The Wall Stands Only a Few Feet Tall. But What It Stands for is Significant. For more than 50 years, “the wall” at Berkeley has been a place where Black students gather. Now it’s getting recognition. By Ande Richards WALLS HOLD A MYTHICAL PLACE IN OUR SOCIAL ORDER. Pilgrims push slips of paper with wishes and prayers into the many cracks of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. The Great Wall of China is a spectacle of ancient defensive architecture and a symbol of strength. The Berlin Wall evolved from a barbed wire and cinder block line of demarcation into a series of 15-foot-high concrete walls separating East and West Germany. It was a Cold War monument to their conflicting ideologies.