Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence . It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War . The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 as a means to transform war protests into peaceful affirmative spectacles. Hippies embraced the symbolism by dressing in clothing with embroidered flowers and vibrant colors, wearing flowers in their hair, and distributing flowers to the public, becoming known as flower children . The term later became generalized as a modern reference to the hippie movement and the so-called counterculture of drugs, psychedelic music , psychedelic art and social permissiveness.
95-555: The term "Flower Power" originated in Berkeley, California , as a symbolic action of protest against the Vietnam War. In a November 1965 essay titled How to Make a March/Spectacle , Beat poet Allen Ginsberg advocated that protesters should be provided with "masses of flowers" to hand out to policemen, press, politicians and spectators. The use of props like flowers, toys, flags, candy and music were meant to turn anti-war rallies into
190-470: A shellmound , now mostly leveled and covered up, along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay at the mouth of Strawberry Creek . Human remains and skeletons from Native American burials have been unearthed in West Berkeley and on campus alongside Strawberry Creek . Other artifacts were discovered in the 1950s in the downtown area during remodeling of a commercial building, near the upper course of
285-550: A turtleneck sweater placing carnations in the rifle barrels of military policemen . The young man in the photo is most commonly identified as George Edgerly Harris III, an 18-year-old actor from New York who later performed in San Francisco under the stage name of Hibiscus . According to writer and activist Paul Krassner , however, the young man was Yippie organizer "Super-Joel" Tornabene. Harris died in New York in
380-566: A January 2007 article in the Los Angeles Times : We needed a name to signify the radicalization of hippies, and I came up with Yippie as a label for a phenomenon that already existed, an organic coalition of psychedelic hippies and political activists. In the process of cross-fertilization at antiwar demonstrations, we had come to share an awareness that there was a linear connection between putting kids in prison for smoking pot in this country and burning them to death with napalm on
475-516: A Subculture", and an August CBS News television report on "The Hippie Temptation", as well as other major media exposure, brought the hippie subculture to national attention and popularized the Flower Power movement across the country and around the world. That same summer, the Beatles ' hit single " All You Need Is Love " served as an anthem for the movement. On 25 June, the Beatles performed
570-492: A black background with a red five pointed star in the center and a green marijuana leaf superimposed over it (same as the YIP flag). The Chicago History Museum shows a different flag for the new nation. It is not the marijuana leaf. It has the word NOW under what looks like the all-seeing eye on a pyramid seen on the back of a dollar bill. The Yippies often paid tribute to rock 'n' roll and irreverent pop-culture figures such as
665-534: A celebration of the counterculture and a protest against the state of the nation. This was supposed to counter the "Convention of Death." This promised to be "the blending of pot and politics into a political grass leaves movement – a cross-fertilization of the hippie and New Left philosophies." Yippies' sensational statements before the convention were part of the theatrics, including a tongue-in-cheek threat to put LSD in Chicago's water supply. "We will fuck on
760-408: A chrysanthemum and gazing at bayonet -wielding soldiers. Smithsonian Magazine later described the photo, which was published throughout the world, as "a gauzy juxtaposition of armed force and flower child innocence". Another photo from the march, titled Flower Power (by Washington Star photographer Bernie Boston ), was nominated for the 1967 Pulitzer Prize . The photo shows a young man in
855-518: A collaboration with the State of California that culminated in 1868 with the creation of the public University of California . As construction began on the new site, more residences were constructed in the vicinity of the new campus. At the same time, a settlement of residences, saloons, and various industries grew around the wharf area called Ocean View . A horsecar ran from Temescal in Oakland to
950-547: A focal point for psychedelic rock music. Musicians and bands like Jefferson Airplane , the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin all lived a short distance from the famous intersection. During the 1967 Summer of Love , thousands of hippies gathered there, popularized by hit songs such as " San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) ". A July 7, 1967, Time magazine cover story on "The Hippies: Philosophy of
1045-522: A form of street theater thereby reducing the fear, anger and threat that is inherent within protests. In particular, Ginsberg wanted to counter the "specter" of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang who supported the war, equated war protesters with communists and had threatened to violently disrupt planned anti-war demonstrations at the University of California, Berkeley . Using Ginsberg's methods,
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#17327874952551140-691: A halt. Facing rising housing costs, residents voted to enact rent control and vacancy control in 1980. Though more far-reaching in their effect than those of some of the other jurisdictions in California that chose to use rent control where they could, these policies were limited by the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act , a statewide ban on rent control that came into effect in 1995 and limited rent control to multi-family units that were built (or technically buildings that were issued their original certificate of occupation) before
1235-401: A job. But it is not easy to see how in 1969 a HUAC blacklist could terrorize an SDS activist. Witnesses like Jerry Rubin have openly boasted of their contempt for American institutions. A subpoena from HUAC would be unlikely to scandalize Abbie Hoffman or his friends. Yippie theatrics culminated at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. YIP planned a six-day Festival of Life –
1330-509: A mockery of the proceedings: Rubin came to one session dressed as an American Revolutionary War soldier, and passed out copies of the United States Declaration of Independence to people in attendance. On another occasion, police stopped Hoffman at the building entrance and arrested him for wearing an American flag . Hoffman quipped for the press, "I regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country", paraphrasing
1425-931: A radicalized hippie culture would spread until they supplanted the existing system. Many of these ideas/practices came from other (overlapping and intermingling) counter-cultural groups such as the Diggers , the San Francisco Mime Troupe , the Merry Pranksters / Deadheads , the Hog Farm , the Rainbow Family , the Esalen Institute , the Peace and Freedom Party , the White Panther Party and The Farm . There
1520-473: A self-proclaimed communist whose heroes included Castro, Chairman Mao , and Ho Chi Minh . It's not that the yippies swallowed pop culture uncritically. (Hoffman kept a sign attached to the bottom of his TV that said "bullshit.") It's that they saw the mass media's dream-world as another terrain to fight in. At demonstrations and parades, Yippies often wore face paint or colorful bandannas to keep from being identified in photographs. Other Yippies reveled in
1615-825: A shout for joy (with an exclamation mark to express exhilaration). "What does Yippie! mean?" Abbie Hoffman wrote. "Energy – fun – fierceness – exclamation point!" The Yippies held their first press conference in New York at the Americana Hotel March 17, 1968, five months before the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Judy Collins sang at the press conference. The Chicago Sun-Times reported it with an article titled: "Yipes! The Yippies Are Coming!" Active Defunct Publications Works Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary The Yippie "New Nation" concept called for
1710-727: A small, though busy, wharf by the bay. In 1866, Oakland's private College of California looked for a new site. It settled on a location north of Oakland along the foot of the Contra Costa Range (later called the Berkeley Hills) on Strawberry Creek , at an elevation of about 500 feet (150 m) above the bay, commanding a view of the Bay Area and the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate . According to
1805-471: A statewide referendum that proposed moving the California state capital to Berkeley was defeated by a margin of about 33,000 votes. The city had named streets around the proposed capitol grounds for California counties. They bear those names today, a legacy of the failed referendum. On March 4, 1909, following public referendums, the citizens of Berkeley were granted a new charter by the State of California, and
1900-663: A theatrical spectacle. The plan included a call for marchers to attempt to " levitate " the Pentagon . When the marchers faced off against more than 2500 Army national guard troops forming a human barricade in front of the Pentagon, some demonstrators held out flowers and a few placed their flowers in the soldiers' rifle barrels . Photographs of flower-wielding protesters at the Pentagon march became iconic images of 1960s anti-war protests. One photo called " The Ultimate Confrontation " (by French photojournalist Marc Riboud ), showed 17-year-old high school student Jan Rose Kasmir clasping
1995-586: A tour of the New York Stock Exchange , where they threw fistfuls of real and fake US$ from the balcony of the visitors' gallery down to the traders below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab the money as fast as they could. The visitors' gallery was closed until a glass barrier could be installed, to prevent similar incidents. On the 40th anniversary of the NYSE event, CNN Money editor James Ledbetter described
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#17327874952552090-479: A vast stretch of land on the east shore of San Francisco Bay (the contra costa , "opposite shore") for a ranch, including that portion that now comprises the City of Berkeley. Luis Peralta named his holding " Rancho San Antonio ." The primary activity of the ranch was raising cattle for meat and hides, but hunting and farming were also pursued. Eventually, Peralta gave portions of the ranch to each of his four sons. What
2185-617: A violent clash with police that Don McNeill of The Village Voice called a "pointless confrontation in a box canyon ". A month later, Yippies organized a "Yip-Out," a be-in style event in Central Park that went off peacefully and drew 20,000 people. In his book A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Media in America , author David Armstrong points out that the Yippie hybrid of performance art , Guerilla theater and political irreverence
2280-422: Is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County , California , United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley . It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County generally follows
2375-618: Is now Berkeley lies mostly in the portion that went to Peralta's son Domingo , with a little in the portion that went to another son, Vicente. No artifact survives of the Domingo or Vicente ranches, but their names survive in Berkeley street names (Vicente, Domingo, and Peralta). However, legal title to all land in the City of Berkeley remains based on the original Peralta land grant. The Peraltas' Rancho San Antonio continued after Alta California passed from Spanish to Mexican sovereignty after
2470-526: Is that it is boring, and one of the reasons that the peace movement has not grown into a mass movement is that the peace movement—its literature and its events—is a bore. Good theatre is needed to communicate revolutionary content." The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) subpoenaed Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman of the Yippies in 1967, and again in the aftermath of the 1968 Democratic National Convention . The Yippies used media attention to make
2565-405: Is the destruction of life, the accumulation of profit." The goal was a decentralized, collective, anarchistic nation rooted in the borderless hippie counterculture and its communal ethos. Abbie Hoffman wrote: We shall not defeat Amerika by organizing a political party. We shall do it by building a new nation—a nation as rugged as the marijuana leaf. The flag for the "new nation" consisted of
2660-733: The Berkeley Oak Grove Protest began protesting construction of a new sports center annex to Memorial Stadium at the expense of a grove of oak trees on the UC campus. The protest ended in September 2008 after a lengthy court process. In 2007–2008, Berkeley received media attention due to demonstrations against a Marine Corps recruiting office in downtown Berkeley and a series of controversial motions by Berkeley's city council regarding opposition to Marine recruiting. ( See Berkeley Marine Corps Recruiting Center controversy .) During
2755-691: The Centennial Record of the University of California , "In 1866, at Founders' Rock , a group of College of California men watched two ships standing out to sea through the Golden Gate. One of them, Frederick Billings , thought of the lines of the Anglo-Irish Anglican Bishop George Berkeley , 'westward the course of empire takes its way,' and suggested that the town and college site be named for
2850-690: The Democratic convention , Chicago police repeatedly clashed with protesters, as many millions of viewers watched the extensive TV coverage of the events. On the evening of August 28 the police attacked the protesters in front of the Conrad Hilton hotel as the demonstrators chanted " The whole world is watching ". This was a "police riot," concluded the US National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence , stating: "On
2945-664: The Library of Congress website. Berkeley's slow growth ended abruptly with the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 . The town and other parts of the East Bay escaped serious damage, and thousands of refugees flowed across the Bay. Among them were most of San Francisco's painters and sculptors, who between 1907 and 1911 created one of the largest art colonies west of Chicago. Artist and critic Jennie V. Cannon described
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3040-614: The Marx Brothers , James Dean and Lenny Bruce . Many Yippies used nicknames which contained Baby Boomer television or pop references, such as Pogo or Gumby . (Pogo was notable for creating the famous slogan: " We have met the enemy and he is us "—first used on a 1970 Earth Day poster.) The Yippies' love of pop-culture was one way to differentiate the Old and New Left, as Jesse Walker writes in Reason magazine: Forty years ago,
3135-729: The Mexican War of Independence . However, the advent of U.S. sovereignty after the Mexican–American War , and especially, the Gold Rush , saw the Peraltas' lands quickly encroached on by squatters and diminished by dubious legal proceedings. The lands of the brothers Domingo and Vicente were quickly reduced to reservations close to their respective ranch homes. The rest of the land was surveyed and parceled out to various American claimants ( See Kellersberger's Map ). Politically,
3230-541: The Old Left . According to ABC News , "The group was known for street theater pranks and was once referred to as the ' Groucho Marxists '." The Yippies had no formal membership or hierarchy . The organization was founded by Abbie and Anita Hoffman , Jerry Rubin , Nancy Kurshan , and Paul Krassner , at a meeting in the Hoffmans' New York apartment on December 31, 1967. According to his own account, Krassner coined
3325-516: The Vietnam Day Committee . Berkeley is strongly identified with the rapid social changes, civic unrest, and political upheaval that characterized the mid-to-late 1960s. In that period, Berkeley—especially Telegraph Avenue —became a focal point for the hippie movement, which spilled over the Bay from San Francisco. Many hippies were apolitical drop-outs, rather than students, but in the heady atmosphere of Berkeley in 1967–1969 there
3420-402: The 1880s Berkeley had segregated housing and anti-Chinese laws. The area near the university became known for a time as East Berkeley. Due to the influence of the university, the modern age came quickly to Berkeley. Electric lights and the telephone were in use by 1888. Electric streetcars soon replaced the horsecar . A silent film of one of these early streetcars in Berkeley can be seen at
3515-550: The October, 1967 March on the Pentagon , and a mass protest/mock levitation at the building organized by Rubin, Hoffman and company at the event, helped to set the tone for Yippie when it was established a couple of months later. Another famous prank just before the term "Yippie" was coined was a guerrilla theater event in New York City on August 24, 1967. Abbie Hoffman and a group of future Yippies managed to get into
3610-902: The Police Department to avoid escalation of violence and to protect bystanders during protests. During a protest against bigotry and U.S. President Donald Trump in August 2017, self-described anti-fascist protesters attacked Trump supporters in attendance. Police intervened, arresting 14 people. Sometimes called " antifa ", these ‘anti-fascist’ activists were clad in black shirts and other black attire, while some carried shields and others had masks or bandanas hiding their faces to help them evade capture after street fighting. . These protests spanned February to September 2017 (See more at 2017 Berkeley Protests ). In 2019, protesters took up residence in People's Park against tree-chopping and were arrested by police in riot gear. Many activists saw this as
3705-522: The Town of Berkeley became the City of Berkeley. Rapid growth continued up to the Crash of 1929 . The Great Depression hit Berkeley hard, but not as hard as many other places in the U.S., thanks in part to the university. In 1916, Berkeley implemented single-family zoning as an effort to keep minorities out of white neighborhoods. This has been described as the first implementation of single-family zoning in
3800-434: The U.C. campus began to build up to the recognizable activism of the sixties. In the 1950s, McCarthyism induced the university to demand a loyalty oath from its professors, many of whom refused to sign the oath on the principle of freedom of thought. In 1960, a U.S. House committee ( HUAC ) came to San Francisco to investigate the influence of communists in the Bay Area. Their presence was met by protesters, including many from
3895-657: The U.S. was started by the Ecology Center in 1973. Styrofoam was banned in 1988. As the city leaned more and more Democratic, local politics became divided between "Progressives" and "Moderates". 1984 saw the Progressives take the majority for the first time. Nancy Skinner became the first UC Berkeley student elected to City Council. In 1986, in reaction to the 1984 election, a ballot measure switched Berkeley from at-large to district-based elections for city council. In 1983, Berkeley's Domestic Partner Task Force
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3990-478: The United States By 2021, nearly half of Berkeley's residential neighborhoods were still exclusively zoned for single-family homes. On September 17, 1923, a major fire swept down the hills toward the university campus and the downtown section. Around 640 structures burned before a late-afternoon sea breeze stopped its progress, allowing firefighters to put it out. The next big growth occurred with
4085-593: The United States. The Bread and Puppet Theater in New York City staged numerous protests which included handing out balloons and flowers with their anti-war literature. Workshop in Nonviolence (WIN), a magazine published by New York activists, encouraged the use of Flower Power. In May 1967, Abbie Hoffman organized the Flower Brigade as an official contingent of a New York City parade honoring
4180-609: The University of California and a high-demand housing market, Berkeley was relatively unaffected by the Great Recession . State budget cuts caused the university to increase the number of out-of-state and international students, with international enrollment, mostly from Asia, rising from 2,785 in 2007 to 5,951 in 2016. Since then, more international restaurants have opened downtown and on Telegraph Avenue , including East Asian chains such as Ippudo and Daiso . A wave of downtown apartment construction began in 1998. In 2006,
4275-415: The advent of World War II , when large numbers of people moved to the Bay Area to work in the many war industries, such as the immense Kaiser Shipyards in nearby Richmond . One who moved out, but played a big role in the outcome of the war, was U.C. professor and Berkeley resident J. Robert Oppenheimer . During the war, an Army base, Camp Ashby , was temporarily sited in Berkeley. The element berkelium
4370-425: The area that became Berkeley was initially part of a vast Contra Costa County . On March 25, 1853, Alameda County was created from a division of Contra Costa County, as well as from a small portion of Santa Clara County . The area that became Berkeley was then the northern part of the "Oakland Township" subdivision of Alameda County. During this period, "Berkeley" was mostly a mix of open land, farms, and ranches, with
4465-683: The beaches! ... We demand the Politics of Ecstasy! ... Abandon the Creeping Meatball! ... And all the time 'Yippie! Chicago – August 25–30.'" First on a list of Yippie demands: "An immediate end to the war in Vietnam." Yippie organizers hoped that well-known musicians would participate in the Festival of Life and draw a crowd of tens if not hundreds of thousands from across the country. The city of Chicago refused to issue any permits for
4560-658: The city near the university and downtown. Increasing enrollment also led the university to wanting to redevelop certain places of Berkeley, especially Southside, but more specifically People's Park. Preservationists passed the Neighborhood Protection Ordinance in 1973 by ballot measure and the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance in 1974 by the City Council. Together, these ordinances brought most new construction to
4655-406: The creation of alternative, counterculture institutions: food co-ops ; underground newspapers and zines ; free clinics and support groups ; artist collectives ; potlatches , "swap-meets" and free stores ; organic farming / permaculture ; pirate radio , bootleg recording and public-access television ; squatting ; free schools ; etc. Yippies believed these cooperative institutions and
4750-651: The creek. The first people of European descent (most of whom were of mixed race and born in America ) arrived with the De Anza Expedition in 1776. The De Anza Expedition led to establishment of the Spanish Presidio of San Francisco at the entrance to San Francisco Bay (the " Golden Gate )." Luis Peralta was among the soldiers at the Presidio. For his services to the King of Spain , he was granted
4845-449: The dangers of alcohol. On April 1, 1878, the people of Ocean View and the area around the university campus, together with local farmers, were granted incorporation by the State of California as the Town of Berkeley. The first elected trustees of the town were the slate of Denis Kearney 's anti-Chinese Workingman's Party , who were particularly favored in the working-class area of the former Ocean View, now called West Berkeley. During
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#17327874952554940-600: The early 1970s, the Flower Power anti-war movement had faded primarily due to the end of the military draft in 1972 and the start of American withdrawal from combat activities in Vietnam in January 1973. The iconic center of the Flower Power movement was the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco , California . By the mid-1960s, the area, marked by the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets, had become
5035-531: The early 1980s during the early stages of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, while Tornabene died in Mexico in 1993. On 10 December 1971, John Lennon , an outspoken critic of the war, appeared at a rally for John Sinclair , a political activist and founding member of the White Panther Party , who had been sentenced to 10 years for marijuana possession. He said, "OK so Flower Power didn't work. So what. We start again." By
5130-490: The eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish philosopher." The philosopher's name is pronounced BARK-lee , but the city's name, to accommodate American English , is pronounced BERK-lee . The College of California's College Homestead Association planned to raise funds for the new campus by selling off adjacent parcels of land. To this end, they laid out a plat and street grid that became the basis of Berkeley's modern street plan. Their plans fell far short of their desires, and they began
5225-414: The end of the Vietnam War in 1975. While the 1960s were the heyday of liberal activism in Berkeley, it remains one of the most overwhelmingly Democratic cities in the United States. After the 1960s, Berkeley banned most new housing construction, in particular apartments. Increasing enrollment at the university led to replacement of older buildings by large apartment buildings, especially in older parts of
5320-559: The end, the park remained undeveloped, and remains so today. A spin-off, People's Park Annex , was established at the same time by activist citizens of Berkeley on a strip of land above the Bay Area Rapid Transit ("BART") underground construction along Hearst Avenue northwest of the U.C. campus. The land had also been intended for development, but was turned over to the city by BART and is now Ohlone Park . The era of large public protest in Berkeley waned considerably with
5415-401: The environment." This flag is also mentioned in Hoffman's Steal This Book . Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin became the most famous Yippies—and bestselling authors—in part due to publicity surrounding the five-month Chicago Seven Conspiracy trial of 1969. They both used the phrase "ideology is a brain disease" to separate the Yippies from mainstream political parties that played the game by
5510-505: The fall of 2010, the Berkeley Student Food Collective opened after many protests on the UC Berkeley campus due to the proposed opening of the fast food chain Panda Express . Students and community members worked together to open a collectively run grocery store right off of the UC Berkeley campus, where the community can buy local, seasonal, humane, and organic foods. The Berkeley Student Food Collective still operates at 2440 Bancroft Way. On September 18, 2012, Berkeley became what may be
5605-403: The festival and most musicians withdrew from the project. Of the rock bands who had agreed to perform, only the MC5 came to Chicago to play and their set was cut short by a clash between the audience of a couple thousand and police. Phil Ochs and several other singer-songwriters also performed during the festival. In response to the Festival of Life and other anti-war demonstrations during
5700-406: The first city in the U.S. to officially proclaim a day recognizing bisexuals: September 23, which is known as Celebrate Bisexuality Day . On September 2, 2014, the city council approved a measure to provide free medical marijuana to low-income patients. The Measure D soda tax was approved by Berkeley voters on November 4, 2014, the first such tax in the United States. In the fall of 2011,
5795-647: The founder of Push Pin Studios , also developed the loose psychedelic graphic design, seen for example in his seminal 1966 poster illustration of Bob Dylan with paisley hair. It was the posters by pop artist Peter Max , with their vivid fluid designs painted in Day-Glo colors, which became visual icons of flower power. Max's cover story in Life magazine (September 1969) as well as appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and The Ed Sullivan Show , further established "flower power" style art into mainstream culture. Berkeley, California Berkeley ( / ˈ b ɜːr k l i / BURK -lee )
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#17327874952555890-444: The founding of the Berkeley Art Association and the rivalries of competing studios and art clubs. In 1904, the first hospitals in Berkeley were created: the Alta Bates Sanatorium (today Alta Bates Summit Medical Center) for women and children, founded by nurse Alta Bates on Walnut Street, and the Roosevelt Hospital (later Herrick Hospital ), founded by LeRoy Francis Herrick, on the corner of Dwight Way and Milvia Street. In 1908,
5985-455: The ground before guards began removing the group from the building, but news photos had been taken and the Stock Exchange "happening" quickly slid into iconic status. Once outside, the activists formed a circle, holding hands and chanting "Free! Free!" At one point, Hoffman stood in the center of the circle and lit the edge of a $ 5 bill while grinning madly, but an NYSE runner grabbed it from him, stamped on it, and said: "You're disgusting." If
6080-444: The land. We shall not wilt." On the following Sunday, WIN activists declared Armed Forces Day as "Flower Power Day" and held a rally in Central Park to counter the traditional parade. Turnout was low and, according to Hoffman, the rally was ineffective because guerilla theater needed to be more confrontational. In October 1967, Hoffman and Jerry Rubin helped organize the March on the Pentagon using Flower Power concepts to create
6175-441: The last words of revolutionary patriot Nathan Hale ; meanwhile Rubin, who was wearing a matching Viet Cong flag, shouted that the police were Communists for not arresting him also. According to The Harvard Crimson : In the fifties, the most effective sanction was terror. Almost any publicity from HUAC meant the ' blacklist .' Without a chance to clear his name, a witness would suddenly find himself without friends and without
6270-519: The mainline of the transcontinental railroad into Oakland was re-routed, putting the right-of-way along the bay shore through Ocean View. There was a strong prohibition movement in Berkeley at this time. In 1876, the state enacted the "mile limit law", which forbade sale or public consumption of alcohol within one mile (1.6 km) of the new University of California. Then, in 1899, Berkeley residents voted to make their city an alcohol-free zone. Scientists, scholars and religious leaders spoke vehemently of
6365-855: The name. "If the press had created ' hippie ,' could not we five hatch the 'yippie'?" Abbie Hoffman wrote. Other activists associated with the Yippies include Stew Albert , Judy Gumbo , Ed Sanders , Robin Morgan , Phil Ochs , Robert M. Ockene , William Kunstler , Jonah Raskin , Wavy Gravy , Steve Conliff , Jerome Washington, John Sinclair , Jim Retherford, Dana Beal , Betty (Zaria) Andrew, Joanee Freedom, Danny Boyle, Ben Masel , Tom Forcade , Paul Watson , David Peel , Bill Weinberg, Aron Kay, Tuli Kupferberg , Jill Johnston , Daisy Deadhead, Leatrice Urbanowicz, Bob Fass , Mayer Vishner , Alice Torbush, Patrick K. Kroupa , Judy Lampe, Steve DeAngelo , Dean Tuckerman, Dennis Peron , Jim Fouratt , Steve Wessing, John Penley, Pete Wagner and Brenton Lengel. A Yippie flag
6460-465: The nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement came to two Berkeley locations: on the campus of the University of California and as an encampment in Civic Center Park. During a Black Lives Matter protest on December 6, 2014, police use of tear gas and batons to clear protesters from Telegraph Avenue led to a riot and five consecutive days and nights of protests, marches, and freeway occupations in Berkeley and Oakland. Afterwards, changes were implemented by
6555-437: The now-famous incident: [The] group of pranksters began throwing handfuls of one-dollar bills over the railing, laughing the entire time. (The exact number of bills is a matter of dispute; Hoffman later wrote that it was 300, while others said no more than 30 or 40 were thrown.) Some of the brokers, clerks and stock runners below laughed and waved; others jeered angrily and shook their fists. The bills barely had time to land on
6650-422: The other side of the planet. Anita Hoffman liked the word, but felt that The New York Times and other "strait-laced types" needed a more formal name to take the movement seriously. That same night she came up with Youth International Party, because it symbolized the movement and made for a good play on words. Along with the name Youth International Party, the organization was also simply called Yippie!, as in
6745-417: The prank accomplished nothing else, it helped cement Hoffman's reputation as one of America's most outlandish and creative protestors ... the "Yippie" movement quickly became a prominent part of America's counterculture. There was a clash with police on March 22, 1968, where a large group of countercultural youths led by the Yippies descended into Grand Central Station for a "Yip-In". The night erupted into
6840-399: The protest received positive attention and the use of "flower power" became an integral symbol in the counterculture movement. "The cry of 'Flower Power' echoes through the land. We shall not wilt. Let a thousand flowers bloom." — Abbie Hoffman , Workshop in Nonviolence , May 1967 By late 1966, the Flower Power method of guerilla theater had spread from California to other parts of
6935-619: The rest of the nation, fueled by spillover from the San Francisco housing shortage and population growth. South and West Berkeley underwent gentrification , with some historically Black neighborhoods such as the Adeline Corridor seeing a 50% decline in Black / African American population from 1990 to 2010. In the 1990s, public television's Frontline documentary series featured race relations at Berkeley's only public high school, Berkeley High School . With an economy dominated by
7030-636: The ridge of the Berkeley Hills . The 2020 census recorded a population of 124,321. Berkeley is home to the oldest campus in the University of California , the University of California, Berkeley , and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , which is managed and operated by the university. It also has the Graduate Theological Union , one of the largest religious studies institutions in
7125-454: The rules. Hoffman and Rubin were arguably the most colorful of the seven defendants accused of criminal conspiracy and inciting to riot at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention . Hoffman and Rubin used the trial as a platform for Yippie antics—at one point, they showed up in court attired in judicial robes. The term Yippie was invented by Krassner, as well Abbie and Anita Hoffman, on New Year's Eve 1967. Paul Krassner wrote in
7220-549: The social status quo , such as advancing a pig called " Pigasus the Immortal " as a candidate for President of the United States in 1968. They have been described as a highly theatrical, anti-authoritarian , and anarchist youth movement of "symbolic politics". Since they were well known for street theater , protesting against the criminalization of cannabis in the United States with smoke-ins , and politically themed pranks , they were either ignored or denounced by many of
7315-516: The soldiers in Vietnam. News coverage captured Flower Brigade participants, who carried flowers, flags and pink posters imprinted with LOVE, being attacked and beaten by bystanders. In response to the violence, Hoffman wrote in WIN magazine, "Plans are being made to mine the East River with daffodils. Dandelion chains are being wrapped around induction centers.... The cry of 'Flower Power' echoes through
7410-459: The song on the Our World international satellite broadcast, ensuring that the pacifist message reached an audience estimated at 400 million. The avant-garde art of Milton Glaser , Heinz Edelmann , and Peter Max became synonymous with the flower power generation. Edelman's illustration style was best known in his art designs for the Beatles' 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine . Glaser,
7505-444: The spotlight, allowing their stealthier comrades the anonymity they needed for their pranks. One cultural intervention that misfired was at Woodstock , with Abbie Hoffman interrupting a performance by The Who , trying to speak against the incarceration of John Sinclair , sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1969 after giving two joints to an undercover narcotics officer. Guitarist Pete Townshend used his guitar to bat Hoffman off
7600-680: The stage. The Yippies were the first on the New Left to make a point of exploiting mass media. Colorful, theatrical Yippie actions were tailored to attract media coverage and also to provide a stage where people could express the "repressed" Yippie inside them. "We believe every nonyippie is a repressed yippie," Jerry Rubin wrote in Do it! "We try to bring out the yippie in everybody." Yippies were famous for their sense of humor. Many direct actions were often satirical and elaborate pranks or put-ons. An application to levitate The Pentagon during
7695-555: The state law came into effect in 1995. For cities such as Berkeley, where rent control was already in place, the law limited the use of rent control to units built before the local rent-control law was enacted, i.e. 1980. During the 1970s and 1980s, activists increased their power in local government. This era also saw major developments in Berkeley's environmental and food culture. Berkeley's last Republican mayor, Wallace J. S. Johnson , left office in 1971. Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971. The first curbside recycling program in
7790-473: The streets and projects to improve social service provision for this demographic, homelessness has continued to be a significant problem in Berkeley. A culture of anti-establishment and sociopolitical activism marked the 1960s. The San Francisco Bay Area became a hotspot for hippie counterculture , and Berkeley became a haven for nonconformists and anarchists from all over the United States. Most public discourse around homelessness in Berkeley at this time
7885-747: The styles of Andy Warhol and Fidel Castro . Jerry Rubin dedicated Do it! not just to his girlfriend but to "Dope, Color TV, and Violent Revolution." Even when praising a form of mass culture that had earned some grudging respect from the late-'60s left— rock 'n' roll —Rubin's list of musicians who "gave us the life/beat and set us free" included not just raucous originals like Jerry Lee Lewis and Bo Diddley but Fabian and Frankie Avalon , commercial confections that most lefty rock intellectuals disdained as insufficiently authentic. In one chapter, Rubin complained that if "the white ideological left" took over, "Rock dancing would be taboo, and miniskirts , Hollywood movies and comic books would be illegal." All this from
7980-641: The university campus along what is now Telegraph Avenue . The first post office opened in 1872. By the 1870s, the Transcontinental Railroad reached its terminus in Oakland. In 1876, a branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad , the Berkeley Branch Railroad , was laid from a junction with the mainline called Shellmound (now a part of Emeryville) into what is now downtown Berkeley . That same year,
8075-458: The university preparing to develop the park. The city of Berkeley has historically been a central location for homeless communities in the Bay Area. Since the 1930s, the city of Berkeley has fostered a tradition of political activism. The city has been perceived as a hub for liberal thought and action and it has passed ordinances to oust homeless individuals from Berkeley on multiple occasions. Despite efforts to remove unhoused individuals from
8170-538: The university. Meanwhile, a number of U.C. students became active in the civil rights movement . Finally, in 1964, the university provoked a massive student protest by banning distribution of political literature on campus. This protest became the Free Speech Movement . As the Vietnam War rapidly escalated in the ensuing years, so did student activism at the university, particularly that organized by
8265-502: The world. Berkeley is considered one of the most socially progressive cities in the United States. The site of today's City of Berkeley was the territory of the Chochenyo/Huchiun Ohlone people when the first Europeans arrived. Evidence of their existence in the area include pits in rock formations, which they used to grind acorns. wildflower seeds, grass seeds, and many different foods, including squirrel fat, and
8360-483: The yippies seemed unusual because they fused the political radicalism of the New Left with the long-haired, grass-smoking lifestyle of the counterculture. Today that combination is so familiar that many people don't even realize that the protesters and the hippies initially distrusted each other. What seems most curious about the yippies today is the way they mixed hard left politics with a deep appreciation for pop culture. Abbie Hoffman announced that he wanted to combine
8455-443: Was centered around the idea of street-living as an expression of counterculture. Youth International Party The Youth International Party ( YIP ), whose members were commonly called Yippies , was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded on December 31, 1967. They employed theatrical gestures to mock
8550-550: Was considerable overlap between the hippie movement and the radical left. An iconic event in the Berkeley Sixties scene was a conflict over a parcel of university property south of the contiguous campus site that came to be called " People's Park ". The battle over the disposition of People's Park resulted in a month-long occupation of Berkeley by the National Guard on orders of then-Governor Ronald Reagan . In
8645-400: Was established, which in 1984 made policy recommendation to the school board, which passed domestic partner legislation. The legislation became a model for similar measures nationwide. In 1995, California's Costa–Hawkins Act ended vacancy control, allowing rents to increase when a tenant moved out. Despite a slow down in 2005–2007, median home prices and rents remain dramatically higher than
8740-442: Was much overlap, social interaction and cross-pollination within these groups and the Yippies, so there was much crossover membership, as well as similar influences and intentions. "We are a people. We are a new nation," YIP's New Nation Statement said of the burgeoning hippie movement. "We want everyone to control their own life and to care for one another ... We cannot tolerate attitudes, institutions, and machines whose purpose
8835-472: Was often in direct conflict with the sensibility of the 60s American Left/peace movement: The Yippies' unorthodox approach to revolution, which emphasized spontaneity over structure, and media blitz over community organizing, put them almost as much at odds with the rest of the left as with mainstream culture. Wrote (Jerry) Rubin in the Berkeley Barb , "The worst thing you can say about a demonstration
8930-448: Was often seen at anti-war demonstrations. The flag had a black background with a five-pointed red star in the center, and a green cannabis leaf superimposed over it. When asked about the Yippie flag, an anonymous Yippie identified only as "Jung" told The New York Times that "The black is for anarchy. The red star is for our five point program . And the leaf is for marijuana, which is for getting ecologically stoned without polluting
9025-475: Was synthesized utilizing the 60-inch (1.5 m) cyclotron at UC Berkeley, and named in 1949, in recognition of the university, thus placing the city's name in the list of elements. During the 1940s, many African Americans migrated to Berkeley. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported Berkeley's population as 11.7% black and 84.6% white. The postwar years brought moderate growth to the city, as events on
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