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UNC’s student strike against the Vietnam War, May 1970

After the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State killings, some 6,000 students joined a strike that suspended business as usual on campus.

42 works about UNC’s student strike against the Vietnam War, May 1970 are indexed here.

In the chronology

Chronology entries for this event, in date order. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Student Legislature passes a resolution calling a class boycott over the invasion of Cambodia On the night of Nixon's Cambodia announcement the Student Legislature passed a resolution urging students to boycott classes on May 6. Student Body President Tom Bello called the strike and a student body meeting the next day, before the Kent State killings turned the one-day boycott into a general strike. People: Tom BelloThe Daily Tar Heel, May 6, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
  2. Antiwar marchers lower the Naval Armory flag for the Kent State dead During a 2,000-student march against the Cambodia invasion, protesters took down the flag at the armory to half staff for the students killed at Kent State; NROTC students pushed back and raised it again before the march moved on to South Building.NC State Historic Preservation Office: Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill, National Register nomination (OR1541), p. 39
  3. UNC student strike of 1970 After the Kent State shootings and the invasion of Cambodia, UNC students began a class boycott on May 5, 1970, and more than 4,000 people marched through downtown Chapel Hill the next day. Classes were not cancelled; the faculty instead voted to let striking students take grades on work completed or finish courses later. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Tom BelloThe Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1970, p. 1
  4. The student body meets in Polk Place and more than 4,000 march through downtown Chapel Hill behind four coffins Tom Bello chaired an emergency meeting of the student body in Polk Place, then led a march half a mile long down Franklin Street behind four coffins for the Kent State dead; estimates ran from 4,000 to 6,000. That night 900 students planned the boycott, 2,500 held a candlelight memorial at McCorkle Place and marched again down Franklin Street, and strikers camped in Polk Place for an all-night vigil. People: Tom BelloThe Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
  5. The general faculty votes to let striking students take their grades as they stand or finish coursework later With more than 4,000 students rallying outside, the general faculty meeting in Hill Hall overwhelmingly approved a substitute motion by Marvin Silver and Gerhard Lenski calling the strike 'a reasonable, peaceful and responsible course of action' and allowing final grades on work completed so far or delayed completion of course requirements, with a right of appeal. Faculty chairman Daniel Okun's letter the next day explained the policy as no penalties for strike absences and make-up exams for those who could not in conscience sit the scheduled exam. People: Joe Straley, Daniel A. Okun, Oscar Knefler RiceThe Daily Tar Heel, May 8, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
  6. Student Government's 'The Strike Continues?' release turns the strike toward canvassing and calls a Memorial Hall teach-in Tom Bello's Student Government press release declared that rallies alone would not end the war and redirected the strike, which it said now involved well over half the student body, toward canvassing, petitions and visits to Congress. It announced a faculty panel on the war for 3 p.m. Monday, May 11 in Memorial Hall with Samuel Wells, James Leutze, Andrew Scott, Daniel Pollitt and David Lapkin. People: Tom Bello, Daniel H. PollittNC Anchor (State Library of North Carolina): Primary Source: Campus Protests at UNC Chapel Hill
  7. Students sit in at South Building and hand Chancellor Sitterson a petition of 800 names confessing to the disruption policy Seventy-five to 100 students occupied the South Building lobby for over an hour to protest the trustees' disruption policy and its use against three students charged after the December cafeteria strike. Three were admitted to Chancellor Sitterson's office with a petition of 800 UNC students indicting themselves for violating the policy during the strike's first days; Sitterson said the matter lay with President Friday. Bello and the strike steering committee condemned the sit-in. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. Friday, Tom BelloThe Daily Tar Heel, May 12, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

  • Hill Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
  • Memorial Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
  • NROTC Naval Armory University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
  • Polk Place University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
  • South Building University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here

All places and the county map →

Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Filter these works by material, period, or place. Counts refer to works, not individual copies. A work may appear under more than one period or place.

Oral history interview with Sharon Rose Powell, June 20, 1989: interview L-0041, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Powell, Sharon Rose · 2008 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Sharon Rose Powell (born 1947) began at UNC as a freshman in autumn 1964, when women were only about a tenth of the entering class. Interviewed by Pamela Dean in June 1989, she recalls campus life for women students in the mid-1960s, the sexism she met in higher education, the student movements of the decade, and her own path toward feminism and women's rights work. About two hours and ten minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2008, through Documenting the American South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill.

I raised my hand to volunteer: students protest in 1960s Chapel Hill : an exhibit of the Manuscripts Department in the Wilson Library

Hollingsworth, Biff · 2007

Catalog of an exhibit mounted by the Manuscripts Department of Wilson Library from January 23 to May 31, 2007, on student protest in Chapel Hill during the 1960s. Topics include civil rights demonstrations, the Speaker Ban Law, the Black Student Movement, restaurant strikes and Vietnam War protests at the university. Compiled by Biff Hollingsworth, 59 pages with illustrations and facsimiles, published by the university library.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Student strikes -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill -- History.

Oral history interview with Anne Queen, November 22, 1976: interview G-0049-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Queen, Anne · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Second of two Southern Oral History Program interviews with Anne Queen (1911-2005), who came to Chapel Hill after years as an industrial worker and went on to direct the Campus YWCA-YMCA, a center of student activism. Recorded November 22, 1976, by Joseph Herzenberg, this hour-long conversation covers how Queen saw politics in the South and the nation change through the mid-twentieth century, and student political activity at UNC. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill.

Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, February 22, 2001: interview K-0215, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Pollitt, Daniel H. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

A separate interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, recorded February 22, 2001, by David Potorti for the Southern Oral History Program, 75 minutes long. Pollitt traces his liberal convictions on race and religion to a family of ministers, soldiers and lawyers, describes clerking for an appeals court judge, and recounts his part in the civil rights movement in Chapel Hill: opposition to local segregation, school integration in North Carolina, and student movements at the university. Published online in 2007 in Documenting the American South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill.

Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, November 19, 1990: interview L-0048, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Pollitt, Daniel H. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Law professor Daniel H. Pollitt remembers Anne Queen (1911-2005), director of UNC's Campus Y, in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded November 19, 1990, by Cindy Cheatham. Queen's commitment to social justice matched Pollitt's own work for racial equality and support of student activists, and he describes her Campus Y as the place where students concerned with civil rights in segregated Chapel Hill gathered and learned to organize. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill.

Oral history interview with William C. Friday, December 18, 1990: interview L-0049, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Friday, William C. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

William C. Friday, UNC system president from 1957 until 1986, was interviewed by Cindy Cheatham in December 1990 about Anne Queen (1911-2005). Queen came to the campus YWCA as associate director in 1956 and led the merged YMCA-YWCA from 1964 to 1975. Friday recalls working with her through the years of student political activity in Chapel Hill and reflects on the place of the Y in university life. About forty minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2007, through Documenting the American South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill.

Show 6 more

Icons of Power and Landscapes of Protest

Roseboro, Donyell L. · 2005

Donyell L. Roseboro's 2005 doctoral dissertation on the student movement for the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It examines African American student activism and student organizations on the Chapel Hill campus. A typescript of 307 leaves with illustrations, distributed through UMI.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill.

UNC

Progress and protests : UNC-Chapel Hill leaders during "the Long Sixties" (1957-1972) : covering chancellors William Brantley Aycock, Paul F. Sharp, and J. Carlyle Sitterson

Roundtree, Lynn · 2024 · Lynn Roundtree

Lynn Roundtree covers the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between 1957 and 1972 through its three chancellors, William Brantley Aycock, Paul F. Sharp and J. Carlyle Sitterson, set against the student movements of those years. Part of the Coates university leadership series, published by the author in 2024 and running to 926 pages. It is twentieth century campus history.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill -- History -- 20th century.

UNC

I raised my hand to volunteer : students protest in 1960s Chapel Hill.

2007 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Account of student protest in 1960s Chapel Hill, published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007 with illustrations. It draws together the civil rights movement and segregation in the town, discrimination in restaurants, academic freedom and university autonomy, protest against the Vietnam War, Students for a Democratic Society and the Black Student Movement on campus.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill.

UNC

Red state, blue heaven : the conservative student movement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

David, Eric M. · 2005

Eric M. David reports on the conservative student movement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, written in 2005 for a committee of Chris Roush as advisor with Ferrel Guillory and Thad Beyle. It examines student movements and political activity. Sixty leaves with three preliminary pages.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill.

UNC

Left turn : the Carolina journal of radical thought.

2001

Left turn, a journal of radical thought published by students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2001, documenting campus political writing and student movements.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill -- Periodicals.

UNC

Caution and candor : the student movement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1929-1940

Donovan, Sarah Elizabeth · 1998

Sarah Elizabeth Donovan's study of student political activity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between 1929 and 1940, written in 1998. Eighty two leaves with a bibliography at the end. The period she covers runs from the start of the Depression to the eve of American entry into the Second World War.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Student movements -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill -- History.

UNC

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