Title: The Counterculture of the 1960s
Headings: The Counterculture of the 1960s
US History II
The Counterculture of the 1960s

Content: Before opposition to the Vietnam War mushroomed, issues that touched on student freedom, such as dress codes, course requirements, discrimination by sororities and fraternities, and minority admissions, were hot topics on campus. When the administration tried to control political activity at the University of California at Berkeley in the fall of 1964, the Free Speech Movement was formed. The tactics the Berkeley students used at the time — sit‐ins and taking over college buildings — became common forms of antiwar protest. In the spring of 1965, SDS supported a nationwide campaign against the draft. On campuses, demonstrations included draft card burnings, confrontations with military recruiters, and sit‐ins to protest ROTC programs. Additionally, companies that were closely involved with the war effort, such as Dow Chemical (which manufactured napalm), were targeted when they came to a university to recruit. Off campus, antiwar protestors demonstrated at Army induction centers with picket lines and sit‐ins. In the first six months of 1968, more than 200 major demonstrations took place at 100 colleges and universities across the country, involving more than 40,000 students. The most celebrated of these early demonstrations was the confrontation at Columbia University in April 1968. The issue being protested was not the war, but the school's decision to displace black housing to build a gymnasium.