The Free Speech Collection is primarily comprised of audio recordings produced by independent journalist Colin Edwards from 1964-1967. Edwards was a journalist working with Canadian Broadcasting, the BBC and Pacifica Radio among others. His work represents a comprehensive account of the major perspectives, ideas, events and figures of the Free Speech Movement, the Sproul hall sit-in and the subsequent changes concerning the rights of students to engage in political activity on the UC Berkeley campus. These changes, best known as the December 8th Resolutions, were put to the test in 1966 during the “Little Free Speech Movement” in which students’ political rights were again brought into question. This part of the collection focuses on the November 30th, 1966 confrontation between anti-war demonstrators and a Navy recruiting table that was set up in the student union building. Many students and non-students were arrested and disciplined, and students responded with a strike that disrupted campus activities. Ultimately, UC president Clark Kerr was dismissed by newly-elected Governor Reagan and the Board of Regents for being “too soft” on protesters.

One of the strongest aspects of this collection is Colin’s ability to speak with all the major players: students, professors, administrators, local political and police representatives as well as members of the corporate media. This provides a vibrant context with which to understand the movement and its lasting effects on the political culture of the UC Berkeley campus. It also shifts the focus of the movement from well-known figures to people whose names we might not know, but who nevertheless played an equally important role in the success of the movement. In addition to Colin's interviews, the collection also features speeches and rallies held by the FSM, Student Senate Debates in which major FSM issues were decided, and even audio from Mario Savio's birthday party.

This is one of the definitive audio collections of the Free Speech Movement and represents an important addition to the dominant narrative that limits the free speech movement and its accomplishments to the work of a couple of dedicated students. The audio provides evidence of the significant linkages between the civil rights struggles being waged by African Americans and the Free Speech Movement, the mass nature of the protests and the true political diversity of student and faculty participants.  

The FSM is equally as relevant today as it was in the 1960s. Check out two of our interns' blogs about the contemporary relevance of this collection: 

https://freedomarchives.org/the-power-of-peoples-history/

https://freedomarchives.org/the-texture-of-things-listening-to-colin-edwards-free-speech-movement-tapes/