The Strawberry Statement: Riots At Columbia State University

The Strawberry Statement is based on the riots that occurred at Columbia State University in 1968. The writer, James Simon Kunen, was in fact one of the main participants in these riots that happened due to the fact of the injustices of the world. The black community had an uproar about the certain actions that the university decided to take, which led to them taking over one-hundred buildings and starting riots. Kunen wrote The Strawberry Statement when he was a nineteen-year-old sophomore in college. He mentions that he wrote the book on napkins, hitchhiking sings, and cigarette packs, since he forgot things easily. Kunen believed to be a strong supporter of everything, but he did not trust people considering that segregation was an enormous problem. As he states on page 5, “We’re unhappy because of the war, and because of poverty and the

Kunen makes evident of the segregation when he writes, “I start to go off the campus but then remember to turn and walk two blocks uptown to get to the only open gate” (19). Remarking that they were only allowed to go out of one gate to not be close to the white students. These things were added to the anger of the students towards the university and their officials. As the students of Columbia State University took off to riot, they stumbled upon countless amount of enemies. Three of the biggest groups that had the greatest power were the police, college administrators, and anti-revolutionary Americans. At the beginning of the riot, the cops were not doing much about the riots. Mostly the administration was the one telling the students that they were going to go to jail and get expelled. This is made evident when Kunen says, “After about five minutes of gritting our teeth it dawns on us that the cops aren’t doing anything” (24). After realizing that the cops were not there to carry them out, they relaxed but continued their sit in and fight for