Slate
In February 1958, a group of students gathered at the University of California, Berkeley to establish SLATE. This new organization emerged from the ashes of earlier political failures and the shadow of McCarthyism. The previous year, a party called Toward An Active Student Community had lost an election after its candidates were defeated by voters who rejected their strict accountability rules. Mike Miller, an undergraduate representative on the ASUC Senate, resigned from that effort to form a slate of candidates supporting racial equality and free speech. He doubled the electorate and received between 35-40% of the vote in the subsequent election. Encouraged by this result, Miller joined forces with Fritjof Thygeson, Rick White, Peter Franck, Marv Sternberg, and Wilson Carey McWilliams. They formally created SLATE as a campus political party. The name was not an acronym initially but simply stood for a slate of candidates running on a common platform. When the Daily Californian refused to print it in all-caps because it was not an acronym, SLATE declared it meant "Student League Accused of Trying to Exist." The university administration approved SLATE as a student organization but denied its status as a political party.
SLATE took positions on a wide array of controversial public issues during its first years. In 1959, the group supported a Berkeley fair housing ordinance. By May 1960, they opposed hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in San Francisco. They also backed the national Woolworth-Kress boycott called by civil rights organizations. The group opposed the execution of Caryl Chessman at San Quentin and continued nuclear weapon testing. On campus, SLATE advocated for ending compulsory ROTC participation which was mandatory for freshman and sophomore men. They fought to eliminate the Communist speaker ban and demanded academic freedom. Ken Cloke and Michael Tigar articulated these positions while serving as representatives elected to the ASUC Senate in the early 1960s. The organization served as an umbrella for students ranging from Young Democrats to Trotskyists. Mike Miller described their approach as following a politics of the lowest significant common denominator. This strategy maintained a multi-issue commitment to democracy, human rights, and peace without becoming the exclusive possession of any single sect.
Public reaction to UC students participating in demonstrations against HUAC put pressure on university administrators. As SLATE members insisted on the right to take stands on off-campus issues, the administration moved to restrict them. In June 1961, the university banned SLATE from the campus entirely. This decision followed a period where Chancellor Clark Kerr developed directives governing student organization rights. These rules prohibited taking stands on off-campus public issues like racial discrimination or war and peace. SLATE led the opposition to what became known as the Kerr Directives. The administration also announced that graduate students would no longer be considered members of the Associated Students after David Armor won the first and only SLATE student body presidency in spring 1959. Graduate students were thus made ineligible to vote in future elections. Despite the ban being reversed later, the conflict highlighted the tension between student activism and administrative control over speech and political engagement.
Beginning in 1960, SLATE sponsored a series of summer conferences for four years. The 1962 conference titled "The Negro in America" featured Charles McDew, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. This event led to the formation of Bay Area Friends of SNCC. The following year, the 1963 conference focused on Education in the Multiversity. It criticized Clark Kerr's vision of the university and argued for expanded student rights. As an educational reform project, SLATE began publishing The SLATE Supplement to the General Catalog in fall 1963. This publication evaluated campus departments, courses, and instructors. These initiatives provided a platform for discussing race, education reform, and the role of universities during the Cold War era. The supplement continued publishing until 1971 before becoming part of the student government structure.
In fall 1964, the issue SLATE had promoted since its founding came to a head regarding off-campus causes. Students sought the right to place tables at the campus entrance to solicit members and contributions for various issues. Leading the defense were students who had participated in Freedom Summer in Mississippi or other civil rights protests in the Bay Area. The resulting Free Speech Movement was broader than SLATE's coalition as it included Young Republicans and supporters of Barry Goldwater. SLATE members were active participants but generally did not hold leadership roles within the movement. The group won five positions on the Associated Students in the fall 1964 election. However, they failed to take over the student government when only two representatives were elected in Spring 1965. They also lost the campaign for student body president. Many students eventually felt that student government was a hopeless arena for change.
SLATE voted to dissolve itself in October 1966 after losing the campaign for student body president and seeing their proposed constitution rejected in an April referendum. The organization disbanded following electoral losses and a growing sense among students that internal politics could not effect real change. A first reunion attended by approximately 150 former members occurred in June 1984 at the Berkeley campus. Most attendees remained active in left-of-center politics though some exceptions existed. David Armor, the only student body president, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1982 as a Reagan Republican. Rick White found his neoconservative views treated respectfully but not shared during the gathering. Two former members achieved success in California electoral politics: Jackie Goldberg served on the Los Angeles school board and city council before serving in the Assembly from 2002 to 2006. Bill Lockyer spent 25 years in the State Legislature and later became Attorney General and state Treasurer. Reunions continued in 2000 and 2004 marking anniversaries of the Free Speech Movement.
Common questions
When and where was SLATE founded?
SLATE was established in February 1958 at the University of California, Berkeley. The organization emerged from earlier political failures and the shadow of McCarthyism.
Who were the founders of SLATE?
Mike Miller formed SLATE by joining forces with Fritjof Thygeson, Rick White, Peter Franck, Marv Sternberg, and Wilson Carey McWilliams. These individuals created a campus political party to support racial equality and free speech.
Why did the university ban SLATE in June 1961?
The university banned SLATE from the campus entirely because members insisted on taking stands on off-campus public issues like racial discrimination or war and peace. This decision followed directives developed by Chancellor Clark Kerr that prohibited such activities for student organizations.
What happened to SLATE after October 1966?
SLATE voted to dissolve itself in October 1966 following electoral losses and the rejection of their proposed constitution in an April referendum. The group disbanded due to a growing sense among students that internal politics could not effect real change.
When did the first reunion of former SLATE members take place?
A first reunion attended by approximately 150 former members occurred in June 1984 at the Berkeley campus. Reunions continued in 2000 and 2004 marking anniversaries of the Free Speech Movement.