Columbia University 1968
 

Columbia Revolts 1968 screenshot gallery

Frank da Cruz
May 2013
These are some screen shots I made from the Newsreel film Columbia Revolt (which is now available from Amazon on this DVD) to accompany my main narrative here, chosen mainly for the interest to me personally... friends, events where I took part, and more than a few pictures of me :-)  I was disappointed to find that the sequence I was most interested in seeing again is missing from every digital copy of this film I can find: Teddy Gold and I sharing a big jug of apple juice in the Hamilton Hall lobby shortly before the third bust. That sequence was in the film version, which was screened at Columbia by Eric Foner in 1988 on the 20th anniversary of the uprising and to see it then was moving in light of what happened with Teddy. It also shows the proper way to drink from a gallon jug.

My son Peter remarked to me in 1988 as we watched the film (which kept breaking and having to be rethreaded into the projector, or jamming and melting frames), he found it almost incredible how articulate, knowledgeable, committed, and courageous Columbia students had been 20 years earlier, compared to the clueless slackers of the late 1980s. I can only observe that now, 25 years after that, he hadn't seen anything yet. In 1968 we did all we could to stop the wars and fight the racism and economic injustice. There were Columbia students who dropped out and devoted the rest of their lives to the struggle; you can see some of them below. Meanwhile the wars never stop, racism has intensified, poor and working people are under seige, and at Columbia it is “back to business” (literally) with a vengeance.

The screenshots are in film order, which is not necessarily chronological. The film was viewed using the VLC media player, which is the first one I came across that could play the downloadable versions of this film and allow pausing and moving back and forth. Frames captured by SnagIt.

  (Click on any photo to enter)
100_apr_23_low_plaza 110_cops 120_h_rap_brown 130_h_rap_brown2 140_hamilton 150_message_board 160_meeting 170_tony_papert 180_jj 190_tom_hayden 200_meeting_vote 210_meeting_vote2 220_howie_machtinger 230_howie_machtinger2 240_howie_machtinger3 250_sleeping 260_icons 270_low_ledge 280_low_ledge2 290_tony_gus 300_food_fight 310_food_throw 320_food_catch1 330_food_catch2 340_angry_jocks 350_food_catch3 360_food_catch4 370_food_catch5 380_juice1 390_juice2 400_juice3 410_juice4 420_juice5 430_juice6 440_juice7 450_juice8 460_juice9 470_oj 480_guitar 490_draftcards 500_the_dead 510_the_dead2 520_liberation_class 530_sro 540_hamiltontwo 550_hamiltontwo2 560_barricade1 570_barricade2 580_barricade3 590_melvin_morgolis

Created by Photogallery 2.33 August 11, 2019