Ex-UA students recall anti-war protest
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20101023/NEWS/101029867/1007?Title=Ex-UA-students-recall-anti-war-protest
By Wayne Grayson
October 23, 2010
TUSCALOOSA | More than 40 years removed from the two weeks that
largely shaped their moral and political outlooks, former University
of Alabama students and other participants gathered Friday afternoon
to discuss the 1970 campus protests against the Vietnam War known as
the "Days of Rage."
The mini-conference was titled "Days of Rage: a Forty Years'
Perspective" and was at Hotel Capstone on the UA campus.
Two keynote addresses set the historical context for the events that
took place May 6-19, 1970, which included the burning of the
abandoned Dressler Hall, which led to the campus being locked down
under virtual martial law.
The protests were sparked by the killing of four students at an
anti-war rally at Kent State University and resulted in the arrest of
dozens of students by UA police, Tuscaloosa police and the Alabama
National Guard.
Two roundtable discussions also featured seven people with firsthand
accounts of the events.
UA history professor Andrew Huebner spoke about the history of the
anti-war protests that erupted across the country between 1965 and
1970. Huebner said that between 1965 and 1966, two-thirds of
Americans supported the Vietnam War. But by 1967, the draft was being
questioned by many Americans and the rising American casualties
between 1967 and 1970 turned many against the war.
The changing political tides gave rise to the "New Left" radical
student groups on campuses across the country, such as Students for a
Democratic Society, Huebner said. These student groups found the
American government guilty of racism, imperialism and class oppression.
"They were calling for shifts in power ... and a return of power to
the people," he said. "They believed that there was a machine and the
government, the military and all the corporations were a part of it.
"They believed that the Vietnam War was meant to enrich the U.S. in
order to expand this machine at the expense of the Vietnam people."
Huebner said such groups were a minority on most college campuses,
citing a poll taken in 1968 asking students if they considered
themselves "radical." Only 4 percent said yes. That total only grew
to 11 percent in 1970.
Vietnam veteran Tom Ashby was featured in the event's roundtable
discussion. He left UA to fight in Vietnam and returned to the
university in time to play a role in the anti-war protests.
Ashby said he blocked out his views on the war until he saw the way
students who voiced their opposition to it were being treated on
campus."Our society was so ignorant about what was going on in
Vietnam and the civil rights movement," Ashby said. "I had a
responsibility to do what I could to make what I knew we were doing
in Vietnam known."
Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman was also on campus at the time,
and said he too was greatly affected by the way students were being mistreated.
"We were equally concerned with the attitude that the administration
at the University of Alabama held toward students along with the
societal issues that could impact the whole community," he said.
During the discussion, Siegelman recalled worrying about being drafted.
"I was lucky enough (to have connections) with the National Guard and
I joined up," he said. "And that is the only reason I was able to run
for public office because I'm sure if I were forced with the decision
of fighting in Vietnam or moving to Canada as a conscientious
objector, I would have become a conscientious objector."
Jack Drake was one year out of law school at UA when he decided to
represent many of the students arrested during the "Days of Rage."
Drake was a student activist himself, a stance he attributes to where
he grew up.
"I think it was really critical that I came from a part of the state
where my family was not a monied establishment," he said. "Had I been
from Union Springs and my family owned 5,000 acres of land, I think I
would have been a very different person. But because my family wasn't
wealthy I didn't have to protect that which was the mindset of many
then and still is today."
At the end of his talk, Huebner examined whether student protests
like the ones at UA had any effect on lawmakers and their decisions
about American policy in Vietnam.
"Many (who participated) in the anti-war movement have since lamented
that it didn't," Huebner said. "But (Presidents Lyndon) Johnson and
(Richard) Nixon believed strongly enough in the anti-war movement to
do everything in their power to thwart it."
Regardless of their effects, those who had a hand in the "Days of
Rage" present at the mini-
conference Friday agreed on one thing.
"I felt in my heart it was the right thing to do," Eugenia Crosheck said.
"It was just an awakening where you start to see what your heart
believes," Carol Self said.
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