In his bid for the Presidency in 1968, Nixon promised to bring troops home from Vietnam and end the feud with Southeast Asia. On April 30, 1970, he sent U.S. forces into Cambodia which only widened the battlefield. (Crook) Protests began all over the country and especially on college campuses.
On May 4th, National Guardsmen fired on a demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine. The actions of those Guardsmen triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close. U Dub was no exception. Student activists called for a strike on May 4th, and the next day's rally on campus turned into an impromptu march on the freeway to downtown Seattle. The inaugural strike demonstration began at 10:30 am in front of the Husky Union Building at 4001 Stevens Way.
There, striking students and faculty overwhelmingly approved a list of demands to be presented to the administration, including a pledge by University President Charles Odegaard to never call National Guard troops onto the campus. (Seems reasonable) After a long march through campus, the strikers arrived at the Administration Building (Schmitz Hall at 1400 NE Campus Parkway) around noon. There, Odegaard expressed outrage over the Kent State killings, but refused the strikers’ demands.
In response, the students voted to begin marching off campus and through the U District. 7,000 strikers hit “The Ave.” and when they reached NE 45th Street they began chanting “Freeway! Freeway!” They all headed for I-5. They reached the freeway around 1:50 pm, but somehow lost about 2,000 marchers. (In 8 blocks?) Still 5,000 strong, they flooded onto I-5 and began marching south towards downtown. Traffic was backed up for miles for about an hour.
People who were there say many motorists honked and flashed peace signs in approval. Barely a mile down the freeway, about 30 riot-clad Troopers were waiting for them at the Roanoke St. exit. The marchers voted to leave the freeway and continue south on Eastlake Avenue, which parallels the freeway.
They eventually reached the King County Courthouse at 1010 5th Ave. around 4 pm, where they were joined by striking students from several other local colleges and high schools for an hour-long rally. The next day another march took place down I-5 but University students walked south through the Montlake neighborhood and down through the Central District and entered the freeway at Cherry Street.
They headed north and were met with tear gas and billy clubs and were forced from the freeway. There were a few arrests and of course some of the cops used too much force, but what happened back on campus the next day was crazy. On the morning of the 7th, protesters had attempted to close the University by blocking the entrance gates with anything they could find.
Campus Police would clear the entrances only to have them blocked again. By that afternoon, thousands of protesters had taken to the campus and Campus PD was completely overwhelmed. Their jurisdiction includes many of the streets surrounding the campus and a few off-campus apartment buildings. Seattle Police Officers had been watching but didn’t encroach on Campus PD territory until protesters began pummeling Campus Officers with rocks at the 40th Street gate.
City cops on the campus triggered a riot on the streets of the U District. (SPD territory) Windows were smashed out of First Interstate Bank on the corner of 45th and University. (Now Wells Fargo) Trash cans were set on fire and flying rocks and bottles injured a lot of people.
Reports began to come in to Campus PD about vigilantes beating people on "Hippie Hill" (Parrington Lawn) at 15th and NE 42nd. Campus Officers ran up to the hill with riot batons and saw a group of white males in civilian clothes all spread out in a line. The men were carrying sticks and moving south. People were on the ground injured.
One woman tending to a man with a head injury pointed to the men saying that they were beating people. Officers approached the men and ordered them to drop the clubs. "We're police officers" one of the men said. He reached into his pocket and produced a Seattle Police badge. They had reportedly been sent onto the campus “to beat some hippies.”
Other vigilante cops broke into Terry-Lander Hall at 1101 NE Campus Parkway claiming they were chasing rioters. According to witnesses, they beat “anyone they saw with long hair." Nobody had any idea they were cops. The actual strike really didn’t start until the 10th and it lasted until the 18th. It sort of became lost during the protests and rallies. Here’s a link to more info about it. On May 19, Acting Chief Moore admitted that a platoon of the Tactical Squad was present in the U District that night. They had been changing clothes at the police station when the call came in to go back on duty. (LOL) That was a blatant lie because the same thing had already happened during civil rights protests in the Central District. (Seattle Police Chiefs have a problem telling the truth)
On June 3, 1970, after the tactic became public, Seattle Police Major Ray Carroll became the “fall guy” and was demoted and transferred for his "overreaction" in commanding the officers. By the end of 1970, roughly 200,000 soldiers had returned home from Vietnam. Of the remaining 350,000, those who survived would all be home by the beginning of 1974. The United States lost roughly 58,000 soldiers during the war. RIP
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| Odegaard (With megaphone) addresses students |
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| In front of HUB |
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| Marching Down 45th |
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| Entering I-5 at 45th |
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| View from Roanoke Overpass |
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| Old King County Courthouse |
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| May 6th March |
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| Gate at 40th and 15th Today |
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| 45th and University Today |
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| Parrington Lawn Today |
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| Terry-Lander Hall Today |
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| Coming Home |
