On Thursday, January 17, 1991, approximately 50 antiwar protestors marched in the Presidential Courtyard at approximately 10:30 p.m., 90 minutes after President Bush’s 12-minute address informing the nation of his decision to attack. A spontaneous counterprotest involving a mob of hundreds of students supporting the president’s decision quickly formed and followed the antiwar protestors down Twentieth Street where they, numbering some eight hundred students, were told to return to Presidential Courtyard.
The antiwar protestors proceeded down Terrace Avenue to Cumberland Avenue, growing in numbers to approximately 150. They formed a circle on the lawn of the International House, which was located where the Law School addition now stands. The counterprotestors’ numbers swelled to approximately fifteen hundred as they proceeded back to Presidential Courtyard. The counterprotestors then marched from Presidential Courtyard down Volunteer Boulevard and gathered around the Volunteer Statue, where Sharp Emmons, a student in communications, addressed the crowd. The groups disbanded at approximately 1:30 p.m., but 13 students were later arrested for criminal trespass.