i just got back a little while ago from watching a movie for history. the movie — berkeley in the sixties was really amazing. prof litwack was one of four or five consultants during its creation, and in 1990 it was nominated for an academy award (best documentary).
the movie details the origin and development of the free speech movement (fsm) at berkeley, and includes associated movements such as women’s lib, the black panthers, civil rights in general, anti-[vietnam] war movements, etc.
after watching the movie, i get so much more of a feeling of legacy… berkeley students, and in fact all students and all people, should feel compelled to uphold this legacy of activism and social awareness. it’s not enough to just watch things happen and complain about the system, we must act when we believe it to be wrong. (the movie strongly reminded me of mr bowen, interestingly…) we are fortunate to live in this era, in which so much has already been accomplished for us, but we cannot stop now. the first step in building a better future is, of course, becoming aware of our history. not just by reading textbooks, but by trying to reconstruct the thoughts and feelings of the times. it’s cliché, but after taking history 7b i understand better than ever the value of learning from our past.
[note, 4/10/14: Imported from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com.]
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
Professor Litwack! I haven’t heard that name in years. I wish I remember what class of his I took. I must have taken some class of his for his name to register so bright on the star field of my mind. I wish more details came with the memory. I also feel like maybe I encountered that documentary. I feel like I also watched it or scenes from it in a classroom there. I love what it lit up in you. The passion you’re alive with! So inspiring! So energizing! You have commented on some of my political savvy as an undergraduate. I got so much of it right there, at Berkeley. I know that my political education started well before that, but I feel like really developed at Berkeley (and in the performance poetry community, too). I was just in all of these politicized communities and classes with brilliant politicized professors that helped move my consciousness along. I still cringe at how underdeveloped my political thinking and my understanding of systems of oppression was during those years and during the ten or fifteen years after. But, a lot of people worked really hard to try to move the needle. I definitely feel like I was radicalized by Berkeley.
Oh my gosh it fills my heart to know that you know who he was. I took History 7B with him, his gigantic survey course in Wheeler Auditorium, and everyone applauded at the end of every lecture. All semester I worked up the nerve to go talk to him at office hours (buying his more recent book as an excuse, so I could ask him to sign it), and then when I finally did, he was so incredibly warm and kind and treated me like a respectable thinker and not like a little baby undergrad. We talked about languages, about my high school history education, about the Emma Goldman Papers (where I was then working)… I don’t remember what else. I revered him. I still have the book he signed but have never read the whole thing 🙊
Berkeley, and his class, really radicalized me too. To the extent that a kid like me was able to become radicalized. The process is so ongoing, but I am SO glad and grateful it started in college and that I didn’t get into colleges where I would have wanted to go in a very different direction of alignment and might have turned into a really different person.