A weapon of war.
On December 26, 1969, in Flint Michigan, roughly 300 college students – almost exclusively white – gathered in a run-down dance hall called the Giant Ballroom. The ballroom was located in the heart of one of Flint’s black neighborhoods, and also one of its most violent. A bullet hole in the front door marked the spot where, the night before, a disgruntled patron had fired a shotgun into the hall inadvertently killing a black customer who was there to celebrate Christmas, and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The attendees were members or alumni of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the largest radical movement on university campuses during the 1960s. They had come to attend the last “National Council” meeting of SDS.
