Students connect with lesser-known University history during special class on May Days

“Media and Protest: The 1960s” students gathered in the Special Collections Library Tuesday to examine primary source news coverage documents of 1970 May Days protests at the University



Top and bottom: graffiti on the Rotunda during the May Days protests
Center left: protest coverage by The Cavalier Daily
Center right: student poster for one of the rallies held at the University
Top and bottom: graffiti on the Rotunda during the May Days protests Center left: protest coverage by The Cavalier Daily Center right: student poster for one of the rallies held at the University Photo by Charlie Teague | The Cavalier Daily

By Charlie Teague
April 16, 2021

History has a way of resonating into the present, providing astonishing parallels that help us make sense of our present moment and suggest ways to move forward. Such a notion echoed through the auditorium of the Special Collections Library Tuesday when students in MDST 3903, “Media and Protest: The 1960s” gathered to discuss the University’s May Days protests.

Occurring in May 1970, May Days was a series of protests, including a University-wide strike, that student activists organized in response to both the Kent State University massacre — in which four Kent State University students engaged in an anti-war protest were killed by national guardsmen — and the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia.

“The murders at Kent State basically set off this firestorm across the country,” said Carly Lester, a fourth-year College student in MDST 3903. “May Days basically was widespread student protests across the University of Virginia and a list of demands to the president asking him to change things at the University because things weren't up to par with what they believed was a just, progressive environment.”

Tuesday’s class was held in the Special Collections Library, with physical news articles and photos from 1970 set on tables at the perimeter of the room. It began with opening remarks from class instructor Prof. Aniko Bodroghkozy, who then introduced a series of student presentations covering different Charlottesville-based news publications’ coverage of the May Days protests. Students presented on coverage by The Cavalier Daily and The Daily Progress, as well as The Virginia Weekly and The Sally Hemings — two underground, student-run newspapers.

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MAY DAYS: STUDENT ACTIVISM ROCKED UVA’S GROUNDS 50 YEARS AGO



This peace rally, dubbed “Freedom Day,” brought together about 3,000 protesters on May 6 outside the Rotunda. (Photo by Dave Skinner, University Photographer)

May 07, 2020 Anne E. Bromley, anneb@virginia.edu

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