Yesterday (April 9th), SDS staged a successful walk-out of the University-sponsored memorial service to honor Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated on April 4th. Thanks to those who organized and participated!

Mark Rudd, SDS Chairman, took control of the pulpit during remarks by Provost Truman, to remind the administration and the student body of the hypocrisy of the university. Columbia supports systematic mistreatment of blacks and workers, two groups MLK Jr. spent his life protecting. King was also an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War.

After Rudd spoke, he and forty other students walked-out of the chapel.

SDS will not sit by and allow the administration to lie. We are supported not just by many students and faculty, but by the clergy who organized the service. The administration can be angry, they can call us “Nazis”, but we will not stop and we will not back down.