Student Activism

Student activism is a defining cultural memory of the late 1960s. In 1968, student demonstrations occurred in Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome, Warsaw, New York and other cities around the world. But perhaps the bloodiest demonstrations were in Mexico, on the eve of the Olympic Games. Student demonstrators and their supporters took to the streets--and were massacred by government forces. The case of Mexico illuminates some of the forces animating these "restless youth," and helps to draw connections to a legacy of student protest that lives on today.