SDS was surviving on a monthly total of about$600 in dues and contributions, plus theoccasional more generous donation.

And it was nearly impossible for anorganization whose typical members were young,full-time students with a disdain for thetrappings of capitalism to become a fundraisingpowerhouse.

But in 1963, they got what they needed.

The events of 1963, including the Kennedyassassination and the escalating conflict inVietnam, radicalized students as noconsciousness-raising session could. SDS alredyhad unofficial chapters whose members organizedunder the SDS aegis without bothering to submitrecords or pay official dues. By the start of the1964-65 school year, the list of official chaptershad grown to 29.

And they showed it. At the University ofCalifornia Berkeley, 500 students--both liberaland conservative--marched on Sproul Hall onSeptember 14 to protest a university memorandumforbidding groups to offer literature on a campussidewalk. Eight were arrested after an all-nightsit-in, and other students began activelysolicting on the sidewalk in deliberate defianceof the new rules.

Threats of disciplinary action by theUniversity prompted a second sit-in in SproulHall. About 800 students entered the building andremained there until the state governor, facingconservative pressure, sent in more than 600police officers to remove the demonstrators.

The use of force was a fatal mistake. Within afew days, 16,000 angry students and faculty hadshut down the Berkeley campus.

Although university regents acquiesced to thestrikers' demands and reopened the campus beforewinter vacation, the damage was already done.

In Ioco parentis had given way to a newparadigm in student-administrator interactions: asformer Berkeley student Jack Weinstein said,"Don't trust anyone over 30."

"It was an enormous range of grievances thatall came together during these uprisings,"Brinkely says. "It was an effort to shake up thegoverning structure of the university and,indirectly, society."

While Berkeley students were protesting, SDSinitiated a new organizational structure, with tenregional organizers to coordinate chapteractivities.

No SDSers were at the forefront of the freespeech movement at Berkeley. But SDS leadersrecognized the importance of the student strike of1964 and many met with Berkeley leaders to learnabout their activist techniques and offer support.

After President Lyndon B. Johnson launchedbombing raids on northern Vietnam and called forincreases in the draft in February 1965, smallSDS-run demonstrations cropped up across thecountry.

SDS officers scrambled to hire more assistantsand began to plan a rally in Washington D.C. forApril 17, 1965. The march brought together across-section of the New Left, with groups fromthe National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policyto the Young People's Socialist League clamoringto join in.

The Washington demonstration was the largestpeace march in American history. As many as 25,000people (estimates vary) from at least 50 collegesand universities assembled behind the WashingtonMonument to hear singers, speakers and theobligatory SDS representatives.