Student activism
In the United States, student activism is often understood as a form of youth activism that can be oriented toward change in the American educational system, civil rights, law enforcement, nuclear weapons, to a wide range of issues. Student activism in the United States dates to the beginning of public education, if not before. Some of the first well documented, directed activism occurred on the campuses of black institutions like Fisk and Howard in the 1920s. At Fisk, students' concerns surrounding disciplinary rules designed to undermine black identity coalesced into demands for the resignation of President Fayette Avery McKenzie. Spurred by alum W.E.B. Du Bois' 1924 commencement speech, the students ignored the 10p.m. curfew to protest, and staged subsequent walkouts. After a committee formed to investigate the protests ruled unfavorably on Mckenzie's abilities and handling of the unrest, he resigned on April 16, 1925. Events at Fisk had wide repercussions, as black students elsewhere began to question the repressive status quo of the postwar black university.