I attended college in an era of protest. I see a big difference in today’s demonstrations | Opinion

I entered college in 1968. I already knew the world was in a chaotic situation and that events were upending and rearranging history.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated the night of my junior-senior prom, and Robert F. Kennedy was shot on the night I graduated from high school. I was exposed to the tumult and violence of the times. I realized I was entering college in a world fraught with layers of controversy and upheaval.

Fueled by opposition to the Vietnam War and the push for civil rights, the pervasive unrest created a world in which protests and rallies on campuses were almost as common as football games and fraternity parties. Students were serious about airing their viewpoints, and most did so in a calm, deliberate manner.

The chaos on many college campuses today is reminiscent of the campus atmosphere of 1968. But there are huge differences.

In 1968, we remembered Dr. King’s constant admonition to his followers for total nonviolence in their protests and demonstrations. We remembered his imperative that substantive ideas could not be exchanged in an atmosphere of violence and chaos. “We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence,” he said.

We had read Henry David Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience and his idea that one should have the right to protest policies and actions that one felt were morally wrong. We knew Thoreau was jailed in 1846 for refusing to pay poll taxes to a government that supported slavery.

Thoreau’s ideas took on a whole new meaning when King used them as part of his philosophy of nonviolent protests. College student protesters in 1968 had a blueprint for expressing their opinions openly, yet with the reserve that King advocated.

Yes, some protests in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s resulted in violence. We remember the violent ones, like the 1968 occupation at Columbia University where 700 student protesters were arrested and the South Carolina State and Kent State shootings in 1970. Yet, we forget that on campuses across America, there were daily protests that never made headlines because of the calm, deliberate atmosphere in which they unfolded.

I remember protests where I sat with other students on the grass at then-Queens College in Charlotte and listened to speakers advocate their viewpoints. There were signs and banners, and we were there to listen, learn and share opinions in a serious, deliberate way. There was no need to use violence to make our points.

In 2024, we find ourselves with a much different scenario on some campuses. Today’s protests often reflect the atmosphere of incivility, impulsiveness and incendiary reaction that permeates society.

While I appreciate their First Amendment right to air their views, I am sad that they feel that the best way to make themselves heard is by engaging in theatrical, overt actions — not with words but with drama and force.

Flashes of my college protest experience returned to me five years ago this month when 10,000 teachers marched to the S.C. Capitol in Columbia. They held signs and banners as they listened to speakers advocate for smaller class sizes, higher pay and better services for students. As a former public school teacher and the mother of a teacher, I went to the march to offer my support and listen.

No one stormed the capitol building, no one destroyed the grounds, and not one single violent act was committed by the 10,000 participants. I felt like I was back in 1968.

Sherry Beasley is a long-time educator who lives in Columbia .