In the spirit of academia, speakers from all disciplines and ideas come to universities and share their thoughts with students and faculty in public presentations. Usually, the speeches are open to the university community and occasionally they also welcome the surrounding residents.
Some speakers enjoy the anticipated praise of students and faculty and others receive jeers and anger. There are even cases when those in the audience prevent the person from speaking altogether.
In one case, a Nobel Laureate for physics came to a New England Ivy League University to speak to a mixed-race audience. Members of the black community stood and applauded him; some continued applauding him and refused to stop. They were not celebrating what they knew of his ideas, they were working to prevent him from speaking.
Cancel culture
This may sound like a scene familiar in our culture over the past several years — canceling. However, this moment occurred at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in 1969, long before the current faculty of our universities matriculated from their respective colleges. In most venues, he did not even make it that far. Often the leftist organizations such as the Students for a Democratic Society organized resistance to him.
