A History of Campus Protests

Hundreds of students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, streamed out of their classrooms on a spring day. They gathered for a rally in the campus’s Memorial Hall, holding signs that read “War is legalized murder” and “War is hell.” In Detroit, at Wayne State University, hundreds more defied administrators, converging in a student center to take an oath against war.

These demonstrations were part of a coordinated protest—involving nearly half a million college students on campuses all over the country, from California to Texas to New York. No, the events didn’t play out this past spring, when college students around the nation protested against the war in Gaza. They took place nearly 90 years ago. On April 22, 1936—around the time of the 19th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I—college students from coast to coast refused to attend classes to express their opposition to the rise of fascism in Europe and to advocate against the U.S. involvement in foreign wars. It was among the largest in a series of peace strikes that swept campuses in that period. The anti-war protests of the 1930s represented the first mass student movement in American history. There have been many others since.

In recent years, college students have protested everything from climate change to income inequality and gun violence. The latest protest movement in a long tradition of student-led activism boiled over last spring, when protests against the conflict in Gaza spread to dozens of college campuses across the country.

“One of the roles of universities is to ask questions—uncomfortable questions,” says New York University history professor Robert Cohen. “That’s what student movements do, and that’s why they have an impact.”

Some of the student protests, such as the civil rights and anti-apartheid movements, helped achieve tangible goals that have become broadly accepted over time. Others continue to stir debate. Here’s a look at some of the most influential student protest movements in the United States.

Hundreds of students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, walked out of their classrooms on a spring day. They gathered for a rally in the campus’s Memorial Hall. They held signs that read “War is legalized murder” and “War is hell.” Students at Wayne State University in Detroit also walked out, defying administrators. Hundreds of students met at a student center to take an oath against war.

These demonstrations were part of a coordinated protest that involved nearly half a million college students on campuses all over the country. No, the events didn’t play out this past spring, when college students around the nation protested against the war in Gaza. They took place nearly 90 years ago, on campuses from California to Texas to New York. On April 22, 1936—around the time of the 19th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I—college students refused to attend classes. They demonstrated to express their opposition to the rise of fascism in Europe and to advocate against the U.S. involvement in foreign wars. It was among the largest in a series of peace strikes that swept campuses in that period. The anti-war protests of the 1930s represented the first mass student movement in American history. There have been many others since.

In recent years, college students have protested everything from climate change to income inequality and gun violence. Last spring, a new wave of protests against the conflict in Gaza boiled over. Protests spread to dozens of college campuses across the country.

“One of the roles of universities is to ask questions—uncomfortable questions,” says New York University history professor Robert Cohen. “That’s what student movements do, and that’s why they have an impact.”

Some of the student protests, such as the civil rights and anti-apartheid movements, helped achieve results that have become broadly accepted over time. Others continue to stir debate. Here’s a look at some of the most influential student protest movements in the United States.

In February 1960, four Black college students walked into the F.W. Woolworth department store in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat down at the all-White lunch counter, and tried to order coffee. The staff refused to serve the four young men, all students at the historically Black university North Carolina A&T State. But the students politely refused to leave.

The Greensboro Four, as they became known, returned the next day and the next to protest segregation. Soon other student protesters joined them. By the end of the month, students were holding lunch counter sit-ins in at least 30 communities across the South. Those demonstrations continued and spread for nearly six months. In July 1960, the management of the Greensboro Woolworth gave in and desegregated
its lunch counter.

“That was a singular victory,” says Maurice Isserman, a history professor at Hamilton College in New York. “It proved that if you took action, a particular kind of action—putting your body on the line—it created results.”

This success contributed to the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which Isserman calls the “spearhead of youth activism in the South for the next few years.”

The following year, college students were key participants and organizers of the Freedom Rides, in which Black and White Americans intentionally rode buses together through the South to protest ongoing segregation there. In Alabama, angry mobs of White people beat Freedom Riders on two buses, and that violence was captured in photographs published in newspapers across the country.

All this attention got results: In the fall of 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission prohibited segregation in bus terminals. And continued pressure from young people helped galvanize support for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which barred segregation in all public places and businesses.

“So much of the energy of the Southern movement,” says historian David Garrow, “was student energy.”

In February 1960, four Black students from the historically Black university North Carolina A&T State walked into the F.W. Woolworth department store in Greensboro. They sat down at the all-White lunch counter and tried to order coffee. The staff refused to serve the four young men, but the students politely refused to leave.

They became known as the Greensboro Four. For the next two days, they returned to protest segregation. Soon other student protesters joined them. By the end of the month, students were holding lunch counter sit-ins in at least 30 communities across the South. Those demonstrations continued and spread for nearly six months. In July 1960, the management of the Greensboro Woolworth gave in and desegregated its lunch counter.

“That was a singular victory,” says Maurice Isserman, a history professor at Hamilton College in New York. “It proved that if you took action, a particular kind of action—putting your body on the line—it created results.”

This success contributed to the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Isserman calls the SNCC the “spearhead of youth activism in the South for the next few years.”

The following year, college students were key participants and organizers of the Freedom Rides. Black and White Americans intentionally rode buses together through the South to protest ongoing segregation there. In Alabama, angry mobs of White people beat Freedom Riders on two buses. The violence was captured in photographs published in newspapers across the country.

All this attention got results. In the fall of 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission prohibited segregation in bus terminals. The pressure from young people helped solidify support for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which barred segregation in all public places and businesses.

“So much of the energy of the Southern movement,” says historian David Garrow, “was student energy.”

In the fall of 1964, administrators at the University of California, Berkeley, closed an area of the campus where student activist groups had traditionally set up tables to raise awareness about their causes, recruit members, and solicit donations.

The decision prompted outrage among Berkeley students. Some had spent the previous summer working for civil rights organizations in the South, and they drew on that experience as they participated in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience on campus to protest what they said was an infringement of their freedom of speech.

In the fall of 1964, administrators at the University of California, Berkeley, closed an area of the campus where student activist groups set up tables to raise awareness about their causes, recruit members, and ask for donations.

The decision prompted outrage among Berkeley students. Some had spent the previous summer working for civil rights organizations in the South. They used that experience to participate in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience on campus. They were protesting what they said was an infringement of their freedom of speech.

Before long, small student sit-ins escalated into large-scale rallies and demonstrations demanding full constitutional rights for students on campus. At the time, says Cohen, the N.Y.U. historian, college students were largely seen as children who needed to be looked after by college administrations, not adults with free speech rights.

The demonstrations led Berkeley officials to abolish the restrictions, a decision that rippled through other universities. Historians say the victory at Berkeley helped launch the student protest movements that would ultimately define the generation that came of age in the ’60s. The timing was particularly important, Cohen explains.

“It means students have expanded free speech just as the Vietnam War is heating up,” he says.

Before long, small student sit-ins escalated into large-scale rallies and demonstrations. Students demanded full constitutional rights for all students on campus. At the time, says Cohen, the N.Y.U. historian, college students were largely seen as children who needed to be looked after by college administrations, not adults with free-speech rights.

The demonstrations led Berkeley officials to abolish the restrictions. It was a decision that spread to other universities. Historians say the victory at Berkeley helped launch the student protest movements that would ultimately define the generation that came of age in the ’60s. The timing was particularly important, Cohen explains.

“It means students have expanded free speech just as the Vietnam War
is heating up,” he says.

By the mid-1960s, the United States had begun dramatically increasing its troop presence in Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1973, the federal government drafted 2.2 million men into military service; many of them were just out of high school. The draft prompted large protests on many college campuses against the Vietnam War, which many college students saw as a Vietnamese civil war in which the U.S. had no business interfering.

 “The student movement really spread via the media,” Isserman says. “Student protests were colorful, and they showed up on the evening news. And then students at other campuses took their cues from that media attention.”

The high-water mark of U.S. campus protests came in 1970, after the U.S. expanded the war effort into Cambodia. Students were also incensed by fatal shootings of students by authorities during protests at Jackson State University, in Mississippi, and Kent State University, in Ohio, where the Ohio National Guard killed four students and injured nine. (The Kent State shootings came after some protesters threw rocks at the troops and had set fire to a military training building two days earlier.)

At that time, students at nearly 900 schools took part in a coordinated strike, according to an analysis by the University of Washington. They boycotted classes, occupied campus buildings, and led protest marches.

The televised scenes of chaos at American schools, and the growing radicalization of some elements of the anti-war movement, created a significant backlash. A Gallup poll done just after the Kent State shootings found that 58 percent of respondents blamed the students for the incident.

Even so, historians say that the large-scale protests on and off campus pressured President Richard Nixon’s administration to speed up U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. The last American combat troops left the country in March 1973.

“The student anti-war movement got its message across that the Vietnam War was immoral and unwinnable,” Isserman says.

The protests had a domestic impact too. In 1971, states ratified the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, lowering the voting age to 18 from 21.

“Lowering the voting age would never have happened without the student protest movement of the 1960s,” says Cohen.

By the mid-1960s, the United States had begun dramatically increasing its troop presence in Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1973, the federal government drafted 2.2 million men into military service. Many of those drafted were just out of high school. The draft prompted large protests on many college campuses against the Vietnam War. Many college students felt it was a Vietnamese civil war and that the U.S. should have no involvement.

“The student movement really spread via the media,” Isserman says. “Student protests were colorful, and they showed up on the evening news. And then students at other campuses took their cues from that media attention.”

The peak of U.S. campus protests came in 1970. The U.S. expanded the war effort into Cambodia. Students were also incensed by fatal shootings of students by authorities during protests at Jackson State University, in Mississippi, and at Kent State University, in Ohio. At Kent State, the Ohio National Guard killed four students and injured nine. (The Kent State shootings came after some protesters threw rocks at the troops and had set fire to a military training building two days earlier.)

At that time, students at nearly 900 schools took part in a coordinated strike, according to an analysis by the University of Washington. They boycotted classes, occupied campus buildings, and led protest marches.

The televised scenes of chaos at American schools, and the growing radicalization of some elements of the anti-war movement, created a significant backlash. A Gallup poll done just after the Kent State shootings found that 58 percent of people polled blamed the students.

Even so, historians say that the large-scale protests on and off campus pressured President Richard Nixon’s administration to speed up U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. The last American combat troops left the country in March 1973.

“The student anti-war movement got its message across that the Vietnam War was immoral and unwinnable,” Isserman says.

The protests had a domestic impact too. In 1971, states ratified the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, lowering the voting age to 18 from 21.

“Lowering the voting age would never have happened without the student protest movement of the 1960s,” says Cohen.

By the 1980s, South Africa had been living for decades with apartheid, a brutal system of racial segregation in which the White minority ruled the country and Black South Africans had no political rights. But plenty of American companies continued doing business with South Africa. On many U.S. campuses, students were fed up.

In the mid-1980s, American students began demanding that universities sell investments they owned in companies doing business in South Africa. Some students built shanties intended to resemble the housing of poor Black South Africans.

Thousands of students on dozens of campuses were protesting apartheid by the movement’s peak in 1986. Their demonstrations called attention to how American companies were effectively supporting a repressive regime by continuing to invest in South Africa, and they succeeded in getting many colleges to divest, by selling billions of dollars’ worth of those companies’ stock.

By the 1980s, South Africa had been living for decades with apartheid. It was a brutal system of racial segregation in which the White minority ruled the country and Black South Africans had no political rights. But plenty of American companies continued doing business with South Africa. On many U.S. campuses, students were fed up.

In the mid-1980s, American students began demanding that universities sell investments they owned in companies doing business in South Africa. Some students built shanties intended to resemble the housing of poor Black South Africans.

Thousands of students on dozens of campuses were protesting apartheid by the movement’s peak in 1986. Their demonstrations called attention to how American companies were effectively supporting a repressive regime by continuing to invest in South Africa. The student protestors succeeded in getting many colleges to divest, by selling billions of dollars’ worth of those companies’ stock.

Student protests were only one factor that led to the end of apartheid in the early 1990s, but historians say they were important.

“The history of student protest is largely honorable and has accomplished significant social reforms from which we’ve all benefited,” Isserman says, pointing to the impact not just of the anti-apartheid movement but also the civil rights and anti-war movements.

In all these areas, student demonstrations have played a key role, historians say.

“Fundamentally, student protests are about civic engagement,” says Cohen. “What all these movements show is that students, who in many cases weren’t even old enough to vote, had an enormous impact on the course of the country.”

Student protests were only one factor that led to the end of apartheid in the early 1990s, but historians say they were important.

“The history of student protest is largely honorable and has accomplished significant social reforms from which we’ve all benefited,” Isserman says, pointing to the impact not just of the anti-apartheid movement but also the civil rights and anti-war movements.

In all these areas, student demonstrations have played a key role, historians say.

“Fundamentally, student protests are about civic engagement,” says Cohen. “What all these movements show is that students, who in many cases weren’t even old enough to vote, had an enormous impact on the course of the country.”