YALE STUDENT, FACULTY, AND STAFF RESPONSES TO MAY DAY

Yale staff, faculty, and students played a significant role in the May Day Rally. One of the key convening sites of the protest was Old Campus, where thousands of protesters were housed and fed throughout the weekend while they gathered to make their voices heard. Many Yale-affiliated protesters understood the tricky position that they occupied, due to being associated with a university that many felt did not do enough to support the outside New Haven community, especially New Haven’s Black citizens. 

“Fellow Felons—.”

“DON’T STRIKE!!”

“A Resolution Adopted by the Yale College Faculty.”

Many Yale affiliates saw their role as being one of advocacy for other protesters, with the goal of ensuring that May Day could go on as planned and pushing the university to do all that it could to provide support and resources for the activists. While not all students, faculty, and staff believed that the university should support the May Day Rally and the Black Panthers more broadly, many did, feeling that the protest represented a pivotal moment in the Black activist efforts that were taking the United States by storm in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Man wearing a SOLIDARITY T-Shirt watches William Sloane Coffin speak at Ingalls Rink during May Day protest.

New Haven Green across from City Hall, photograph by Thomas Strong, 1970.

Photograph by Thomas Strong, 1970.

Locations on Old Campus like Battell Chapel, featured in this image, were crucial to the May Day Rally, as protesters from all over the country congregated to make their voices heard. Accompanying the weekend’s protests were several talks held by Yale professors and community members, as advertised in the flyer below. Some other Yale affiliates felt that participating in strikes related to May Day would lead to more harm than good, possibly making it even more likely that a fair trial for the Panthers would not take place.

Importantly, the university faculty as a whole adopted a resolution that emphasized their support for the May Day Rally. In doing so, they established a firm position against the incarceration of the New Haven Nine, supporting the Black Panthers behind bars in New Haven and the activists who were protesting during the May Day weekend. Some staged an opening meeting that took place at Ingalls Rink, also known as the Yale Whale, to discuss how best to assist the protesters. At the May Day Rally itself, many faculty members were in attendance, as seen in the image above.