We needed to defy the government’s attempts to scare us into silence.Īfter speeches and music in front of Sproul Hall, we marched off the campus and were met by a wall of police sealing off Telegraph Avenue. Out of fear, many people decided not to march, but others of us argued that marching was now more important than ever. The Oakland cops had a reputation for brutality (based on their treatment of the black population), and we were expecting an ugly and possibly violent confrontation. The Berkeley city government had denied us a permit to march and called in police reinforcements from Oakland. This was shortly after the National Guard and police had murdered six demonstrators at Kent State and Jackson State, so the mood was extremely tense. Our demo was going to start on the Berkeley campus and continue with a march down Telegraph Avenue. I first met the man we’ll call Trucker in 1970 at a rally against the Vietnam War.
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