(NewsNation) — Columbia University student protesters barricaded themselves in a campus building Tuesday in an act of political resistance reminiscent of 1960s civil rights and anti-war demonstrations.
A group of students calling for the university’s divestment from Israel could face expulsion after barricading themselves in Hamilton Hall. The protest and its tactics are hardly new to Columbia, which has been home to myriad political protests throughout the past 56 years.
1968
One of the earliest examples unfolded in 1968 when Columbia students overtook Hamilton Hall during civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests.
Demonstrators first marched to a gymnasium construction site in nearby Harlem and tore down protective fencing. Protesters at the time were opposed to the gym, which they argued would effectively be segregated.
Demonstrators then occupied Hamilton Hall and restrained acting Dean Henry Coleman from leaving his office. Altogether, several hundred students and three deans spent the night in the building, according to university library records.
University officials called the police after a week of occupation. Officers arrested hundreds of students, many of whom were also injured.
1972
Hamilton Hall was the site of another protest in 1972 when students again locked themselves in the building for a week during anti-war protests.
Police officers entered the building through an underground passage and cleared the site without arrests or injuries, according to a New York Times report.
1985
In 1985, about 150 students blockaded the building for almost three weeks. Protestors had been calling on the university to fully divest from South Africa in light of the country’s racist apartheid policy, according to Reuters.
Students ended their demonstration the same day a judge ordered them to remove chains and padlocks from Hamilton Hall’s doors.
1996
Finally, in 1996, about 100 students occupied the campus building for four days while demanding the university create an ethnic studies department.
The occupation ended with a university pledge to hire more minority faculty members and dedicate space to Asian and Hispanic students, Reuters reported, citing a contemporaneous New York Times report.
Student demands to divest from Israel aren’t isolated to Columbia University, either.
Students nationwide are demanding their universities cut financial ties with Israel over the large-scale military operation in Gaza.
Authorities detained at least 100 protesters at Northeastern University in Boston, 70 at Arizona State University and nearly 80 at Washington University in St. Louis over the weekend.
There have been nearly 900 arrests at college campus protests since April 18, according to the Associated Press.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
