Cas Walker, grocer and city councilman, was granted an injunction against the Black Students Union in May 1970 enjoining the group from further picketing at Walker’s stores. The BSU had been picketing Walker’s McCalla Avenue store, located in a predominantly African American neighborhood, protesting “unfair prices, low quality food, and lack of African American employees … Continued

The board of trustees appointed Edward J. Boling president on December 19, 1969, during the winter holidays. When the students returned in January, the Student Government Association sent a request to Boling asking him to refuse the presidency and also voted to censure the trustees for his selection. Some students called for demonstrations. On January … Continued

A three-day strike, May 7–9, was held by students and faculty members as a protest against American forces being sent into Cambodia and in direct reaction to the May 4 killing of four students by Ohio National Guardsmen on the Kent State University Campus. Chancellor Weaver endorsed the nonviolent strike being planned. A memorial service … Continued

President Richard Nixon, invited by Billy Graham to address the crusade being held in Neyland Stadium, came to campus on May 28 to do so. It was the president’s first appearance on a college campus since the Cambodian crisis had erupted in April, giving rise to widespread student protests (and the deaths of four students … Continued

In April 1970 more than fifteen hundred men and women rallied in Circle Park to protest dorm hours for freshmen women and off-campus housing requirements for women. The Women’s Action Movement organized the protest. Dr. Isabel Tipton, a physics professor, told the crowd that the main way to obtain women’s rights was to “keep the … Continued

Dr. Paul Soper, head of the Speech and Theatre Department, directed Jim Swindell, director of the Clarence Brown Film Festival, to cancel the January 31 showing of Ulysses, a film based on James Joyce’s novel, saying that the film was “so thick and excitive [sic] it would have blown the roof off the theatre” [and] … Continued

A scuffle broke out during the October 9 Georgia Tech football game when one student began waving a Confederate flag and African American students wrested it away. On October 27, two African American women entered a room in Massey Hall and took down a Confederate flag from the wall. They later returned with a larger … Continued

Approximately three thousand demonstrators marched from Circle Park to Market Square Mall. Escorted by two motorcycle Blue Hawks, a lead group, including Peter Kami, Charles Reynolds, Charles Huddleston, Gus Hadron, and Baxton Bryant, past president of the Tennessee Human Relations Commission, marched arm-in-arm the entire length of the march. Paul Washington, an African American minister … Continued

The Student Government Association and the Peace Action Committee sponsored a daylong moratorium encompassing Knoxville and UT. Held in conformity with UT’s guidelines for noncancellation of classes, “liberation” classes met in front of the university center. Peter Kami, originally scheduled to offer one of the courses, did not because he was banned from the campus. … Continued

On May 25, 1971, more than one hundred students picketed the student clinic from noon to 3:00 p.m. protesting the clinic’s policies and services for women. The unavailability of a gynecologist, except two hours a week, reluctance to refer students to the gynecologist, and arbitrary refusals to prescribe birth control pills were issues advanced by … Continued