First Antiwar Teach-In

HISTORY This Week

The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios

Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

March 25, 1965. The US is bombing North Vietnam. On the University of Michigan’s campus, students and professors are gathered for a first-of-its kind protest event. They’re holding a “teach-in,” staying up all night to discuss what’s going on in Vietnam. How did the classroom become a powerful tool for protest? And what impact did this “teach-in” have in shaping the antiwar movement on college campuses—and around the world?

Special thanks to our guests: Zelda Gamson, Alan Haber, Susan Harding, Richard Mann, Stan Nadel, Gayl Ness, Jack Rothman, Howard Wachtel, and Michael Zweig. Thanks also to Ellen Schrecker, author of The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s, and to Greg Kinney at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History Channel, original podcast.
0:05.1	History this week, March 25, 1965.
0:13.2	I'm Sally Homes.
0:17.7	Inside Angel Hall on the University of Michigan campus, the auditoriums are full.
0:24.0	Professors in ties are sitting on chairs in front of a half-arraced blockboard.
0:27.9	People are throwing around terms like imperialism and domino theory.
0:32.0	Some of the students take a coffee break at 3 to keep their energy up.
0:36.0	That's 3 am.
0:38.8	It is not a bright Ann Arbor spring day out the windows of Angel Hall.
0:43.6	It's the middle of the night.
0:46.4	Some of the students here wouldn't normally be allowed to gole of Ann around at 3 am.
0:51.3	In this era, female students at the University of Michigan have a curfew.
0:55.2	But the university has made a special exception.
0:58.9	And more than 2,000 students, all denders, have gathered for a first of its kind protest.
1:05.5	Something called a teach-in.
1:09.0	Talks and lectures and movies about one of the biggest issues facing the country.
1:14.5	The Vietnam War.
1:17.0	A lot of students are hearing things they didn't know.
1:19.4	One later admits to the student newspaper, I'd never really thought very much about this.
1:25.2	But after tonight, I think we should get out of Vietnam.
1:28.8	For many students, this was a revelation.
1:32.8	Raising awareness was really important.
	...

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