Last year I was executive producer of a project to interview 40 people involved with student strikes at San Francisco State, the longest lasting in American history and a culmination of black, white, Asian Native American and Latino student organizations for the creation of a college of Ethnic Studies, among other demands.

We never made it to 40 people, and knew from the start we could spend years conducting interviews on the strike which happened between November 1968 and March 1969. We never made it all the way through the finish line but what is included here in stories, interviews, video and timeline of events is still a good reflection of what happened in that most insane of years which was 1968.

Below are interviews I did which may not have made it to the timeline, including Black Student Union president Benny Stewart, among others.

Benny Stewart, chairman of the Black Student Union during the strike

Stewart describes the first day of the strike

A year earlier, Black Student Union members rushed the student newspaper offices and assaulted paper staff.

Stewart describes the mass bust, a day when hundreds of students were arrested by police

Stewart recalls Nov, 20, 1968, the day when…

Stewart recalls Nov. 14, 1968, a few days after the start of the strike

Alma Maxwell, a woman and member of Black Student Union

Maxwell talks about the mass bust, a day when hundreds of students were arrested by police

April 4, 1968 Alma Maxwell

Maxwell laughs for nearly a minute after hearing that former school president S.I. Hayakawa is dead

Jules Allen

Kitty Kelly Epstein from Khari Johnson on Vimeo.

Jerry Wethimer from Khari Johnson on Vimeo.

Austin Long-Scott from Khari Johnson on Vimeo.

Bill Owens takes only pictures as Black Student Union members beat up student newspaper staff from Khari Johnson on Vimeo.