1970-Campus Disturbance - Flagpole, Newcomb Hall
- [silence]
Description
May 1970 was a time of high campus unrest, following closely after the killing of anti-war protesters at Kent State University. Early on the morning of May 5th, the Air Force ROTC barracks on Tulane’s campus was set on fire. Two spent Molotov cocktails were found on the ground floor of the building and arson was suspected, but no one was ever charged. Later, the day's events included a memorial service that was overshadowed by a violent clash between several hundred anti-war students and a group of Tulane athletes and members of the right-wing group Young Americans for Freedom who disagreed over lowering the flag to half-staff in memory of slain students at Kent State University. Sporadic fistfights broke out which campus security squelched; ultimately, the university administration ordered that the flag be lowered. This color film without sound, shot by student John Hutchinson on May 5, 1970, captures just a portion of the day's action, and was edited out of the original film ("1970-Student Demonstration," taken from ca. 3:58 in the film). Among other events, this edited portion focuses on a violent confrontation at Newcomb's flagpole. The action begins on the quad near the University Center, with crowds of students, coffins that had been made to protest the student deaths, and an effigy of Richard Nixon. The footage continues with a slow march of students towards the flagpole in front of Newcomb Hall (3:15), followed by scuffling and fisticuffs at the base of the flagpole (5:00 and 9:30), while administrators, including Joseph E. Gordon, try to calm the students. The action continues on "1970-Student Demonstration" (at ca. 4:00), the original film from which this clip was edited. Single-perf. Color reversal print. Magnetic stripe soundtrack. B-wind. Ektachrome EFB stock with 1970 Kodak date code. There is no audio on the magnetic stripe track.