Citizen Better

(upbeat music) - In the spring of 2024, student protestors made headlines as pro-Palestine activists started encampments on over 130 campuses across the US.

These actions led to counter-protests, arrests, and even canceled graduation ceremonies at some schools.

But 2024 wasn't the first time campuses became such a headline, grabbing flashpoint for activism.

For decades, student activists have taken to the quads to protest things like segregation in the '60s, the Vietnam War in the late '60s and into the '70s, South African apartheid in the '80s, and racism and police violence in the 2010s and '20s.

But what is it about campuses that make them such powerful incubators for activism?

And what can that teach us about how to be civically engaged long after graduation?

I'm KJ Kearney, and this is Citizen Better.

(upbeat music) - This is about insightful instructions from the past.

And so, very often, a number of young people that I work with who are self-professed activists are not even fully aware that the tradition in which they're working has already been shaped and mapped out.

So, I do believe that some of the current trends we see is from playbook, a historic playbook.

- Right.

Dr. Bobby Donaldson is a historian at the University of South Carolina.

He's working to document the role South Carolinians played in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, including how student protests started to turn the tide on segregation here in Columbia.

He pointed out to me that college campuses have long exposed students to new ideas and new communities that can shake up the student's worldviews.

- There will be no civil rights movement in this country without the critical role of historically Black colleges, universities, and Black high schools.

- [KJ] Mm.

- I think part of what the role of historically Black colleges have always been and continue to be is to build a new core of leadership.

- [KJ] Mm.

- [Dr. Donaldson] And when you're talking about business leaders, entertainment leaders, but also leaders in the struggle for civil rights and social justice.

- Many students are living on their own for the first time and being exposed to new ideas everywhere from the lecture hall to the late night chats in the dorms.

So, it's no surprise that, as they incorporate new ideas into their worldview, they may start to imagine new ways they want to relate to that world.

Listen, I understand that college is not for everyone, but I'm gonna speak from my own experience.

Going to college completely changed the way I think, and it helped me become a better person.

Why?

Because I was interacting with people from other countries, from other states, from other cities, learning how they do things, and incorporating that into my life.

I could imagine that as a college student today, especially with social media being as active a part of their life as it is, they are also learning how to interact with other people and using that information to make a better campus and hopefully a better world.

Dr. Joshua Cooper is a math professor at the University of South Carolina who participated in last fall's pro-Palestine protest as a member of Jewish Voices for Peace.

He said that protest was another moment of cultural exchange on campus.

- We've had Palestinian cultural night.

We had a Palestinian film festival.

So, you've learned that your little world is not the only one.

- Right.

- There's a lot of possibilities.

And the more you know about the way that people live their lives, the more opportunities there are for building coalitions and for imagining a better world.

- Dr. Cooper found that something as simple as celebrating a Jewish holiday at a pro-Palestinian protest could start to introduce students to a more nuanced view about conflict that their previous education may not have even covered.

But he also pointed out to me that students are also at a unique place in their lives that allows them to consider all that new information differently than other adults might.

- Students are young and they don't have employment yet, and so they're not so worried about consequences for showing up for some event or whatever.

So, they're able to do so in a way that older folks that have a house and a mortgage and a job are maybe less likely to do.

- In recent years, young people have shaken up the status quo, calling for an end the gun violence during the 2018 March For Our Lives, or demanding action on climate change through the globally-reaching School Strike for Climate.

In doing so, they took a page from student activists of the past.

- The young men and the women who are on those college campuses, they're going against tradition, they're going against law, they're going against the fears and anxieties of their parents, and they're going against the clear instruction of college leadership.

- [KJ] Hm.

So, now, students have a bunch of new ideas that they wanna make happen in the world, and the freedom and audacity to pursue them.

How does that passion turn into protests?

Back in the 1960s, students created formal organizations to guide their efforts, from the South Carolina Student Movement Association to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

- And what's important about the Southern Negro Youth Congress is, as they're meeting, they're also training.

They're also having workshops.

And the workshops are about police brutality.

The workshops are about registering to vote.

The workshops are about communications.

The workshops are about history.

So, while they're training about the Southern Negro Youth Congress, they're studying all these tools which are needed to do what?

To create an activist.

And part of what's important is many of these young people who are sitting in do not just show up, they're being trained, they're being shaped, they're being mentored.

- [KJ] In 1961, civil rights icon Ella Baker spoke at one campus training session on the role of the student in achieving human rights.

And it was sessions like these that laid the groundwork for sitting campaigns the students were launching.

Today, that ground game may look more like a group chat.

Dr. Cooper told me that many student groups who organize around a wide variety of social issues communicate with each other to help spread the word about different events - By one's elf, it's just not possible to have a substantive effect.

So, they're getting together with like-minded people and trying to work on problems, solve problems together, have an effect, brainstorm.

That's really where it's at.

There's lots of other opportunities to contribute and to feel the community are being supportive and working together to solve problems to have an effect.

- But student activists on the University of South Carolina campus have another secret ingredient.

Right down the street from campus is the South Carolina State House.

If students wanna speak truth to power, they can do that in a less than 10-minute walk.

And students did just that in 1961 when activists from colleges and high schools across the city marched to the State House to protest segregation.

When police broke up the protest and arrested nearly 200 students, they fought back in court.

They eventually won the 1963 Supreme Court case Edwards versus South Carolina, which affirmed their right to peacefully protest.

And students still use that right today, gathering regularly to call for anything from the removal of the Confederate flag that flew over the state capitol until 2015, or walking out of school alongside their teachers to protest for more resources for schools and higher teacher pay.

It's clear that college campuses create a fertile ground for students to become civically engaged.

But as these big media moments come and go and waves of activists graduate and move on to the next phase of their lives, how can they stay civically engaged for the long haul?

Dr. Donaldson says we should look to civil rights organizers who built their movements with longevity in mind.

- [Dr. Donaldson] It's really important too to know what the network is and to know that you are not in this struggle alone.

It is making sure that those who come thereafter are well informed about what happened in the past and how do you utilize what happened in the past to move forward.

- And Dr. Cooper, who still shows up at protests at the State House grounds every week, agrees that building with others gets you a lot further than going at it alone.

- I think a coalition building is really key in having an effect, and also, yeah, retaining that momentum long term, being able to do things today and a year from now.

If you've got lots of organizations that are working together on an issue, then you can show up for each other's events.

You can help each other to support whatever actions and activities are happening.

We've had an extraordinary journey together.

From being in Charleston, now at the State House, from going to sneaker shops, restaurants, art galleries, we've learned that you can community anywhere and you can use that community to be a force of positive good in your community.

I'm KJ Kearney, and this is Citizen Better.

(upbeat music)