UCSB Student Activist Newspaper "El Gaucho" Archive Covering Anti-Vietnam Protests, Black Studies, and Angela Davis, 1969

1969. [Student Activism][Black Panthers] El Gaucho, the University of California, Santa Barbara student newspaper, a record of California student activist reporting in the weeks after the October 15, 1969 Vietnam Moratorium, from the arrest of Michel Barton and Mick Kronman to Black Students Union demands for the removal of Black Studies chairman Setahrd Fisher and Angela Davis's November 4 appearance on campus. Across five late-October and early-November 1969 issues, the paper prints front-page headlines including "Two arrested for moratorium action," "Blacks demand firing of Black Studies Dept. head," "BSU denounces Cheadle and breaks communication with administration," and "Angela Davis speaks to UCSB community today," placing UCSB within the wider California New Left fights over antiwar protest, Black student power, ethnic appropriations, police action, and the political authority of the university itself. Noon rallies, Legislative Council votes, faculty statements, guest editorials, and letters to the editor give the archive the texture of organizing in progress rather than retrospective summary.

El Gaucho. Vol. 50, nos. 24, 26, 27, 28, and 30. Santa Barbara, California: University of California, Santa Barbara, October 27 to November 4, 1969. Archive of 5 issues with coverage centered on antiwar mobilization, Black Studies conflict, student government appropriations, ecological politics, and campus debate over public speech and university governance.

[1] Wilson, Becca, ed. El Gaucho. Santa Barbara, California: University of California, Santa Barbara, October 27, 1969. Vol. 50, no. 24. Front page coverage centers on the arrests of Michel Barton and Mick Kronman in the aftermath of the Vietnam Moratorium under the headline "Two arrested for moratorium action," paired with an interview feature, "Busted students - what they think," and an editorial asking "Why cancel classes for Shriver, not for moratorium?" Interior commentary extends the issue's activist frame through debate over class cancellation, political speech, and the university's treatment of protest.

[2] Wilson, Becca, ed. El Gaucho. Santa Barbara, California: University of California, Santa Barbara, October 29, 1969. Vol. 50, no. 26. This issue shifts from the Moratorium's immediate aftermath to student institutional strategy, with "Leg Council tackles ethnic appropriations," "Santa Barbara's law system under scrutiny by JAR," and "Two day moratorium planned." The paired attention to Associated Students funding, Judicial Administration Review, and plans for the November 13-15 Moratorium shows student activism moving through both protest and campus governance.

[3] Wilson, Becca, ed. El Gaucho. Santa Barbara, California: University of California, Santa Barbara, October 30, 1969. Vol. 50, no. 27. The strongest issue in the group for Black student organizing at UCSB, opening with "Blacks demand firing of Black Studies Dept. head," "BSU's Bob Mason says Fisher is not acceptable," and "Fisher answers BSU charges." Its interior editorial, "Dr. Fisher, your people have spoken," makes clear that the fight concerned who would control Black Studies, whether black students would be recognized as legitimate participants in departmental decision-making, and how Chancellor Vernon Cheadle's administration was handling that demand.

[4] Wilson, Becca, ed. El Gaucho. Santa Barbara, California: University of California, Santa Barbara, October 31, 1969. Vol. 50, no. 28. Student government and Black student protest converge here in "Leg Council appropriates money to ethnic groups, JAR" and "BSU denounces Cheadle and breaks communication with administration," with additional coverage of a campaign to lower the voting age. The issue preserves the language of the break itself, including Robert Mason's charge that the administration had failed to admit black students' right to make decisions about black studies concerns.

[5] Wilson, Becca, ed. El Gaucho. Santa Barbara, California: University of California, Santa Barbara, November 4, 1969. Vol. 50, no. 30. Angela Davis's scheduled UCSB appearance anchors the issue under the headline "Angela Davis speaks to UCSB community today," followed by "Trusteeship condemned," a "BLACK FACULTY STATEMENT," and a full "Guest editorial from the Black Students Union." Davis's presence links the local Fisher dispute to the statewide University of California crisis surrounding her UCLA appointment, Communist Party affiliation, and the Regents' intervention, giving this final issue particular force within California New Left and Black campus politics.

California was an especially concentrated area for New Left student activism advocating for antiwar organizing, Black student control over Black Studies, voting reform, environmental concerns, and statewide conflict over the governance of the University of California. Because El Gaucho was printing these disputes as they unfolded, the archive preserves not only headline events but the campus organ through which student activists shared information on government appropriations, committee hearings, rally announcements, faculty interventions, legal-defense language, and guest editorials. Newsprint toned with expected wear, including horizontal folds, edge chipping, short tears, creasing, and some small marginal losses; text and headlines remain clear. Overall very good condition. A UCSB student newspaper run from the week in which California student activism moved across the printed page from Moratorium arrests to Black Studies struggle to Angela Davis.