Contact Archive Staff
Archive, Manuscript & Rare Book collections are accessed in Olin Library at the Special Collections reading room.
HOURS: Monday - Friday 9:00-5:00 by appointment
LOCATION: Olin Library, 1st floor, Danforth Campus
REQUESTS / APPOINTMENTS: 314-935-5495 spec@wumail.wustl.edu
*collections stored offsite require advance notice for retrieval and use
Questions about a specific topic? Contact:
University Archives: Sonya Rooney
Rare Books: Cassie Brand
Manuscript: Joel Minor
Local History: Miranda Rectenwald
Dowd Illustration Research Archive: interim curator
Film & Media Archive: Andy Uhrich
Student Activism Resources at University Archives
This guide provides an overview of collections, files, and books related to student activism at Washington University in St. Louis available to researchers at the Department of Special Collections, Olin Library. Topics include Civil Rights, Black Power, Feminism, Environmentalism, Communism, Socialism, Academic Activism. Also included are general resources about other college campuses from the early 1960s to present day.
- Washington University Photographic Services CollectionIncluded in photographs of events on campus, are many visual sources for student activism, including: ABS (Association of Black Students), AIDS Quilt at Washington University (1994-2000), Anti-War Protests (1930), Anti-War Protests (1960), Black Anthology
A selection of these images are shown below. Most images are not online, but are available at University Archives.
You can view some additional images here: (Note the year is the first 2 numbers of the number string in the filename.):
Students and Chancellor Eliot
on campus 1970
SCAN
on campus 1949
SDS at WU
1968
Tunnel to South-40
1968
Students
1968
Finding Aids by Subject: Student Activism (Anti-Racist/Anti-War)
The full collection description is available by clicking each link below. View these collections by visiting or contacting Special Collections:
- Black Manifesto CollectionDocuments of the Association of Black Students (ABS) outlining the areas they urgently felt needed improvement, including black student enrollment, treatment of blacks on campus, and the introduction of a Black Studies program to the curriculum. These points were expanded in the Black Manifesto of 1968.
- Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)A collection of papers documenting the Washington University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). This collection also includes many civil rights publications recently donated to the archives, including a number of rare St. Louis independent press publications.
- WU Student Union: Files of President Ben Zaricor, 1963-1974
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- Washington University Liberation Front (WULF) Collection
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The Washington University Liberation Front (WULF) developed out of anti-war and anti-ROTC protests and sentiments in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This collection contains documents highlighting the May 1970 student riots at Washington University that culminated in students throwing a Cherry Bomb firecracker at the ROTC building and the subsequent arrests of multiple students. - Dan Bolef Papers (social activist)The paper's of Professor Bolef (a former WU physicist and social activist) include one section (Series 05) focused on civil rights, and including folders related to Percy Green.
Finding Aids by Subject: Student Activism (Gender and Sexuality)
The full collection description is available by clicking each link below. View these collections by visiting or contacting Special Collections:
- American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri Records
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Many topics including housing discrimination due to sexual orientation, privacy rights, and gay liberation. [Note: Researchers should contact Special Collections for information regarding access restrictions in this collection.] - Women's Resource Center (WRC) Records
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Includes flyers related to the 1979 and 1980 St. Louis Pride events (Series 01, Box 01, "HerStory 1973-80, folder 2")
Collection also includes independent publications, such as 'Coming Out', 'Dykes, Disability and Stuff', 'Les Talk' and more (Series 03) - Office of Student Affairs (Student Activities) Records
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Series 01, Box 01 for AIDS Awareness and Related Activism, 1988 - 1992; Series 01, Box 02 for flyers distributed on campus 1969 – 1972, including Women’s Movement and Gay Liberation; Series 05, Box 01 for Pride Alliance (formerly Spectrum Alliance), 2000 – 2005; - 2008 Commencement Schlafly Protest Collection
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During the University's 147th Commencement ceremony, May 16, 2008 six individuals received honorary degrees: Chris Matthews (also commencement speaker), Quincy Jones, Lee Seng Tee, Phyllis Schlafly, Egon Schwarz, and Jessie L. Ternberg. Various members of the Washington University community, including students and faculty from departments across the university, organized a protest against granting the honorary degree to Phyllis Schlafly. These activities took place both in the day preceding the commencement ceremony and during the ceremony.
Findings Aids by Subject: Student Activism (Environmental)
The full collection description is available by clicking each link below. View these collections by visiting or contacting Special Collections:
- Environmental Response Records
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Environmental Response was a broadly based group, with participation by Washington University students and faculty, and local interested citizens. Formed in Spring 1970, it was an outgrowth of Project Survival at Washington University during the first Earth Week. - Students Against Peabody Energy Protest Collection
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This collection documents the sit-in and other protests that took place in spring of 2014 organized by the Students Against Peabody Energy. The events were student-organized and opposed the involvement of Peabody Coal, specifically the CEO of Peabody Energy, Gregory Boyce, having a seat on the Washington University Board of Trustees. Materials in this collection document the student perspective, the official University statements, as well as numerous news articles recording the events in April and May 2014.
Oral Histories - Activists at Washington University
The following oral histories are part of the American Cultures Studies American Lives project at Washington University in St. Louis. To read a short description of each interviewee, hover over their name. To access typed transcripts for these oral histories, click the name of the interviewee then click the "transcript" link right above the "Table of Contents" heading. To access audio files for these oral histories, click each heading section under the "Table of Contents" heading and to the right of the timed length of the file.
For stories about student activists, see especially recordings by:
- Berger, Henry
- Claiborne, Clay
- Davis, Susan
- Edwards, Mark
- Faust, Fred
- Goldstein, Neil
- Kennedy, Devereaux
- Koch, Phillip
- Kowalski, Rose
- Mechanic, Howard
- Milam, Julian D.
- Oldham, Charles
- Veninga, Louise
- Wamser, Jerry
- Zaricor, Ben (Benjamin Zaricor)
For stories from the perspective of university faculty, staff, administrators and others, consult recordings by:
- Eliot, Thomas H.
- Fields, Wayne
- Himes, Ronald
- Kohl, Daniel
- Metcalf, Bob
- Muhammad, Jamaal Hasan
- Nash, Helen
- Revard, Carter
- Wheeler, Burton
Related Books about activism at Washington University
- Birds of passage : student activism at Washington University, 1965-1972 byCall Number: LD5791.8.AB79 T56Publication Date: 1979
- Academic and political freedom at Washington University, 1945-1956 byCall Number: LD5791.8.AB85 C42Publication Date: 1985
- Student activism on the Washington University campus byCall Number: LD5791.8.AB90 A47Publication Date: 1990
- Direct confrontation at Washington University : an analysis of why and how it occurred byCall Number: LD5796 .K72 1991Publication Date: 1991
Related Books about activism on other campuses
Push comes to shove; the escalation of student protest by Call Number: LD2150 K43 (Olin Library)Publication Date: 1970- Student protest and the technocratic society: the case of ROTC by Call Number: LA229 P62 1973 (Olin Library)Publication Date: 1973
New voices : student activism in the '80s and '90s by Call Number: LA229 V45 1988 (Olin Library)ISBN: 0896083411Publication Date: 1988
The Black student protest movement at Rutgers by Call Number: LD4756 M38 1990 (Olin Library)ISBN: 0813515750Publication Date: 1990
Prairie power : voices of 1960s Midwestern student protest by Call Number: LB3610 .L54 2004 (Olin Library)ISBN: 082621522XPublication Date: 2004
Underground : my life with SDS and the Weatherman by Call Number: HN90.R3 R945 2009 (Olin Library)ISBN: 0061472751Publication Date: 2009
Selma to Saigon : the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War by Call Number: E185.615 .L82 2014ISBN: 0813145074Publication Date: 2014
Related Books about activism and acedmia
Renewing dialogues in Marxism and education : openings by Call Number: HX526 .R46 2007ISBN: 1403974969Publication Date: 2007
Higher education and the civil rights movement by 
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Call Number: Full Online AccessISBN: 0813031621Publication Date: 2008
"Radical academia"? : understanding the climates for campus activists by Call Number: LA229 .R33 2014 (Olin Library)ISBN: 1118966562Publication Date: 2014
Links to resources on current student activist groups (as of 2015)
- AltaVozDescription of Wash. U. activist group that focuses on Latinx issues
- Community Organized for Rape Education (CORE)CORE was a peer education group that seeks to increase awareness in the university community about the problems of rape, sexual assault, and partner violence. In 2015 the group was renamed LIVE (Leaders in Interpersonal Violence Education) after 20
- St. Louis Students in SolidarityContains list of demands students presented to Washington University administration in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
- Student Group on Race Relations (SCORR)Peer-based program aiming to educate the residential community on issues regarding race relations.
- Students Against PeabodyMaterials related to the student-led campaign for Washington University to cut ties with Peabody Energy.
- WU for Undergraduate Student Socio-Economic Diversity (WU/FUSED)WU/FUSED is WashU's Chapter of U/FUSED, a national advocacy group for socioeconomic diversity in higher education.
Addtional Resources
- Documenting FergusonDigital repository that includes media-generated, original content that was captured and created following the killing of 18-year-old, Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014.