Political tensions on American campuses regularly flare up when one mentions free speech. Based on an ethnographic investigation on the Berkeley campus, mythical home to the Free Speech Movement, this article aims to examine the interpretations of freedom of speech by questioning censorship on university campuses. Putting the movement back into context allows for a better understanding of its reversal by the alt-right that has used it as the main argument from which to launch a series of violent riots: the Free Speech Wars.