Biography
Robert Meisenbach was a University of California student charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon — accused by police of starting the May 1960 anti-HUAC demonstration at San Francisco City Hall, where students were fire-hosed down the steps. The lone person prosecuted from that protest, he was acquitted in May 1961.
Photo: Barney Peterson / San Francisco Chronicle, 1961. Original-image crop; identified by the source (single subject in the portrait captioned Robert J. Meisenbach, 1961). Source: https://www.lmtonline.com/bayarea/article/How-red-baiting-crusade-collapsed-in-SF-courtroom-10907115.php . Non-free image used under the site's educational/memorial rationale; no permission or open-license claim.
The National Guardian of May 15, 1961 dates Robert Meisenbach’s acquittal on the assault-with-a-deadly-weapon charge to May 3, 1961 and identifies defense attorney Jack Berman. Its report distinguishes the rejected offer of a ten-day suspended sentence from the acquittal; that offer was not a sentence he served. National Guardian, May 15, 1961, printed pages 1 and 4.
