Activism: Who & What
WHO
On this platform, you’ll find a collection of ordinary people and organizations that were active in Austin from the 1940s to the present. In curating this collection, we focused on student organizations, student-community collaborations, and individuals who may not be well-known. While the majority of the people featured here were connected to UT-Austin, you will also see some artifacts from activists from Huston-Tillotson and to a very limited degree, secondary schools. Here’s a brief list of some of those people and organizations: Community United Front (CUF); Mexican American Youth Organization; Gay and Lesbian Students’ Association; Student Athlete Coalition; Todos Unidos; Grace Cleaver; Larry Jackson; John Warfield. To learn more about these organizations and people and many more, head over to the contextualization tab that shares more about why they are important.
WHAT
Activism takes many forms, and you will see that reflected in this platform. You will find artifacts from students who protested the Vietnam War, students who advocated for starting a Black Studies department, students who protested South African Apartheid, students who fought to create community for gays and lesbians on campus, and much more. We sorted activism into four categories: direct activism and advocacy, university- based politics, pedagogy and training, and public education. To learn more about why we chose these categories, head over to the History of the Archiving Activism project page.