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Protests from May 9 - 11, 1972

MAY 9, 1972: RESPONSE TO NIXON

On Tuesday, May 9, 1972, Students for a Democratic Society, along with other groups, spoke to an audience of around 500 in Meyerhoff Park in response to Nixon’s Monday night announcement of the naval blockade of North Vietnam and the mining of Haiphong harbor. Protestors were then called to demonstrate against Charles E. Young’s office because of the Chancellor’s support of ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.) on campus (see “SDS and ‘Young’s Wave of Repression’”).
Following Young address to the protestors, the crowd regrouped with the rest of the demonstration as they moved throughout North Campus, including the Law School, gathering people to join them along the way, before regrouping at Royce Hall in preparation for a march on ROTC classrooms.

Being that the classrooms were closed, the determined protestors began to march through South Campus, walking into classrooms trying to gather numbers for the march. Leaders removed an American flag from Portola Circle (above), waving it upside-down at the front of the march.

By now, the march consisted of approximately 2,000 people moving from campus into Westwood to protest. The LAPD, the University police, as well as officers of many other divisions, were all sent for “tactical alert.”

Around 2:10 pm, protestors had moved into Westwood. Fifteen minutes later, the LAPD responded to the protestors in the streets at Westwood and Le Conte by telling them to keep it on the sidewalk, though such requests were promptly ignored by the passionate crowd.

Sitting in the Streets with Bill Walton

At the corner of Wilshire and Veteran, police set up a line of officers to protect the Federal building and prevent protestors from getting to the freeway. By the time the crowd made its way to Wilshire and Veteran, they were stopped by around fifty LAPD. There, many protestors responded by simply sitting in the street. Among these people was varsity center Bill Walton.

Officers made an announcement for the crowd to disperse, giving the crowd fifteen minutes to move before arrests were made. Bill Walton, along with along with around ten others, wished to remain in the intersection, but moved to Wilshire and Gayley for around five minutes, leaving before being arrested.

The protestors’ numbers had dwindled back to about 500 by the time they marched back to Meyerhoff Park to hear veterans of the war speak. The demonstration was over by 4 pm.

MAY 10, 1972: STRIKE!

The publicity, combined with the shared sense of indignation amongst a vocal anti-war segment of the student body, probably assisted in the activities that followed May 9. That night “approximately fifty students voted . . . to call a strike here against the escalation of the Indochina War. They demanded a total withdrawal of the United States from the War, and an end to campus complicity with the War (meaning ROTC). They also voted to make ending racism on campus a major issue of the strike,” (Daily Bruin, Volume No. LXXXVI No. 31, p. 1).

A Peaceful Protest

The strike on Wednesday, May 10, turned out to peaceful, with rallies and sit-ins at Janns Steps and Murphy Hall, among other places. The act brought in many supporters without the ostentatious behavior of the previous day. Leaders offered plans to march towards the Air Force ROTC or march into Westwood. Deciding on the latter option, a smaller group of protestors (around 400) than the numbers of the day before made their way into the village. However, when asked to move onto the sidewalk by the LAPD this time, they complied.

A Meeting with Chancellor Young

Simultaneously, a group of around 150 students sat outside the Chancellor’s office in Murphy Hall, insisting to speak with Young. By 5 pm, Young addressed the crowd (see “SDS and ‘Young’s Wave of Repression’”).

MAY 11, 1972: LAPD ARREST 52

On May 11, 1972, at about 2:15 pm, 52 of around 1000 demonstrators were arrested while barricading the entrance to Murphy Hall. Bill Walton was among the 52 arrested for “failing to disperse.”

This incident was the first instance where police were called onto campus since the Angela Davis related riots of May 5, 1970. Four people were treated for injuries resulting from LAPD and University police clubs. The LAPD’s conduct, while imperfect, was general viewed as adequate, with only a few individual officers “losing their cool.” There were two injured as reported by police, with four treated for minor injuries.

The LAPD were called around 1:45 pm after protestors left a rally at Janss Steps to barricade Murphy Hall, which contained employees, faculty, and around 30 University police, and deemed a fire hazard. Chancellor Young personally ordered the crowd to disperse.

Around 150 people, including Walton, responded by sitting in the street and remaining seated until many were arrested.

Students taunted police with jeers and threw cans and rocks as they moved across campus, arresting students. In Haines Hall, a student sprayed police with a fire hose, jumped out a window and fleeing into the crowd before he could be arrested.

By 4 pm, a group of protestors supposed to go to Westwood decided to joined students near Murphy, chanting at police as forces brought in more officers as they swept the area.

Most police were off campus by around 5 pm, though cars would pull up to the students occasionally heading back to Murphy, making them scatter. University police stayed the entire night to guard the hall.

BACK TO NORMAL

Though the strike continued the following week, with appearances from speakers such as Jane Fonda (right), Chancellor Young’s policy of “business as usual” (see “SDS and ‘Young’s Wave of Repression’”) was absolutely essentially to bringing back the campus to normal.

On Friday, May 12, 1972, a rally at Janss Steps consisted of discussion about how students should respond to the arrests of the previous night. Despite the size of the crowd, around 1,000, no action in later days would escalate to the level in did Thursday. Protests against ROTC and rallies continued, though throughout the week, classes were able to function normally, with some even noting the unusually quiet environment.

Such were the events of May 9-11, 1972, at UCLA, right at the beginning of the end of the kind of student radicalism that flourished in the sixties and seventies.

by Max Nagano