Berkeley California

Berkeley, home to the University of California, Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Graduate Theological Union, is one of the most politically liberal in the United States.

In the 1950s, McCarthyism induced the University to demand a loyalty oath from professors, many whom refused to sign for freedom of thought.

In 1960, U.S. House committee HUAC investigated the influence of communists in the Bay Area. Their presence was met by protesters, many from the University. U.C. student activists supported Civil Rights Movement. The University in 1964 provoked massive student protest by banning distribution of political literature on campus. This protest became the Free Speech Movement.

In the late 1960s, Berkeley—especially Telegraph Avenue—became a focal point for the hippie movement.

People's Park protest resulted in a month-long occupation of Berkeley by the National Guard on orders of then-Governor Ronald Reagan. In 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 subway 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.

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