The history continued: "We heard the university protest that it had no funds, that studies would have to be made, committees formed. Finally, we took the land. We tended it, loved it, planted trees, grass, and flowers on it. Made it into people's park. We used the land. We hadn't tested and analyzed the soil. We planted things, and they grew. We hadn't run a feasibility study. We had enough labor freely given to build the park. We had no budget. We found the money and materials we needed in our own community. We had no organization, no leader, no committee. The park was built by anyone and everyone and we, all of us together, worked it out. We were told we hadn't filled out the right forms, hadn't followed the correct procedures, hadn't been responsible, hadn't been patient. We had asked the wrong questions and built a beautiful park.
"It was an incredibly good feeling building that park. In this country of cement and steel cities, better suited for its machines than for its people, we made a place for people. At a time when only experts and committees, qualified and certified, are permitted to do things, we did something for ourselves and did it well for all of us, hip and straight. The park was something tangible that we had done. Something that drew our community together. The park was common ground. People's Park existed for little more than a month. On 'Bloody Thursday,' the day the fence went up around People's Park, we took to the streets. The fence went up although the chancellor supported a park, the university professors supported the park, the student body voted for the park, and 30,000 people marched throught he streets. People's Park now stands empty and guarded. The park died. The idea that created it lives.
"LET A THOUSAND PARKS BLOOM. "
-- Author Unknown
"This mural devoted to all People's Park activists and especially
JAMES RECTOR and ROSEBUD DENOVO."
(Rector was killed in the People's Park confrontation. I had initially written for this page that Denovo was seriously wounded at that time. John Tate sent in the following correction: " Rosebud Ann Denovo ["RAD"] was a disturbed young woman who was a Berkeley streetperson in the late 1980s or early 1990s [I can't recall exactly]. The University was planning to turn half of Peoples Park into an athletic park...or maybe they were going to build dorms there. I can't recall. Anyway, during the inevitable protests from local streetpeople, Rosebud broke into the Chancellor's home with a knife and was shot and killed by a U.C. Berkeley police officer. She had nothing to do with the 1960s, except perhaps the dark legacy of violence. I wish I could recall the exact date, but I'm guessing 1991 or 1992.")