African American students demonstrating against the Vietnam War on the steps of the Administration Building at the University of Maryland, circa 1970-1975. Find image in Digital Collections.
Similar to the Black Lives Matters protests of today, the anti-war demonstrations of the 1960s and early-mid 1970s were frequently organized and led by young people. Anti-war demonstrations and boycotts became commonplace on college campuses across the country throughout the Vietnam War. And while protests weren’t necessarily restricted to students from specific backgrounds, black student activists maintained a unique perspective and set of objectives when it came to American involvement in Vietnam.
Following American military escalation in Vietnam in the mid-1960s, prominent civil rights organizations like SNCC and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X vehemently rejected the notion that Black Americans should be required to aid the war efforts. In 1965, SNCC issued a statement that declared: “No Black Mississippian should be fighting in Vietnam for the white man’s freedom until all the Negro people are free in Mississippi.” In other words, many African-Americans across the country contended that they should not be required to fight and support a foreign war for democracy when their own rights were still not fully secured at home.
Despite the growing numbers of black-led protests throughout the 1960s, African-American men continued to bear the brunt of American military hardships during the war. African-American men were much more likely to be drafted into the military compared to white men. In 1967, 64 percent of eligible black men were drafted into war–compared to only 31 percent of eligible white men. The casualty rate of black soldiers was also disproportionately higher. Black soldiers were twice as likely to die in combat compared to whites.
In spite of stern opposition from university leadership and deterrence from police and National Guard troops, African-American students at University of Maryland continued to organize and hold campus protests into the early 1970s. In addition to protesting the military draft and American escalation in southeast Asia, student activists also used the protests as opportunities to advocate for racial equality on campus. Student protestors, including those active with the Students for a Democratic Society, demanded for the university to enroll larger numbers of students of color and hire additional faculty of color. As doctoral student Greg Dunkel later claimed, “the connection between the struggle against racism at UMD and the struggle against the war was very significant.”
Explore more in our collections:
- Digital Collections
- UMD Student Newspapers, 1910-2016
- University Archives
- History of the University of Maryland – Campus Unrest records
- University of Maryland Vertical File Collection
David Biel, Candidate for Master of Library & Information Science
Special Collections & University Archives 
All life requests battle. The individuals who have everything given to them become lethargic, self centered, and unfeeling toward the genuine upsides of life. The very endeavoring and difficult work that we so continually attempt to keep away from is the significant structure block in the individual we are today.