Assembly LX: Free Speech, Free Expression and Free Inquiry at Yale
Friday, April 26 through Saturday, April 27, 2002
First Assembly Session

Of Values and Priorities: History and Practice of Free Speech at Yale

Gaddis Smith '54,'61 PhD, Larned Professor Emeritus of History, followed Greenwold's introduction by outlining Yale's history of free speech. While it might be assumed that free speech was always an honored principle of the University, it is in fact a relatively new practice both at Yale and other universities. Yale was founded in 1701 along strict lines of theological doctrine and its founders explicitly denied what we would term free expression. Smith gave a number of examples of intolerance for free speech at Yale in its history, including: the firing of President Timothy Cutler for expressing Anglican tendencies in 1722; a 1914 veto by President Hadley of a speaker panel representing both pro and anti-war views; and the later requirement imposed by President Angel that proposed campus speakers be approved by a committee before invitations could be extended.

In 1952, the Yale Political Union wished to invite Howard Fast, a member of the Communist Party, to speak on campus but decided it would be too difficult to have him approved as a speaker. When President Griswold learned of this decision, he made a statement that the University would not deny permission for Fast to speak. Fast was finally invited but declined to come to the campus.

In 1963, there was great national controversy over race and equal rights. The Yale Political Union invited Governor George Wallace of Alabama to speak. The day after the invitation was extended, four young African-American girls were killed in Alabama. Wallace's mild response was widely criticized in the national media. President Kingman Brewster held a meeting with the Political Union, which thereupon rescinded its invitation. Brewster's action and the Political Union's action were criticized in turn.

In 1974, William Shockley, a Nobel Prize winner, was invited to speak on campus. He had expressed the beliefs that African-Americans were genetically inferior and that the federal government should subsidize voluntary sterilization of genetically inferior individuals. When Shockley came to campus, protestors shouted him down and made it impossible for him to speak at the appointed time and location. As one consequence of this incident and those that preceded it, Kingman Brewster appointed a committee headed by noted historian C. Vann Woodward to deliberate the issue of free speech at Yale.

The Woodward report subsequently became the cornerstone for free speech policy at Yale. Some critics have since charged that it underestimates the impact of words as instruments of violence and that it skirts important issues with regard to unfettered or unconstrained speech.