HERE YE, HERE YE! A park will be built this Sunday between Dwight Way and Haste. The land is owned by the University, which tore down a lot of beautiful houses in order to build a swamp.

That was how People's Park began—with a small announcement on page 2 of the Berkeley Barb.

"We want the part to be a cultural, political freak-out and rap center for the Western world," the article proclaimed. It was signed: "Robin Hood's Park Commissioner." [aka local Yippie activist Stew Albert.]

What could be more innocent than a public park? And, given the volatile, vanguard habits of the Berkeley community, what could be more revolutionary?

We took barren land, scraped off the trash, turned it green with banners of rolled sod, saplings and lots of happy sweat. They hit us with everything they had—Highway Patrol, County Sheriffs, National Guard, batons, teargas, shotguns, and martial law. For the sake of a park, blood was ripped from flesh and Berkeley became an Occupied Town.

"If they want a bloodbath," Governor [Ronald Reagan) said, "Let's get on with it."

-- Gar Smith, The Berkeley Barb, April 26, 1979

[See the full article and thousands of other stories, photos, and illustrations archived at www.berkeleybarb.net and www.berkeleybarb.org.] 

Some History 

Forty-nine years ago, the people built a park. 

In response, the University of California erected a chain-link fence around the newly restored open space. Barricading the park outraged the people. The outrage lead to a peaceful march to the fenced-off park on May 15, 1969 and culminated in a police riot—aka "Bloody Thursday"—that injured hundreds and left one bystander dead. 

Before there was a park, the block had been filled with scores of redwood-shingled houses with apartments occupied by students and former students. In 1968, UC Berkeley cleared the housing from the land in a mass removal that was a small-time version of Israel's notorious Nakba—"the Disaster." The UC administration brought in the bulldozers to clear-cut a counter-cultural outpost that the university disdained—a community of "off-campus agitators" and Free Speech Movement veterans. 

When students and residents marched to protest the fence and demand access to the park, they were met by armed police. The streets quickly filled with clouds of teargas. When it was over, the Alameda County Sheriffs had gunned down 150 unarmed people in the streets of Berkeley. Some were shot in the back. One (a local carpenter named Alan Blanchard) was shot in the face and blinded. Another, a bystander named James Rector (an innocent spectator from out of town), was mortally wounded while watching from a Telegraph Avenue rooftop. 

In 1976, a group of volunteers lead by Brian Thiele and East Bay Community Law Center lawyer-activist-artist Osha Neumann banded together to commemorate "The Battle of People's Park" with a mural, painted on the north side of the building housing Amoeba Records. At the time, Neumann reflected, the idea of creating a public mural depicting actual people engaged in an historic event was both "revolutionary and visionary." 

Osha Neumann (September 14, 2015) 

Redidicating the Restored Mural 

At high noon on October 14, Neumann, Thiele and others—including local poets, activists, and a Black Panther vet—gathered on Haste Street to rededicate the restored mural, recall the events of the Sixties, and raise funds to preserve the artwork "for another 100 years." 

Neumann noted that, in addition to cleaning up the faded paint, his small crew of volunteers made one historical correction to the mural. In the original version, Free Speech Movement student activist Mario Savio was depicted wearing shoes while standing atop a police car surrounded by protesting students. 

In fact, on that fateful day, Savio set a respectful standard by first removing his shoes before walking onto the roof of the immobilized squad car. Other speakers followed suit. So Neumann and crew replaced Mario's painted shoes with some freshly painted socks. 

Reflecting on the university's harsh crackdown on the park-builders, Neumann called It a "seizure of the public commons"—the same thing that happened repeatedly to the Native Americans of this continent. Except this time: "We were the Indians." 

"UC did nothing with the lot for nearly two years," one speaker recalled. It was only when the community spontaneously arose and magically transformed the abandoned, trash-strewn lot into an inviting public park that the University paid notice—and "brought the full force of the state" down on the backs of the park-builders. 

Survivors of "Bloody Thursday" 

"I remember being shot here and arrested here," said one of the speakers. 

Park co-founder Michael Delacour recalled how the violence on that day was triggered by a small team of provocateurs who hurled objects at the police, thereby creating a pretext for the shotgun-armed sheriffs to open fire. 

It was later revealed that the sheriffs had descended on Telegraph Avenue with their shotguns already stacked and pre-loaded apparently as part of a premeditated plan to exact punishment on "the reds, commies and leftists" in Berkeley. The police assault began with birdshot and then escalated to potentially deadly rounds of "00" buckshot. 

The sheriff's department initially lied about the use of buckshot but eventually justified the use of larger rounds by claiming that the only alternative was to "abandon the city to the mob." Sheriff Frank Madigan attempted to further excuse the violence by explaining that many of his men were Vietnam War veterans and may have targeted the protesters "as though they were Viet Cong." 

Nearly a half-century later, Delacour was unforgiving. "I want an apology," he told the Haste Street crowd, "I want justice." 

People's Park 1969. Fred Fischer

Osha Neumann recalled the many people shot that day and introduced at least two commemoration speakers who still carried the scars of bullet wounds from the police riot. Civil rights lawyer Jim Chanin (who went on to help create Berkeley's Police Review Commission) was one of those hit by a police round. Chanin noted that, by targeting the park for "development," the University of California was once again dismissing the needs of the communities of poor and minority residents. 

Activist Carol Denney recalled being labeled "an extremist" and being jailed for three days after writing the word "Shame!" in chalk on the surface of a new UC volleyball court built inside the park in an attempt to route the homeless residents. 

"When you get called an 'extremist' for writing a word in chalk," Denney observed, "that's the University talking." Denney then performed a song she penned to commemorate the incident. Pumping a small concertina while a friend held a microphone, Denney (with a nod to Hank Williams) launched into a tune titled, "I Saw the Light at the North County Jail." The song ridiculed a justice system where "talking is 'defacement' and roses are a weapon." 

One of the speakers was Reggie, a well-spoken gentlemen who claimed he had spent the last 32 years living in People's Park. He had a simple wish: to see the park protected and preserved as a State Historical Landmark. 

A number of poets read their works and Who Owns People's Park?", a poem by FSM activist and political organizer Frank Bardacke was also recited. 

Among those present in the crowd was Berkeley City Council District Seven candidate Aidan Hill, who has openly expressed his support for protecting People's Park. 

The next-to-last speaker introduced himself as a former Berkeley architecture student who was shot in both legs on Bloody Thursday. Unlike the previous speakers, however, he was not a firebrand. Explaining that, "I'm not that naïve," he predicted that UC Berkeley would eventually get its way and build its housing on the historic parkland. "The best we can hope for," he argued, was to "save the mural on the bathrooms and a small portion of the land." 

That prescription proved too much for the crowd to swallow. When a tsunami of critical groans began to well up from the street, he attempted to walk back his pessimism by saying: "I'm just trying to tell you . . . ." 

This prompted Carol Denny (who was sitting directly in front of him) to retort loudly: "And I'm telling YOU!" 

Their conversation resumed immediately following the end of the rededication ceremony. 

As the band, Franklin's Tower, prepared to entertain the crowd at the blocked-off intersection, Denny laid out some facts that the architect confessed he wasn't unaware of. 

"The university has 10 different options for sites to build student housing," Denny said with a patient smile, "But UC wants to start at People's Park. You can look it up!" 

Visitors who wish to check out the restored mural should also look for the Berkeley City Landmark plaque that was installed on the Park's 30^th anniversary. The inscription—which serves as a guide to the many images in the extensive and complex artwork—concludes with this "vision of liberation": 

"Within inches of a homeless young woman sitting on the sidewalk, a tree breaks through the gray cement. Entwined in its branches, a triumphal procession, shedding the clothes of the past as it proceeds, dances its way down Telegraph Avenue into the future." 

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Save People’s Park: Free Concert and Rally 

People’s Park, 2556 Haste Street 

Saturday, October 20, 2018, 1-5 PM 

People’s Park is under threat once again. Join us and show your support for free speech and open space! Reserve the whole day for a FREE concert on the historic People’s Park Free Speech Stage. Four hours of diverse local music! Four fabulous bands! Free speech speakers! MC Lefty the Clown! Grow Trees! Gardening 

ACTION: For the latest news on the struggle to defend People's Park, visit: http://www.peoplespark.org/wp/