People’s History of People’s Park

The site that is now People's Park was a dirt parking lot at the start of ‘69. The university had bought the property for new dorms. When it sat empty for some time and became an eyesore, community members decided to build a park on it.

Building the park was exciting for many of the hippies, street people and activists who participated. They were doing something for themselves. Hundreds of people worked hard putting down sod, building a children's play ground and planting trees. After the initial construction on April 20, negotiations continued with the university over control of the park for about three weeks. For a while it looked like a settlement could be reached but the university suddenly stopped negotiating and on May 15 moved police into the park to secure their control over it. That morning people woke up and found Berkeley filled with police and a fence going up around the park. A rally protesting the fence was quickly organized on Sproul Plaza. In the middle of the rally, police turned off the sound system. 6,000 people spontaneously began to march down Telegraph Ave. toward the park. They were met by 250 police with rifles and flack- jackets. Someone opened a fire hydrant. When the police moved into the crowd to shut off the hydrant, some rocks were thrown and the police retaliated by firing tear gas to disperse the crowd. An afternoon of chaos and violence followed. Sheriff's deputies walked through the streets of Berkeley firing into crowds and at individuals with shotguns. At first they used birdshot but when they ran out, they switched to double-0 buckshot. 128 people were admitted to hospitals that day, mostly with gunshot wounds. James Rector died of his wounds a few days later.

The day after the shootings, 3,000 National Guard troops were sent to occupy Berkeley. A curfew was imposed and a ban on public assembly was put into force. Meetings on campus were broken up with tear gas. But mass demonstrations continued. In one mass arrest, 482, including innocent bystanders and journalists from the establishment press, were arrested. Prisoners from that arrest reported extensive beatings at Santa Rita jail. At a rally on Sproul plaza, troops surrounded the gathering, admitting people but preventing them from leaving. Then the troops put on gas masks and a helicopter flew over spraying CS tear gas, a gas outlawed for wartime use by the Geneva Convention. They mistakenly teargassed Cowell hospital as well as several local public schools. Mass unrest continued in Berkeley for 15 days after the park was fenced and finally 30,000 people marched peacefully to the park. The fence, however, stayed up. During the summer of 1969 on Bastille day protestors marched from Ho Chi Minh (Willard) park to People's Park. Organizers had baked wire clippers into loaves of bread and lo and behold - the fence was down. Police attacked and a riot ensued.

The Beginning of People’s Park as Told by Some…

• Within an hour 300 people were at the swamp. Bulldozers arrived to flatten the land. Rocks were shoveled up, green sod laid. After one day’s work, a small section of the swamp had been transformed into a park. A park! A PARK BY THE PEOPLE! The word went out around Berkeley: come and see the new park. A notice was printed in the Barb. Money was collected on the streets. The next day 600 people were shoveling up rocks and laying sod.… Thousands scraped cement from old bricks which others used to create winding mosaic paths. One group built a barbecue. Another created a playground. Some people made music on cans and drums, guitars, flutes, harps, recorders, voices and bodies. Others made films. Free food every day. Rock bands played. It was a theatre for the free play of creativity, energy, and community. All of the art and life force of the underground culture swelling in pure love. Within five minutes after you’d go to the park, you’d be stoned free food. free work. free sex. free smiles. free sun. free moon. free love. free theatre. free store. free music. free dope. free living. free park. Every day middle-class people from the Berkeley hills left their children to play with us. People came to the park to plant their own trees. Hippies, students, yippies, fraternity boys, sorority girls, Panthers, middle class people, everybody grooved in their own park. “Hey can I plant a corn patch?” “It’s up to you. You decide.” “Hey, can I put some swings in?” “Outasight.” There was no Master Plan. Nobody gave orders. Some people wanted to turn the huge pit in the middle of the park into a swimming pool; others wanted to have a fish pond. Everybody working on the park got together in a town meeting and debated it for a few hours, and voted to have a fish pond.