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The University of Illinois in the Cold War Era 1945-1975: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at U of I

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at U of I

The U of I branch of SDS advertised anti-war happenings around campus, circa 1969

Students for a Democratic Society was formed in 1960 in Ann Arbor, Michigan .  Its political manifesto, the Port Huron Statement called for an end to racial discrimination, action on American poverty, international peace, and for the United  States to live up to the creed that “all men are created equal.”  In 1964 students formed a chapter at the University of Illinois , and in 1965 they petitioned the university to hold an SDS conference on campus.   



U of I Sources:

Student and Faculty Organization Constitutions and Registration Cards, 1909-  (RS 41/2/41)

Student Organizations Publications, 1871-  (RS 41/6/840)

Dean of Student’s Subject File, 1966-98 (RS 41/1/6): Includes information on SDS in Box 1

Student Discipline Files, 1953-84 (RS 41/2/44)

President David D. Henry General Correspondence, 1955-71 (RS: 2/12/1)

Bibliography:

Michael S. Foley, Confronting the War Machine: Draft Resistance During the Vietnam War (Chapel Hill: 2003).

William A. Gordon, The Fourth of May: Killings and Coverups at Kent State (Buffalo: 1990).

Kenneth J. Heineman, Campus Wars: the Peace Movement at American State Universities in the Vietnam Era (New York: 1993).

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, Peace Now!: American Society and the Ending of the Vietnam War (New Haven, 1999).

Patrick D. Kennedy, “Reactions Against the Vietnam War and Military-Related Targets on Campus: The University of Illinois as a Case Study, 1965-72,” Illinois Historical Journal 84:2 (1991): 101-118.

James Miller, “Democracy is in the Streets”: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago (New York: 1987).

Michael Parenti, “Repression in Academia: A Report From the Field,” Politics and Society 1:4 (1971), 527-538.

Joel P. Rhodes, The Voice of Violence: Performative Violence as Protest in the Vietnam Era (Westport, CT: 2001).

Nancy Zaroulis and Gerald Sullivan, Who Spoke Up?: American Protest Against the War in Vietnam, 1963-1975 (Garden City, N.Y.: 1984).