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Counterculture at KU

By Compiled by Jonathan Leyser

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

The 1950s

The first oppositional culture The term “beatnik” was applied to non-conformists, including then-KU students Ron Pine and Wayne Propst.

“We beatniks weren’t radical, we were just aware of the ridiculous standards in society,” says Pine.

In 1954, 5 out of 38 restaurants in Lawrence served to African Americans.

“Kansas, in the 1950s, was extremely conforming, dreary, drab and prude. All you had to do was, like, wear pink socks and people said, ‘Oh my God, pink socks,’” Wayne mocks.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation watched the beatniks, who were criticized for integrating members of different races, sexual orientations and genders. The state government assured residents that they would clear the “weird people” out of Lawrence.

The 1960sThe ’60s introduced KU as a countercultural Mecca.

Hippies The Gaslight Tavern — now the Memorial Union Parking Garage — and the Rock Chalk Café — now The Crossing — was the headquarters of the Hippies, or the “street people” as they were known in Lawrence. The Rock Chalk sold “Fascist Pig Burgers” for 35 cents.

A National Marijuana Phenomena

Throughout town and along the Kaw River, fields of marijuana grew like sunflowers. Maps to the lush fields were sold at the Rock Chalk, the Gaslight and head shops throughout town. The seedy “K-pot” harvest was smoked throughout the country. CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired a special on the “Kaw Valley Hemp Pickers,” and the nation watched scenes of “hemp” harvesters in action.

The director of the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Noxious Weeds Division reported that there were 52,050 acres of marijuana in the state in 1968.

As word about Lawrence spread, Hippies and wayward freaks alike migrated to farms and communes throughout town to cultivate real rural hippidom.

Hair grew long, protests became crowded, LSD became as common as a keg.

March 1965, 100 students had a sit-in at then-Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe’s office to protest racial exclusion on campus and to force The University Daily Kansan to stop racist advertisements.

The introduction of the Vietnam War started a more radicalized and popularized counterculture.

In 1967 “TIME” magazine named the Youth, 25 and Under, the “Man of The Year.” The youth were taking over the country from college campuses.

Like fire, revolt spread and burned through social boundaries and across the dry prairie.

Female students at the University had a mandatory requirement of three years in the residence halls, a 10:30 p.m. curfew, a restriction from all parking privileges and a mandatory annual course in lady’s edict and manners.

In 1960 then-Chancellor E. Lawrence Chalmers refused a demand by the Black Student Union to crown a black homecoming queen during the halftime of the Kansas-Iowa football game. From the University — the heartland — a radical-activist pulse pumped activism to bodies throughout the nation.

The movement, which had begun to change the world, was the result of local action at college campuses like this one.

The 1970s

As the Vietnam War raged overseas, aftershocks were felt down Oread Avenue. The town and University were in turmoil. The activists armed themselves with guns, firebombs and rage — temporarily turning Lawrence into a war zone. In 1970 alone, the Union was burned down in April, the Military Science building stoned in May and the Computation Lab bombed in December. The National Guard came in to help local law enforcement control the town-in-resist. Rick “Tiger” Dowdell, 19-year-old active member of the black-rights community, fled down an alley and was shot in the back of the head by Officer William Garret. In response, 18-year-old freshman Nick Rice was shot and killed. The ignored African-American community had an armed response in East Lawrence and student activists turned the University’s surrounding area into an armed camp. The Oread neighborhood became a true “Student Ghetto.” Students lined alleys with barbed wire and piano wire to keep the police out. From rooftops, student snipers shot the tires of police cars.

“Police cars would drive through with their headlights off, and they would still get shot at,” recalls 1970s student activist Christine Smith. She says she was shocked to see her friends carrying guns. Then-Kansas Governor Robert Docking implemented a sundown curfew on all residents.

KU graduate Lorraine Hilleary-Alber remembers hearing a recording made during the riots: Her father and a friend blasted Silent Night on their electric guitars, and gunshots rang in the background.

In August 1970, Richard Nixon’s political commission on campus unrest sent a team to “investigate the sources of violence and unrest in Lawrence,” which lasted full-force through the end of 1971.

On February 7, 1972, CJ Brune and her friend Christine Smith participated in one of the most effective and important events for women’s rights at the University. A total of 30 women occupied the East Asian Studies building, previously just south of Corbin Hall, chain-locking the doors and demanding essential rights for female students. Thirteen hours and countless negotiations later, the University agreed to meet their demands with offers including an affirmative action negotiation team, free childcare, a women’s studies program, women’s healthcare, female staff on the financial aid committee and basic equality for women. The group of women were named “The February Sisters,” and none faced any reprimand from University.

“We took over a building and all of a sudden people started listening to us — and we were women! This is power! This what its all about! This is how you change things in this world!” CJ Brune says.

see history from the 1980s and 1990s on page 10A

The 1980s

Burroughs In 1981, infamous counterculture author William S. Burroughs moved to Lawrence. He brought a countercultural rebirth, minus activism, reviving members from the various decades and countercultural movements. People such as David Ohle and Rusty L. Monhhollon resurfaced and wrote books to document local oppositional cultures. Once again, Lawrence oppositional culture gained national awareness.

Wayne Propst also reemerged as friend and chef of Burroughs. Propst built mock-weapons for Burroughs, most notably a cannon that shot bowling balls.

“Burroughs just came out here so he could go shoot his damn gun,” Propst says.

Burroughs attracted international countercultural icons to town, including Timothy Leary, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Kurt Cobain, Steve Buscemi and Allen Ginsberg. Some performed while in town.

To many, Lawrence has become known as “the place where Burroughs lived.”

Beginnings of punk

The country was blinded by a brief strobe of disco that burned out the radical culture of the ’70s, but soon the original punk was revealed, which engaged in struggles against authority. The punks went to the The Outhouse — now the Out House, a B.Y.O.B. strip club at 1837 N. 1500 Rd. — where hardcore punk shows raged on every weekend.

The 1990s

Punk The ’90s brought a popularized punk revival to Lawrence. The much younger “new punk” engaged in struggles against mediocrity and tried to shock the society they couldn’t fit into.

Punks went to shows at the Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts St., or The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. — but the real, “hardcore punks” went to punk houses like the Pirate House.

The Pirate House was the house for wild punk parties, and “hardcore” shows were held every weekend.

“It was do-it-yourself touring, and we were do-it-yourself punks,” says Pirate House couch-crasher Chris Kellogg.

From the groudy punk scene emerged the anarchists, a more organized and active offshoot. They garrisoned the Pirate House and renamed it the Joe Hill House, transitioning it from a punk party house into a sober organizing space.

The leftover punks opened a new punk house that they called the Haunted Kitchen.

There was a silent tension between the Haunted Kitchen’s thrill-seeking, party-living punks and the too-busy-organizing-to-party, ex-punk anarchists. They stayed out of each others’ spaces.

Ailecia Ruscin describes 1990s Lawrence counterculture as “breaking away from our parents models of success, to real fun — not homogenized consumer-oriented fun.” The anarchists slowly became Lawrence’s most unified and radical movement since the ’70s.

Arming themselves with their bikes, they participated in Critical Mass, which met monthly to ride in the streets occupying entire lanes, proclaiming their rights to the road. The group brought together like-minded locals, riding together into the beginnings of Solidarity.

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