Thread by @RareUVA

Fifty years ago, the May Strike protests erupted at @UVA: student activism & anti-war protests intertwined with the civil rights, women’s rights, & other progressive movements #maystrikeincontext #1970UVA

As we prepare our forthcoming exhibition and mark the fiftieth anniversary of the May Strike, over the next four weeks we will "live” tweet the events as they unfolded in 1970, day by day (sometimes hour by hour).

#OTD on April 21, 1970, the UVA chapter of the Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC) announced the start of The Ten Days …

… a program of “intensive activity” designed to focus attention on the “reality of the explosive social crises in the nation, and particularly in the South, and of the war in Vietnam.”

Talks and programs were scheduled for the upcoming ten days, and literature tables were set up in Newcomb Hall with petitions “against repression of reform movements” and information on national organizations, movements, and "other subjects of concern to students and faculty."

Materials shown in this tweet are from our Social Movements Collection: newsletters, posters, and ephemera gathered by anarchist UVA librarian Charlie Finn to document social action groups on Grounds and beyond in the 1960s, 1970s, & 1980s:
ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?d…

And, thanks to alumnus Tom Gardner, we also have a fascinating collection documenting his experience as a student activist and leader with SSOC:
ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?d…

Meanwhile, the @cavalierdaily announced the upcoming visit of Yippie Leader Jerry Rubin, who was slated to speak on the same night (but not yet at the same event) as William Kunstler:

See you tomorrow, April 22, 1970: the first #EarthDay!