A 19-Year-Old’s Diary Entries From November, 1970 | Thought Catalog

A 19-Year-Old’s Diary Entries From November, 1970 | Thought Catalog

Forty Years Ago Today in Brooklyn: May 15, 1970: Brooklyn College reacts to Kent State

From our diary:

Friday, May 15, 1970

It remained cool and cloudy. I woke up early and while Mom was in the beauty parlor, I drove around and took Steven to Tilden [High School] - there's been race friction there. I went to the camera store and I got back the BC photos from last week, which were uninteresting.

I finished writing Mark [in National Guard basic training at Fort Polk]. It's funny communicating with him like this.

When I arrived at school, Paul was working on the second special edition, which may come out Monday. I went to SUBO and with Leonard attended a meeting of the Brookyn chapter of the Movement for a New Congress. The main campaign in the area is Peter Eikenberry's fight to unseat Rep. [John] Rooney.

I had a quick bite and found that the Spigot office had been turned into Strike Central. They even repaired the telephone. I went into the next office and sat around with Alan Ullman and the others for awhile.

Dr. Bonchek [psychology professor] is standing up for his principles, however idiotic they may be, and is giving us a final and two quizzes next Friday. He got so exercised about the whole thing, I thought he'd have a stroke. . .

Two black students were killed by police at Jackson State College in Mississippi. Everyone is saying we're in the gravest crisis since the Civil War.

We'll end our May 1970 diary entries here. Although we were around campus all summer taking summer school courses (see our book Summer in Brooklyn for some entries), people started drifting off to the beach, jobs in the city or beach resorts or as counselors at sleepaway camps, or lured by cheap flights to Europe like those on the Icelandic "vomit comet."

A New York Times article, "19 students Seized in occupation of the New School," by Linda Charlton on Tuesday, May 26, 1970, began

Most of the country's college campuses were quiet yesterday, although National Guardsmen still patrolled Ohio State University and 19 students were arrested for occupying a graduate school building of the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Also in New York City, the governing board of the 18-college City University system adopted a resolution calling for a two-week recess immediately before the election next November 3, to allow its 180,000 students to take part in the election campaign. (Here's Basil Paterson, 1970 Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, campaigning that summer at the Junction.)

The resolution was submitted by Chancellor Albert H. Bowker, who had said at the Brooklyn College exercises Friday that the frequent closing of colleges in response to such events as the United States troop move into Cambodia might be well-motivated but "are pointless in terms of their impact." The action by the City's Board of Higher Education follows similar action at a number of other colleges and universities.

We worked in several campaigns in the 1970 election, mostly right away for Pete Eikenberry in Brooklyn Heights and Williamsburg, but he lost the June primary to hawkish Rep. John Rooney. During the two-week pre-election recess, we worked with our friend Mark in the campaign of Westchester Rep. Richard (Dick) Ottinger, the Democratic (and Conservation Party) candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican-Liberal Senator Charles Goodell. Here's a pic of Ottinger campaigning by the BMT station at Kings Highway between East 16th and East 17th Streets. For more of our 1970 political photos, go here.

Although Democrats and peace candidates made gains in the 1970 elections, in New York State, Rep. Ottinger and Sen. Goodell split the liberal and antiwar vote and the Senate election was run by a Vietnam hawk and war supporter, Conservative Party candidate James Buckley.

At Brooklyn College, we tried to mobilize a strike and other actions the following spring in response to CUNY budget cuts (below is a leaflet we designed that we found a few years ago displayed in an exhibit at the Brooklyn College Library)

and the widening of the war in Southeast Asia with the incursion into Laos, but the May 1970 shutting down of colleges in response to Cambodia and Kent State was the high point of campus peace activism.

But we don't want to fall prey to nostalgia. Student activism at Brooklyn College is alive and well forty spring semesters later. Here, in a photo taken just a few weeks ago by John Salmone for the Brooklyn College Excelsior, are students marching on campus through the Campus Road gate protesting Gov. David Paterson's proposed CUNY tuition hike and budget cuts.

Looks a lot like 1970 to us.

Forty Years Ago Today in Brooklyn: May 14, 1970: Brooklyn College reacts to Kent State

From our diary:

Thursday, May 14, 1970

A cooler, cloudy day. I woke up late and when I got on campus, Steve Denker said to me that he saw my name on the masthead of the special offset edition of the Spigot. Sure enough, Paul roped me into joining the staff.

I spent three hours typing up announcements for the next edition, which may or may not come out tomorrow. I lost track of the time and just made it to Miss Glikin's class. She said if we want better than a P, we'll have to do a paper on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Then I had lunch at the Campus Coffee Shop with Leonard, and we went to see Prof. Levine. You can take a final if you want to - I'm undecided. The day seemed to go by so fast; when I came home after 4 p.m., I saw Bonnie on the porch and absent-mindedly said, "No school today?"

I started to write Mark [friend in National Guard basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana] but there's so much to tell him. Joey Fisher was over today with his guitar, so apparently he's calmed down about fighting the hardhats.

The stock market hit a new low and Vietnam casualties hit an eight-month high.

Forty Years Ago Today in Brooklyn: May 11, 1970: Brooklyn College reacts to Kent State

From our diary:

Monday, May 11, 1970

A hot, sunny day. Marc went to school [James Madison High School] but there was a strike and he came home. The Board of Higher Education opened the City University, but Pres. Kneller closed Brooklyn.

Dr. Wolk [my psychologist] and I discussed my role in all of this. He's pleased that I'm making excellent progress. His new book, The Right to Lie, has been published.

When I got back on campus, I went into a crowd that included Janet, Effie, Rose Levine and Prof. Levine and heard Abbie Hoffman speak. I never heard so many "fuck"s in my life. The speech was filled with bad logic, revolutionary rhetoric and some humor - I did not applaud with the others.

Hoffman's a showman. I doubt if he wants peace and hope not too many are fooled by him.

Then I went to the Spigot [The Ol' Spigot, the student government newspaper] office. The [student government] elections have been officially cancelled.

Steve Denker, who appointed me [elections commissioner] chaired a meeting that included José and Mitch Pasin. A quasi-official student government committee was set up to contact local organizations.

I may take Paul up on his offer to join the Spigot staff. José told me there are advantages to being nice to Ricki: "she's very liberal about sex."

At home, I spent the afternoon sunning myself and reading The Deer Park. I stopped by the Dashes tonight. Sid and Charlotte Rothenberg reported that Joey Fisher wants to quit [high] school and fight the hardhats. We decided that the best way to express dissent was at the ballot box.

Richard Grayson reports in The Ol' Spigot on Brooklyn College Student Assembly meeting

The Ol' Spigot today (December 9, 1970) features a report by Richard Grayson on the latest meeting of the Brooklyn College Student Assembly, which voted to approve elections and allot $500 to the bail fund of Larry Sparks, an undergraduate and editor of Third World Edition, who was recently arrested for the attempted murder of a plainclothes policeman.

The Ol' Spigot features exclusive Seattle 8 Interview by Richard Grayson

The Ol' Spigot, the official newspaper of Brooklyn College's CLAS student government, today (Wednesday, December 2, 1970) features Richard Grayson conducting an exclusive interview with the Seattle 8's attorney. In this issue, Grayson also covers the latest Student Assembly meeting.

The Ol' Spigot features Richard Grayson report on Brooklyn College Office of Student Volunteer Resources

The Ol' Spigot, the official faucet of Brooklyn College CLAS student government, today (Friday, September 25, 1970) has a report by Richard Grayson on the creation of the Office of Student Volunteer Resources.

Richard Grayson reports in The Ol' Spigot: Brooklyn College Day Care Center Opens; Beset by Financial Difficulties

The Ol' Spigot today (Friday, September 18, 1970) features a lead story by Richard Grayson about the opening of the Brooklyn College day care center and its financial difficulties.