Get ready for one of the most revolutionary speeches of all time! Some of you may have heard part of this speech in the song "Wretches and Kings" by Linkin Park. Since I'm a fan, I added the song below if you're interested in checking it out. Before the speech, let's examine a bit of context.
Mario Savio was a brilliant and compassionate man that came to public notice as a spokesman for the Free Speech Movement at the University of California in 1964. After spending a summer as a civil rights worker in segregationist Mississippi, he returned to Berkeley at a time when students throughout the country were starting to assimilate in support of racial justice and against the American involvement in Vietnam.
His moral clarity, eloquence, and democratic style of leadership inspired countless fellow Berkeley students to protest university regulations which placed severe limitations on political speech and activism on campus. The non-violent campaign culminated into the largest mass arrest in American history. The movement drew widespread faculty support, and finally resulted in a revision of university rules to allow political speech and organizing. This significant advance for student freedom quickly spread to countless other colleges across the U.S.
Mario Savio "Machine" Speech
Linkin Park "Wretches and Kings"
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References:
Mario Savio Memorial Lucture Fund (n.d.). Who was mario?. Retrieved from http://www.savio.org/who_was_mario.html
I started at UC Berkeley n 1965, the year after this speech, Mario Savio seemed to drop out of student politics and many tried to fill his shoes--mostly ego-driven leaders with a need to tell other people how to think and what to do. Mario lived near my apartment and I used to see him pushing a stroller with a new baby. Obviously, his passion was redirected and rightly so. He was authentic and pure and I bet he was even better as an inspiring father than a movement inspiration.
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