The year 1969 was full of events providing evidence that big
changes were occurring at the University of Arkansas – a shift in thinking and
power relations. Two of the big 1969 events were described in previous blog posts. The
first was the Muhammad Ali controversy when, in March, the University
administration was not intimidated by an Arkansas State Senate resolution
opposing his speech, and students laughed at the senators who proposed it. (See
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2013/01/arkansass-old-guard-takes-on-muhammad.html)
A third event, providing more evidence of the changing times,
came in April 1969. It was a strange episode, verging on the absurd, and it added
to a sense of excitement and ferment among many UA students. Also it showed
that some students (and non-students on the edge of campus) opposed and even
resented the new thinking that was taking hold: it looked to them as if the
hippies, liberals, and maybe, even communists were taking over the campus.
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The Cyprus Tree Still Stands by the
Old Student Union |
This event started at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 15 when a 22-year-old
man, a former student not enrolled at U of A that spring semester because of
financial difficulties, climbed up into a tree and vowed to stay there until
noon on Friday, April 18th. He put in place a crude platform middle way
up the sprawling Cyprus tree located in front of the Arkansas Student Union
building and he brought with him some supplies (he vowed to consume only water
and bread during his time in the tree) and a utility bucket.
Before his trip up to his perch in the tree, the man,
Stephen R. Pollard Jr., nailed a handwritten message to the tree trunk to
explain what he was doing and why. His explanation was partly a New Age message
and partly political. In his Age of Aquarius mode, Pollard wrote that he was
“totally disgusted in a world where there is no love between people” and that
he had decided to “make this small stand to emphasize my beliefs. Being in this
tree symbolizes, to me, an escape from the humanity into the world of
nature.” He concluded, “I sincerely hope
that my actions will inspire the University of Arkansas population to take note
of the world situation and forget their selfishness and quest for personal
gains and strive for a better world for all.”
Addressing political issues, Pollard wrote that he totally
disagreed with United States involvement in Vietnam, with the policies of the
military-industrial complex, and with the presence of military training on the
U of A campus. He also said he was opposed to discriminating against minority
groups in the country.
That morning of Tuesday, March 15th, I had to be in
the Student Union at about 8:30 a.m. for a meeting concerning student elections
to be held on Thursday. I walked sleepily by the Cyprus tree, noticing nothing
unusual. Little did I know what was about to happen there.
The guy in the tree did not remain undiscovered for long. By
midmorning, word was spreading about him, and curious students were trooping
over take a look. Coincidently, that morning
a group of about 30 student protesters had assembled on the lawn in front of
Old Main where Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets were doing their
weekly drills (at the time ROTC was still mandatory for all male freshmen and sophomores).
The protestors did a bunch of silly things on the periphery of where the cadets
were marching, including playing croquet to distract cadets. Only one of interfered directly with the ROTC
activities
The group announced that on Thursday it would have a picnic
in front of the library to protest mandatory ROTC. A student advisory vote on mandatory ROTC
participation was scheduled as part of a student election to be held on
Thursday.
As reporters got word about the guy in the tree, they
quizzed university officials about what they were going to do. Dean of Students William F. Denman told them,
citing university regulations, that Pollard would not be removed from the tree
as long as he did nothing obstructive.
That day I spent some time at the tree in the late afternoon
and early evening, stopping by as I was going to the library. Lots of students
were passing by or milling around. Like me, some were curious about what the
heck was happening. Some were cheered by the spectacle and supportive of
Pollard: more than forty people signed and posted to the tree a proclamation
agreeing with his message. Other students
were cynical (one noted, eyeing the crowd: what a place for a guy to go if he
wants to escape humanity). Apparently, although I did not notice it at the
time, some people were angered by what was going on and were plotting ways to disrupt
it.
Later in the evening, the darker side of the campus emerged.
Newspaper accounts of Tuesday night told
of two different incidents. The first one involved a jeering group of about 50
people who surrounded the tree and about ten of Pollard’s supporters, shouting
derogatory and threatening remarks at them, and throwing eggs, bottles, and
water-filled balloons.
A second, more dangerous, event came later, after midnight when
about 20 persons, “apparently not students” (according to the Arkansas Gazette) arrived and
threatened Pollard’s life. Four of them, with knives, ran to the tree and
started trying to climb it. One made it high enough to cut a rope holding some
supplies. However, two separate newspapers reported, a student who identified
himself as an athlete, who had climbed the tree to talk to Pollard, stopped the
attack on Pollard. The campus newspaper reported that one person was cut with a
knife, though it did not identify who. Apparently, this threat ended when the city
and campus police arrived and the would-be assailants quickly left the scene.
After what happened Tuesday night, University administrators
decided that Pollard would not be permitted to stay in the tree. The university
issued a statement calling the situation dangerous, and said that it had
information from UA faculty members that an attempt would be made Wednesday
night to forcibly remove Pollard from the tree. Also it reported receiving anonymous
telephone calls threatening Pollard. The
university statement said the situation on Tuesday night was one in which “a
clear and impending threat was presented to the safety of individuals.”
Throughout Wednesday, large numbers of students continued to
congregate around the Cyprus tree to support, heckle, or simply watch what was
going on. Those there at about 3:00 p.m. saw Dean Denman climb into the tree to
ask Pollard to leave the tree. Pollard replied that he could not in good
conscience leave unless he was removed by legal authorities.
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Pollard descends the Tree on Wednesday, April 16.
The Police Officer holding the ladder is Wayne Stout |
After Denman returned to the ground, he filed a trespassing complaint
with city police, who arrived at about 5 p.m.
The two officers who came to the scene were Assistant Police Chief Wayne
Stout, the father of a childhood friend and Jefferson Elementary School
classmate, Larry Stout, and John Paul Davis. Officer Stout climbed up a ladder to get
nearer to Pollard to tell him that he was under arrest and order him to come
down from the tree. A picture by Ken
Good of Pollard descending the tree on a ladder with Stout watching him was on
the front page of the Northwest Arkansas
Times and the Arkansas Traveler,
plus on page 6A of the Arkansas Gazette.
After his arrest, Pollard was taken to the city police
department where he was booked for trespassing and released on $500 bail. Denman
explained that Pollard was removed from U of A property to forestall possible
injury or damage to university property. He said, “To our knowledge this was
our only recourse and it was his wish to be arrested….If there was any other
alternative we would have used it.”
Soon after Pollard came down from the tree, Joe Saunders, a
campus activist with long hair and one gold earring, climbed up to take Pollard’s
place in the tree and vowed that he would stay there “indefinitely.” He
explained “If I continue, it will at least look like there is support for what
Steve is doing…If I get hurt, it will just show what a messed-up place this
is.” University officials decided they
would not remove U of A students who chose to sit in the tree.
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| Dean of Students, William F. Denman |
Wednesday night was again tense. During the evening, until
around 1:00 a.m., about 250 supporters and onlookers were at the tree. About 30
supporters circled the tree to defend it. They sat singing songs “with a mixed
protest, patriotism and spiritual flavor” and talked among themselves and with
a people who the Arkansas Traveler called “agitators.” This later group yelled
at Saunders and his supporters. Some of them threw eggs, firecrackers, and a
smoke bomb toward the tree. Much of the crowd dispersed when rains came in the
early morning.
Thursday was a busy day around the tree. A student election
was being held, and large numbers of students came to the Student Union to cast
their votes for student officers and on the referendum concerning the
continuation of mandatory ROTC. Also,
the students protesting ROTC moved its picnic from another part of campus to
the tree because “it was easier to move the picnic than the tree.”
On Thursday afternoon, Saunders decided that he did not want
to spend another night in the tree, and climbed down from the tree at about 4
p.m. on Thursday. He told reporters he got out of the tree because he was
scared. He said he had heard threatening remarks made against him by some
people near the bottom of the tree and felt that organized groups on the campus
were out to get him: “I’m extremely paranoid,” Saunders said, adding that he
wasn’t interested in publicity and believed that 23 hours aloft had proven his
enthusiasm for Pollard’s position.
Saunders place in the tree was taken over by several
students who each went to the perch in the tree for an hour or two at a time.
The first shift in the tree was taken by John Little of Releigh, Miss., a
graduate assistant in the English Department and Tommy Snow, a student from
Mountain Home.
Little told a reporter, “We are here because we believe that
tree climbing is part of the American tradition….I believe that people ought to
be able to climb trees without bearing the brunt of any redneck who happens to
have a raw egg in his hands.”
Fred McCuiston, a student from Little Rock, took the second
shift after about an hour. He said he was “for a guy’s right to climb a tree –
to dissent.” Five other students were to follow him throughout the night and
the following morning.
At one point in early evening about 500 people were at the
tree. Again, some came to support, some to watch, and some to heckle. They listened
to a rock band, the American Music Festival that showed up to play in support
of the tree sitters. The band dedicated songs to “any suppressed people” on the
campus and to “that awful looking tree over there [the cypress].”
The spectators also saw “morality plays” put on by
supporters to entertain the audience. The final one had Pollard as the star. It
was a courtroom scene in which Pollard knelt before a bearded judge, who wore a
straw hat and pounded a gavel. The “judge” told Pollard “to stay out of any
tree you don’t want to be hung out of.”
Some of the crowd disappeared in early evening, when it came
time for the results of the student election to be announced. Usually the
results were read in the lobby of the student union, but because of tree
hubbub, the announcement was moved up the street to the lobby of the old
library.
Thursday night was mostly uneventful. However, it had a
little excitement, including the explosion of a firecracker attached to arrow
that was shot in the general area of the tree.
Also, at about 2:00 a.m. an unidentified person charged the tree and
climbed into the lower limbs, then ran away when campus security arrived. Cold
and rain caused the crowds to thin as time passed. Early Friday morning, a Northwest Arkansas Times reporter visited the site, finding two people
in the tree perch and two people sitting at the base of the tree.
As originally scheduled, the tree sitting ended at noon on
Friday when Pollard climbed up the tree a last time to disassemble the platform
he had pieced together and lower the boards, along with remaining supplies, to
the ground. He was the final person to descend from the tree, to the applause
of many of the 100 people watching from below. The observers were singing “We
shall overcome.”
Pollard argued that his actions had been an exercise of his
right to dissent. His critics said that his actions suggested that he was a
communist and that his protest was damaging to the country and to the
University’s “prestige around the country.”
An article in the Friday, April 18th edition of
the Arkansas Gazette had a story
headlined, “Students Using Techniques of Communists.” It quoted Rep. John
Ashbrook, a member of the House Committee on Internal Security, telling the 30th
annual meeting of the Freedom Forum at Harding College that “Student radicals
are creating campus disorders today by using a time-tested ‘confrontational’
technique that was perfected by Communists.”
In response to questions,
Pollard said he was not a Communist and was opposed to the Communist form of
government. He emphasized that he supported United States’ fighting men in
Vietnam, but not the policy that sent them there.
Pollard said he viewed the demonstration as a success:
It engendered emotions, good and
bad, among University students who I thought were apathetic towards very
important issues….It seemed to me before that the only emotions they knew were
laughing and crying.”
Pollard said he was gratified that students had openly
discussed the issues, both pro and con.
R. D. Rucker, a student from Newport, circulated a petition
requesting that the University drop trespassing charges against Pollard. The petitions, with about 300 signatures,
were presented on Friday morning to the University of Arkansas’ Office of
Student Affairs. The charges were not dropped, and on May 8th, Pollard
was convicted on trespassing. Judge V. James Ptak fined him $25 for the
offense, plus $13 costs. He gave him a 10 day suspended sentence. The fine and
costs were paid by coins and bills contributed by the 25 to 30 supporters of
Pollard who attended the trial.
For a while, Pollard was something of a campus celebrity,
but things soon turned bad for him. On December 4, 1970, he and his wife were
arrested by Fayetteville police on drug charges. Then, almost exactly two years
after his trespassing trial, on May 2, 1971, he was convicted of two serious
felony drug charges and give the maximum sentences for each: consecutive terms
of five and ten years in the state penitentiary (See Northwest Arkansas Times, May 3, 1971, p. 2).
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| Jo Martin, 1969 |
In the aftermath of this strange tree sitting event, some
students – like me – were a bit puzzled by what had happened, but were glad it
had. Most students, I think, were appalled by the attempts to harm Pollard and
his successors, and wondered who had done those things. Ultimately, I and my friends on campus were
glad that the voices of tolerance had won again on campus. Personally, I though
it all was quite a bit of fun that U or A had become a “happening place.”
Afterword: On
Thursday night, April 17, as a band played and hippies sang under the Cyprus
tree, the results of the student election were announced to a crowd of nicely dressed
students crammed into the entry hall of the old library. It was announced that
Jo Martin, an off campus student unaffiliated with a sorority, had been elected
president of Associated Students at U of A, defeating Tom Boe, a fraternity
member whose candidacy had been supported by the Greeks on campus. She was the
first female elected to that position.
Also students had voted in favor of a resolution calling for
the abolition of mandatory ROTC at the University of Arkansas.
Notes:
The summary of events at the Cyprus tree and all related quotes
were taken from the following newspaper articles:
Youth Settles in a
Tree as UA Students Protest Campus ROTC Program. April 16, 1969 (Wednesday), Arkansas
Gazette, p. 4A.
U of A’s Tree-Sitter
Removed by Police After Threats Made.
April 17, 1969 (Thursday). Arkansas
Gazette, p. 9A
Tree Sitter Ousted
From Perch, Charged by U of A Officials.
April 17, 1969 (Thursday). Northwest
Arkansas Times, pp. 1-2.
Brenda Blagg. April 16, 1969 [sic] (Thursday). Protester arrested by Police: Student Takes
Indefinite Perch. Arkansas Traveler,
pp. 1-2.
U of A’s Tree-Sitter
Removed by Police After Threats Made.
April 17, 1969 (Thursday). Arkansas Gazette, p.
Student Ends Vigil in
Tree, 2 Replace Him. April 18,
1969 (Friday). Arkansas Gazette, p. 13a
Cold, Rainy Weather
Cools Fervor of UA Tree Sitters. April
18, 1969 (Friday). Northwest Arkansas
Times, p. 1.
Four-Day ‘Perch-In” a
U of A End; Originator Says Project a Success. April 19, 1969 (Saturday). Arkansas Gazette, p. 2A
