Anti-Apartheid Shanties, 1986–1988
Hewitt Quadrangle was paved in 1964, when the Beinecke Library was built, just in time to become a convenient platform for campus dissent. In 1986, when the major campus issue was divestment of University holdings in South Africa, the protesters built a shanty town they dubbed “Winnie Mandela City.” The administration tolerated their presence for two years, but, in 1988, reunion-going alumnus Elwood Bracey ’58 set fire to them and was charged with arson.