Fifty years ago, tens of thousands of Yale students, civil rights activists, professors, Black Panther Party leaders, and community members gathered on the New Haven Green. Denouncing the arrest of Black Panther Party New Haven chapter leader Ericka Huggins, national chairman Bobby Seale, and others, the Panthers called on supporters nationwide to come to New Haven on May Day 1970 to protest the trials. Yale became a focal point for demonstrators who wanted to free the Panthers and for those who opposed the Vietnam War and were angry with institutions slow to act on matters of racial and gender inequality.
During the May Day 1970 weekend demonstrations in New Haven, Dwight Hall was the epicenter of student planning and response to the events on the New Haven Green.