Description
Aryay Lenske Kalaki attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate beginning in 1953. He left campus between 1955 and 1958 to work, but by the time he returned to campus in 1958, student political activism was on the rise. Kalaki, who then used the surname “Lenske,” joined with the recently-formed group SLATE and eventually was elected chair of the group for the 1959-1960 academic year. In this interview, Kalaki discusses the following topics: personal background and education, including being raised in leftist environment; SLATE between the years 1958 and 1962; House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in San Francisco in 1958 and 1960; protest; and the impact and legacy of SLATE and student politics of the 1960s.