Protesting an Unwanted War
With America’s involvement with the Vietnam War, protests across the country started to crop up. It started with a handful of demonstrations in the early 1960s in larger cities and college campuses, but as the war continued, opposition grew.
When America’s military presence increased to over 500,000 combat troops in 1964, the opposition movement grew rapidly, and by the late 1960s and early 1970s, Vietnam War protests attracted over 100,000 participants at locations throughout the country. FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, authorized numerous countermeasures to disrupt and minimize the credibility and influence of antiwar organizations.
The most notable American protest against the Vietnam War happened in 1970 when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd of student protesters at Kent State University, killing four students (Allison Krause, Jeffery Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Schroder) and wounding nine.
This photo of a young girl kneeling over the body of Jeffery Miller, killed during the Kent State tragedy May 4, 1970, won the Pulitzer Prize in spot news photography for John Paul Filo, a Kent student and summer intern at the Valley Daily News of Tarentum and the Daily Dispatch of New Kingston, both Pennsylvania papers.
[Photograph 2012.201.B0303B.0168], photograph, 1971; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc397578/: accessed July 25, 2025), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.]
Oklahoma Protests
Closer to home, college campuses in Oklahoma also staged antiwar demonstration, but to a lesser degree. Even Central State College, now called University of Central Oklahoma, held a protest that brought out over 200 hundred students that stood against the war.
Central State University (UCO): A protest at Central State College, now called University of Central Oklahoma, brought out over 200 hundred students that stood against the war.
University of Oklahoma: The biggest Oklahoma protests took place at the University of Oklahoma. After the Kent State Shooting, OU students first expressed their dismay by damaging the ROTC building on campus. And 2 days later, student protests clashed with authorities which led to several injuries to the protestors and 3 arrests. These events inspired 1000s of students to join the protests. Almost 2000 students joined to march in a peaceful protest while 500 others occupied OU buildings.
Photo and Caption from the May 8, 1970 issue of the Oklahoma City Times:
Clouted students lie under troopers’ batons in brief melee at OU. An estimated 3,000 students gathered at the University of Oklahoma administration building this morning for a noisy but peaceful rally contrasting to the violence seething briefly Tuesday afternoon. At the administration’s request, the planned protest rally became a memorial meeting for the four Kent State University students slain by the national guardsmen earlier in the week. But U.S. involvement in Cambodia and events that figured in the speeches and student outbursts. Beginning at 9 a.m., the meeting proceeded with an orderly succession of speakers until shortly before 11, when some students began a chanting but peaceful invasion of the administration building itself…Bill Moffit, student body president, said he was to meet with one or more regents early this afternoon concerning the Tuesday uproar and the three students jailed.
[Photograph 2012.201.OVZ001.4223], photograph, 1970; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1701346/m1/1/?q=%22kent%20state%22: accessed July 25, 2025), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.
Oklahoma State University: A large demonstration was orchestrated by student protestors at Oklahoma State University that saw over 600 protestors that worked to disrupt ROTC events on the campus.
Oklahoma City University: In Oklahoma City University, 100 protestors marched from the OCU campus to the city hall in Oklahoma City to express their dismay with the Vietnam War.
Photo and caption from the May 8, 1970 issue of the Oklahoma City Times:
A student peace march turned into a parliamentary debate on the Vietnam War in front of the municipal bulding today. About 100 persons, mostly students from Oklahoma City University, marched from the campus to city hall, arriving about 11:20 this morning. By 12:30 p.m., they had dispersed. The demonstrators, protesting American involvment in Cambodia and the recent Kent State University shooting deaths, sat at the base of the steps and began singing “Give Peace a Chance.” A shouting march started when a man who identified himself as Maxwell Darks, an attorney, began yelling at the demonstrators: “Peace – with a clenched fist? You lie. You are hypocrites.”…One of the demonstrators, Jerry Clemmons, stood up and demanded to know if the “military deictatorship in Cambodiathat’s only been in power two days is the kind of liberty we’re fighting for.”…..Dave Coffman, president of the senate, made a brief speech to the crowd after Darks had finished.
Aker, Joe. [Photograph 2012.201.OVZ001.4209], photograph, 1970; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1692228/m1/1/?q=%22kent%20state%22: accessed July 25, 2025), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.
Phillips University: At Philips University in Enid, 30 students participated in a 3-day hunger strike. At the University of Tulsa, protestors took part in a teach in, where they held informal and unsanctioned lectures regarding the Vietnam War to inform attendees.