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Mifflin Street Block Party has political roots By Allison Geyer The Daily Cardinal
Each year on the first Saturday in May, overworked students put down their books and grab a beer at the Mifflin Street Block Party. The annual celebration is one of Madison’s most anticipated events, but few students know the full, politically charged history of the event. The party dates back to May 3, 1969, a time when both the university and the nation were embroiled in the controversy of the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam. The graduate students, who mostly populated the “Miffland” neighborhood at the time, harbored an “intense opposition to the war” and a “blatant disregard for authority,” according to former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin. Soglin was the district’s alder
in 1969. This counterculture community was the center of Madison’s antiwar movement during the Vietnam War. “The week before the block party, three or four students said, ‘Let’s have a block party in celebration of a beautiful spring day and our politics,’” Soglin said. Soglin said he inquired about a permit for the event, but was told by the city, “just have a block party— put up barricades and have it.” “That’s how it was done all over the city for 40 years,” he said. “There was no permit—nothing.” The Madison Police Depar tment disagreed. According to then Chief Wilbur Emery, the party represented “a challenge to the city” and “could not be condoned.” Mifflanders began gathering just before noon on the 500 block
Photo Courtesy of Mickey Pfleger
A young woman struggles as Madison police officers arrest her at the second annual Mifflin Street Block Party in April 1970.
Panel analyzes options to curb drinking on campus By Kelsey Gunderson The Daily Cardinal
City and campus officials discussed their visions for reducing alcohol consumption among students at a panel about the UW-Madison drinking culture Wednesday. Assistant Dean of Students Ervin Cox said the drinking habits of students at UW-Madison stem from cultural norms that encourage alcohol consumption, such as football gamedays and the high number of bars surrounding campus. “It’s an embarrassing problem where half the students are not in the student section at kickoff,” he
said. “It’s more about the drinking here than it is about football.” He said to change this culture, UW-Madison officials and students need to implement programs that send out a message discouraging alcohol consumption such as the “show and blow” program at football games and mandatory alcohol classes for incoming freshmen. Austin Buerosse, the UW-Madison student representative to the the city’s Alcohol License Review Committee, said panel page 3
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PART 1 OF 2
Photo Courtesy of Mickey Pfleger
Students celebrate the first annual Mifflin Street Block Party in May 1969, during the anti-war movement of the Vietnam War. The block party resulted in violence and three days of rioting. of West Mifflin. Bands set up on porches, residents set out stereos and a party of a few hundred people started to gather, according to The Capital Times. A few hours into the party, then-MPD Inspector Herman Thomas arrived with about 20 officers dressed in full riot gear, ready to take back the block from the students. “We’re going down there, you stay behind me, and we’re going to crack some skulls,” Thomas was later quoted as saying, according to Soglin. There was no question as to who incited the violence: Film shot during the riot indicates the police initiated the violence, Soglin said. Officers occupied the middle of the street and began to arrest people who were dancing. As the police arrested more students, the crowd resisted. Fueled by anger, outrage, tear gas and nightsticks, a full-scale riot encompassed Mifflin, the Southeast residence halls, State Street and the Langdon Street areas by 8 p.m. and lasted for three days, Soglin said. “It was more than the police
bargained for,” said Soglin, who was one of more than 100 people arrested that day. He said it was one of the first major riots on UW-Madison’s campus. According to Soglin, Citizens wearing white armbands arrived at the scene of the confrontation on the final days of the riots. Among them was Shirley Abrahamson, who went on to become chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. “The students got some com“Instead of worrying about comparisons between then and now, if I were a student, I would focus on current issures and what’s important.” Paul Soglin former mayor city of Madison
fort in the fact that people from the community were there to witness what was going on,” Soglin said. “In some way, it did force the police to show more restraint and contributed to the winding down
of the riots.” Riots consumed the downtown area until Monday, May 5, when the students “basically declared victory and stopped,” Soglin said. Mifflin Street residents continued to hold the block party for most of the duration of the Vietnam War. In 1982, the Mifflin Street Co-op provided the block party’s first official sponsorship, which lasted until 1991. By the time the co-op declined to sponsor the event, Mifflin had lost much of its roots as a protest. Critics of the event say the party has become more about binge drinking than promoting social change. Soglin agrees, but encourages students not to compare current activism to what happened in the ’60s. “Instead of worrying about comparisons between then and now, if I were a student, I would focus on current issues and what’s important,” Soglin said. “There’s no college campus today that has the degree of activism that it did 40 years ago. But it’s still one of the outstanding campuses and always will be.”
Southeast campus area vending map approved By Alison Bauter The Daily Cardinal
The Madison Vending Oversight Committee met Wednesday to adjust vendor rights for upcoming Madison events, discuss late-night vending area changes and approve the southeast campus area’s vending map. The committee began by passing all motions regarding adjustments to vendor rights, designed to facilitate continued vending during upcoming festivals such as Maxwell Street Days and Art Fair on the Square. The committee also moved to work more closely with Madison festivals to avoid past problems concerning issues of overlapping
space and time. “I think this will work as an alternative to some of the clashes we’ve had,” Warren Hansen, Madison’s street vending coordinator, said. The committee also considered altering site assignments for late-night vending carts. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said Broom Street restaurants complained that late-night vendors competed for parking spaces, impeded traffic and illegally used area Dumpsters, which adversely affected their businesses. The committee discussed allowing only small carts on the street while relegating all but one or two large carts to the
Library Mall area as a solution to these problems. They also encouraged late-night vendors, as well as concerned businesses, to attend next month’s meeting to air their concerns. The committee also discussed approval of the southeast campus area vending map to have a plan in place for vending prior to this weekend’s Mifflin Street Block Party. Verveer raised the question of possible additional vending near the Kohl Center and the University Avenue-North Lake Street intersection near the Fluno Center. “It’s awkward that we don’t vending page 3
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”