San Marcos 10, The: An Antiwar Protest in Texas

Book excerpt: On November 13, 1969, ten students at Texas State University were suspended for participating in a peaceful protest against the Vietnam War. They had kept vigil in front of the Huntington Mustangs, bearing signs that read, "Vietnam Is an Edsel" and "44,000 U.S. Dead, For What?" while an increasingly hostile anti-protest crowd chanted, "Love it or leave it!" and "Let's string 'em up!" It was a day after news of the My Lai massacre broke. Part of a coordinated, nationwide Vietnam Moratorium effort that confounded and infuriated the Nixon White House, the "San Marcos 10" challenged their suspension, taking their case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Author E.R. Bills offers this fascinating glimpse into the 1960s antiwar movement in Texas, the extraordinary measures to quell it and the broader social activism in which it participated.