History Has Good News for Today’s Student Protesters

4 minute read

In recent days, as protests over racial issues at the University of Missouri have resulted in the resignation of university president Tim Wolfe, and as thousands of Yale students organized a march in response to racial divisions on their own campus, it’s been easy to compare this latest wave of campus activism with previous such moments in American history.

The anti-war demonstrations that swept the nation during the late 1960s and ’70s remain perhaps the most famous moment of American student activism—and, if the comparison holds, they provide at least one reason for today’s activists to be optimistic about the larger implications of their visibility.

In 1970, TIME featured the student protests in a cover story at one of the most volatile moments of the anti-war movement. The Kent State shootings had only just occurred, sparking a national outcry among students, and there could no longer be any doubt that something noteworthy was happening on America’s campuses. By TIME’s count, 441 colleges and universities across the country were affected by post-Kent State protests, and some of them shut down entirely.

At the largely conservative University of Nebraska, students occupied the school’s ROTC headquarters. At Duke Law School, Nixon’s portrait was removed from the wall and put in storage. At Yale, students wore suits and ties to their commencement so they could donate their cap-and-gown fees to benefit anti-war political candidates. One student group advocated that America’s collegians stop drinking soda until the war ends, figuring that anti-war advocacy from Pepsi and Coke would speak louder than they could alone.

But, as TIME noted, it wasn’t just a matter of the protests being widespread. “All through the restive winter and early spring, the campus atmosphere had been heavy with intimations of bomb plots, and sometimes with actual whiffs of black powder,” the story observed. “Last week’s actions suddenly changed much of that mood.”

When the protests became a national cause, especially with the galvanizing incident at Kent State, more moderate students began to participate. The more radical fringes were “simply overwhelmed” by the other protesters, TIME noted, and a new strategy emerged. It may sound simplistic to say that protests with more people are more likely to be heard, but this moment in history shows that the converse is true too: it had been very hard to attract those who didn’t identify as activists to a movement that was seen as radical or hopeless. The participation by moderate protesters came after opposition to war no longer seemed like an extreme position, and when it seemed like that opposition had a chance to be heard.

The University of Missouri’s football team is a perfect example from today’s world: whether they identify as activists or not, the football players aren’t typically on the extreme fringes of campus culture, and yet they joined the protests by refusing to play until the school’s president resigned.

As a result, more—and more visible—protests on college campuses can be read as evidence that the protesters are increasingly hopeful that they can have an effect, and that the system in which they live, no matter what they think of it at the moment, is capable of progress in the direction they desire.

When the 1970 protests hit their peak, the students illustrated that shift. When 1,000 of them visited Capitol Hill, they cheered when Indiana Senator Birch Bayh summed up their request: “We can make this system responsive from within instead of trying to destroy it from without.”

Though the Vietnam War wouldn’t officially end for another five years—and though the protests would not ultimately be the factor that doomed Nixon’s presidency—the new tactic did pay off. By the end of that week, several students who had gone to Washington to speak with their Congressmen ended up with an invitation to the oval office. While Nixon defended his recent decision to involve the U.S. military in Cambodia in addition to Vietnam, he used a conciliatory tone in in discussing the protests. It was no longer possible for the students to be ignored and, 45 years later, their impact on American history remains clear.

Read the full 1970 cover story, here in the TIME Vault: At War With War

See 7 Times Student Activists Created Change

The Greensboro sit-ins, started by four black students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, were a peaceful protest of the segregated lunch counter inside the Woolworth store in Greensboro, N.C. in February 1960. The demonstrations, which spread to nearby cities and states, eventually led to the desegregation of the Greensboro Woolworth store.
The Greensboro sit-ins, started by four black students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, were a peaceful protest of the segregated lunch counter inside the Woolworth store in Greensboro, N.C. in February 1960. The demonstrations, which spread to nearby cities and states, eventually led to the desegregation of the Greensboro Woolworth store.The Atlanta Journal-Consitution/AP
Mark Rudd, a leader of the student protest at Columbia University in New York, speaks to reporters as fellow students, rear, occupy the Low Memorial Library on April 25, 1968. Standing on ledge, center, with hands in pockets, is Juan Gonzalez, another of the student leaders. The 1968 Columbia University Protests targeted a variety of issues, most notably the Vietnam War.
Mark Rudd, a leader of the student protest at Columbia University in New York, speaks to reporters as fellow students, rear, occupy the Low Memorial Library on April 25, 1968. Standing on ledge, center, with hands in pockets, is Juan Gonzalez, another of the student leaders. The 1968 Columbia University Protests targeted a variety of issues, most notably the Vietnam War. In the aftermath, two of the demands set by students were met: Columbia ended its ties to a controversial weapons-related think tank, and halted a plan to build a disputed gym. AP
Student Demonstrations At Harvard University Hall
Students occupy Harvard's University Hall during a demonstration on April 9, 1969. As part of the takeover, students removed all Harvard administrators from the building. A massive police raid wrested the protesters from the building, leading to over 300 arrests. The conflicts ultimately led to changes including the establishment of an Afro-American Studies department.Ted Dully—The Boston Globe/Getty Images
Kent State University students, including anti-war demonstrators, flee as National Guardsmen fire tear gas and bullets into the crowd on May 7, 1970 in Kent, Ohiot. The guardsmen killed four students and wounded nine others.
Kent State University students, including anti-war demonstrators, flee as National Guardsmen fire tear gas and bullets into the crowd on May 7, 1970 in Kent, Ohio. The guardsmen killed four students and wounded nine others. The event triggered a national student strike, escalating protests and garnering national media attention for the anti-war movement. Bettmann/Corbis
Several thousand students crowd into Sproul Plaza on the University of CaliforniaÑBerkeley campus in protest of the university's business ties with apartheid South Africa on April 16, 1985. The University of California eventually authorized the withdrawal of three billion dollars worth of investments from the apartheid state.
Several thousand students crowd into Sproul Plaza on the University of California-Berkeley campus in protest of the university's business ties with apartheid South Africa on April 16, 1985. The University of California eventually authorized the withdrawal of three billion dollars worth of investments from the apartheid state. Paul Sakuma—AP
Kerstin Cornell yells outside the office of University of Michigan President Lee Bollinger during a sit-in on March 17, 1999. Students began the sit-in to protest sweatshop conditions in factories that make licensed apparel for the school, which was the nation's leading university in the sales of licensed apparel and other goods. The university established an Anti-Sweatshop Advisory Committee that spring.\
Kerstin Cornell yells outside the office of University of Michigan President Lee Bollinger during a sit-in on March 17, 1999. Students began the sit-in to protest sweatshop conditions in factories that make licensed apparel for the school, which was the nation's leading university in the sales of licensed apparel and other goods. The university established an Anti-Sweatshop Advisory Committee that spring.Dana Linnane—The Michigan Daily/AP
Students participate in a die-in at Harvard Medical School Medical Education Center on Dec. 10, 2014. The protest was held in response to the decisions by authorities to not bring indictments in the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York. The Black Lives Matter movement has found support at campus's across the country.
Students participate in a die-in at Harvard Medical School Medical Education Center on Dec. 10, 2014. The protest was held in response to the decisions by authorities to not bring indictments in the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York. The Black Lives Matter movement has found support at campus's across the country.David L. Ryan—The Boston Globe/Getty Images

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com