Freedom's orator

About this book

This volume is a biography of American political activist Mario Salvo (1942-1996). Salvo is considered an icon of the earliest phase of the 1960s counterculture movement and was a key member in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is famous for his passionate speeches, especially the "put your bodies upon the gears" address given UC Berkeley in late 1964. Savio also risked his life to register black voters in Mississippi in the Freedom Summer of 1964 and was a leader in bringing daring forms of non-violent protest from the civil rights movement to the struggle for free speech and academic freedom on American campuses. The author illuminates Salvo's egalitarian leadership style, his notable eloquence, and the many ways he embodied the youthful idealism of the 1960s. The book also describes Salvo's second phase of activism against "Reaganite Imperialism" in Central America and the corporatization of higher education and includes numerous selections of Salvo's speeches.