Essay On College Students In The 1970s

College students in the 1970s were angry with the government of the United States because they felt that our government was not fulfilling and upholding the constitution and its duties to its citizens. These college students during this period believed that the War in Vietnam was wrong and did not understand why our government was sending thousands to die in war. College students started to question what they were told by the government of the United States because it was not aligning with the values instilled in them. This leads to an outbreak of college campus protest that exploded during the 1970s. This paper will focus on the student demonstration that occurred on May 4, 1970 up to May 6, 1970 on Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) Campus and the city of Carbondale Illinois. In addition, this paper will describe how the event at Kent State of student’s demonstration help lead up to this event at SIUC that occurred on the dates listed above. …show more content…
These movements had a lot of influence on college campuses across the United States that lead to numerous demonstrations. For this paper I believe the free speech movement and the anti-war movement are relevant to what transpired in the beginning of May 0f 1970 on Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) for several days. According to Robbie Lieberman and David Cochren, in 1970 city and campus police where very present on campus during this time of student demonstrators trying to shut down anti-war demonstrations from occurring (Lieberman and Cochren, 2001, p.317). The atmosphere of SIUC campus during this time was tense because of all of the public demonstration and law force trying to combat