", 1968 May 20
Bureau of Applied Social Reseach (BASR) survey results
Box 2 Folder 34
Strike Coordinating Committee Fliers and Statements, 1968 May-August
Box 2 Folder 35
"Campus or Battleground? Columbia is a Warning to All Americna Universities" by Robert Hessen, 1968 May 20
Box 2 Folder 36
"Columbia's Guards Stay on Sidelines" by David K. Shipler, 1968 May 29
Box 2 Folder 37
Letter from Columbia University Student Council (CUSC) President Tomec Smith to C.U. President Grayson Kirk, 1968 May 28
Box 2 Folder 38
Letter to College Faculty asking to Support Unionization of Cafeteria Workers, 1968 May 29
Box 2 Folder 39
Summer Liberation School, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 40
Counter-Commencement, 1968 May-June
Box 2 Folder 41
Alumni for a New Columbia, 1968 May
Box 2 Folder 42
Statements by Students for Columbia University, 1968 May-June
Box 2 Folder 43
Meeting Between Graduate Students and Associate Dean Kevin Sullivan, 1968 May 28
Box 2 Folder 44
Rational Inquirer, 1968 May-June
A publication of the Strike Coordinating Committee
Box 2 Folder 45
LOOK Magazine Ad in NEWSWEEK, 1968 May 30
Uses a photo from Columbia campus
Box 2 Folder 46
"Who Rules Columbia?", 1968 June
published by North American Congress on Latin America
Box 2 Folder 47
Faculty Executive Sub-Committee Meeting, 1968 June 12
Box 2 Folder 48
Harlem News (Vol. I, No. 6), 1968 June
contains an article: "The Battle of Morningside Park"
Box 2 Folder 49
Long Island Press series "The Upheval at Columbia", 1968 June
Box 2 Folder 50
"Rebel Columbia Profs Assail Suspension" by Bryna Taubman, 1968 June 6
Box 2 Folder 51
Statements re: McCarthy and Kennedy, 1968 June
Box 2 Folder 52
The New Republic, 1968 June 8
Contains article by Dotson Rader title "More About Columbia"
Box 2 Folder 53
Columbia College Today: Six Weeks that Shook Morningside, 1968 Spring
Box 2 Folder 54
"How Columbia Pulled Down its Pillars" by Nicholas Offman, 1968 June 16
Box 2 Folder 55
Columbia Concerned Parents, 1968 May-June
statements and open letters
Box 2 Folder 56
The COLUMBIA OWL (Vol. I, No. 1), 1968 June 27
Student newspaper of the School of General Studies
Box 2 Folder 57
Community Action Committee/Housing fliers, 1968 June-August
Box 3 Folder 1
"Columbia Rebels Map Plans for Fall" by Jack Robbins, 1968 June 12
Box 3 Folder 2
"Up Against the Ivy Wall", 1968 December
NY Times Book Review of Jerry Avorn's book
Box 3 Folder 3
"Columbia's New Course - Rebellion I" by Nat Hentoff, 1968
Box 3 Folder 4
"A Working Paper on Radical Women" by Nancy Biberman and Sue Aronstein, 1968
Box 3 Folder 5
"Militaization and Women", 1968
Box 3 Folder 6
"Law and the Scope of Property", 1968
A Strike Coordinating Committee (SCC) working paper "I Hear It was Charges Against Me," part 3. First Draft.
Box 3 Folder 7
Reports and Papers of the Legal RAP Liberation School, 1968 August
Box 3 Folder 8
The Columbia Liberation School Class on Public Education and Teaching: Summary and Proposal, 1968 Summer
Box 3 Folder 9
Working Paper on Teacher Organizing, 1968
Box 3 Folder 10
Report of the Reconstruction Committee, 1968
Box 3 Folder 11
"Marx on Art and Literature", 1968
Box 3 Folder 12
"Free Speech: A Radical Analysis", 1968
Box 3 Folder 13
"The Mass Strike" by Tony Papert and Lyn Marcus, NY SDS Regional Labor Committee, 1968 June
Box 3 Folder 14
"Pickets of Abundance in the Midst of Poverty" by Carl Davidson, 1968
reprint issued by the Labor Committee of Columbi SDS
Box 3 Folder 15
Letter re: the Imperialsim RAP class, 1968
Box 3 Folder 16
"Stockyards batter park bay area blues - pig major", 1968
Box 3 Folder 17
STRUGGLE (Issue No. 1), 1968 July 12
Published by Columbia Summer Liberation School
Box 3 Folder 18
Community Action Committee Newsletter (Vol. I, No. 1), 1968 July 16
Box 3 Folder 19
Black Panther Party information, 1968
Box 3 Folder 20
"Political Repression in Texas - SNCC and SDS Organizers Jailed", 1968
Box 3 Folder 21
Dean's Tribunal Supoena, 1968
Supoena directed by students to Columbia administrators
Box 3 Folder 22
"The Moral Crisis at Columbia" by Henry W. Malcolm, Associate Protestant Counselor, 1968
Box 3 Folder 23
"From the Far Side of 30: The Students are Winning" by Richard E. Allen, 1968
Box 3 Folder 24
Radical Action Cooperative: Life, Not Survival - A Manifesto, 1968 July 28
Box 3 Folder 25
The Arrest of H. Rap Brown, 1968 July
Box 3 Folder 26
Joint Committee on Disciplinary Affairs, 1968 August
Box 3 Folder 27
IMPACT, 1968 August 16
Box 3 Folder 28
Student Voice (Vol. I, No. 2), 1968 August 21
Box 3 Folder 29
"On Open Forums" - Columbia SDS flier, 1968
Box 3 Folder 30
Response of the Columbia College Disciplinary Tribunal to the Briefs presentd by the Students and the Administration Regarding Questions of Jurisdiction, Competence, Due Process, and a Collective Trial, 1968 December 19
Box 3 Folder 31
"The Power Elite, Columbia Trustees", 1968
Box 3 Folder 32
Columbia Liberated - Revised, 1968
Box 3 Folder 33
Andrew Cordier biographical notes, 1968 August
Originally printed in 1961, from the United Nations Office of Public Information
Box 3 Folder 34
"Columbia's formidable foreign record touches the four corners" by Louis M. Starr, 1969 September
Box 3 Folder 35
Patrice Lumumba information, 1968-1971
Box 3 Folder 36
"Administering the Empire" - School of International Affairs, 1968
Box 3 Folder 37
"The Columbia Statement" presented to SDS General Assembly, 1968 September 12
Box 3 Folder 38
Columbia SDS - Schedule of Meetings and Strategy, 1968 September
Box 3 Folder 39
"University Protest: Guards, SDS Clash on Columbia's Campus", 1968 September 13
Article from Santa Monica Evening Outlook
Box 3 Folder 40
Critique of SDS Strike Coordinating Committee, 1968 September
Box 3 Folder 41
"Presenting the Great Late Show of Opposition", 1968
Box 3 Folder 42
"Ten Days That Shook the University", 1968
Printed for Situationist International
Box 3 Folder 43
"The Totality for Kids" by Raoul Vaneigem, 1968
Printed for Situationist International
Box 3 Folder 44
Towards an Analysis of the Columbia Strike, 1968
Box 3 Folder 45
Cordier's Statement of Clemency, 1968 September 11
Box 3 Folder 46
"Columbia Approaches its New Term Wondering if Changes will Satisfy Demands", 1968 September 16
Box 3 Folder 47
"Radical Students See Cordier; Denounce 'Militaristic' Policy", 1968 September 17
Box 3 Folder 48
Student Protest clippings, 1968 September
Box 3 Folder 49
"SDS' 35,000 Students Have No Patience with Dogma", Fall 1969
Box 3 Folder 50
"France: Spring 1968 Masses in Motion, Ideas in Free Flow" by Eugene Walker, 1968
An eyewitness' critcal report
Box 3 Folder 51
"Worker-Student Action Committees, France" by R. Gregoire and F. Perlman, ca. 1968
This copy was reprinted in 1970.
Box 3 Folder 52
"SDS Member Gives Details of Professor's Army Research", 1968 September 27
Box 3 Folder 53
Letter to Stu Gedal from Dick List, 1968 September 16
Box 3 Folder 54
Fliers and Statements re: Discipline Issues, 1968 September
Box 3 Folder 55
Columbia Daily Spectator, 1968 September 30
Box 3 Folder 56
Letters to the Editor - Columbia Daily Spectator, 1968 October 10
Box 3 Folder 57
"The War is Not Over", 1968
Box 3 Folder 58
"Why a Committee of Correspondence", 1968
Box 4 Folder 1
SDS Handouts about Military, War and Secret Research, 1968
Box 4 Folder 2
Committee of Correspondence of SDS - Articles, 1968
"Why Students Become Revolutionaries" and "Capitalism in Decay"
Box 4 Folder 3
SDS Fliers and Notices, Fall 1968-1969
topic: Judicial tribunals
Box 4 Folder 4
Alumni for a New Columbia (issue no. 4), 1968 October
Box 4 Folder 5
"Notes on American Facsism", 1968 October 10
Box 4 Folder 6
Columbia Daily Spectator, 1968 October 25
complete issue of newspaper
Box 4 Folder 7
The Yellow Rag - A Supplement of JESTER - Special Election Day Issue, 1968
Box 4 Folder 8
JESTER of Columbia (Vol. LXIX, no. 4), 1967 March-April
Box 4 Folder 9
New York Magazine - "Blue Print for Revolution" by Ethel Romm, 1969 October 14
Box 4 Folder 10
SNCC Handouts, 1968 Fall
Box 4 Folder 11
Handouts re: Vietnam War, 1968 Fall
Box 4 Folder 12
Columbia and Unions: Past Policy and and New Possibilities, 1968 Fall
Local 1199. A report from the Citizenship Council Committee for Research.
Box 4 Folder 13
"Theory and Practice of the Electoral Process" by David Stern, 1968 Fall
Box 4 Folder 14
Columbia vs. The Community, Fall 1968-1969
institutional expansion of Columbia
Box 4 Folder 15
Community Control of NYC Schools, Fall 1968
Box 4 Folder 16
SDS Labor Committee, Fall 1968
Box 4 Folder 17
"At Columbia Now, the Students Mostly Confront Their Studies", 1968 November 25
Box 4 Folder 18
"Mark Rudd Better Hide if DeGaulle Hears This", 1968 December 5
Long Island Press article
Box 4 Folder 19
Disciplinary Tribunals, Fall 1968
Box 4 Folder 20
"Pentagon Squeeze: Grapes and Wrath", 1968 December 17
Box 4 Folder 21
"Los Kapital" event flier, 1968 December
Socialist Affairs Committee of Board of Managers of Ferris Booth Hall
Box 4 Folder 22
Proposed Outline for a Radical Anti-War Project in Douglaston, 1968 March 30
Box 4 Folder 23
"The Four White Suburbs Programs", 1968 September
Box 4 Folder 24
Anti-War and Anti-Recruitment Handouts, 1969
Box 4 Folder 25
The Coalition: The 'Down' High School Newspaper, 1969
Box 4 Folder 26
Open Admissions Demands, 1969
SDS handouts re: High School students demand
Box 4 Folder 27
The Bond: The Serviceman's Newspaper (Vol. 3, No. 2), 1969 February 17
Box 4 Folder 28
Induction Refusals, 1969
fliers re: not reporting for draf notices
Box 4 Folder 29
Connection: Magazine Supplement of Spectator (Vol. 1, no. 11), 1969 March 27
"The Fiction of Academic Freedom"
Box 4 Folder 30
Janet Benderman newsletter, 1969
Box 4 Folder 31
Statements re: Black Students, Admissions and Studies, 1969
documents re: issues of racism at Columbia
Box 4 Folder 32
"The Truth About the Six Demands", 1969
Box 4 Folder 33
ROTC, Recruitment and Military Research, 1969
Box 4 Folder 34
University Committee on Rules of Conduct, 1969
Box 4 Folder 35
SDS Demonstration, 1969 April 30-May 1
takeover of Mathematics and Fayerweather buildings at Columbia University
Box 4 Folder 36
"Why Repression?", 1969
flier created by SDS Committee of Correspondence
Box 4 Folder 37
Stuart Gedal Tribunal Hearing, 1969 April-June
Box 4 Folder 38
Supreme Court of NY Summons and Affidavit for Columbia University Trustees vs. SDS, 1969 May
Box 4 Folder 39
Columbia Daily Spectator (Vol. 108, no. 118), 1969 June 3
Box 4 Folder 40
Letter to Stuart Gedal from Charles Marks, 1969 June 4
re: Trustees of Columbia University vs. SDS
Box 4 Folder 41
Senate Supoena Against Columbia University, 1969
Box 4 Folder 42
Articles about NY Supreme Court Case, 1969 June
Box 4 Folder 43
Letter from President Richard Nixon to 1969 Graduating Class at Columbia University, 1969
Box 4 Folder 44
"Pentagon Spy Master Signs on with NASA", 1969 June 13
Box 4 Folder 45
"The Fire Without, The Fire Within" by Serge Lang, 1969
Box 4 Folder 46
"Metamorphsis in S.D.S.: The New Left is Showing its Age" by Thomas R. Brooks, 1969 June 15
NY Times Magazine article
Box 4 Folder 47
The Columbia Chronicle (Vo. 3, no. 4), 1969 June
inside spread re: "Campus Rebels" coverage
Box 4 Folder 48
"SDS Radicals Open New Recruiting Drive", 1969 December 15
Box 4 Folder 49
Handwritten Notes, 1969
letter to Gedal? Notes re: "A Salute to South Africa"