Student Activism Firsts

Sit-in
1960: Black students sit at whites-only lunch counter in Jackson, Mississippi.

Building takeover
1964: Berkeley students rally for free speech.

Teach-in
1965: sds drops knowledge on U Mich.

Draft-card burning
1965: Cal students say hell no to Vietnam.

Nationwide student strike
1970: Kent State shootings inspire weeks of class cutting.

Divestment from South Africa
1977: Hampshire College pulls out.

First daughter arrest
1987: Amy Carter busted for U Mass anti-cia break-in.

Booze riot
1991: 1,000 University of Hartford students battle cops over a confiscated beer keg.

Political smart mob
1999: Anti-wto protesters hit Seattle, cell phones in hand.

Netroots organizing
2003: Students for Dean website goes up.

Darfur divestment
2005: Harvard pulls its money from Sudan; 61 schools follow suit.

Congressperson discovers Facebook
2008: Rep. Greg Harris (D-Ill.) enlists a Lake Forest College sophomore’s 9,000-strong Facebook group to support his pro-civil-union bill.