Woodstock West University of Denver 1970

Woodstock West is the name

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

students gave to the shanty village that they built while protesting the school's decision to stay open after the

Kent State shootings The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre,"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years bef ...

History

On May 4, 1970, 1,500 students gathered on the University of Denver campus to publicly mourn their fallen comrades at Kent State and attempted to make sense of

President Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

’s invasion of

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

, a clear sign of extending rather than ending the contentious

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Shouts of “Burn! Burn! Burn!” tumbled through the student body like a Rocky Mountain spring avalanche. Somehow, a lone voice broke through, “Let’s build, not burn.” Thus was born the idea for Woodstock West, an intentionally peaceful response to the violence engulfing campuses from New York to Seattle. Students pitched tents and built makeshift shelters on a grassy area known as the Carnegie Green. There they debated, performed, sang, talked and tried to make sense of their sorrow and anger. The spirit of those first few days replicated the peace and freedom of its namesake, the 1969 music extravaganza

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

. The encampment was eventually razed on May 13, after the university called in the

Colorado National Guard The Colorado National Guard consists of the Colorado Army National Guard and Colorado Air National Guard, forming the state of Colorado's component to the United States National Guard. Founded in 1860, the Colorado National Guard falls under t ...

Background

Two critical events that helped to set the stage for Woodstock West were President Nixon's position on the Vietnam War, and the shooting of student protesters at Kent State. Nixon had campaigned in 1968 that he would end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Among other platform statements that detailed an end to the war, the Republicans wrote in 1968, “We must urgently dedicate our efforts toward restoration of peace both at home and abroad.” His narrow victory over Democrat

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...

and Independent

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...

illustrated, in part, the voters’ support of this platform imperative. On April 30, 1970, however, the president came clean about a 14-month bombing campaign in Cambodia. This signaled to many he had broken his campaign promise and had, instead, escalated the war he promised to end. This set off the second critical event that provided impetus for Woodstock West. In response to Nixon's announcement, campuses erupted into protests, strikes, and violence. Perhaps the most well-known incident of this time happened at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in As ...

Kent, Ohio Kent is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the largest city in Portage County. It is located along the Cuyahoga River in Northeast Ohio on the western edge of the county. The population was 28,215 at the 2020 Census. The city is counted as pa ...

. The governor called the National Guard into Kent after various violent incidents occurred in town and on campus. A Monday morning anti-war rally ended with Guardsmen killing four students, wounding nine others and leaving a nation in shock.

References

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