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University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois in the Cold War Era 1945-1975: March Riots (1970)

March Riots (1970)

Demonstration on Green Street, circa March 1970 (Illio)

In 1970 protests against the Vietnam War at the University of Illinois became more violent.  On March 1st the ROTC lounge was fire-bombed, two more firebombs were found in Altgeld Hall, and protests over the presence of GE recruiters resulted in vandalism and arrests.



U of I Sources:

Board of Trustees Proceedings (RS 1/1/802)

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

Chancellor’s Office Files, 1967-86  (RS 24/1/1)

Student Affairs Dean’s Office Subject Files, 1966-97 (RS 41/1/6)

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

Campus Security Office Disciplinary Hearings Transcripts and Reports, 1970-1974 (RS: 37/4/10)

LAS Dean’s Office, Robert Rogers, 1960-84 (RS 15/1/21): Includes information on the moratorium, campus disruptions, vandalism, and peace research.

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).