Working Papers of the Ed. School Committee for the Eight Demands

[Cambridge, MA]: [1969] 10pp. First edition. Mimeographed sheets stapled together at top left corner, printed in black. Very good, with some toning and creasing to cover page, cover page loose over the staple. Overall, a pleasing example of this very scarce report. This document, printed during the 1969 Harvard strike and written by a "group of concerned people affiliated with the [Harvard Graduate School of Education] and who support the original demands as SDS formulated them," outlines the eight demands of the protesters, which include abolishing the ROTC on campus, freezing rent on Harvard buildings, not punishing those arrested at University Hall, and creating a Black Studies program. The 1969 Harvard strike centered on a number of concerns by Harvard students and members of the Harvard chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), most notably rent increases and Harvard expansion, the prominent role of the ROTC on campus (and, more generally, Harvard's involvement in the Vietnam War), and the lack of a Black Studies department at Harvard. On April 9th, 1969, several hundred protesting students occupied University Hall. Harvard president Nathan Pusey called in the police to remove the protesters, and a violent clash ensued, which resulted in many student arrests and injuries. This event was followed by an eight-day strike by students and faculty. In the wake of the strike, the ROTC was demoted to an extracurricular activity and eventually phased out of Harvard completely for the remainder of the Vietnam War, and a Department of Afro-American Studies (later re-named the department of African and African American Studies) was established. . First Edition. Original Sheets. Very Good.