nomination, mobilizing antiwar and student sentiment and a sense of political power outside the traditional party structure; Hubert Humphrey, meanwhile, campaigned as Johnsonâs loyal vice president, further inflaming the divisions in the party over the war. Then, on June 5, seemingly within reach of winning the nomination, Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles.
Even Wellesley, splendidly isolated by tradition and class from much of the radical student movement of 1968, did not escape being rocked by these events. The response of the women on campus to the explosions and turmoil outside was largely determined by the leadership of Hillary working with the college administration and her fellow students. While tens of thousands of young men and women within a hundred miles of Wellesley were yelling, âFuck the pigs,â Hillaryâs chosen means of protest and resistance were in the nonviolent, disciplined tradition of Dr. King, and reflected John Wesleyâs insistence on obeying the law. An expanding âChristian left,â led by priests and ministers, was becoming an increasingly important element of the antiwar movement, helping to move organized opposition more and more into the mainstream of American politics and culture even as other elements became increasingly violent and radicalized. Hillaryâs evolving political sensibility drew from the tenets of Reinhold Niebuhr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Paul Tillich, all of whom regarded Christian values and ethics as essential elements in the exercise of political power; from this heritage, and her continuing tutelage under the Reverend Jones, Hillary had no doubt that those values demanded spiritually based intervention in the political system.
The single event that seemed to galvanize Hillaryâs more militant instincts was the assassination of Dr. King. Hearing the news, she stormed into a dorm room, shaking and shouting. She threw her book bag against the wall. One witness said she screamed, âI canât stand it anymore! I canât take it!â King had been the embodiment of black Americaâs hope, and white Americaâs as well in many respects. King was perhaps the man she admired most in the country, if not the world. She had met him in 1962, shaken his hand, sat spellbound as he preached, twice; she had witnessed, on television, the hope and solidarity of the March on Washington in 1963, her sophomore year in high school. But since then she had watched that hope devolve into the fractious, violent confrontations of 1968, the failure of Kingâs Poor Peopleâs Campaign in Washington the previous year, and his increasing isolation as a national moral leader as he tried, without success, to bring the civil rights and antiwar movements together. Now, it was clear, America would pay for Kingâs death.
In the days following the assassination, many Wellesley students threatened to go on a hunger strike if the college did not give in to their demands to recruit more black faculty members and students, and use its influence with the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, to demand immediate improvement of conditions in which black residents lived and worked. Hunger strikes were serious business, not to be taken lightly by institutional leaders. Some students wanted to close down the school by refusing to attend classes. This was by far the most heated campus protest of Hillaryâs time at Wellesley, the only one that threatened seriously to escape the control of the college administration. She proposed a solution that, in the end, avoided a dangerous clash: in her official position, she would work as a go-between with students, faculty, and the college administration to find a compromise. And indeed, the college gradually began to recruit minority faculty and students, and, as the most important institution in the town, exert pressure on local leaders to improve housing and job opportunities for blacks. Hillaryâs response
Even Wellesley, splendidly isolated by tradition and class from much of the radical student movement of 1968, did not escape being rocked by these events. The response of the women on campus to the explosions and turmoil outside was largely determined by the leadership of Hillary working with the college administration and her fellow students. While tens of thousands of young men and women within a hundred miles of Wellesley were yelling, âFuck the pigs,â Hillaryâs chosen means of protest and resistance were in the nonviolent, disciplined tradition of Dr. King, and reflected John Wesleyâs insistence on obeying the law. An expanding âChristian left,â led by priests and ministers, was becoming an increasingly important element of the antiwar movement, helping to move organized opposition more and more into the mainstream of American politics and culture even as other elements became increasingly violent and radicalized. Hillaryâs evolving political sensibility drew from the tenets of Reinhold Niebuhr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Paul Tillich, all of whom regarded Christian values and ethics as essential elements in the exercise of political power; from this heritage, and her continuing tutelage under the Reverend Jones, Hillary had no doubt that those values demanded spiritually based intervention in the political system.
The single event that seemed to galvanize Hillaryâs more militant instincts was the assassination of Dr. King. Hearing the news, she stormed into a dorm room, shaking and shouting. She threw her book bag against the wall. One witness said she screamed, âI canât stand it anymore! I canât take it!â King had been the embodiment of black Americaâs hope, and white Americaâs as well in many respects. King was perhaps the man she admired most in the country, if not the world. She had met him in 1962, shaken his hand, sat spellbound as he preached, twice; she had witnessed, on television, the hope and solidarity of the March on Washington in 1963, her sophomore year in high school. But since then she had watched that hope devolve into the fractious, violent confrontations of 1968, the failure of Kingâs Poor Peopleâs Campaign in Washington the previous year, and his increasing isolation as a national moral leader as he tried, without success, to bring the civil rights and antiwar movements together. Now, it was clear, America would pay for Kingâs death.
In the days following the assassination, many Wellesley students threatened to go on a hunger strike if the college did not give in to their demands to recruit more black faculty members and students, and use its influence with the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, to demand immediate improvement of conditions in which black residents lived and worked. Hunger strikes were serious business, not to be taken lightly by institutional leaders. Some students wanted to close down the school by refusing to attend classes. This was by far the most heated campus protest of Hillaryâs time at Wellesley, the only one that threatened seriously to escape the control of the college administration. She proposed a solution that, in the end, avoided a dangerous clash: in her official position, she would work as a go-between with students, faculty, and the college administration to find a compromise. And indeed, the college gradually began to recruit minority faculty and students, and, as the most important institution in the town, exert pressure on local leaders to improve housing and job opportunities for blacks. Hillaryâs response
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