One of the most prominent stories in the current news cycle has been the surge of pro-Palestine student protests at colleges and universities throughout the United States.
It hit home here in Colorado when the downtown-located Auraria Campus, home to Metro State University, CU Denver and the Community College of Denver, saw 40 protestors arrested last week during encampment demonstrations. Demonstrations have continued into this week and Denver Police have refused requests from the Auraria Campus to disintegrate the protests.
Our Editor-in-Chief Ana Júlia received an email on April 26 from a former DU graduate Gary McCool. McCool is currently the Coordinator of Reference Service for the Lamson Library at Plymouth State University.
McCool suggested a story connecting today’s coverage of student pro-Palestine protests sweeping colleges and universities with anti-Vietnam protests happening at Columbia University in 1968 and student protests that were happening at DU in the 1960s.
He made my job extremely easy and pointed to several editions of the Clarion in 1966 and 1968 that could help with the story, so a shoutout is very necessary for Gary.
This week’s Into the Archives topic follows McCool’s suggestion, as I will be examining several articles published by the Clarion in 1966 and 1968. Before I examine the archives, some context is needed.
The DU protests that happened in April and May of 1968 had nothing to do with anti-Vietnam war efforts that were occurring across the country around that time. Instead, they were in protest of graduate students not being able to participate in student government elections or hold positions.
The biggest day of protest at DU happened to fall on the exact same day that over 700 student protestors who were protesting for a number of issues were arrested at Columbia University: April 30, 1968.
Students at Columbia were protesting the school’s connection to weapon research for the Vietnam War, the school’s treatment of Black people and the school’s poor treatment of minority communities. The students took over buildings on campus for several days before Columbia’s president allowed New York Police to make hundreds of ugly arrests.
November 15, 1966 (vol. 71, no. 17)
Although DU protests did not align with the reasoning of the Columbia protests in 1968, McCool noted in his message that he helped organize protests in 1966. These protests were in response to the university awarding an honorary doctorate degree to the Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, who was one of the more public defenders at the time of the U.S.’s involvement in Vietnam.
Rusk spoke at Ben M. Cherrington Hall (now the SIE complex) on Nov. 14 and reaffirmed the Johnson administration’s position on the war in his speech. Although the bottom article’s headline might appear negative, McCool and the article highlighted that the leaders of the protest got to meet with the Secretary of State in private and give their dissents directly to Rusk.
“We had quite a lively and blunt conversation with him – speaking truth to power,” said McCool in his email.
April 30, 1968 (vol. 72, no. 50)
This article came out before the actual day of protest and arrests occurred. It detailed the strong stance Chancellor Maurice Mitchell made about the planned protests, and said “Those who engage in a sit-in on the administration building will subject themselves to the severest action.”
The article also detailed the strong outcry from other students who were upset and “wanted to physically prevent the demonstrating students from sitting in on the administration building.” Several Letters to the Editor sent to the Clarion after this edition also resonated with the same anger some students had against the student protestors.
This reminds me of a similar recent event at UCLA’s protests. Protestors with conflicting views attacked Pro-Palestine protests on Wednesday, macing individuals, and throwing water bottles and chemicals as well. It seems like history is repeating itself as protests continue to be exacerbated by counter-violence.
May 3, 1968 (vol. 72, no. 51)
The next edition of the Clarion included this front-page article detailing the consequences of the April 30 protest. Forty students were arrested at around 10 a.m. on a Tuesday and were taken off university premises. Each person arrested was listed by name in the last paragraph of the article and one of those students was graduate student Jack Kirby.
According to McCool, Kirby was a friend of his who also helped organize the Vietnam protests in 1966. He said Kirby was a “father figure” to the younger students as one of the co-founders of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter. That day on April 30, Kirby left the building to talk to his wife and baby daughter and tell them he felt an obligation to go back inside and support the solidarity with the younger students. Kirby was arrested and expelled from DU.
Kirby was a Ph.D. student and was forced to restart his studies at the University of Illinois.
“It is worth noting that the History faculty at the University of Illinois specifically wanted Jack to continue his doctoral studies there since he had shown his principles and courage by getting expelled from DU for a worthy cause,” said McCool in his email.
May 10, 1968 (vol. 72, no. 53)
The repercussions for the students after the protest were severe. Each and every protester was expelled and according to McCool and records of the Clarion, none were allowed to return to school at DU. Articles from May 3, May 7, and May 10 detailed the lack of due process for the protestors and the slowness of granting righteous hearings.
At the same time DU students were experiencing the aftermath, 30 students at Columbia University also faced suspension and expulsion for their involvement in their protests. It’s what could happen to students who were protesting at Columbia University last week, and university officials continue to threaten the students with severe punishment.
McCool said that in his opinion, if the DU protests had not occurred at the same time as the Columbia protests, they would have likely gotten more national attention. I agree with that statement extensively.
It’s crazy to see how history continues to repeat itself. Protests continue to be exacerbated by counter-violence, student’s educations continue to be threatened and the call to justice from America’s students has not subsided.
Thank you to Gary McCool once again for sending in this story idea, and a big thank you once again to the DU Special Collections & Archives for digitizing the Clarion newspaper records.
