Volume 4 No 1 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

106 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:89
ginia Gildersleeve had recently declared that students were “free to agitate,”
but only off campus. Dean Gildersleeve had introduced Barnard Italian professor
Peter Riccio at a ceremony in New York in which Fascist Italy’s
consul-general bestowed a medal on him. Gildersleeve reacted dismissively
to pickets protesting Riccio’s pro-Fascist statements outside the hall. 52
On October 7, Burke’s backers staged a mock trial of President Butler,
his administration, and the Columbia trustees for expelling Burke and “willfully
undermining the liberties of Columbia students.” The panel of judges
included professor Reinhold Niebuhr of Union Theological Seminary; playwright
Maxwell Anderson; actor Burgess Meredith, who performed the lead
role in Anderson’s play Winterset; and Columbia Spectator editor-in-chief
Thomas Jones. Burke himself appeared as a witness on his own behalf. The
audience, which included more than 300 students, “roundly applauded” his
summary of the case. The defense attorney, “to prove that [President] Butler’s
actions were not malicious,” summoned witnesses to show “how frequently
he had erred in the past.” The prosecution “conceded the point.”
Burgess Meredith announced to the audience the judges’ unanimous verdict
of guilty for Butler and all the other defendants. 53
On the night of October 8, Burke’s supporters began regular picketing
of President Butler’s home for 12 hours—from 9:00 p.m. until 9:00 a.m.—
in what they called “a death watch for academic freedom.” The first night’s
picketing took place during the annual dinner of the Men’s Faculty Club,
located next to Butler’s residence. As the dinner neared its end, the pickets
divided into two groups, one remaining at Butler’s home and the other taking
up positions at the Faculty Club entrance. The Columbia Spectator
reported that “the Faculty members and their wives, in dinner clothes, were
greeted as they left the building by Burke, dressed in a sweatshirt and bearing
a sign, ‘Fight for Burke.’ ” Butler was dining there that evening, and
when he spotted Burke near the front entrance as he was leaving, he withdrew
to the rear of the club and exited there. 54
With the ACLU’s full backing, Burke filed a lawsuit for reinstatement
early in the fall semester. Arthur Garfield Hays argued that because the
plaintiff had “maintained the required scholastic standing” and had
“observed all reasonable rules [pertaining] to conduct,” Columbia could not
expel him. President Butler maintained, however, that he and Columbia’s
deans could discipline students “without dispute” from parties outside the
52. Norwood, The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower, 91; Columbia Spectator,
October 1, 1936.
53. The Campus, October 9, 1936; The New York Times, October 8, 1936.
54. The New York Times, October 9 and 13, 1936; Columbia Spectator, October
9, 1936; Barnard Bulletin, October 13, 1936; The Campus, October 18, 1936.