1776 - Harvard Bad Butter Rebellion
A rebellion over rancid butter. But the butter left more than just a rancid taste in Harvard’s students’ mouths, quickly turning into the United States’ first student-led protest. These tensions that soon evolved into larger questions about the student body’s relationship with administration have been a defining feature of student-led protests since.
1963 - Birmingham Children’s Crusades
Over 1,000 school-age children — ranging all the way from age seven up to age 18 — skipped classes to march on Birmingham’s City Hall to engage the city’s mayor on legalized segregation in Birmingham. Many of the children were arrested, sprayed with fire hoses, and attacked with police dogs. The crusade led President John F. Kennedy to publicly support federal civil rights legislation.
2006 - Walkout against immigrant policy
Driven by a proposed bill to make entering the U.S. illegally a felony, these protests in spring of 2006 saw events like “A Day Without Immigrants” bring business as usual to a halt. In Los Angeles county alone, 72,000 middle and high school students stayed home from school to protest immigration policy, and countless Latinx workers across the country stayed home from work, showing solidarity in their economic power.
1945 - Protesting McCarthyism and Censorship
Jumping nearly two centuries later, the Cold War has taken its toll on America and fears of the Red Scare abound. Started at Indiana University, the so-called “Green Feather Movement” targeted an attempt to censor a textbook mentioning Robin Hood due to his promotion of communist ideals. The students at Indiana University responded by dying chicken feathers green and spreading them throughout campus to represent the chicken feather in Robin Hood’s hat.
1970 - Kent State Protest and Shooting
On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard fired upon students protesting the Vietnam War, killing four and wounding nine. Resulting from President Nixon’s announcement of expanding the war into Cambodia, the demonstration followed days of agitation and the burning of the college’s ROTC building, leading to nationwide divisions about the war.
2018 - March for Our Lives – gun control related
This month eight years ago, 17 high school students were killed by a fellow classmate in Parkland, Florida. March for Our Lives was one of the largest youth protests since the Vietnam War, with some 800,000 protestors in Washington, D.C., and nearly two million worldwide. They demanded gun reform, and survivors of the shooting used this platform to call for legislation.
