praise for the essential mario savio

“Robert Cohen has performed an invaluable service by collecting, annotating, and contextualizing the letters and speeches of Mario Savio, leader of the now iconic at Berkeley in 1964.” Nicholas B. Dirks, Chancellor of the “This is an extremely important collection of primary materials from the youth- ful pondering of Mario Savio, a vitally important but little-understood fi gure of the . The connections between activism in the South and activism on the Berkeley campus have never been more vividly expressed than in Savio’s own words.” Paul Buhle, Brown University “This powerful work deserves a wide reading. Mario Savio spoke with passion, clarity, and courage when he confronted injustice in and again when he defi ed the suppression of free speech at the University of California. This well-edited introduction to the ‘essential’ Savio is a boon to both scholar- ship and citizenship.” Lewis Perry, author of Civil Disobedience: An American Tradition “Lucid and persuasive, Robert Cohen is a leading authority on the history of student activism in the United States, most particularly in the 1960s and even more particularly at UC Berkeley in the fall of 1964.” Maurice Isserman, Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of History at Hamilton College

The Essential Mario Savio FSM march on campus, the day of the regents meeting, November 20, 1964. Savio, clad in jacket and tie, is second to the right of the banner. Photograph courtesy of Don Kechely, Bancroft Library collection. The Essential Mario Savio speeches and writings that changed america

Edited by Robert Cohen

Foreword by Afterword by Epilogue by Lynne Hollander Savio

university of california press University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advanc- ing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philan- thropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more infor- mation, visit www.ucpress.edu.

University of California Press Oakland, California

© 2014 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The essential Mario Savio : speeches and writings that changed America / edited by Robert Cohen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-520-28337-4 (cloth, alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-520-28338-1 (pbk., alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-520-95926-2 (electronic) 1. Savio, Mario. 2. Free Speech Movement (Berkeley, Calif.)— History. 3. Political activists—United States—Biography. 4. Civil rights workers—United States—Biography. 5. Student movements— California—Berkeley—History. I. Cohen, Robert, editor. JC599.U6E87 2014 378.1′981092—dc23 2014016260

Manufactured in the United States of America

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In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Natures Natural, a fi ber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper). To the student activists of the 1980s, whose protests helped lead the University of California to divest its multibillion-dollar investments in companies that did business in apartheid South Africa.

It’s wonderful, and I know you feel it too, to be part of such a change for good that’s sweeping across our country. I really believe that the history of the world is pivoting on the internal changes that are going on today in America—and we are in part the agents of that change. A breath of freedom. But what about Vietnam?

Mario Savio to Cheryl Stevenson Holmes County, Mississippi, 3 July 1964

By our courage, . . . by dignity in the face of unprovoked violence, by the insatiable adherence to principle of the students on this campus, . . . we’ve shown ourselves guilty of one thing—of passionately entering into a conspiracy to uphold the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Mario Savio, Free Speech Movement rally, 16 steps of Sproul Hall, Berkeley, California