Sometime on April 23, 1968 a group of students took over one of Columbia’s University’s buildings. Then some more students took over other buildings. Then the police came. Then a lot of people were arrested. Many were beaten; this guy was one of them. And I took his picture.
It was 3:00 AM on the morning of Tuesday, April 30, 1968, at the corner of Broadway and 115th Street. I could be off by a bit about the time, after all it was 45 years ago, but I am sure bout the spot, right across the street from the campus of Columbia University.
I almost wasn’t there that night. I had been at Columbia, in and out of the occupied buildings for most of that week and around midnight I was on my way home. A friend, also a photographer and who actually owned a car, gave me a lift downtown. I lived on the Lower East Side. As we got near my block, two NY Police Department buses crossed the Second Avenue right in front of us. A few minutes later and we would have missed them and I would have read about it all the next day. As it happened, we were close enough to see that the buses were filled with the NYPD’s Tactical Patrol Force, the ‘TPF.’ This was a special unit, all big guys and notoriously brutal at breaking up demonstrations. They wore helmets and carried oversized nightsticks. We figured there was only one reason the TPF would be mobilized at that hour. We were both exhausted but it took us about 10 seconds to decide to turn around and follow the buses. They headed up town to Columbia.
There have been many accounts of what happened in the next few hours. When I got back to Columbia, there were lots of cops on the Broadway, at the main entrance to the campus. Many more than had been there during the day. I spotted one guy I had a nodding acquaintance with. He was a detective with a group a called the Bureau of Special Services. We called it “The Red Squad.” They showed up at most demonstrations which is how that acquaintance developed. Anyway, here was this guy at 1 AM. I asked him what was going on. He said he didn’t know; “I just got a call at home ordering me here.” It was as close to a heads-up as he could give me. A reporter later noted that the TPF marched on to the campus at 2:20.
What followed were lots of arrests and lots of people getting hurt. Some of the injuries to demonstrators were serious. None of the arrests amounted to much. I shot lots of photos that morning. Many of them were published immediately. Some were used later in films, books and articles about that time and those events. In a way, it became an iconic image of that era.
Ps: Later that morning I picked up a first edition of the New York Times. The paper had a long account of the police action at Columbia and the expulsion and arrests of the students occupying the buildings. I later found out that that edition of the Times was printed at around 1 AM, at least an hour and a half before the actual events.
"All the news thats.............news?"
April 30, 2013
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Footnote: In 1983 Esquire Magazine published their 50th Anniversary issue, naming the “50 Who Made The Difference” – Esquire's take on the most important people of the previous 50 years. The list included Elvis Presley, Dr. Spock, Mohammad Ali, Betty Friedan, Dr. Martin Luther King and a bunch of other notables. And my “Columbia Kid.” This kid, who’s single claim to fame was a nocturnal encounter with a cop’s night stick, who otherwise would have faded into justified obscurity was, because of my photograph – and note that I subtely stress both “my” and “ photograph” - because of my photograph, that single frame of 35mm Tri-X that I shot, and absolutely nothing else that he ever did since that night, this kid was now elevated forever more to celebrity status. You'd think he'd be greatful, right? Yeah, right.
And me? Of course Esquire paid me for use of my photo. And they printed my name right there in an 8 point type photo credit alongside the photo. Esquire also published a 5 page interview with the kid. Among other jewels, he is quoted moaning over how sorry he was to have his photo out there, and how he even consulted a lawyer to see if he could sue “the media.” Yeah, right.
Now, go and Google “Columbia University, 1968” and see what turns up.
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