Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to understand how different UW–Madison community members used nonviolent protest tactics to advocate for different domestic and international causes.
Students will be able to understand the outcome and aftermath of nonviolent student protests, including the university and police responses to these demonstrations.
Students will be able to understand how nonviolent protests at UW were linked with broader social, economic, and international movements throughout the second half of the 20th century.
Definition of Nonviolence:
There are many interpretations of what constitutes “nonviolent” protests, demonstrations, and movements, and we encourage educators to research different definitions and their implications. For this guide, we suggest using Martin Luther King’s Six Principles of Nonviolence, which can be found here, as one example.
Sources and Readings
Recommended Primary Sources:
We selected these protests because they highlight causes that were central to students and because the tactics students used in these protests differed. The sources include examples of teach-ins, pickets, marches, rallies, divestment, and other nonviolent strategies to raise awareness against South African Apartheid, to object to the CIA recruiting on campus, and to highlight the discriminatory practices of the ROTC.
Anti-CIA Protests:
Milwaukee Sentinel Article “6 Arrested at UW CIA Protest:” Read Article Here
This Sentinel article describes a conflict between students and police as students protested CIA interviews on campus. The article notes that multiple students were arrested, and a bullhorn was confiscated despite the interviews still being conducted as students non-violently protested in the hallways.
Audio Clip about CIA Protests: Listen to Audio Here
Audio clip of a university administrator recounting students protesting the CIA’s recruitment of students in the 1960s.
Anti-Apartheid Protests:
Daily Cardinal Article “Students rally around Abe at morning UW teach in:” Read Article Here
Article about a teach-in on Bascom Mall about the oppressive nature of Apartheid in South Africa. Students put an armband on the Abe statue and used an “amplification system” during the gathering. University Police Chief, Ralph Hanson, said the police attempted to stop the students because they lacked a permit, but were unsuccessful and “very dismayed” by the gathering.
Daily Cardinal Article “State considers divesture.” Read Article Here
This article explains how the state debated Bill 594, which sought for Wisconsin to divest more than $82 million from South African corporations and businesses. The article also mentions how the UW divested more than $11 million and that the “money has been reinvested with no ill-effects.”
Daily Cardinal Article “Apartheid protesters find home:” Read Article Here
Article about a student march to the State Capital to protest the South African Apartheid and encourage legislators to pass Law AB 54, which would prevent the state of Wisconsin from holding investments in South African companies.
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram Article “South Africa investment action delayed.” Read Article Here
This article explains that the university’s decision to divest from South African companies was delayed one month to review a new report about its potential impacts. The article explains why the Board of Regents decided to divest its holdings from South African businesses and how students believed divestment promoted anti-discrimination and would help build a “greater society.”
ROTC Discrimination Protests:
Daily Cardinal Article “Police use force to end ROTC sit in:” Read Article Here
This Cardinal article describes students protesting the ROTC’s policy barring gay and lesbian people . Students staged a sit-in of the Chancellor’s office in Bascom Hall, the police were eventually called, and the students were violently removed from the building.
Badger Herald article “Anti-ROTC group holds protests:” Read Article Here
This Badger Herald article describes a student protest at Memorial Union in response to Chancellor Donna Shalala and UW System President Kenneth Shaw’s recommendation to allow the ROTC program at UW to remain on campus, despite their discriminatory practices.
Recommended Readings:
Public History Project Blog “In the Dairy State You Cannot Discriminate:” Protesting Military Homophobia at UW–Madison. By Ezra Gerard. Read Blog Post Here
Martin, Bradford. ““Unsightly huts”: Shanties and the divestment movement of the 1980s.” Peace & Change 32, no. 3 (2007): 329-360. Read Article Here
Additional Primary Sources:
Madison State Journal Article “Demonstrators protest CIA recruitment:” Read Article Here
State Journal article about student protests against CIA recruitment at UW. The article mentions that students shouted protests at the CIA officials for their role in “murder” and for being a “Roach Motel,” and the article mentions that there were no arrests and the interviews occurred despite the protests.
“Invest In Wisconsin and not South Africa” memo: Read Memo Here
This is a memo produced by the Madison Anti-Apartheid Coalition about divestment from certain South African companies and how corporations benefited from Apartheid.
Daily Cardinal Article “Segregation and racism …doing well in S.Africa:” Read Article Here
This article gives an overview of apartheid in South Africa and how Western corporations still profited from their South African entities. The author mentions that these corporations made “cosmetic” reforms that did not address the vast inequalities and discrimination that existed within South Africa.
Additional/Alternative Readings:
Chapter 6 “‘The CIA on Campus.” In Hugh Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America. (Harvard University Press, 2008). Read Book Here
Discussion and Questions
Primary Source Discussion Questions
Anti-CIA Protests:
- Why did students protest the CIA recruiting on campus throughout the latter half of the 20th century and why did the protests keep continuing?
- What tactics did students use to protest, and how were they nonviolent?
Anti-Apartheid and Divestment Protests:
- Why were UW students actively protesting Apartheid in South Africa?
- What type of protests did students organize, what was their objective, how were they nonviolent? What was the response from University and Capitol police/officials and why did they respond in such a manner?
- Why was divestment specifically used as a strategy to combat South African Apartheid and why do you think UW and the state supported divestment?
ROTC Discrimination Protests:
- How did students peacefully protest the ROTC ban on gay and lesbian recruits?
- Why do you think the police were called and violently ended the nonviolent demonstration?
Reading Discussion Questions
- Why were students protesting the ROTC and how did the university justify the ROTC’s presence on campus?
- How did the students nonviolently protest the ROTC’s discriminatory policies and what was the reaction by UWPD?
- Why did students advocate for university disinvestment from South Africa and why did these protests reemerge with new vigor in the 1980s?
- Why did students and protesters decide to construct “shantytowns” and why were they symbolically and physically important forms of nonviolent protest?
Discussion Norms: These are based on Walter Parker, Teaching Democracy: Unity and Diversity in Public Life, 138-9
- Do not raise hands
- Address one another, not the discussion leader
- Invite others into the conversation
- Cite and/or reference the texts to support your texts
- Base response in the reading/sources
- Listen to and build on others’ comments
- Critically Agree and Disagree
For more ideas about structuring discussion and asking good questions, see The Discussion Project
Primary Source Citations
Emma Best, “6 Arrested at UW in CIA Protest.” Milwaukee Sentential, October 10, 1985. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP90-00806R000201150039-0
Interview with University Administrator, Emily Chervenik, “Comments on the CIA recruitment protests.” https://www.library.wisc.edu/archives/exhibits/campus-history-projects/protests-social-action-at-uw-madison-during-the-20th-century/1960-1969/
Pamela Martin, “Students rally around Abe at morning UW teach in.” Daily Cardinal, April 25, 1985. UW Archives.
David Ahmann, “State considers divesture.” Daily Cardinal, December 2, 1981. UW Archives.
Robert Itzin, “Apartheid protesters find home.” Daily Cardinal, April 25, 1985. UW Archives.
N.A., “South Africa investment action delayed.” Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, September 9, 1977, UW Archives.
Jean Christensen, “Police use force to end ROTC sit in.” Daily Cardinal, April 24, 1990, ROTC Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation collection, ACC. 2004/081, Box 1, Newspaper Clippings, Wisconsin Historical Society.
Macheala Hoctor “Anti-ROTC group holds protests.” Badger Herald, N.D., ROTC Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation collection, ACC. 2004/081, Box 1, Newspaper Clippings, Wisconsin Historical Society.
Gregore Hesselberg, “Demonstrators protest CIA recruitment.” Madison State Journal, November 17, 1983, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00806R000201150060-6.pdf
Memo “Invest In Wisconsin and not South Africa,” Madison Anti-Apartheid Coalition records, 1968-1992, MSS 836, MAD 2M/53/E4, Box 2, Folder 28: Brochures, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, WI.
Zoltan Grossman, “Segregation and racism …doing well in S.Africa.” Daily Cardinal, December 1, 1981. UW Archives.