Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have occupied some college campuses across the United States. It was the latest in a decades-long series of protests sparked by political activism, some of which turned violent amid police crackdowns.
In the past, free speech sit-ins quickly escalated into mass rallies, university demonstrations during the Vietnam War resulted in fatalities, and civil rights movements in the United States ended in mass arrests.
Although the circumstances of each protest were different, the story is familiar. Young people demanded change on campus and in the world, and their passionate demonstrations often escalated into clashes with authorities.
Columbia University, the center of the current wave of protests, has held similar protests in the past, including during the Vietnam War in 1968. As a result of the protests, the university has made changes such as suspending classified war research and suspending military recruitment, writes Rosalind Rosenberg. , professor of history at Barnard College, writes for Barnard Magazine.
Demonstrators today also called for concrete changes, often involving the withdrawal of capital from Israel, citing the deaths of more than 34,000 Palestinians who have died in Gaza amid Israeli shelling and ground attacks. I have it in mind. The military operation was triggered by Hamas' invasion of southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking more than 240 hostages.
However, with university authorities responding quickly, citing security concerns and deploying police to disperse positions, it remains to be seen whether and how the current protests will have an impact on the Israeli-Hamas war. It is unclear whether it will have an impact.
USA TODAY reviewed four monumental campus protests and explained how college protests have become a staple of American life and often influence the outcome of political battles. Here's a look at how previous campus protests have played out and whether they've been successful in their objectives.
University of California, Berkeley: Free Speech in the 1960s
Beginning in 1964, students at the University of California, Berkeley protested the university's restrictions on political activity and free speech during the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War.
“In the wake of the anti-communist sentiment of McCarthyism in the 1950s, California's public universities enacted numerous regulations restricting student political activity,” writes Karen Eichinger of the Center for Free Speech at Middle Tennessee University. There is. “At the University of California, Berkeley, student groups participating in political activities on and off campus were banned from campus.''
What happened were “small sit-ins and demonstrations” that “escalated into a series of large rallies and protests demanding full constitutional rights on campus,” the University of California, Berkeley's website states. is stated.
As a result, nearly 800 students were arrested by local police.
The students' protests ultimately worked in their favor. The university ultimately reversed its policy restricting speech and advocacy content, the university said.
“Today, this movement stands as a symbol of the importance of defending and preserving free speech and academic freedom,” the University of California, Berkeley's website states.
Kent State University, Ohio: 1970 Vietnam War.
The largest university protest of the Vietnam War occurred at Kent State University in Ohio in May 1970. Students began protesting against the Vietnam War and the US invasion of Cambodia on May 2nd on campus. Two days later, the National Guard opened fire. Waves of anti-war demonstrators and passersby. The soldiers killed four young men, Alison Krauss, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Schuer, and William Knox Schroeder, and injured several others in the assault.
“The effects of the shooting were dramatic,” Jerry Lewis and Thomas Hensley wrote in an article for Kent State University. “This event sparked a nationwide student strike and forced the closure of hundreds of universities.”
Lewis and Hensley wrote that the shooting also had an impact on national politics.
“In “The End of Power,'' Haldeman (President Richard Nixon's aide) said that the Kent State shootings began the slide into Watergate and ultimately brought down the Nixon administration. ” states the article.
Today, Lewis and Hensley wrote, the protests and shootings have “certainly become emblematic of the deep political and social divisions that sharply divided the country during the Vietnam War era.”
Jackson State University, Mississippi: Racial Injustice in 1970.
Days after the shooting at Kent State University, police opened fire at a college dormitory at Jackson State University in Mississippi. Jackson State University is a school with a majority of black students.
Black students at the university were protesting racial injustice, including their treatment by white drivers who were speeding on campus, the university said.
Police received a call about a young black man throwing rocks at a white driver near campus. According to an FBI report, police arrived on the scene and fired hundreds of shots at Alexander Hall, NPR reported. Police killed two students, Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, and injured 12 others. The university also canceled its graduation ceremony due to the murder and riot.
The university recognized 74 students who were unable to take the stage in 1970 at its 2021 commencement ceremony, NBC reported. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said at the graduation ceremony that police “unjustly shot and killed two innocent young black men, inflicting fear and trauma on the black student community and committing one of the most serious crimes in the city's history.” “I committed a crime,” NBC reported.
The murders at Jackson State University and Kent State University sparked outrage. College students across the U.S. protested on campus, according to the Zinn Education Project, a historical content collaboration between the organizations Rethinking Schools and Teach for Change.
“In the spring of 1970, the first general student strike in U.S. history occurred, when students at more than 400 universities canceled classes to protest the invasion of Cambodia, the Kent State massacre, and the murder of two black students at Jackson College. “Mississippi State University and the Continuation of the War,'' Howard Zinn wrote in “You Can't Stay Neutral on a Moving Train.''
Angus Johnston, an adjunct assistant professor and student movement historian at Hostos Community College, City University of New York, said after both events: Even if the building manager were to take over, they would likely respond with mass arrests. ”
National scale: South Africa's anti-apartheid protests in 1985
The 1980s saw the emergence of another form of popular college campus protest. Students across the country wanted their universities to sever ties with organizations that supported apartheid in South Africa.
The New York Times said, “Under apartheid, every aspect of the lives of black, Indian, and colored South Africans was limited by race, a multiracial classification created by the government.” reported the New York Times. “There were severe restrictions on where they could live, go to school, work and travel.
Columbia University was at the center of this movement. Students led by the South African Freedom Coalition at Columbia University “locked down Hamilton Hall, the university's administrative building, leading to the university's first successful divestment campaign,” the Zinc Education Project's summary of events said.
Daniel Farber, a history professor at the University of Kansas who studies American activism, attributes this to “a certain embarrassment among American elites that there was collusion with South Africa's white government.” He said there was little backlash against the protesters at the time. reported Vox Media.
Columbia University was one of the first universities to withdraw from doing business with South Africa, followed by 155 other universities. The U.S. Congress also passed a comprehensive anti-apartheid law in 1986 aimed at blocking new trade and investment between the country and South Africa.
What will happen to American university protests in the future?
Free speech experts told USA TODAY that students should continue to protest peacefully on open campuses to avoid conflict.
Alex Morley, director of campus advocacy for the Individual Rights Expression Foundation, encourages universities to remain neutral during unrest and not call authorities unless demonstrations turn violent. This national nonprofit organization defends Americans' rights to freedom of speech and thought.
“Peaceful protests have been a hallmark of a healthy speech environment on American college campuses for decades, whether it's Berkeley's free speech movement or students protesting the Vietnam War era or the civil rights movement. It continues,” Morley said. “For generations, students have been passionate about specific issues, and outdoor locations on campus are the perfect place to support their voices.”
Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@usatoday.com. Follow @kaylajjimenez on X.
