Cornell Daily Sun Features Retrospectives on 1969

Emily Cohn, The Editor-in-Chief of The Cornell Daily Sun (editor@cornellsun.com), has sent the following information about The Sun's commemoration of the 1969 Takeover.

- We are running a series of interviews with key activists and witnesses, and have featured three thus far (click on the links to see the Sun's stories):

-- Robert Gottlieb '72
-- Steve Wallenstein '69
-- Art Spitzer '71

- We will be producing a 16-page commemorative issue to run on Thursday, April 16 that will feature articles printed in 1969 alongside some original content about the current state of campus activism, race relations at Cornell, and issues of as academic freedom in higher education today. Additionally, many witnesses and activists will be submitting new content for this issue.

- Lastly, we will be hosting a panel discussion to be held on Saturday, April 18. The line-up of guests is still being worked out, but I will let you know when this is finalized. It is our goal to unite activists involved in the takeover, current Cornell faculty members who were students at the time, and Sun alumni who documented the takeover itself.

Remembering 1969

For those of you that were at Cornell in 1969, what are your memories, thoughts or reflections about those events? Share your thoughts by clicking on the "Comments" tab below this post.

Cornell '69 Commemorative Events

The Cornell Press Relations Office has sent me the following list of events scheduled for this spring, in connection with the 40th anniversary of the Straight takeover events.

The ALANA student group is having events starting the week prior to commemorate the anniversary. Below is their tentative schedule. The contact is Iris Delgado (imd3@cornell.edu).

Monday, April 13th: posters will be on the Arts Quad with facts and pictures of the WS TO

Friday, April 17th, 5pm: Beginning at Africana Center, Eric Acree will be speaking about Africana Library and the ways in which it has been a vital role in the WSH TO as well as explaining any false ideas students may have about Africana's formation. The walk will continue to Wari House with a member of the Wari House speaking of its history and its role in the TO. We will then go to Old Africana site while Ken Glover will speak of its history, and then finish at WSH with a group picture and the banquet. Speakers contacted are: Lucy Brown, Dr. Turner and Alexis de Vaux. One or two possible Sun members may also join the panel.

Saturday, April 18th: There is a tentative collaborative lunch with Wari House Alums. Details to be determined.

Sunday, April 19th: The Welfare Poets will be performing. Location is to be determined due to the conflict of Cornell Days.

Other than that:


There will be displays in the Africana Center, Uris Library, and I believe Willard Straight.


Gary Stewart's "East Hill Notes" April show will include interviews with Ithaca residents who lived here in 1969 and an interview and tour of the Straight with Kent Hubbell. This is aired on a local Ithaca cable channel, as well as taped and posted to CornellCast at this link.

The Chronicle will include articles.


The September issue of Ezra Magazine will include info about the takeover, but primarily focus on the Africana Center's 40th anniversary.


There is a NYC WSH TO Meeting on April 17. Renee Alexander in Alumni Affairs and Development is the contact. Gayraud Townsend '05 (former Ithaca councilmember) is the organizer. Takeover alums are being invited. Cornell ILR Prof. Nick Salvatore is one of the NYC event invitees. Nick was at Cornell for the takeover and he has been involved in chronicling it over the years, and apparently he is planning a book.


The Cornell Alumni Magazine's April issue features the TO. The end of the article has a place for comments. I hope we can have a spot on cornell.edu linking to it that will encourage more people who were around in 1969 to add to this archive. See this link.

Crystal Sarakas from WSKG has been in contact with us about doing a radio program.

This may also be of interest to you--the library's collection of images connected to the takeover a this link.

Thanks to Linda Mikula from Cornell's Press Relations Office for putting this together and sending it on.

Images From the Straight Takeover

The Cornell library has put together a fascinating slideshow of images from the Straight takeover, including photographs and scans of letters, memos, leaflets, booklets, newspaper headlines, etc. It is available at this link.

The Photo That Changed My Career

In 1969 I was a photographer for the Cornell yearbook, and on the day the AAS students were about to emerge from Willard Straight Hall, I was waiting outside the building with my camera. I was there a long time, and eventually some friends came by and started mugging for me, asking me to take their pictures for The Cornellian. I obliged, and promptly ran out of film. Just then, Tom Jones, Skip Meade and the others emerged from the Straight, with their bandoleers and rifles. The guy next to me snapped the photo, which appeared on the cover of Newsweek. Steve Starr won a Pulitzer Prize for that photo. I gave up photography and became a college professor!

Tom Jones: Obama Wouldn't Be President Without the 1969 Straight Occupation

The Cornell Alumni Magazine's March/April issue commemorates the events of Spring 1969 with an article by Beth Saulnier, "Getting it Straight" and lots of interviews, resources and links. The online version of the magazine includes a slide show and audio interviews on the events with AAS leaders Tom Jones and Skip Meade, student government leader Art Spitzer, history professor Walter LaFeber, and Don Downs (author of the book Cornell '69).

The interviews conclude with these thoughts by Tom Jones, one of the leaders of the Straight occupation, who later served as CEO of TIAA-CREF, the huge teachers and professors retirement fund.

JONES: Frankly, I do not think Barack Obama would be president today without what we did in Willard Straight Hall in 1969. I believe Barack Obama stands on our shoulders. The Straight was part of a series of historical events that began with Rosa Parks in 1955 and continued through the Sixties with the Freedom Riders and the marchers at Selma, Alabama, and made possible this magnificent thing that happened in January 2009. I think we're part of a chain of history. I'm not saying the most important part, but we're one of the links.