On May 4, 1970, four students were killed and nine were wounded in Kent State University by the national guards. These students were protesting against America bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. This incident caused many colleges across the nation to arise and support the protest. To portray one of the colleges that participated in the protest, Christopher J. Broadhurst shares the events in North Carolina State University (NCSU) through his document, ““We Didn’t Fire a Shot, We Didn’t Burn a Building”: The Student Reaction at North Carolina State University to the Kent State Shootings, May 1970”. Broadhurst is currently an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, who focuses on the historical context of the late 20th century. He …show more content…
earned his Master’s Degree and Ph. D in North Carolina State University in 1999 and 2012, respectively. The author’s purpose is to provide not only the shooting in Kent State University, but also show how the NCSU was “inspired by national events and guided by effective student leadership, was similar to that at other American universities” (Broadhurst, 2010, p.
309). Broadhurst’s central argument is that “other campuses across the nation could have learned from North Carolina State” because NCSU was able to remain nonviolent throughout the protest (Broadhurst, 2010, p. 309). The notes at the bottom of each page indicate usage of primary sources, pulled out from school folders containing the history of the student riot, the Vietnam War, and quotes from first-hand individuals, such as Chancellor John Caldwell. Broadhurst also interviewed professors in NCSU, for instance, Dr. John Riddle, who experienced the movement directly, which enhances his documents with details of the protest in 1970. Broadhurst uses technical method throughout his document because he explains the cause and effect of the movement in NCSU and its significance, includes the situations in other colleges, and provides details, in which, the cause pf the movement and the aftermath it brought to the campus and also to the …show more content…
nation. The document starts off by providing the causes of Kent State shooting and how it was “unified in May 1970 by President Richard Nixon's announcement of a major Cambodian offensive and the expansion of the Vietnam War” (Broadhurst, 2010, p.
283). Afterwards, the author briefly talks about the traditional background of NCSU, and lists the important events in chronological order, introducing main figures who supported the movement, such as Cathy Sterling, a NCSU student who led other students, showing leadership throughout the movement. Broadhurst strengthens his document by comparing NCSU to other campuses, informing that many students across the nation “were furious that Nixon had failed to carry out his campaign promise to end the war "honorably”” (Broadhurst, 2010, p. 288). His document corresponds to Judith Lynne Thorpe’s document, “A Study of the Peace Movement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Viewed within the Context of the Nation, 1964-1971”, about NCSU students themselves controlling “their own rage and the rhetoric of the radicals and have concentrated their attention on the real issue" (Thorpe, 1992). Through his document, Broadhurst establishes his ethos as a person who graduated from NCSU and as a professor at
NCSU. One tiny problem is found at the very last sentence of his document when Broadhurst states his own judgement “that other campuses across the nation could have learned from North Carolina State” (Broadhurst, 2010, p. 309). However, it was challenging to find the weakness of this document because the author did such a great job in providing everything from the historical background of Kent State shooting to the traditions of NCSU, the important events and its leaders, and considering not only the situations in NCSU, but also including the circumstances the other campuses went through across the nation. Broadhurst was able to demonstrate the effects of the antiwar movement, thoroughly, through his usage of reliable sources, counterarguments, and expanding his view from a small event to how it affected the nation as a whole. His weakness was too tiny in size compared to the overall document that it did not weaken the entire document. As a historian, Broadhurst carried out his document, implementing what happened, why it happened, and helped readers to understand author’s position. Overall, the document shows the accomplishments the antiwar movement of 1970 brought to the America, despite the challenges the students faced. While majority of the historians focus only the incident of Kent State shooting, Broadhurst portrays the following effects in other campuses and how it enhanced the movement. Readers looking for antiwar movements in the 70s can refer to this document. Broadhurst’s document is essential to the field because it demonstrates a butterfly effect of how one incident unified the nation, and changed one nation, honorably.
During the 1960’s, there was a rising tide of protests that were taking place. College students began to stand up for their rights and protest for a stronger voice in society. The United States was going through a tough period marked by the Cold War against communism and also the war in Vietnam. From Truman to Nixon the United States government involved the country more and more in Vietnam. Nixon announced a new policy in 1968 called Vietnamization. (Foner, 4th edition, pg.1028) This policy would bring American troops back home, but it neither limited the war nor ended the antiwar movements.
The 1960’s was a time society fantasized of a better world. However, the horrors of the Vietnam War soon became evident; the mass amounts of death occurring because of the war became a reality. It created a “movement”, especially in American colleges, in order to stand up for what they believed to be “right”. By 1970, many Americans believed sending troops to Vietnam was a mistake, however there were also various individuals becoming increasingly critical of the student antiwar movement
Nell Bernstein, the author of Burning Down The House: The End Of Juvenile Prison has a very strong opinion about juvenile facilities. He believes that children do not learn to correct their behavior by being forced into these facilities because the main root of their behavior stems from their “broken” family structures, in more cases than not. This is supported from the text when he states “In fact multiple studies have shown that putting youth behind bars not only fails to enhance public safety; it does just the opposite, driving low-level delinquents deeper into criminality and increasing the likelihood that they will end up behind bars again and again.” Bernstein really tries to push his audience to agree with his opinion; to stop putting
Political turmoil on campus began in 1968 when a Black Panther member, George Murray, was dismissed from school, and student militants called a strike. Using terrorist tactics, these groups intimidated and physically threatened students and professors if they crossed the picket line. Some of their demands included the formulation of an autonomous black studies department, promotion to full professor of a faculty member who had one year's experience, the firing of a white administrator, and the admission of all black students who applied for the next academic year.
On the date May 26, 1956, two female students from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, had taken a seat down in the whites only section of a segregated bus in the city of Tallahassee, Florida. When these women refused to move to the colored section at the very back of the bus, the driver had decided to pull over into a service station and call the police on them. Tallahassee police arrested them and charged them with the accusation of them placing themselves in a position to incite a riot. In the days after that immediately followed these arrests, students at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University organized a huge campus-wide boycott of all of the city buses. Their inspiring stand against segregation set an example and an intriguing idea that had spread to tons of Tallahassee citizens who were thinking the same things and brought a change of these segregating ways into action. Soon, news of the this boycott spread throughout the whole entire community rapidly. Reverend C.K. Steele composed the formation of an organization known as the Inter-Civic Council (ICC) to manage the logic and other events happening behind the boycott. C.K. Steele and the other leaders created the ICC because of the unfounded negative publicity surrounding the National Associat...
So who were the Greensboro Four? The group consisted of Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil, all freshmen at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University, situated in Greensboro, North Carolina (Greensboro Sit-In and the Sit-In Movement). They were all very intelligent, considering they majored in sociology, business administration/accounting, chemistry/biology, and engineering physics respectively. The group also possessed great leadership skills, seeing that Ezell Blair would become president of his class, student government, campus NAACP, and the Greensboro Congress of Racial Equality; while Joseph McNeil was a dedicated member of the ROTC (Greensboro Four Key Players). Although the young men were well on their way in shaping quality lives for themselves, they did h...
Everyone that has been through the American school system within the past 20 years knows exactly who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is, and exactly what he did to help shape the United States to what it is today. In the beginning of the book, Martin Luther King Jr. Apostle of Militant Nonviolence, by James A. Colaiaco, he states that “this book is not a biography of King, [but] a study of King’s contribution to the black freedom struggle through an analysis and assessment of his nonviolent protest campaigns” (2). Colaiaco discusses the successful protests, rallies, and marches that King put together. . Many students generally only learn of Dr. King’s success, and rarely ever of his failures, but Colaiaco shows of the failures of Dr. King once he started moving farther North.
In conclusion, the Kent State shooting was a tragedy that has never really had anyone held responsible. Thirty-eight years later, “Official investigations as to exactly what happened at Kent State were inconclusive.” The days preceding the shootings, the students burned down the ROTC building, protested on the commons, and threw rubbish at police officers. The violent actions of the students put the law enforcement officials and National Guardsmen around them on edge. On the other side, the Guardsmen arrived in full combat gear to put down unarmed college students. There was no reason for the soldiers to fire at the students that were hundreds of feet away from them. Whether one of the soldiers fired in a moment of panic or if they were order to commence shooting may never be known.
The Port Huron Statement, issued in 1962 by a group of reformist students, is a peaceful call to action. In addition to pointing out the wrongs in their society, it also speaks about how the institutions of schools, government, the economy, the military-industrial complex and society as a whole are broken and need to change. “Institutions and practices which stifle dissent should be abolished, and the promotion of peaceful dissent should be actively promoted.” It calls for the use of modern technology, corporations and government to eliminate the problems past generations had to suffer such as poverty and racism. Its specific recommendations speak of working within the system to reform it. At this time the Students for a Democratic Society really believed that change could be achieved through “peaceful dissent”.
The late sixties was a time of turmoil in the United States. It was a transition period between the psychedelic sixties and the revolutionary seventies. The youth of the United States was becoming increasingly aware of the politics of war, the draft and other general misuses of governmental power. With the Democratic National Convention being held in Chicago during 1968, political tensions were running high throughout the city. Numerous protests were held during the time surrounding the convention in protest of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s policies on the Vietnam War. Most notably, the group of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, David Dillinger, John Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Seale...
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, was created on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh in April 1960. SNCC was created after a group of black college students from North Carolina A&T University refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina where they had been denied service. This sparked a wave of other sit-ins in college towns across the South. SNCC coordinated these sit-ins across the nation, supported their leaders, and publicized their activities. SNCC sought to affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence as the foundation of their purpose. In the violently changing political climate of the 60’s, SNCC struggled to define its purpose as it fought white oppression. Out of SNCC came some of today's black leaders, such as former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry, Congressman John Lewis and NAACP chairman Julian Bond. Together with hundreds of other students, they left a lasting impact on American history.
Success was a big part of the Civil Rights Movement. Starting with the year 1954, there were some major victories in favor of African Americans. In 1954, the landmark trial Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas ruled that segregation in public education was unfair. This unanimous Supreme Court decision overturned the prior Plessy vs. Ferguson case during which the “separate but equal” doctrine was created and abused. One year later, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. launched a bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama after Ms. Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat in the “colored section”. This boycott, which lasted more than a year, led to the desegregation of buses in 1956. Group efforts greatly contributed to the success of the movement. This is not only shown by the successful nature of the bus boycott, but it is shown through the success of Martin Luther King’s SCLC or Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The conference was notable for peacefully protesting, nonviolence, and civil disobedience. Thanks to the SCLC, sit-ins and boycotts became popular during this time, adding to the movement’s accomplishments. The effective nature of the sit-in was shown during 1960 when a group of four black college students sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in hopes of being served. While they were not served the first time they commenced their sit-in, they were not forced to leave the establishment; their lack of response to the heckling...
Shaskolsky, Leon. “The Negro Protest Movement- Revolt or Reform?.” Phylon 29 (1963): 156-166. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004 .
Enraged with the death of Jim, around 650 protestors gathered again on March 7 and attempted a march through Selma to Montgomery, ignoring Governor Wallace’s orders not to march. They again met with state troopers and a crueler response. A wall of state troopers was formed at US Highway 80 to stop the march. After refusing the orders from the police to stop the march, the troopers took action. The prot...
The primary focus of nonviolent demonstration during the 1960’s eroded from emerging militancy, outcries of the Vietnam War, and the Government attention, however Goudsouzian depicts these uneasy strands together in Down to the Crossroad: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March against Fear. Told from a narrative perspective, Originally launched by James Meredith, he attracted activists from across the nation to join the march. The big march gained national and international attention, but depended on the politics of small communities, the resolve of black Mississippians, along with strategies of white officials. The march thus finds a balance between local and national. The March against fear lasted for three weeks and covered 200