Vice President Hubert Humphrey arrives on campus, with protestors in rear. Sub Turri photo.
Vice President Hubert Humphrey came to BC on October 13, 1966, as part of the Boston College Public Affairs Forum. He spoke before a reported 3,500 people in Roberts Center, and was joined on stage by Democratic candidates for governor, attorney general, and other offices, it being only a few weeks before election day.
While the vice president’s appearance and talk received attention (Heights article), the actions taken by an estimated 500 BC students regarding 150 anti-Vietnam and anti-administration protestors who were present and the subsequent reaction to those actions garnered more notice.
Page 4 of the October 21 Heights featured two articles, by news editor Mike Rahill and editor-in-chief Bill Waldron, about peaceful BC protestors and raucous BC students shouting down anti-Vietnam protestors, of whom many were non-BC students, faculty, or staff. Rahill cited chants of “Get off our campus!,” “Kill a commie for Christ,” etc., from the students, several of whom indicated the presence of protestors was sending out the “wrong image” of BC. Pages 6 and 7 contained editorials, opinion columns, and letters mostly decrying the actions of BC students against protestors.
An ad on page 2, signed by more than 125 “members of the Boston College community,” expressed their “condemnation of and regret at the manner in which certain students chose to exhibit their disapproval” of protestors, calling the conduct “violent.”
One Heights editorial stated that Humphrey’s appearance and the actions surrounding it had “pushed this university into the controversy over the Vietnam war for the first time.” If this was the “first time” BC experienced the controversy, it was not the last. “The war” was a pretty dominant issue facing us. In addition to its national and international ramifications, Vietnam had special meaning for male students subject to being drafted into the armed forces.
We’ll have a lot more discussion about “the war, “the draft,” etc. The events of October 1966 on campus showed that BC reflected sharp divisions among Americans about it all.