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A history of student protest movements in the US

From CNN’s Alaa Elassar, Nicquel Terry Ellis and Ashley R. Williams

Black students wait in vain for food service at this F.W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 20, 1960.

Greensboro News & Record/AP

Segregation sit-ins

While student protests for racial equality gained the most traction in the 1960s, some of the first demonstrations against segregation took place decades before.

In the 1940s, students at Howard University began practicing what they called a “stool-sitting technique” where students would go to restaurants that denied Black people service and remain seated.

Civil Rights protests

Students across the country protested to demand racial equality in admissions, curriculum that reflected diverse perspectives and more people of color on the faculty.

A Black Students Union leader rallies a crowd of demonstrators at San Francisco State College in December 1968. The union had gone on strike after racial strife between students and administration.

AP

In one case, in 1968, the Black Student Union at San Francisco State University led a strike that shut down the university. The administration cancelled classes over three months, according to the university’s website.

Vietnam anti-war protests

The 1960s and 1970s saw a rise in anti-war protests on campuses.

Students demanded the Vietnam war’s end and spoke out against the military draft.

Police use tear gas and night sticks to break up anti-war demonstrations at the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, Oct. 18, 1967.

Neal Ulevich/AP

In 1970, four students were killed and nine others were wounded at Kent State University when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on protesters.

The South African apartheid divestment movement

Between the 1960s and 1980s, US student activists led a movement to pressure universities to cut financial ties with companies doing business with South Africa’s apartheid government.

University of Pennsylvania students burn mock passbooks, like those carried by Black South Africans, at a rally to demand the university divest from South Africa’s apartheid government on Feb. 10, 1986.

Amy Sancetta/AP

Students successfully pressured universities, including in New York, California and North Carolina, to sever financial ties.

Black Lives Matter movement

College students across the country have played a key role in the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement following the deaths of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and Michael Brown in 2014.

Students stage a “die in” at Washington University to draw attention to police violence against unarmed Black men on December 1, 2014, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

The movement demands an end to police violence against Black men.

In 2020, the police killing of George Floyd sparked unrest across the country and many students joined the protests that swept the nation.