An actual article on Columbia College’s official web site describes the college’s therapy of pupil protesters in 1968 as follows: “New York Metropolis Police stormed the campus and arrested greater than 700 individuals. The fallout dogged Columbia for years.” The article additionally says the college is a “far totally different place at the moment.”
The 2018 article commemorating the 1968 protests was nonetheless on Columbia College’s web site as of April 30, 2024, when New York Metropolis police had been referred to as in to arrest 112 pro-Palestine demonstrators.
In April 2024, as Columbia College called on the New York Police Division (NYPD) to arrest protesting pro-Palestine college students, an genuine piece of the college’s historical past grew to become an ironic speaking level on-line.
Pupil protesters demanded the college divest from companies taking advantage of Israel’s conflict on Gaza, and on April 30, 2024, they occupied Hamilton Corridor, a campus constructing. Later that day, the college authorized NYPD to enter the campus and make arrests. Police arrested dozens of individuals on the corridor and from a protest camp exterior the constructing.
The arrests happened precisely 56 years after police went into the identical corridor to filter college students protesting the Vietnam Struggle and racism, a second that Columbia College itself had commemorated on its web site.
A lot of posts on X shared screenshots of an article titled “A New Perspective on 1968,” which acknowledged pupil protesters who took over college buildings to specific discontent over racism, the Vietnam Struggle and the college’s proposed growth into a close-by park.
One post famous the identical web site had displayed a warning check in orange above the article detailing restricted campus entry that day as a result of ongoing 2024 protests and arrests.
Many posts noted the irony of Columbia College recognizing previous pupil protesters whereas arresting college students through the 2024 protests.
These posts had been sharing a real article revealed in April 2018 that was nonetheless on Columbia’s web site, during which the college acknowledged the 1968 pupil protests 50 years earlier and described the college as a “far totally different place at the moment.” We thus charge this declare as “Right Attribution.”
The article says:
Columbia is a far totally different place at the moment than it was within the spring of 1968 when protesters took over College buildings amid discontent concerning the Vietnam Struggle, racism and the College’s proposed growth into Morningside Park. After a weeklong standoff, New York Metropolis Police stormed the campus and arrested greater than 700 individuals. The fallout dogged Columbia for years.
It took many years for the College to get better from these turbulent instances. Columbia now has some of the socio-economically numerous pupil our bodies amongst its peer establishments. It has added a brand new campus designed to be open to the group and pursues fields of inquiry extraordinary a half-century in the past. Columbia is commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of these long-ago occasions with a deep dive of scholarship and reveals chronicling what occurred then and its results at the moment.
The article was additionally archived here on April 30, 2024, and that web page shows the orange warning signal about restricted campus entry.
The article was additionally referenced in a speech by Rashid Khalidi, a historical past professor at Columbia College, when he spoke to demonstrators the day after the arrests, as seen on this video from Center East Eye. He stated 2024 pupil protesters had been additionally “on the suitable aspect of historical past,” and in the future their actions could be “commemorated the identical manner.”
The 2024 pro-Palestinian protesters had unfurled a banner with the words “Hind’s Corridor” over Hamilton Corridor, after Hind Rajab, a younger woman killed in Gaza whereas beneath hearth from Israeli forces in February 2024, in accordance with an Al Jazeera investigation. The protesters’ occupation of the corridor got here simply two weeks after Columbia’s president licensed NYPD to make arrests on the close by so-called “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on campus.
To evaluate the accuracy of the “new perspective” commemorative put up, we regarded by way of archives of the student-run newspaper, Columbia Spectator, for protection of the 1968 protests and subsequent arrests. An April 24, 1968, Columbia Spectator subject particulars protests on the college, additionally describing how college students crowded into Hamilton Corridor for an “all night time vigil.” On April 30, 1968, the newspaper reported the college referred to as in 1,000 law enforcement officials to “finish demonstrations,” leading to 700 arrests. Archival images from 1968 on a webpage belonging to the Columbia College Libraries present police chasing college students and throwing them to the bottom.
A 2018 Columbia Spectator report marking the fiftieth anniversary of the protests acknowledged, “Whereas no college students have been arrested at a protest on campus since 1996, police presence at demonstrations has remained fixed from yr to yr.”
The 2024 arrests, in accordance with the Columbia Spectator, had been the most important mass arrests since 1968.
Sources
“1968: Columbia in Disaster.” Columbia College Libraries On-line Exhibitions. https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/reveals/present/1968/bust. Accessed 3 Might 2024.
“A New Perspective on 1968.” Columbia Information, April 2018, https://information.columbia.edu/content material/new-perspective-1968. Accessed 3 Might 2024.
“Arrests at Columbia College as New York Metropolis Police Clear Gaza Protest.” Al Jazeera, Might 1, 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/information/2024/5/1/new-york-city-police-enter-columbia-campus-as-gaza-protest-escalates. Accessed 3 Might 2024.
“Columbia Each day Spectator 24 April 1968.” Columbia Spectator. https://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680424-01.2.5&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN——-. Accessed 3 Might 2024.
Hernandez, Jorge. “‘Gymnasium Crow’: Wanting Again on the 1968 Morningside Gymnasium Protests.” Columbia Each day Spectator, https://www.columbiaspectator.com/sports activities/2022/02/15/gym-crow-looking-back-on-the-1968-morningside-gym-protests/. Accessed 3 Might 2024.
“Hind Rajab: Had been Israeli Troops round The place the Six-12 months-Outdated Was Killed?” Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/information/2024/2/26/hind-rajab-were-israeli-troops-in-the-area-where-6-year-old-was-killed. Accessed 3 Might 2024.
Hussain, Khadija. “1968 to Now: Fifty Years after Police Violence, College Has Little Oversight of NYPD Presence on Campus.” Columbia Each day Spectator, April 25, 1968. https://www.columbiaspectator.com/information/2018/04/25/1968-to-now-fifty-years-after-police-violence-university-has-little-oversight-of-nypd-presence-on-campus/. Accessed 3 Might 2024.
McKee, Amira. “Dozens Occupy Hamilton Corridor as Professional-Palestinian Protests Unfold throughout Campus.” Columbia Each day Spectator, April 30, 2024. https://www.columbiaspectator.com/information/2024/04/30/dozens-occupy-hamilton-hall-as-pro-palestinian-protests-spread-across-campus/. Accessed 3 Might 2024.
“Columbia Professor Rashid Khalidi Says Pupil Protesters Are ‘on the Proper Facet of Historical past.'” Center East Eye, Might 2, 2024. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz2VcELqF7s. Accessed 3 Might 2024.
“Learn the Letter Columbia College’s President Despatched to the NYPD Asking for Help.” NBC New York, 1 Might 2024, https://www.nbcnewyork.com/information/native/read-the-letter-columbia-universitys-president-sent-to-the-nypd-asking-for-assistance/5370439/. Accessed 3 Might 2024.
