Chapter 5

Students 1, Establishment 0

   In defiance of the curfew, larger and larger crowds gathered in front of the female dorms, A "police force" approached. It was comprised of SIU Security, C'dale police, Carbondale Volunteer Firemen, and Jackson County Deputy Sheriffs. They decided to arrest as many curfew violators as they could. There were more than a hundred arrested, so there was no way to transport them to a lockup except on foot. So the cops tried to march the group down to the police station, then located on Washington Street south of Main.
   Once they arrived, the police realized that the lockup only had room for maybe a dozen. So they told the group to wait on the street until the cops figured out what to do. The offenders then decided to leave. En masse, they proceeded to Freeman and Illinois (where Spud-Nuts was then, east of where Quatro's is now). They started rocking cars. The cars were turned over. Some were throwing rocks and breaking windows. The cars were burning. The police were powerless to stop the students, and this was obvious to everyone.

   At the police station, network news crews were present when the police told the student "offenders" to wait on the street while the police figured out what to do with them. One of those students was Roger Strauss, then 19, a student from Chicago. Roger was shown on camera when he was across the street from the police station. In the picture, Roger was giving the police "the finger." The story made the network news, at a time when "campus riot" stories were still unusual.

   Imagine never hearing of Carbondale, Illinois before, never hearing of Southern Illinois University before, and seeing, on the network news, a shot of a student giving the "universal salute" to the police AT THE POLICE STATION! Remember, this was still 1966, when protesting was still new and unusual. Imagine being in Los Angeles (where Roger's aunt was) and seeing him on KNBC.

   Carbondale? That's the place where the students give the police the finger! This is the first image many people had of C'dale and SIU. (If this happened today, the cameraman and crew might well be arrested and charged with "inciting a riot" or at least "disorderly conduct," and the university could claim that the shot was "staged" and that "nothing happened." The university might complain that NBC was portraying the university in a "false light" and threaten to sue. Never mind that this was caused by the university's manic response to a panty raid; sentencing the violators to potential death or dismemberment in Vietnam.)

   The faculty and administration still insisted on teaching the students a lesson. Meanwhile, the news was getting around. Responding to nationwide publicity, members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) visited C'dale, and conferred with local students at Spud-Nuts. The SDS members were interested in the national statement potential of events in C'dale. Up to that time, most protests were confined to the east (Columbia) and west (Berkeley) coasts. Carbondale was extremely middle-america, so if it could happen in C'dale, it could happen anywhere.

   The protests escalated. Crowds continued to gather every night, in defiance of the curfew. Responding to this activity in 1966 was impossible for even a large police department such as Chicago's. In C'dale no one had a clue what to do. All the offenders couldn't even be arrested. Those that were could not be locked up; at the C'dale police lockup, there was room for maybe ten. At the Jackson County jail maybe 20 more. What about the other 2,000? There were at least 50 offenders for each officer. The police were scared. Martial law became a joke.

   The administrators and faculty continued to insist that the students be taught a lesson. But how? Hire 1000 more police? Build a new prison? (This was eventually done, in Vienna, a few years later). Expel 2,000 students? Who would come to school there? The debate raged on among faculty, administration, and student representatives.

   Rumors abounded among students: The protesters were burning down buildings. The police were murdering students. Students were burning police cars with police still in them. The campus was going to be turned into a concentration camp. The police were training vicious dogs to maim students. Anyone who went to class would be attacked. Police were working undercover, posing as students. The dorms were going to be tear gassed. The roads out of town were blockaded.

   There was no medium to instantly communicate to students. Print was the only option, and it was cumbersome. It was slow, not pervasive, and ineffective in response to word-of-mouth rumors. The "word on the street" was considered by many to be the most reliable and credible information. And, once exciting events were happening, "word on the street" spread at lightning speed!

   Slow to respond, the administration finally decided to create an "informational discussion" program on WSIU-FM. The program was designed to convey the impression that calm and serious discussions were happening among students, faculty, and administration. Since, at the time, probably less than 5% of students could listen to FM radio, let alone those who could find WSIU on the dial and were aware of the program, it had limited results.

   Meanwhile, word-on-the-street was to gather at the president's house. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, massed and began moving in that direction. By now, National Guard troops had been called in. The troops and police narrowed the crowd and a select group of students went to the president's house.

   President Delyte W. Morris met with the students, in the street. There were a total of 20 persons standing together. President Morris and three associates stepped towards the group of 5 students. He was cordial to the students. He said, "How can we get past this?"

The reply was, "Reinstate the students who were expelled for the panty raids and curfew violations."

He said, "I can't do that for the good of the university."

The response: "Look down the street."

   Students were rocking an Army Jeep with a machine gun turrent. They were screaming, especially when it turned over. A police car was burning. Dozens of students were wearing "First Annual SIU Riots" T-shirts. The crowd chanted "The town's going to fall," over and over.

   President Morris issued a memo reinstating the students. The students had learned a valuable lesson. But it took awhile for the administration and police to learn theirs.

end of Chapter 5