By Marissa Yelenik

The University of Maryland held a panel on Tuesday to discuss student involvement in protesting the Vietnam War during May 1970 — featuring five speakers intimately involved with the protests that occurred across campus and a pop-up exhibit of photos and informational blurbs which will be available until Friday in the Hornbake lobby.

The former students joined the school for the University Archives event, 30 Days in May: Reflections on the Antiwar Movement at UMD. Approximately 50 people attended, many of whom were also alumni of the university.

The event was supposed to be held on the 50th anniversary of the protests but was delayed due to the onset of the pandemic in 2020. During the event, the group shared their experiences and discussed the impact the events had on them throughout their lives.

“This was something that was filled with passion, and commitment, and it changed our lives both prior to and after,” said panelist Richard Fox, a former member of Students for a Democratic Society. “I think [it] developed in many of us a renewed commitment to activism and the idea that yes, you can make a difference.”

The panelists shared the days prior to the mass protests starting on May 1, 1970, commenting that they struggled with getting their fellow classmates involved in anti-war efforts. They handed out flyers and pamphlets, held meetings and attempted to share their views with those around them. But, they said, there wasn’t much interaction from the student body.

But that all changed when President Richard Nixon announced that American forces would be entering Cambodia, they said.

In response to the decision, several thousand UMD students assembled on McKeldin Mall on May 1, 1970. From there, students marched to the Division of Administration and Finance building, chanting at the administration.

The group then marched on to the Reckord Armory — where some protestors threw items out of the windows and shoved ROTC members  — and then on to Route 1 — where protestors held a peaceful demonstration and stopped traffic before police entered with clubs and tear gas to disperse and arrest students.

“There was an explosion on our campus and all over the country,” said Mark Woodard, former president of Students for a Democratic Society. “The work that we did for years made an impact — made a difference — in that student strike happening.”

From there, protests continued on and student strikes spread across the country.

Many of the panelists did not enter college intending to find themselves as activists. Some came from military households, whereas another joined the school on a swimming scholarship. But, they said, the events that occurred that semester caused them to see things they had never been exposed to before.

Fox added he was shocked upon entering the university to see confederate flags hanging from the fraternity houses.

“In the dormitories, as a Jewish student, I was told to give a very low profile. Black students … were also told to just keep quiet and stay out of sight,” Fox said. 

Panelist Linda Zwobota had never questioned the country’s actions until her friends were drafted and her ex-boyfriend left for Canada to escape the draft, she said.

Zwobota emotionally recounted her experience seeing charcoal drawings of Vietnamese prisoners in cages, in which the United States military had been involved. The cages, she said, contained a variety of non-militant groups who were caught saying negative comments about the government, including students.

Following the protests and student strikes — where some students were arrested and others were banned from campus — certain faculty departments arranged a strike as well. Strikes, protests and rallies continued into April 1970, when the Vietnam War came to an end.

The panelists expressed differing views on their overall influence on the state of the war but agreed that modern students need to remember to keep working for what they believe in and not get discouraged.

“The lesson is, if your cause is just, you don’t stick your finger up in the air and say ‘which way is the wind blowing?’ if you’re right, you keep at it,” said longtime activist Craig Simpson. “If you don’t convince other people who don’t believe in [your beliefs] that it is real then you won’t get that majority that actually changes things.”

“There is a path, and there is a way forward,” Simpson said.

Featured Image: Richard Fox speaks to the audience at Hornbake Library on The University of Maryland campus in College Park, Maryland, in March. 3, 2022. The longtime activist recounts his anti-war protests during the 30 Days In May: Reflections on the Antiwar Movement at UMD event. Photo by Marissa Yelenik.