Did Eric Holder Participate in ‘Armed’ Occupation of Columbia ROTC Office?

[UncleBeer 244]

The story in brief:

The Daily Caller is reporting that the nation’s highest-ranking law enforcement official, Attorney General Eric Holder, participated in what has been described by some as an “armed” takeover of Columbia University’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) office in 1970.

Apparently Holder was one of the leaders of the Student Afro-American Society (SAAS) that demanded the abandoned ROTC center be transformed into the “Malcom X Lounge.”

Holder described the five-day event during a 2010 commencement speech: “[several] of us took one of our concerns — that black students needed a designated space to gather on campus — to the Dean [of Freshmen]’office. This being Columbia, we proceeded to occupy that office.”

Holder, however, recalls the event as being “peaceful.”

The Daily Caller continues:

The details of the student-led occupation, including the claim that the raiders were “armed,” come from

a deleted Web page of the Black Students’ Organization (BSO) at Columbia

, a

successor group to the SAAS

.

Contemporary newspaper accounts

in The Columbia Daily Spectator, a student newspaper,

did not mention weapons.

[...]

Though

then-Dean Carl Hovde declared the occupation of the Naval ROTC office illegal

and said it violated university policy,

the college declined to prosecute

any of the students involved. This decision may have been made

to avoid a repeat of violent Columbia campus confrontations between police and members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1968.

The ROTC headquarters was

ultimately renamed the Malcolm X lounge

as the SAAS organization demanded. It

later became a hang-out spot for another future U.S. leader, Barack Obama

, according to David Maraniss’ best-selling ”

Barack Obama: The Story

.” [Emphasis added]

The story's worth posting here for two reasons: First, this awesome picture of Holder back in the day:

And also so I can repeat this phrase from the story:

The ROTC headquarters was ultimately renamed the Malcolm X lounge

The Malcom X lounge! Whadya think Malcolm would have thought of a lounge at an Ivy-league schooled being named after him!

[Jacque67 7,328]

Eric Holder looks hot.

As for Malcolm X I am sure he is glad of the honour, especially at the means needed to create it.