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The University of Illinois in the Cold War Era 1945-1975: March 1970 Rally Against GE

March 1970 Rally Against GE

Alternative student publication, "The Geek" featured the GE protests, circa 1970

Throughout the war, student protesters targeted corporations that profited from and gave money to politicians who supported the war.  The demonstrations often consisted of targeting corporate recruiters.  In March of 1970 the rally against General Electric at the University of Illinois turned violent as windows were smashed and streets were blocked.



U of I Sources:

Graduate Student Association Subject Files, 1967-71 (RS 41/62/15)

Campus Security Office Campus Unrest File, 1968-1972 (RS: 37/4/9)

Files of Faculty for University Reform, 1968-70 (RS 48/1/10)

People Publications, 1970-71 (RS 41/66/969): Includes The Geek

Student Disciplinary Hearings--Summarization of Testimony, 1970 (RS 34/1/12)

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

Photographic Subject File, 1868- (RS: 39/2/20): Includes photographs of student protests and demonstrations.

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.  Copy in U of I Library.

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).