People's Park in Berkeley, California is located just east of Telegraph Avenue, bounded by Haste and Bowditch Streets, and Dwight Way, near the University of California, Berkeley. The park was created during the radical political activism of the late 1960s.
The local Southside neighborhood was the scene of a major confrontation between student protesters and police in May 1969. A mural near the park, painted by Berkeley artist O'Brien Thiele and lawyer/artist Osha Neumann, depicts the history of the park and the shooting of James Rector, who was fatally shot by police on May 15, 1969.
While the land is the property of the University of California, People's Park has operated since the early 1970s as a free public park. The City of Berkeley declared it a historical and cultural landmark in 1984. It is often viewed as a sanctuary for Berkeley's low income and large homeless population who, along with others, received meals from East Bay Food Not Bombs regularly. Many social welfare organizations do outreach at the park, like the Suitcase Clinic. Nearby Berkeley residents partake in regularly scheduled activities around the park like gardening, musical performances, and movie nights.
In response to UC Berkeley's renewed plan to build student housing on the site, the Defend People's Park movement formed, organizing events, direct actions, mutual aid, and classes in the park since a student occupation began in early 2021. A People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group also formed and pursued national recognition for the park. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.
On July 29, 2022, a judge ruled in favor of the UC Berkeley construction project. Deforestation work began just after midnight on August 3, 2022, which was met with protests by community members opposed to the redevelopment effort. Protesters were beaten by police and multiple people were arrested. On August 5, California First District Court of Appeal upheld a stay order, finding that UC Berkeley's environmental review did not adequately consider alternative sites. This temporarily paused construction, demolition, or tree-cutting at the site, but UC Berkeley has been permitted to erect barricades and fences, until the legal dispute is settled. On April 26, 2023, governor Gavin Newsom on behalf of the state of California joined the city of Berkeley and the University of California in asking the California Supreme court to overturn the Appeals Court decision.
Early history to May 1969
In 1956, the Regents of the University of California decided that they wanted to buy a certain plot of land, which contained houses at the time, for future development into student housing, parking, and offices as part of the university's long range development plan. At the time, public funds were lacking to buy the land, and the plan was shelved until June 1967, when the university acquired $1.3 million to buy the land. The land was purchased through the process of eminent domain, which allows government bodies to legally force homeowners to sell their land. The short-term goal was to create athletic fields with student housing being a longer-range goal.
Bulldozers arrived February, 1968 and began demolition of the residences. But the university ran out of development funds, leaving the lot only partially cleared of demolition debris and rubble for 14 months. The muddy site became derelict with abandoned cars.
On April 13, 1969, local merchants and residents held a meeting to discuss possible uses for the derelict site. At the time, student activist Wendy Schlesinger and Michael Delacour (a former defense contractor employee who had become an anti-war activist) had become attached to the area, as they had been using it as a clandestine rendezvous hideout for a secret romantic affair. The pair of lovers presented a plan for developing the under-utilized, university-owned land into a public park. This plan was approved by the attendees, but not by the university. Stew Albert, a co-founder of the Yippie Party, agreed to write an article for the local counter-culture newspaper, the Berkeley Barb, on the subject of the park, particularly to call for help from local residents.
Michael Delacour stated, "We wanted a free speech area that wasn't really controlled like Sproul Plaza [the plaza at the south entrance to UC Berkeley] was. It was another place to organize, another place to have a rally. The park was secondary." The university's Free Speech microphone was available to all students, with few (if any) restrictions on speech. The construction of the park involved many of the same people and politics as the 1964 Free Speech Movement.