A History of Student Activism at MU

On the first level of the MU Student Center, the Mort’s Case display is currently dedicated to the history of student activism at the University of Missouri.

The exhibition highlights more than five decades of student-led movements, presenting archival photographs, and documents that trace how MU students have engaged with major national issues, campus concerns, and global political debates. Organized chronologically and thematically, the display illustrates how activism has shaped student life and contributed to broader discussions on civil rights, war, racial justice, and international solidarity.

 Exhibition Overview – First Level, MU Student Center

Exhibition Content

The central header, “Student Activism”, introduces the overall theme. Across three glass sections, the display traces demonstrations related to:

• National debates—including protests against  the Vietnam War, and actions concerning capital punishment.
• Campus-specific concerns, such as responses to racism and university policies.
• Anti-apartheid campaigns in the 1980s encouraging University divestment from South Africa.
• Race-related protests in the early 1990s, including reactions to the Rodney King verdict and advocacy for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• Early-2000s student demonstrations related to the Iraq War.

Students participate in an anti-war demonstration during the Vietnam War era, carrying an American flag at the front of the march.
Courtesy of University Archives.

Students for Progressive Action staged a protest against the

Iraq War at the Boone County Courthouse in 2002.

Savitar 2002

Throughout the late 1980s, students protested against the University’s investment in companies that supported apartheid South Africa.  The issue quickly escalated to become also about the freedom to protest on campus.  In protest of the University’s unwillingness to fully divest, students erected wooden shanties on the Quad, which became known as “Shantytown.”  The University responded by removing students and the shanties, via campus police, and students in turn rebuilt their shanties and continued protest. In 1988 the Board of Curators voted to fully divest in these holdings (Missouri Alumnus Fall 1994).

Protesting in 1987 against apartheld-supporting companies.

Courtesy of University Archives (C:22/13/5).

A student is removed from force from Shantytown on the Quad.

Missouri Alumnus Fall 1994

In 1989 students protested the fact that the University of Missouri did not honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They were successful in their quest (Missouri Alumnus Fall 1993).

In the wake of the Rodney King verdict in 1992 students joined protests in Columbia numbering 900 strong (Savitar 1992).

Curator: Hanxue Zhang

Collections: Missouri Student Unions

Location: First level of MU Student Center