#princetonprotest

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“From students at college we expect a knowledge of the arts and sciences, and we do not expect to see school-boys mount the tribune, and declaim upon political topics. In attending such an exhibition, one does not know whether most to condemn the puerility of the composition, or ranting tone with which they are delivered.”

--A writer in Newark, New Jersey's Centinel of Freedom, expressing shock and dismay over observations of students at Princeton, October 25, 1797

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Throwback Thursday: Of this 1968 demonstration on the campus of Princeton University, Lewis M. Lebetkin '68 later wrote that his "GOOD IS BETTER THAN EVIL" sign had been misunderstood: A contingent of pro-Vietnam War students and a group of suitably incensed antiwarriors had announced they would hold demonstrations at the same time and place. The evening before the expected clash, over dinner at Key and Seal Club, I and some other pseudoreactionary, mainstream radical satirists decided that what this campus really needed was a new party. ... we formed the Radical Middle Party, dedicated to upholding, more or less, the motto 'Moderation in almost all things.' We, too, would make signs, march, chant, and demonstrate.

The next day, I made my sign and headed for Nassau Hall. ... As I edged toward the speaker's platform on the steps of Nassau Hall, three radicals, a conservative, and a physics professor all asked me what my sign meant. Combining a poker face, a disdainful look, and a raised lef (or was it right?) eyebrow, I said to each with full solemnity, "I should think the meaning is self-evident." To my dismay, no one laughed. ...

a photographer from the New York Times snapped [a photo], with my sign as a backdrop. The picture ran in the Times the next day, then was picked up by the wire services and reprinted in Newsweek. 'Good is better than evil,' the founding principle of the Radical Middle Party, had made the big time!

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Princeton University students picketed the local Woolworth's store, March 12, 1960. Though Woolworth's was not segregated in New Jersey, their lunch counters in the South were. R. Hunter Morey '62 organized the protest on the same weekend Martin Luther King, Jr. was scheduled to preach in Princeton University Chapel. Morey wanted students to show support for the Civil Rights Movement, rather than just viewing King's campus visit as "a status symbol to show how aware we Princetonians are."

Locally, there were some who did not appreciate the demonstration. Police intervened when a mob attacked the protesters.

Color slide found in Historical Photograph Collection, Campus Life Series (AC112), Box AD22.

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Throwback Thursday: An unidentified Princeton University student stands holding a sign on Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C., January 2017.

First One Hundred Days Collection (AC456)

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Princeton University chemistry graduate student at the March for Science, Washington, D.C., May 2017.

First One Hundred Days Collection (AC456), Box 2

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On September 21, 1999, Peter Singer began teaching at Princeton University, and 14 people were arrested while protesting his employment due to his views on euthanasia and disabilities. A group named “Not Dead Yet” barricaded all five entrances to Nassau Hall for more than two hours before being forcibly removed.

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Princeton University students and staff typing, 1930s-2010s:

1. Staff in the Industrial Relations Section, 1938. Historical Photograph Collection, Campus Life Series (AC112), Box SP1, Image No. 43.

2. Student typing his senior thesis, 1940. Historical Photograph Collection, Campus Life Series (AC112), Box MP12, Image No. 767.

3. Princeton University’s first official female student, Sabra Meservey *66, 1961. Photo from the Daily Princetonian, April 18, 1961.

4. A student types at a desk, ca. 1960s. Historical Photograph Collection, Campus Life Series (AC112), Box MP012, Image No. 791.

5. A student working with punch cards in the Princeton University Computer Center, 1967.  Historical Photograph Collection, Campus Life Series (AC112), Box SP1, Image No. 1.

6. A student types while two others talk, ca. 1970. Admission Office Records (AC152), Box 9. (Note this image has been digitally enhanced)

7. A graduate student in the Princeton University Computer Center, ca. 1985. Office of Communications Records (AC168), Box 219.

8. Students typing on laptops at a sit in at Nassau Hall, November 2015. Photo by Samuel Vilchez. Daily Princetonian, November 19, 2015.

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Timeline of the New South Sit-In at Princeton University, March 11, 1969. The group named “ABC” here is the Association for Black Collegians, who organized the protest as a “registration of disgust” for the administration’s approach to divestment from apartheid South Africa. SDS is Students for a Democratic Society, a largely white group who allied with ABC in the sit-in.

Office of Communications Records (AC168), Box 59, Folder 13.