50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement

Standing atop the crushed roof of a campus police car, a University of California student asks Cal students to identify themselves during the third day of Free Speech Movement demonstrations at Berkeley, Calif., Oct. 2, 1964.

Free Speech Movement protesters at the University of California Berkeley, were hauled off in handcuffs. Friday, Oct. 8, 2004, they were welcomed back with open arms. The protest was against a ban on political activities on campus.

The Free Speech Movement is credited as being the first on-campus protest that set the mold for college protests for the rest of the 1960s.

Mario Savio

Mario Savio, facing camera foreground, leader of the so-called Free Speech Movement at the University of California, gathered a crowd of some 3,000 students in front of Sproul Hall on the Berkeley campus on Dec. 2, 1964.

Savio, 21, told the crowd that sit-in demonstrators planned to occupy the second floor of Sproul Hall until the administration dropped disciplinary action against four free speech leaders.

Joan Baez joins protesters

Folk singer Joan Baez clowns sits with student demonstrators in Sproul Hall on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Calif., Dec. 2, 1964.

Savio stopped from speaking

Mario Savio, leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, is restrained by police as he walks on to the platform at the University of California's Greek Theater in Berkeley, Dec. 7, 1964.

Savio attempted to speak directly following the appearance of University President Clark Kerr. He was later permitted to make two announcements to the assembled students.

Savio allowed to speak

Mario Savio, leader in the University of California Freedom of Speech Movement, speaks before students in the University's Greek Theater in Berkeley, Calif. on Dec. 7, 1964. Earlier he had been dragged from the platform by police as he attempted to speak after University President Clark Kerry had finished making an emotional plea to end campus strife.

Jack Weinberg confers with police

Jack Weinberg, seated, left window, a long-time leader of demonstrations on the Berkeley campus and spokesmen for the Vietnam protest marchers, confers in police van with officers in charge of the Oakland police detail assigned to stop the marchers which did not have an Oakland marching permit in Berkeley, Calif., on Oct. 16, 1965. The police were successful in preventing an actual confrontation.

The fall of 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement, a protest that only lasted for three months but set the stage for the turbulent 1960s.