Civil Rights, Free Speech, and War

Abstract

By the middle of the decade, civil rights dominated the nation’s news media, but the war was escalating, and the student newspaper, the Daily Illini, was filled with stories of both. The paper introduced a different news theme when free-speech protests at the University of California at Berkeley made the headlines. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) sponsored an event on the UI quad to debate the war, a fraternity sponsored a blood drive for the soldiers, and graduate students Vincent Wu and Vern Fein recall their experiences surrounding free speech, civil rights, and early antiwar activities.