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On Friday, May 8, 1970 members of construction crews from throughout the city gathered
in front of Federal Hall National Memorial on Wall Street, where an anti-war demonstration
was taking place. Pace students participating in this peaceful event reported that the
workers "proceeded to encircle the anti-war protesters standing on the steps in front
of the statue of George Washington."A split second later, there
was bedlam. According to eyewitnesses,
"Within moments, the workers began an attack
with full force, beating students and bystanders with construction tools and clubs while
sweeping police aside ... the mob was met with only token and passive resistance by
police."
The workers then proceeded up Broadway to City Hall, where they stormed the building to
protest the city's display of the flag at half-mast in memory of the students who
died at Kent State. Some of the workers then spotted the Pace College protest banner and
40 to 50 angry construction men raced over to the College. Pace students who had been at
City Hall watching the events there were driven ahead of the construction men. The workers
caught up with the students at Pace Plaza and immediately began beating students, female
as well as male, with pipes, bricks, chains and fists. Students who collapsed on the
sidewalk were kicked. Some of the young people succeeded in gaining entrance to the
Civic Center building through the one door which was unlocked, whereupon the construction
workers followed them inside but were persuaded to leave by faculty members who happened
upon the scene.
Once outside, the workers burned the protest banner which had been draped from the
front of the building. When a handful of students standing on the roof of the Civic Center
building tossed rocks down at the workers, "about ten workers rushed the
building and succeeded in gaining entrance." According to the Pace Press:
The rest, seeing that no resistance was being
offered, followed them, again driving students before them. They began to break the large
panes of glass in the outer wall of the building using pipes, bricks, crowbars and their
feet.
Once inside, they crossed the hallway and began smashing the
panes of glass in the inner wall enclosing the Admissions offices. Those students
encountered in the hallway were set upon with crowbars, bricks and the like. Some were
beaten over the head with metal wastebaskets.
A squad of police was needed to clear the building of workers.
The brutal attack sent nine Pace students, one of them with a concussion, and one staff
member to Beekman Hospital. When it was over, Dr. Mortola said, "On Friday, May 8,
the Pace College Community in New York City suffered a dreadful experience which has left
all of us saddened and deeply pained. Pace students and staff were viciously attacked in
an irrational act by a large group of men identified by those present and in all the
public media as construction workers, along with others who had joined them."
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In
1973 Pace attained University status. To learn more about this milestone event,
click "Successful Quest
for University Status."
