As editor of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement's historical website at <http:\\fsm-a.org>, I hope to illustrate how news of the FSM was received on other campuses, how its coverage was perceived, and how our brief movement influenced the development of social activists and activism at other schools. I'd appreciate contributions of any sort, from brief memories or reflections to longer memoirs or analyses referring only in part to the FSM. (Likewise for references to pertinent material already in print or online.) As our site's visitors range from scholars to high-school students, some will be more interested in details of how the FSM affected the formation, orientation, and tactics of organizations and less-formal groups; and others more interested in how the FSM affected people personally -- in how they digested it, what kind of sense it made to them, and where they went with this. Since I'm gathering such material in slow piecemeal, I can't promise its prompt appearance online. But I think that each contribution, howsoever slight, will be meaningful; and that together these will provide valuable perspectives on our history. [A note to scholars: In histories of that era, the FSM is credited routinely not simply as the first noteable campus conflict, but as the inspirational spark of an inflammatory chain-reaction on the nation's campuses (and beyond them.) So far as I know, no one has explored the actual details of how this putative spark was transmitted to other campuses. A vague, collective caricature results, as if (news of) the FSM had been some sort of marching order; save in localized movement studies, the faces of the "ordered" troops are even vaguer. I suspect that activism's development, within the individuals who responded to this spark and on their campuses, was more complex and advanced than has been generally understood. The FSM was indeed a vital signal; but the story of how it was construed and by whom has never been told, let alone examined, nor can be save through such detailed collection of recollections.] Michael Rossman <mrossman@igc.org> P.S. -- as an absolute novice to fishing on the Web, I'd be grateful for guidance as to where else I mught usefully post this request for contributions.
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