Hamilton Hall Has a Long History of Student Takeovers

Hamilton Hall, the building at Columbia University that protesters occupied early Tuesday morning, has been occupied several times by student activists over the past half-century.

Here are some of the notable moments of student protest at the building.

1968

The building, which opened in 1907, was the first that hundreds of students seized in April 1968 during protests over the Vietnam War, racism and Columbia’s plans to build a gymnasium in nearby Morningside Park. Students barricaded themselves inside, preventing the acting dean, Henry S. Coleman, from leaving his office for one night.

As demonstrators used furniture to keep Mr. Coleman inside, protesters who were part of an African American student group asked white students in the building to leave. That created a separate protest for Black students, as the white students went on to demonstrate in other buildings on campus.