Peaceful, student-led protests have been a powerful force for change throughout American history.
In 1925, for example, students at Fisk University staged a 10-week protest to speak out against the school's president, who didn't want students starting a chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. In 1940, almost 2,000 students protested after New York University decided to pull a black player from its football roster to accommodate the University of Missouri's segregationists.
And campus-based protests, including against racism, were a major lever of social change in the 1960s.