March 27-May 8, 1967
Amherst public school controversy over protest of Vietnam
After an assembly at Amherst Regional High School where Barbara Deming spoke about her visit to North Vietnam (see event for February 3, 1967 for her speech at Smith), the school superintendent Ronald J. Fitzgerald issued a bulletin condemning her speech. The superintendent had not attended the assembly, and several students and an Amherst professor responded by writing to the Amherst Journal Record. Further issues cropped up at Amherst Regional Junior High School, where a student was stopped by the principal, William Marden, and asked to remove his black armband, which he was wearing in protest of the situation in Vietnam. Subsequently, parents and school officials came into conflict over the issue of the armbands and the students’ right to wear them.
[Last updated on October 28, 2018]