Student Activism in the 1960sDominant Themes

1
Student Activism in the 1960sDominant Themes

• Campus Unrest, Vietnam, and the Counter Culture
• Alia M. Pustorino

2
Youth, of course, has always been a topic of
indefatigable fascination to what was once
regarded as its elders and betters. But todays
young people are the most intensely discussed and
dissected generation in history.Time
MagazineJanuary 7, 1967

3
Dominant Themes Manifest in Chapter

• Passionate activism of college aged population
• Political climate of United States in 1960s
  through 1970s
• Media coverage and sensationalism of events
• Best example of all themes coming together is the
  Kent State Riots

4
Todays youth appears more deeply committed to
the fundamental Western ethosdecency, tolerance,
brotherhoodthan almost any generation since the
age of chivalry. If they have an ideology, it is
idealism if they have one ideal, it is
pragmatism.
5
So, Who Were These Youth?

• Time Magazine names the 1966 Man
• of the Year the generation of those
• 25 and under.
• Statistics support that this generation
• already outnumber their elders in US,
• Canada, and Russia.
• They are labeled the new kind of
  generationwhy?

6
What We Historically Know About Them

• Prolonged Peace.
• Intellectual Pursuits.
• Passionateabout everythingeven if that is being
  passionate about nothing.
• Raised in a society where they gathered their
  information from television.
• Socially and politically free.
• Increase in socially deviant behavior

7

• You know, you see these bums, you know, blowin'
  up the campuses. Listen, the boys that are on the
  college campuses today are the luckiest people in
  the world, going to the greatest universities,
  and here they are, burnin' up the books, I mean,
  stormin' around about this issue, I mean, you
  name it get rid of the war, there'll be another
  one.
• -- Richard Nixon, New York Times, May 2, 1970

8
The Silent Majority Speech

• President Richard Nixon spoke on November 3, 1969
  to the American nation on television about the
  following points related to Vietnam
• How and why did we become involved in Vietnam?
• Obligation of the nation to respond to violence
  in Vietnam
• Confidence in American leadership
• Disclosure of initiatives for both peace and
  warfare
• A nation of self reliance
• Right of free society

9
Political Concerns

• Morale Destroyed. As Time articulates on May
  18, 1970 the nation faced antiwar fever and
  President Richard Nixon was unable to abate.
• Nixons had not fulfilled his promise of forward
  together to the nation and as military concerns
  in Cambodia became more pressing, the nation and
  its political climate became more charged.
• Nixons administration was under stress as
  members in internal opposition to his decisions
  were becoming more public in nature
• Nixon made the comment when dissent turns to
  violence, it invites tragedy after Kent State
  which resulted in further separation of the youth
  from his political agenda
• Kent State student visit with the President,
  afterwards he names Alexander Heard (Vanderbilt
  U) special advisor on student affairs

10
Political Concerns

• Nixon allows students to protest in Washington DC
  over violence on campuses and meets with many of
  them making the proclamation I know you think
  we are a bunch of so and sosI know you want to
  get the war over. Sure you came here to
  demonstrate and shout your slogans on the
  ellipse. Thats all right. Just keep it
  peaceful. Have a good time in Washington, and
  dont go away bitter.
• Operation Talk. The Senate Foreign Relations
  Committee attempted to get legislation passed to
  get the troops out of Cambodia by July 1st.

11
Changes in Higher Education

• The student has become the most powerful
  invisible force in the reform of educationand,
  indirectly, in the form of American society.
  Harold Taylor, President of Sarah Lawrence
  College
• By the existential act of rejecting cogito, ergo
  sum for sum, ergo sum, they have taken on,
  willy-nilly, a vast commitment toward a kindlier,
  more equitable society. Time Magazine, January
  6, 1967
• There is a time when the operation of the
  machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at
  heart, that you cant take part you cant even
  passively take part, and youve got to put your
  bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon
  the levers, upon all the apparatus, and youve
  got to make it stop. And youve got to indicate
  to the people who run it, to the people who own
  it, that unless youre free, the machine will be
  prevented from working at all. Mario Savio,
  December 2, 1964

12

• Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, were finally on
  our own. This summer I hear the drumming, four
  dead in Ohio.
• Gotta get down to it, soldiers are gunning us
  down, should have been done long ago. What if
  you knew her and found her dead on the ground,
  how can you run when you know?
• OhioCrosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

13

• Late City Edition of
• The New York Times
• Breaks the story on
• May 4, 1970 about the
• Kent State Riots and
• Shootings
• Subsequent writings
• will be published by all
• major American print
• forums such as Time
• Magazine

14
Media Forum on Kent State

• Martyrdom That Shook the CountryTime magazine
  in the May 18, 1970 edition notes that
  paradoxically, the turn toward violence at Kent
  State was not inspired by war or politics. The
  first rocks thrown in anger were hurled through
  the muggy Friday night of May 1 by beery students
  who could not resist the urge to dance on a Kent
  street.
• Get Out. Time reports that students changed
  one-two-three-four, we dont want your war! and
  approximately 2,000 students began to riot after
  being thrown out of bars while watching the
  Knicks-Lakers game on television
• Our Campus. Students apparently chanted this
  is
• our campus. Approximately 3,000 students
  gathered on
• the Commons.
• Leaderless. 100 Guardsmen were identified by
  Time as
• frightened when they ran out of tear gas
  and retreated
• away from student protesters before
  beginning to shoot.

15
Media Forum on Kent State

• Like a Firing Squad. Journalism Professor
  Charles Brill, an Army veteran was quoted by Time
  as being certain that the Guardmen had not fired
  randomly out of individual panic. They were
  organized, he said. It was not scattered.
  They all waited and they all pointed their rifles
  at the same time. It looked like a firing
  squad.
• A still campus. Time reported that students
  screamed my God, theyre killing us! Youth lay
  bleeding and dead around the campus.
• Flimsy Excuse. Time indicates that multiple
  federal and state investigations were to be
  launched in regard to violence as far worse
  disorders have been controlled at other campuses
  without fatalities.
• Explanations were varied by witnesses and those
  Guardsmen involved in the shootings. As Time
  noted, fear might have simply bordered on panic
  after General Canterbury of the Army National
  Guard of Ohio asserted that the men of the Guard
  felt their lives were in danger.

16
The Students Who Died

• William Schroeder
• Time summarized that Bill was second ranking
  student in ROTC unit, Eagle scout, image of
  clean-cut academically conscientious Middle
  American boy

• Jeffrey Glenn Miller
• Time summarized Jeff as a transfer student
  who had long hair, wore bellbottoms, love beads
  and rock music. He was a great believer in
  love.

17
The Students Who Died

• Allison Krause.
• Allison was noted to be a beauty who
  preferred listening to talking. She was opposed
  to the war and believed in protest but not
  violence. It is theorized that Allison placed a
  flower in a Guardsmens
• rifle and said
• flowers are
• better than
• bullets.

• Sandra Scheuer
• Sandys best friend was quoted as saying
  Sandy lived for what everyone else lived forto
  find someone to love and someone who loved her.
  She was not politically active, and viewed as
• 
  gregarious,
• and also
  an
• Honor
• student
  by
• Time.
  

18
Faculty Response to Violence

• Geology Professor Glenn Frank was the most widely
  circulated faculty commentator and advocate for
  student dispersal rather than confrontation with
  the National Guard
• Frank is noted as saying to the students
• I dont care if youve never listened to
• anyone before in your life. I am begging
• you right now, if you dont disperse right
• now, theyre going to move in. It will
  only
• be a slaughter. Please, listen to me.
  Jesus
• Christ, I dont want to be part of this.
• Listen to me.
• Frank continued to maintain the actions of the
  Guard
• were unjustified and brutal throughout the
  remainder
• of his life

19
A Survivor Remembers

• I do recallsome of those things are sort of
  burned into my memory. I got up when the volley
  had stopped to see what the heck had happened.
  And I did see Jeff Miller at that timeandthats
  when the photograph of me was taken by Jeff
  Miller. Id never seen blood like that. Id
  never seen anything like that. It was a complete
  shock. I wanted to touch him. I remember
  wanting to hold him, but I was afraid of the
  blood. I did tough and hold his hand. I didnt
  want him to feel alone. I figured how can
  anybody live with this. Life is running down the
  sidewalk. Running. Just kept flowing. And
  there was nothing to be done, that I felt I could
  do.
• --Carol Mirman,
• April 1, 2000

20
What Questions Should Be Investigated in Final
Phase of Study

• What are members of this generation doing who are
  not necessarily those on the picket lines?
• How might pop culture materials like music and
  literature be read against the protest movement?
• What was the government doing which might be
  positively encouraging protests, activism of
  youth, etc?

21
References

• Kifner, John. (1970, May 4). 4 Kent State
  students killed by troops. The New York
• Times. Retrieved September 18, 2006,
  from The New York Times Archives
• http//www.nytimes.com/learning/general/on
  thisday/big/0504.html
• Lewis, J.M. Hensley, T.R. (1998). The May 4
  shootings at Kent State University
• The search for historical accuracy.
  Retrieved September 18, 2006, from the
• Kent State University, Sociology
  Department Website
• http//dept.kent.edu/sociology/lewis/LEWIHE
  N.htm
• Mirman, C. (2000). This is not what it sounds
  like on tv Carol Mirman on the 1970
• Kent State shootings. Retrieved
  September 20, 2006, from George Mason
• University History Matters Website
  http//www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6912/
• Nixon, Richard. (1969, November 3). Silent
  Majority Speech. Retrieved on
• September 20, 2006, from CNN Speech
  Archives
• http//www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episo
  des/11/documents/nixon.speech/

22
More References

• Time. (1967, January 6). The inheritor.
  Retrieved September 20, 2006,
• from Time Magazine archives at CNN
• httpwww.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9
  171,843150,00.html
• Time. (1970, May 18). At war with war.
  Retrieved September, 20, 2006,
• from Time Magazine archives at CNN
• httpcgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/
  back.time/9605/20/
• Tuchman, G. (2000). Kent State shootings
  remembered. Retrieved from
• the CNN archives on Kent State
  Shootings
• http//archives.cnn.com/2000/US/05/04/k
  ent.state.revisit/