April 18, 1969: 55 years ago, April 18 1969, the Berkeley Barb published a notice by [...]
55 years ago, April 18 1969, the Berkeley Barb published a notice by “Robin Hood’s Park Commissioner” calling readers to come to a UC-owned vacant lot between Dwight & Haste that Sunday, where “a park will be built.” Robin Hood’s Park was immediately renamed People’s Park
Robin Hood’s Park Commissioner was Stew Albert, cofounder of the Youth International Party (Yippies) who had organized with the Vietnam Day Committee while a member of the Maoist Progressive Labor Party. He conceived of the park with Mike Delacour, Wendy Schlesinger, and others
People’s Park marked an important convergence of Berkeley’s burgeoning radical political scene with the ‘countercultural’ lifestyle experiments then ongoing in San Francisco. Albert’s notice called for “a cultural, political, freak out and rap center for the Western World”
The UC’s ownership of the land was referred to as “occupation by imperial power” aimed to “create ugliness as a way of life.” The fight for the park is still ongoing, with ugliness as a way of life starkly represented by the border wall enclosure of the park erected this year
You can help celebrate the history of the park and participate in the ongoing struggle to save the park this Saturday, on it’s 55th anniversary
For a longer introduction to the history of People’s Park and the most recent wave of struggle to save it, you can read our piece “Who Owns the Park”
