up next on a second look. unrest in the bay area. it is a decade's old tradition from college campuses back in the 60s to the streets of san francisco in the 70s. also we'll take you to this scene in 1960 where some say it all began. all straight ahead on a second look. hello everyone i'm frank somerville. the recent occupy protest are just the latest chapter in the bay area's long history of

popular movements seeking change. back in the 60s, much of the unrest was centered at college campuses. in san francisco state, the debate went on day after day. >> reporter: 1968 anti war protests converge on the nation colleges and universities. stanford and especially berkeley gain national fame but nowhere did turmoil hit harder than san francisco state. in may 1968, students took over the administration building. >> i'm not sure what our next step is. we're going to clear this building for the moment.

>> sanctions on campus begin to polarize. >> i was a supporter of the war and a supporter of the movement. it was hard for me to see people under that banner attacking me. >> reporter: early in 68, san francisco state had began and experimental studies. >> we felt the revolution was here, and we were going to have it here. and people were taking sides. >> reporter: but in the fall, blacks studies department suffers cut backs. in november the black student union calls a strike. 300 teachers join in and 5.5 months of turmoil begin. the campus is closed. classes cancelled. >> i'll stand up regardless of how effective i'm going to be. i'm going to stand up and

protest. >> reporter: a lot of people feel caught in the middle. including the then dean. >> i felt that my job as dean was to try to keep the house together. trying to keep those on strike and at least talking with those that are inside. and try to think ahead at a time when the strike was over and we had to put this place back together. i don't think i succeeded very well. >> i think people could move into a less exposed area. i'm not trying to bug you. i just think this is a confrontation situation and it always is bad. if we don't have to do it. most campus administrators are reluctant to call city

police. but the change of president awakawa changed everything. >> what it did is change the management of the university over to the san francisco police department. >> it was bigger than the police department. they had bigger club, bigger guns and bigger helmets. they would stand there and hit the black students. they would do it as hard as they could. i could not believe it. >> two or three shots into the air. and it was what i could hear a blank gun. >> we had 600 police here on campus. we had a battle out here between faculty members beating up each other right here in the courthouse. we had gunfire by a policeman and one fired at them. >> i look for a reduction in

tension but if there's no reduction in tension there will be no reduction in force. >> reporter: awikawa soon became a hero. the man who stood up to rioters and he gained support. some say it was a skillfully planned attempt. he rode his newfound fame. he died last year at the age of 85. tempeny is still with the san

francisco university. marvin blare started the think thank in san francisco where he writes the struggles of african americans. the protest at san francisco city hall that some say set the stage for the big protest. it's a big fight over a small plot of land. how the battle for people's park set the stage for a long demonstration. and that coffee... or we could put it on the patio for watching the game with the guys. or in the kitchen? but, these curtains are... i can't believe you moved the tv. it's like a whole new living room. it actually is a whole new living room. [ male announcer ] the new wireless receiver, only from at&t. now get u-verse with dvr at the lowest price ever. at&t.

may 13, 1960 is not a date underlined in many textbooks but what happened this afternoon forever changed the political and landscape look of the bay area. >> reporter: the 1960s were a time of revolt and revulsion and often of violence. turned father against son and

create add gathering sense that the very fabric of society was becoming unraveled. where did it all start? it started on the streets outside of san francisco city hall. the house on americans activity committee had come to town to investigate alleged communist subversion. communists believed communists had secretly infiltrated the universities, and media. these were the days of the civil war. demonstrators in the streets saw this congressional crusade as a paranoid witch hunt. powered by forces that wanted to disagree with them, everyone to the left of center. >> there were plenty of national communists. they had a newspaper that was published in san francisco

called the new world. it was a well known political organization. i think the problem was that there were also some people who were underground as communists and they were afraid that if they were truthful about their political point of view they would lose their jobs. so they hid their true position of things and that created some confusion and difficulty. marshal krausse today a retired marine came to washington, d.c. hoping to get inside the hall to see what huwack was doing. they were told the hall was full and no one would be admitted after a pass. but after lunch admission would be first come first served. >> so then we came back after lunch and the students were again shut out they were not allowed to go into that committee room and witness what

was happening. so they sat down and they started singing a song that had just become popular then, "we shall overcome ] . " one of the members started screaming. >> open the doors, open the doors. >> reporter: the marshals took brown away. the students were repeatedly told to keep the noise down and warned that there would be consequences if he didn't. that isn't how marshal krauss remembers it. >> i was there and i didn't hear them being told to stay quiet or stop disturbing the peace of anything of the sort. i saw the san francisco police start rolling out the fire

hoses from the city hall spiggots and turning them on at the students. i saw the students washed down. >> reporter: marshall krauss tried to inter intervene. >> i went to the officers and said, wait a minute, you did not warn these studentsful all they were doing was sitting and singing a song. and all of a sudden, i became the target. they just pushed me down the steps. >> terrence hellen was also among the protesters that afternoon. he says the police response was uncalled for. >> there was certainly no provocation in the sense that people were endangering the building or trying to break

down the doors. some people were pounding on the door. some people were shouting and were angry about the fact that the crowd that had been waiting there all day was not being admitted and these other people were being admitted. i remember that everybody was completely shocked that they turned the hoses on. it kind of didn't make any sense, especially in san francisco. >> reporter: images like these would become familiar. but it was shocking to see bay area youngsters pushed down and pushed and shoved downstairs. on the other side, an older generation were surprised to see youngsters going against authority. it was the beginning of the

generational gap. but people believe that the world is better today for what happened that day. >> it basically killed hewack. they recruited to washington and never returned to washington that day. i don't think they ever had another public hearing after that. in a short while they seized functioning. >> communist witch hunts now are something that people understand is not going to happen again in the united states. and they understand that even though there are decenters in our society, our society is strong enough to carry on and do its job as a government and as a civilization. even with decent. >> people who were there remember it as a turning point in their lives and in the life of the nation. >> when we come back on a second look, its name has become synonymous with

tumultous debate. the people's park.

back in the turbulent days of the mid-60s, one area seemed to bring controversy. >> reporter: with then anti vietnam movement in full throttle, people responded to an ad in the underground newspaper the berkeley ard. the paper called for people to take hold of a piece of land. >> there was enough space that they could go ahead and do it. >> reporter: but the university said it planned to use the space for a sports field. ordered the people out and put

up no trespassing signs. in 1969, he was captain of the police. he said this garden of eden has become a magment for drugs and crime. >> finally the university decided it's time to do something about it. >> reporter: that something was to build a 10-foot high chain fence around the area. >> people were putting the fence up. >> reporter: dan siegel is the attorney and president of the oakland school board but back in 1969 he was uc berkeley body president. he urged the 4,000 people there to take back the park. >> people then started to drift down telegraph avenue toward people's park. they ran into the police barricade set up at telegraph and haste. some people through rocks or bottles. the police started throwing tear gas and then the riot was on. >> these officers were afraid.

they were really being hurt,. >> the conflict over a patch of dirt became a war. then governor ronald reagan sent in 2,000 national guard troops. and as they rolled through downtown berkeley, even little children flashed the peace sign. >> the heavy handed response seemed to only inflame the very situation authorities were trying to quell. there was so much tear gas in the air no matter where you were in oakland or what you were doing it found you. >> i was trying to give a midterm examination yesterday. and the gas drifted in. i suppose from this gas delivered by helicopter. >> naturally the law enforcement officers were attacked by the mob. literally overrun, a number of them isolated by the mobs that stomped on them. >> reporter: people at the time thought it looked like a siege.

but while the tear gas may have seemed harsh enough it was nothing compared to the shotguns the sheriff's deputies and police were using. one man watching from a near by rooftop was shot and killed another man was blinded. sheriff deputies say the officers had the wrong ammunition. >> they were loaded with bird shots. somebody has buck shot. they were throwing' bar and concrete down at the officers and they shot them and killed them. and of course that didn't help law enforcement side out much. >> we thought the cops were totally outrageous. definitely deserved being called pigs. >> reporter: by the end of may of that year the dispute began to cool. marchs became peaceful and by early june the national guard troops withdrew. in the end 169 people were injured including dozens of law

enforcement officers. more than a thousand arrested. >> i was very much involved in the anti war movement at that time. my main objective in life was trying to bring an end to the war in vietnam. and people's park at the time seemed a little bit of a side show to me. but here i was right in the middle of this event accused of inciting to riot. >> segel stood trial in that incident. he was not charged. years later there would be more confrontation such as when the university wanted to build volleyball courts here. >> i am not too sure if berkeley students are really interested in these kind of issues. they're more interested in getting jobs after graduation. >> reporter: but the university decided to build a park not

building dorms like some had advocates. this is a piece of property that still invokes the movement.

it was nearly a quarter century ago that one of the most emotional battles in san francisco came to ahead. police officers and sheriff's deputies evicted the last elderly residents of international hotel. 20 years later in 1997 a march marked the anniversary of that day and ktvu's john sasaki was there. >> reporter: thousands joined to remember the elderly who were forced out of international hotel in 1967. san francisco police and sheriff's deputies entered the i hotel to enforce a court

order evicting the tenants who were filipino and chinese immigrants. one man talked today about what the protest was like 20 years ago. >> when i was here it was like, it was a human barricade there was a lot of spirit among the people. they were young people, old people, lawyers, attorneys, doctors, all we were all over here forming a human barricade. >> the eviction came after a nine year battle over the fate of the building. the tenants and many supporters had managed to stop the court

order. >> it was a steppingstone again to protecting the rights of the poor. protecting the tenants have rights advocates housing for everyone and seniors. >> reporter: eight years after john filing that report, ktvu's rita williams was at the site again this time to cover the opening of a new affordable housing project. 18 years after the original building was torn down. here is her report. >> reporter: it's a brand new 15 story apartment building at kernie and jackson street but it's so much more. >> we're just delighted that the new international hotel has been reborn. >> reporter: this new international hotel is a symbol of an almost four decade long struggle to keep affordable housing in downtown san francisco. >> the international hotel that was the last stand and people

took a stand and decided enough was enough. >> reporter: this was that last stand, august 4, 1977 when police and sheriff's deputies forcefully evicted protesters and the last of the ten in tenants from the old i hotel. it was not pretty. >> they just came in and they just came at me trying to choke me. >> reporter: for almost a decade supporters of the i hotel, the the last of three single room occupancy hotels was being torn down. protesters portrayed it as the money hungry landlord throwing filipino and chinese senior citizens on to the streets. >> no evictions, we won't go. >> reporter: with the tenants evicted the developer demolished the building but for

26 years the lot remained vacant as i hotel supporters tried to rebuild it. now with the catholic charities charities charities landlords they have. welcome to the new i hotel complete with 16 one bedroom units, 88 studios. in all 104 units have low income senior housing. >> we have over 7,500 applications which is a symbol of the need for affordable housing in san francisco. >> reporter: former tenants will get priority for the apartments, with the best views of the city. >> that's all the time we have tonight. i'm frank somerville. we'll see you again next week.