Free Speech Movement Newsletter

This first issue of the Free Speech Movement Newsletter includes a photograph of Mario Savio speaking from the top of a police car in Sproul Plaza on October 1, 1964, the day of Jack Weinberg’s arrest. The image reveals the importance of physical protest to the FSM’s success, with the movement using sit-ins and mass rallies to disrupt University activities and gain leverage for the cause. Printed flyers, newsletters, and counterculture newspapers were also essential to building momentum, serving to inform students and faculty members about “What happened day by day,” as the lead article of this newsletter shows. Print media also offered a forum for movement leaders, participants, and even those who opposed the FSM to develop and present their political positions.