1968: The Global Revolutions

From its early-1960s origins as a small group of intellectually and politically precocious college activists working in local civil rights projects, Students for a Democratic Society would grow by decade’s end to become the largest student political organization in American history. It thrived by embracing the counterculture, accepting a wide range of dissident beliefs, and welcoming open debate in a spirit of egalitarian – though white and male dominated – “participatory democracy.” Throughout the decade, SDS would serve as a forum for a variety of mobilizations focused on civil rights, foreign policy reform, and – increasingly, throughout the decade – opposing the Vietnam War.