Social unrest at BYU
BYU’s NewsNet recently ran a feature article on the tumultous 1960s–essentially, they didn’t happen at BYU. Essentially no counter-culture dress, protests, marches, parades, sit-ins, demonstrations, walk-outs, riots, burning buildings, flag burnings, or draft card burnings took place. According to one former Daily Universe reporter, “The whole social protest movement passed right over the heads of BYU students that lived in Happy Valley. We were all so much in harmony with the basic values of the church that there was nothing to protest.”
Some schools protested the LDS Church’s priesthood policy by refusing to play against BYU’s athletic teams or wearing black armbands, but BYU students remained quiet. The Associated Press wrote in 1969:
[W]hile winds of dissent swirl through the West, the BYU campus itself is an eye of quiet. No protests — just thousands of young Mormons pursuing learning in a homey central Utah town.
Unlike the scene at many other campuses, the Vietnam War drew little in the way of protest. The NewsNet article shares the memories of one Daily Universe staffer at the time: “‘I have a friend that was in a protest at BYU, but I didn’t find out about it until 10 or 12 years ago,’ said Lavina Anderson, feature editors at the Daily Universe from 1964 to 1967. ‘There must have been one, and I just missed it.’”
Anderson attributes the atmosphere on campus to President Ernest Wilkinson‘s influence:
Any sort of counter-culture movement at BYU would have had to be quiet because of the tight control President Ernest Wilkinson kept over the campus, said Anderson.“President Wilkinson was a very powerful influence,” she said. “Experiments in dress and demonstrations against the war, all of those were actively repressed in their smallest forms, and repressed officially. Instead of expression of the ’60s, there was repression.”
One means of control instituted by Wilkinson during the 1960s was his practice of starting the fall semester by announcing to all students that rioters would be expelled from school, no questions asked. Students typically responded with standing ovations (Bryan Waterman, “Ernest Wilkinson and the Transformation of BYU’s Honor Code,” Dialogue 31/4 (Winter 1998): 87).
Sometimes BYU students spoke out in favor of the war or the government’s policy in Vietnam. For instance, the New York Times reported in late October 1969 that “about 100 students at Brigham Young University paraded through town in support” of the government’s policy in Vietnam (Douglas Robinson, “25,000 March to Back Vietnam Policy,” New York Times, Oct. 31, 1965, p. 70). President Wilkinson reportedly praised some students in 1967 for marching down Provo’s Center Street in support of the war.
In November 1969 the New York Times reported that at least one BYU student saw God’s hand in the U.S.’s involvement in Vietnam. During the reporter’s visit to campus, eighteen students spoke during a soapbox hour held each week. “When opposition to the Vietnam War was brought up,” he noted, “one of the speakers said the war was a just cause. If it were not, he argued, God would have spoken to President McKay and asked him to withdraw all Mormons from the conflict” (Anthony Ripley, “Protests on Racial Policy Cause Little Stir at Brigham Young,” New York Times, Nov. 10, 1969, p. 43).
During the early 1970s some students set up tables on campus to gather signatures in support of the government’s policy in Vietnam. The tables did draw some dissent, but it remained mild in nature.
Perhaps the largest and most alarming incident of unrest at BYU occurred during the 1970s when a number of freshman students demonstrated at the campus cafeteria. The scene is captured in a photo posted here.
Protest!! My brother and I were right in the middle of a huge protest at BYU. We were playing UTEP in football at our stadium. They were wearing black arm bands to protest our black/priesthood policy and lack of blacks on our football team.
My brother and I wore brown arm bands. KSL interviewed my brother and asked what we were protesting. My brother told them it was obvious we were protesting the lack of native americans (called “Indians” back then) on their football team.
This really is a true story…a meaningful protest at BYU, who would have thunk it?
Comment by Don — November 19, 2005 @ 1:26 pm
There’s some good fundamentalist/inerrantist reasoning for you. If God didn’t like the war, he’d have told President McKay about it during their morning briefing…
Comment by Ben S. — November 19, 2005 @ 1:28 pm
I agree Ben. False beliefs lead to saying and doing some really dumb things. That is an example of bad PR resulting from incorrect assumptions about the relationship God had with Pres. McKay. We still see some of that false idea that God is the puppet master and church leaders are just his puppets. Some people find it hard to believe that God also mostly “teaches them correct principles and lets them goevern themselves”.
Comment by Geoff J — November 19, 2005 @ 1:37 pm
Justin, that picture of the fry protest was hilarious! I finished reading the chapter on education in Prince’s McKay biography. It was hard for me to believe. The wilkinson area was, indeed, bittersweet. It is true, however, that BYU is still recovering, culturally, from that time.
Comment by J. Stapley — November 19, 2005 @ 1:45 pm
Don, I’ve heard that story before in the bloggernacle (I’m not sure from you or someone else).
I’m curious, do you have any mixed feelings about it now?
Comment by NFlanders — November 19, 2005 @ 2:50 pm
Ned, I really don’t have any feelings about it now. It was fun to do at the time, more as a spoof than a real protest. It just so happened that KSL was there, more to cover them than us, but having them interview my brother was interesting. It was one of those 15 minutes of fame, that lasted about 45 seconds. We weren’t the only ones with brown arm bands, lots of students actually wore them, we just happened to be in the right place.
Comment by Don — November 19, 2005 @ 7:43 pm
My brother and I wore brown arm bands. KSL interviewed my brother and asked what we were protesting. My brother told them it was obvious we were protesting the lack of native americans (called “Indians†back then) on their football team.
This really is a true story…a meaningful protest at BYU, who would have thunk it?
Don, I’m curious: how many American Indians were on BYU’s football team?
Did you ever see any other protests at BYU?
Comment by Justin Butterfield — November 20, 2005 @ 12:29 pm
I finished reading the chapter on education in Prince’s McKay biography. It was hard for me to believe. The wilkinson area was, indeed, bittersweet. It is true, however, that BYU is still recovering, culturally, from that time.
Wilkinson did many good things for BYU, but I think the Board should have kept him on a shorter leash and practiced more vigorous oversight of his activities. I am amazed that he managed to stay on as long as he did after the spy ring scandal broke.
Comment by Justin Butterfield — November 20, 2005 @ 12:59 pm
I used to work in the BYU archives and I was amazed to read papers regarding the Wilkinson era. I read some of his papers there were a lot!)and some histories from professors and students affected by him (threatened or spied on, etc). There might not have been protests, but it seems many on campus were less than comfortable.
Comment by ESO — November 20, 2005 @ 11:38 pm
Interesting…..
And only less than 2 decades before that time the Brethren all had ZZ Top beards. Who knew that by the 60s they would be considered the very appearance of evil?
Was there really nobody challenging the war? Or did people just choose to ignore it? One thing that sticks out clearly in my mind is the vast difference in news coverage between the Universe and any other university rag that I have come across since. Ironic, but not surprising that an actual editor from the Universe would mirror the lie that the anti-war movement was not just associated with sin, but was sinful in and of itself.
“There must have been one, and I just missed it.”
Oh really?
It is true, however, that BYU is still recovering, culturally, from that time.
Just BYU?
Comment by Bert Hoopes — November 20, 2005 @ 11:44 pm
I wonder if Pres. Wilkinson ever showed up at the poly sci building unannounced and rudely interrupts Louis Midgley having fondue with a bunch of communists?
Comment by a random John — November 21, 2005 @ 12:43 pm