From Protestor to Professor: Student Activists from the New Left Movement Who Became College Professors

Abstract

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ABSTRACT

Members of the New Left Movement in the 1960s and 1970s actively sought to change society through political activism. Many young people felt the culture of consumerism in which they had grown up did not live up to its promises, leaving them unsatisfied and searching for something more authentic. With their liberal ideology and a wide array of protest tactics, the New Left focused on implementing societal changes necessary for a truly democratic system. College campuses provided the New Left with energetic participants as well as significant leverage to make systematic changes to society. The dramatic changes in higher education following World War II, coupled with the reforms accomplished by the New Left Movement allowed some student protestors, including Todd Gitlin, Sara Evens, and William Ayers, to become professors themselves. Their faculty positions in institutions of higher education enabled these former protestors not only to carry on their reform activities but also to inspire new generations of students to take action to effect change.