Lawrence University Lux Lawrence University Honors Projects 5-31-2012 Peace, Politics, and Vortex: The Cultural and Political Consequences of Oregon's Only State Sponsored Rock Concert Kathryn J. Van Marter-Sanders Lawrence University, frogjenius@gmail.com Follow this and additional works at: https://lux.edu/luhp Part of the Cultural History Commons, Political History Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons © Copyright is owned by the author of this document. Recommended Citation Van Marter-Sanders, Kathryn J., "Peace, Politics, and Vortex: The Cultural and Political Consequences of Oregon's Only State Sponsored Rock Concert" (2012). Lawrence University Honors Projects.edu/luhp/17 This Honors Project is brought to you for free and open access by Lux.
It has been accepted for inclusion in Lawrence University Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of Lux. For more information, please contact colette. Peace, Politics, and Vortex: The Cultural and Political Consequences of Oregon’s Only State Sponsored Rock Concert Kathryn June Van Marter-Sanders (Katie Van Marter) Honors Project History May 6, 2012 Table of Contents Paper…………………………………………………………….81 2 It was not every day that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) paid a visit to the Governor of Oregon, and they were seldom bearers of good news. The FBI and Attorney General told Governor Tom McCall that 50,000 members of the People’s Army Jamboree were marching to Portland to disrupt the city’s American Legion conference.
McCall thought that, “Some of the group’s members openly welcomed a riot. I could envision our state being pulled apart before the world’s television cameras.”1 The year was 1970 and McCall’s fears were well grounded (Figure 1). The pain of losing John F. Kennedy and his brother, Bobby, was still raw in the heart of the nation.
Chicago still smoldered from the riots after Martin Luther King’s assassination. Even more present in the minds of the public were the student demonstrations and shootings at Kent and Jackson State Universities. These events led to a total of six student deaths. Oregon’s liberal university students were no different from those setting the national trend for angry protesting.
McCall, poised for his upcoming re-election campaign, was faced with a seemingly impossible task: how could he make the city of Portland and the state of Oregon deviate away from this trend of violence? Every time that students and officials met it seemed to end in anger at the least, deadly violence at the worst. How could Oregon break this trend? The only way to break the pattern of hostility was to stop responding to violence in a way that would end up precipitating it. This is the story of that method: the story of Vortex 1. The extent to which Oregon’s method worked and the consequences of its unorthodoxy are a tribute both to the region’s unique political ideology and the desperation of the times.
It was a 1 Tom McCall, Tom McCall: Maverick, ed. 3 demonstration of a new way for the Left and Right to understand one another. It showed the ‘taming’ of the young people and the ‘loosening-up’ of the old. This is a story of compromise and learning.
Whether and to what extent this solution was necessary or, for that matter, successful in completing the government’s goal of peace, has faded in light of the story that Vortex became. Oregon’s Protesting Youth Protests and potential violence were realistic fears for Oregonians in the 1960s. In solidarity with protesters around the country, students from the University of Oregon stubbornly occupied its buildings. They sat in, they stood around, they sang at the top of their lungs, all to bring the University’s administration to a screeching halt despite being told that their actions violated statute ORS 164.460 and could lead to their arrest.2 In the winter and spring of 1970, Portland State University (PSU) became more actively involved in politics than ever before, and the increased tension between the police and the students led to violence.
At the University of Portland, student protesting the Vietnam War disrupted foot traffic on a frequented path which they dubbed “Fort Tricia” – named for President Nixon's daughter after she publicly stated her opinion that young people were not really as upset about the war as they pretended to be. Portland State students monopolized park blocks, claiming them for their own ‘Ho Chi Minh trail.’3 One spontaneous violent protest at the University of Oregon ended up costing the school 55,886 dollars in emergency law enforcement alone.4 2 Attorney General Lee Johnson to University of Oregon President Dr. April 22, 1970, Portland State University Archives, Portland, OR. 3 Sanders, Rick, Phone interview by author, Portland, OR, May 12, 2010.
4 At PSU, students harassed visiting Navy Recruiters in protest of the draft. The protesters formed a ‘ring-around-a-rosie’ encircling the recruiters and bodily taunting them. On February 23rd, 1970, the offending students were brought before the University’s judiciary committee. The committee decided to expel the perpetrators.
Ironically, the students’ protesting of the war may have resulted in their forced participation in it. The committee’s report concludes, “The Committee has worked hard to be fair, realizing that loss of academic status can have far-reaching effects for those who are subject to the draft.”5 In effect, the students were committing minor acts of terrorism. Not feeling they had the tools to make a difference through normal political means, they took to the streets and vented their frustration on buildings and whatever institutions were on hand. They felt powerless to enact change through conventional political channels.
It would take a great demonstration of state trust to convince them otherwise. The Kent State tragedy motivated PSU’s activists to protest like never before. Their organizations were a flurry of activity. Pamphlets such as the PSU student newspaper the Barricade, passed from hand to hand, put forward four demands: the U.
had to withdraw from Vietnam, remove police from college campuses, stop the importation of nerve gas into Oregon, and free Black Panther cofounder, Bobby Seale, from jail.6 4 John Chairet to Dr. May 5, 1970, Portland State University Archives, Portland, OR. Bernhard Fedde to Dr. Portland State University Archives, Portland, OR.
6 Police-Community Relations Committee of the Portland Metropolitan Human Relations Commission, Campus Unrest Investigation Results. AND Barricade #3, May 14 1970. 5 These protests upset Governor McCall. As a former journalist, he wholeheartedly respected the students’ right to protest.
However, he was also enraged by what he considered to be their shortsighted demands and fruitless methods. Thus, McCall’s Chief of Staff Ed Westerdahl was left to take care of the rebellious protestors.7 Westerdahl tried to quench student anger by announcing that, while the flag would not be lowered to half-staff, memorials to the students killed in other states would be welcomed. He said in a public address, “All of this thrust is toward the recognition of two essentials: 1. Destruction and violence will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
All responsible students deserve reassurance that their state government is listening and is attuned to legitimate complaints. It is vitally essential that the students of this nation realize that government has the ability and willingness to respond to reasonable expressions.”8 Protesters might not have heard this message then, but it was a message that would be repeated in later months. Even though not all Oregonians agreed on the student committee’s first few points, the import of nerve gas into the state was almost unanimously opposed. Agreements such as this may have begun to lay the groundwork for cooperation across the political playing field; cooperation that would later be utilized during the organization of Vortex.
Governor Tom McCall and Robert W. Straub, the man he was running against in the upcoming gubernatorial election, both opposed the nerve gas, making it a “truly bi- partisan effort.”9 McCall recounts this effort in his autobiography, “Never in the history 7 Brent Walth, Fire at Eden’s Gate: Tom McCall and the Oregon Story (Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1994), 284. 8 Office of the Governor, Special Message to Oregonians on Kent State University Tragedy. 9 Tom McCall, Tom McCall: Maverick, ed.
6 of Oregon has its citizenry united in such an overwhelming majority. Every age group, every economic group, every occupational group – every possible kind of group says NO!”10 11 However, the protesting students wanted to focus on more than just the nerve gas and continued petitioning for their four-pillared protest. John Chairet, a representative of the Student Mobilization Committee, wrote to the University’s President Wolfe concerning these issues. He asked that time off be granted to the students that they might be able to protest the war and Kent State shootings.
“If the latter is not granted, or if the reply is a no comments, it will be made publicly known that you oppose the right of those students who want to, to peacefully, dissent and voice their opposition to our government’s atrocities, by not allowing them to make up lost schoolwork and lost classes due to their striking.”12 Chairet’s forceful demands were in keeping with those being made by students across the country. President Wolfe granted the requested days off.13 As the rest of the state protested the nerve gas, PSU’s rebels continued preparing to strike for its full list of demands. However, the date of the protest was postponed until May 9th, several days after students had originally intended. Students obtained permission from the city to close off some of its central park blocks.
The protest started off in a very 10 Tom McCall, Tom McCall: Maverick, ed. 11 Originally McCall was torn over how he should react to the importation of nerve gas into Oregon. President Nixon thought Oregon was the best place to dump the nerve gas. McCall felt that he owed the President a favor after being nominated to the Citizens Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality.
However, in typical McCall fashion, what was right for Oregon won out over what was right for the Republican party. Brent Walth, Fire at Eden’s Gate: Tom McCall and the Oregon Story (Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1998), 266 – 269. 12 John Chairet to Dr. May 5, 1970, Portland State University Archives, Portland, OR.
13 Police-Community Relations Committee of the Portland Metropolitan Human Relations Commission, Campus Unrest Investigation Results. 7 civil manner; protesters at the park blocks remained orderly throughout. However, havoc was later wreaked in PSU’s Smith Memorial building, causing 17,970 dollars worth of damage.14 Portland has many lush, green parks. The numerous trees, bicycle stands, and play-areas are a point of local pride.
The park blocks are one of the longest stretches of park in the heart of the city’s downtown area. More importantly though, the park runs right through PSU and up against what was formerly a conservative, high-brow, residential area.15 The close proximity of the straight homeowners with rebellious college students was cause for concern. On the park blocks, barricades were constructed out of anything students could find. Park benches were utilized to obstruct traffic flow.
The students also built multiple makeshift encampments, including a large hospital tent.16 It would be the hospital tent, the least threatening structure of all, which would cause the disaster that haunted the memories of those trying to protect Portland from the impending cultural collision between protestors and Legionnaires. The clearest rendering of the subsequent events came from PSU’s special investigative committee’s report on the incident. At 9:30 AM on May 11, 1970, President Wolfe held a meeting with protestors. The president and protestors mutually decided it was time to deconstruct the barricade.
At this same time the non-protesting students, upset that their education was being interrupted yet again by a small group of radicals, 14 Police-Community Relations Committee of the Portland Metropolitan Human Relations Commission, Campus Unrest. 16 Dorthy Tarter, citizen, to Gregory Wolfe President of Portland State University, 13 May 1970, Portland State University Office of the President. 8 marched to the Mayor of Portland’s office and asked him to do something about the situation.