1964

1964

While today we watch the unrest occurring on many campuses across the country, John Topping, David Shipler and John T. Fishel recall the protest when Gov. George Wallace came to campus.

“I remember during the 1964 campaign when George Wallace spoke,” recalls Topping,

“a number of us who were members ofthe Upper Valley chapter of the NAACP (I was then also president ofthe Dartmouth Young Republicans) paraded outside Leverone Field House singing We Shall Overcome,’ then went inside to hear Wallace’s speech while quietly sitting on our hands. We focused our efforts on promoting passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by gathering signatures from residents of nearby Lebanon and urging U.S. Sen. Norris Cotton, a Lebanon resident, to vote for cloture.”

Shipler adds to this account: “Yes, we were very noble and p rincipled in defending his right to speak while exercising ours to protest. However, as I recall, we demonstrators were very few in number and most ofthe small crowd came from the hills of Vermont. (I’m exaggerating for effect.) Afterward, if memory serves, Bernie Siegel ofthe sociology department thought we should form an apathy committee to address that ill on campus. At the first (and only) meeting, hardly anyone showed up. Four years later I watched from afar the news reports that Wallace’s appearance in Hanover was marred by mobs of students rocking his car, to the point where he had to be rescued by state troopers. I guess an apathy committee was no longer needed.”

According to Fishel, “Our junior and senior years were a time of high political drama in the country—the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, military advisers in Laos and Vietnam, the coup and murder of Vietnamese president Diem. During the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King was bent on making America live up to its ideals. We had Alabama Gov. George Wallace standing in the door to stop the integration of the University of Alabama, confronted by Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department. George Wallace made a run for the Democratic nomination against the newly sworn in President Johnson. Wallace, the epitome of segregationist populism, came to Hanover to speak at the field house. A number of us, both Republicans and Democrats, gathered that night outside the venue to protest what Wallace stood for. We had signs and, as Topping reminded, we sang We Shall Overcome.’ Then, having ‘peaceably assembled’ and petitioned ‘the government for redress of grievances,’ we put down our signs and trooped in to hear what the man had to say, continuing our protest in silence, sitting on our hands. A far cry from the violent street riots of 1968 from the assassination of Martin Luther King and the Vietnam War. Later in our senior year some of us carried our protests to the U.S. Senate to lobby for the passage ofthe Civil Rights Act of 1964. Success came from King’s non-violence and making the Constitution and political system work.”

Harvey Tettlebaum, 56295 Little Mo7iiteau Road, California, MO 65018; (573) 761-1107; dartsecy64@gmail.com