The Campus Community for New Politics—an outgrowth of Ramparts editor Robert Scheer’s left-wing Congressional primary earlier in the year—printed and distributed this flyer in support of the 1966 Oakland public schools boycott.
The riots at Castlemont High School in East Oakland in the fall had a predictable precipitating incident: the assault of a young black woman by an Oakland police officer. The rioting was relatively small-scale in comparison with Watts or even Hunters Point, but Oakland’s reputation ensured that it received nationwide coverage regardless.
In the wake of embarrassing stories about the riots and the boycott, the Ad Hoc Committee for Quality Education became a prime target for blame by city officials. The Ad Hoc Committee continued to draw support, though, from its New Left allies in Berkeley, such as Scheer’s organization, which enlisted people to bring supplies and donations in support of the boycott and the freedom schools which offered an alternative to Oakland’s public schools.
