Fall ’67: A Hectic Beginning

Abstract

News broadcasts in summer 1967 were filled scenes of riots, burning cities, and National Guard troops. The peaceful civil rights movement had morphed into a demand for black power. Death totals were rising in Vietnam as the war intensified and became the central focus of the student movement. As the semester began, President Henry handed off Urbana campus management to Jack W. Peltason, the new chancellor. Millet announced looser women’s dorm rules, Steve Schmidt announced the opening of the Red Herring coffee shop, and Berkey, Durrett, and Fein, the primary campus-movement leaders, announced that SFS was disbanded--just as the Draft Resisters Union formed.