May 1970 Student Strike

The May 1970 student strike at the University of Washington was part of a national week of student strikes, organized in reaction to the expansion of the Vietnam War in Cambodia, the killings of student protesters at Kent State University, and "to reconstitute the University as a center for organizing against the war in Southeast Asia." Student activists called for a strike on May 4, after the killing of student protesters at Kent State University, and the next day's mass rally on campus turned into an impromptu march on the freeway to downtown Seattle. Several thousand students voted to strike on May 10, and the strike lasted roughly until May 18. While never completely occupying the entire campus, the strike gained mass support from the student body. The student strike, from roughly May 10-18, was part of a larger month of explosive protests, campus occupations, and marches in Seattle. Collected here are organizational documents from the strike steering committee, flyers explaining the strike, information sheets on Vietnam that were distributed, and lists of classes for the strike's New University. This gallery is part of the Pacific Northwest Antiwar and Radical History Project, which features a page on student activism at UW during the Vietnam War. Documents digitized with permission from the personal collection of Steve Ludwig.