Cornell '69, 50 Years Later

I was a senior government major at Cornell University in the spring of 1969, when the campus was in turmoil after an armed takeover of the student union building by eighty members of the campus's Afro-American society.

This site is a discussion forum for participants and observers of those events. It was launched at the 40th anniversary of those events, and continues now with the 50th.

To contribute your thoughts and reflections, click on the "Comment" tab at the end of the "Remembering 1969" post or any of the other posts.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

When Madeleine Albright says the U.S. faces the threat of fascism, we should pay attention


Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in today's New York Times:

Fascism on the March

Among her quotes from this article:
"fascism...poses a more serious threat now that at any time since the end of World War II"
"the possibility that fascism will be accorded a fresh chance to strut around the world stage is enhanced by the volatile presidency of Donald Trump."
Trump's "words are so often at odds with the truth that they can appear ignorant, yet are in fact calculated to exacerbate religious, social and racial divisions.":


Me: this is the stuff of 1930s fascism. When Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany, his associates thought they could control and limit him. They were wrong then. Are we facing the same situation now?


Friday, March 23, 2018

Columbia Revisits its 1968 Uprising; Shouldn't Cornell do the same for 1969?

Columbia had their own student takeover in April 1968, just a year before Cornell's.  Former participants in the Columbia events were revisiting those events from 50 years ago, as reported in the New York Times.  Columbia's Uprising: A 50-Year-Old Legacy

Shouldn't Cornell do the same in the spring of next year?  Invite some of the participants, observers, and book authors back to reflect on the meaning of those momentous events.