History and Geneseo
On September 13, 2021, the State University of New York at Geneseo celebrated its 150th anniversary. Over the years, Geneseo has stood the test of time and experienced many major historical events.
Geneseo has had a memorable history. Just a few months before the school’s initial opening, one of the Orange Riots took place. The Orange Riots were large conflicts between the Irish Catholics and the Irish Protestants in Manhattan. A parade was held by the Irish Protestants to celebrate the Battle of Boyne over James II in 1690. During the parade in 1870, the Irish Protestants taunted the Irish Catholics. The Irish Catholics returned the taunts which led to the riots.
During the parade in 1871, the year Geneseo opened, the Irish Protestants were under the protection of both the police and the National Guard. The Irish Catholics were not happy about the parades preceding and threw items such as (but not limited to) shoes, rocks, and bricks from the rooftops at parade participants. There were an estimated 60 deaths and 150 wounded.
In 1920, the year of Geneseo’s 14th birthday, something much happier became the focus of the news. The New York Yankees made their first ever appearance in the World Series with the multi-talented pitcher and slugger, Babe Ruth. Even though the team didn’t win, Babe Ruth continued to make quite the impression in the baseball world with a home run count of 714.
When Geneseo hit the one-hundred-year mark, we saw something historically relevant happen in the journalism world.
In 1967, the United States Secretary of Defense commissioned a study on American involvement in Vietnam. It was completed in 1968 and all papers from the project were labeled as classified. There was a small total of fifteen copies made of the study.
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a man who had worked on the project, secretly made copies of the study, and handed them out to reporters. The New York Times was one of the only publications to receive the documents. In June of 1971, the New York Times started publishing the documents in a series they labeled as the “Pentagon Papers”.
The New York Times published three installments of the Papers before the Nixon administration found out about its publication. The administration had concerns for national security and placed a restraining order on the New York Times in order to stop the publication of the Papers. The New York Times immediately made an appeal to the Supreme Court on the grounds that this violated freedom of the press. The court agreed to hear the case the next day, and quickly resolved the restraining order. This case set a precedent for free press in the United States.
Now, we have made it back to the present. Needless to say, the past couple years have been rough on us all, but Geneseo has been there. We have been through a global pandemic, civil rights movements, and so much more—and we aren’t even close to being done yet. In these 150 years of Geneseo, the school has stood the test of time while continuing to provide a higher education to its students.
