{"id":20437,"date":"2020-08-31T14:02:10","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T19:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?p=20437"},"modified":"2020-09-14T13:43:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T18:43:11","slug":"sterling-hall-bombing-50-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/sterling-hall-bombing-50-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"50 years ago, Madison faced a different kind of unrest"},"content":{"rendered":"
On Aug. 24, 1970, at 3:42 a.m., the anti-war movement went through a seismic change.<\/p>\n
Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the Sterling Hall bombing. Although this event was considered the worst act of domestic terrorism until Oklahoma City in 1995, as the years go by it\u2019s a piece of history that often goes unrecognized. But with the current political climate, including protests for racial justice, the Sterling Hall bombing has renewed relevance.<\/span>\n Let\u2019s start with some historical context. In the summer of 1970, the U.S.\u2019s involvement in the Vietnam War had been ongoing for five years. President Richard Nixon had recently begun his strategy of Vietnamization<\/a>, a plan to bolster South Vietnamese forces in order to enable the gradual withdrawal of American troops.<\/p>\n Throughout the Vietnam War, there were hundreds of protests against U.S. involvement, and anti-war sentiments were strongly felt on college campuses across the country. During the 1960s, tension on the UW-Madison campus<\/a> was palpable. Students were protesting a number of injustices<\/a>, including lack of Black representation in class material, faculty, and the student body, an issue that continues today<\/a>.<\/p>\nHistorical context<\/h2>\n