page_title: Student activism
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Student activism / By country / United States
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Eine Demonstrantin bietet eine Blume der am Pentagon wachhabenden Militärpolizei während einer Anti-Vietnam-Demonstration in Arlington (Virginia, USA) an. English: A female demonstrator offers a flower to military police on guard at the Pentagon during an anti-Vietnam demonstration. Arlington, Virginia, USA Français&#160;: Une manifestante offre une fleur à un policier militaire en faction devant le Pentagone durant une manifestation anti-Vietnam. Arlington, Virginie, Etats-Unis. Italiano: Una manifestante offre un fiore a un militare di guardia davanti al Pentagono durante una manifestazione anti-Vietnam. Arlington, Virginia, Stati Uniti.
context_page_description: Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political events.
  Modern student activist movements vary widely in subject, size, and success, with all kinds of students in all kinds of educational settings participating, including public and private school students; elementary, middle, senior, undergraduate, and graduate students; and all races, socio-economic backgrounds, and political perspectives. Some student protests focus on the internal affairs of a specific institution; others focus on broader issues such as a war or dictatorship. Likewise, some student protests focus on an institution's impact on the world, such as a disinvestment campaign, while others may focus on a regional or national policy's impact on the institution, such as a campaign against government education policy.
context_section_description: 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.
  The next wave of activism was spurred by Depression-era realities of the 1930s. The American Youth Congress was a student-led organization in Washington, DC, which lobbied the US Congress against war and racial discrimination and for youth programs. It was heavily supported by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
  The counterculture era of the 1960s and early 1970s saw several waves of student activists gaining increasing political prominence in American society. Students formed social movements that moved them from resistance to liberation. An early important national student group was the Students' Peace Union, established in 1959. Another highlight of this period was Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) launched in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was a student-led organization that focused on schools as a social agent that simultaneously oppresses and potentially uplifts society. SDS eventually spun off the Weather Underground. Another successful group was Ann Arbor Youth Liberation, which featured students calling for an end to state-led education. Also notable were the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Atlanta Student Movement, predominantly African American groups that fought against racism and for integration of public schools across the US. The Free Speech Movement in 1964–65 at UC Berkeley used mass civil disobedience to overturn restrictions on on-campus political activities.
  The Free Speech Movement was the first US student movement that became a focus of scholarly attention into student activism.
  The longest student strike in American history started on November 6, 1968, and lasted until March 21, 1969, at San Francisco State College to raise awareness of third-world student access to higher education.
  The largest student strike in American history took place in May and June 1970, in response to the Kent State shootings and the American invasion of Cambodia. Over four million students participated in this action.
  American society saw an increase in student activism again in the 1990s. The popular education reform movement has led to a resurgence of populist student activism against standardized testing and teaching, as well as more complex issues including military/industrial/prison complex and the influence of the military and corporations in education There is also increased emphasis on ensuring that changes that are made are sustainable, by pushing for better education funding and policy or leadership changes that engage students as decision-makers in schools. Notably, universities participated in the Disinvestment from South Africa movement; University of California, Berkeley, after student activism became the first institution to disinvest completely from companies implicated in and profiting from apartheid.
  Major contemporary campaigns include work for funding of public schools, against increased tuitions at colleges or the use of sweatshop labor in manufacturing school apparel (e.g. United Students Against Sweatshops), for increased student vo
caption: A US demonstration against the Vietnam War, 1967
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