SJSU Special Collections & Archives: Historical Research Topics and Collections

This collection documents the civil unrest that occurred during the civil rights and anti-Vietnam movements at San José State during the 1960s and the 1970s. Including proteststo Dow Chemical and ROTC recruitment, the unequal treatment of African-American and Hispanics students, and athletes, and the black power struggle led by faculty member Harry Edwards.

These records document the administrative response to student protests and Civil Rights related issues during 1966-1969.

KPIX Eyewitness News report from January 17th 1969 at San Jose State College by Dave Monsees featuring scenes from a demonstration to support the protests at SF State and views of students marching though campus buildings chanting: “On strike, shut it down!” Ends with a press conference in which a member of faculty explains how many academic departments will refuse to cooperate with their administration. Source: San Francisco Bay Area Televison Archive, SF State

This database not only contains an enormous amount of governmental, military and other primary source material related to the war in Southeast Asia, but also provides a wide spectrum of other material dealing with American foreign policy in this tumultuous period. Included are reports from the CIA, the National Security Council, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S Information Agency, the Military Assistance Command - Vietnam (MAC-V), and the related personal papers of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Official military histories are also included for the US Army and Marine Corps, as well as translations of captured Viet Cong/North Vietnamese documents. Also included is material related to our nation's relations to other parts of the world during this period, including the Middle East.

This database includes numerous pages of books, pamphlets, records of women’s reform organizations throughout the United States, proceedings of women’s rights conventions from the 1850s and 1860s and more.

The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960–1974 brings the 1960s alive through diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. With 150,000 pages of material at completion, this searchable collection is the definitive electronic resource for students and scholars researching this important period in American history, culture, and politics.