Primary Sources: The 1960s: SDS - Students for a Democratic Society

Digitized materials from Michigan State University Libraries' Radicalism Collection focusing on America.

"Credo is an online repository containing the digital collections held by the UMass Amherst Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA)."

"The threat of campus disruption by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Fullerton Junior College (Calif.) provided the basis for this report. An account of the attempt by the SDS to organize at Fullerton and a brief history of the movement were presented. Challenges posed by the SDS were examined along with the causes of student unrest in an effort to formulate a plan to quell student activism. The suggested plan was comprised of the following steps: isolate and discredit SDS leaders before they establish a following; alert students in advance of expected attempts to disrupt instruction; take a "hard line" with demonstrators; initiate reform in the area of faculty-student-community relationships; develop an imaginative and interesting community service program; provide a relevant curriculum; and listen to potential supporters of SDS and accede to reasonable demands. The report also included a series of documents pertinent to the problem of campus disruption. [Not available in hard copy due to marginal legibility of original document.] (MB) "

"From 1960 until its organizational demise in 1969, SDS played a major role in the social movements of the time, often spearheading campus protests and rebellions, and in particular strengthening the struggle against the war in Vietnam and all of Indochina, as well as engaging in community organizing in poor and working class communities, and support for the civil rights, Black liberation, and other Third World movements in the US. The collection represents a sampling of the periodicals, such as New Left Notes, and other position papers of SDS."

"Todd Gitlin was a founding member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which by the late 1960s was the largest radical student organization in the country. Originally concerned with the problem of poverty and racism in the United States, SDS was one of the first student groups to take an anti-war stance. Here Gitlin recalls his impressions of an anti-Vietnam War protest held in Washington on April 17, 1965, the largest demonstration against the war to that point." HERB

"The New Left facilitated the emergence of a new women’s movement in the late 1960’s. The rebirth of American feminism emerged in part from the New Left’s probing of the political dimension of personal life, but also from the discrimination many young women faced within the movement itself. While thousands of young women joined political groups with fervor and dedication, many were dismayed to find that their male comrades did not view them as equals. As SDS activist Cathy Wilkerson remembered, poor treatment from men within the movement sparked heated debates among women as to whether they should create a separate women’s movement. Such a movement appeared, with tremendous impact, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. [The material in brackets was added to the transcript shortly after the recorded interview.]"

"Many of those who took part in the student movement of the 1960’s drew their inspiration from the African-American struggle for freedom. That was true for Cathy Wilkerson, who became involved in the civil rights movement and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1963 while at Swarthmore College. She described her experience as a college student listening to Civil Rights leader Gloria Richardson as the event that changed her life. Wilkerson went on to work in the SDS national office and edited the SDS newspaper, New Left Notes. In 1968, she moved to Washington DC to open a SDS regional office, and later became a Weatherman. [The material in brackets was added to the transcript shortly after the recorded interview.] " GMU History Matters

"Inspired by the Civil Rights movement, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was formed in 1962 to address issues of poverty, as well as feelings of helplessness, alienation, and indifference in African-American and working class communities. The group, which focused initially on community organizing, quickly became a leader of the anti-war movement when President Johnson escalated the war in Vietnam in 1965. A graduate student in 1965 at the University of Michigan, Carl Oglesby worked as a writer for a defense contractor. He was horrified at what he began to learn about Vietnam, and when SDS members found him he quickly joined the group. Oglesby quit his job, spoke at the first teach-in against the Vietnam War at Michigan, and was elected president of SDS in 1965. He then spent years traveling around the country speaking against the war. " GMU History Matters

"Student organizers from groups such as Students for Democratic Society (SDS) traveled to college campuses around the country to build student opposition to the Vietnam War. Cathy Wilkerson, who worked in the SDS national office and edited the SDS paper, New Left Notes, described how SDS organizers used campus politics to build the movement. By getting students involved in conflicts over university governance, defense research taking place at their universities, or local civil rights issues, SDS engaged thousands of students who had not previously thought of themselves as political. The ability of SDS organizers to make the issues real to students by getting them to take risks and be confrontational on these local issues was, to Wilkerson, the key to SDS’s organizing success. [The material in brackets was added to the transcript shortly after the recorded interview.] " GMU History Matters