Most students at OU in 1968 were angry. They were angry because people were dying in Vietnam. They were angry about their friends and family being drafted. They were angry at the assassination of a great civil rights leader. That year, their anger turned toward OU's administration.

This week at the Baker Center conference, "1968 Revisited," faculty members and guest speakers are remembering events that took place that year.

Faculty members who were on campus then often tell students of the demonstrations against the Vietnam War and the early closing of OU in May 1970 due to violent protests following the Kent State shootings. But an almost forgotten incident that took place two years earlier hides in the shadows of the 1970 riots.

On May 19, 1968, students in residence halls summoned other students to West Green, where a march to OU President Vernon Alden's house would commence.

About 2,000 students took part in a riot that left in its path the destruction Ellis and Cutler halls' windows en route to the president's house. While the Alden family looked on from inside their home, irate students smashed the house's windows with bricks being used to construct what would become Alden Library.

The violent episode followed an averted strike threat by Local 1699 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Had the strike occurred, the administration would have closed OU, and students would have received a pass or fail grade option for that semester.

Students could be heard that evening chanting, "We want out! We want a strike!" and "Get McGee!" in reference to the OU employee union president Oscar McGee.

No arrests were made, but Hudson Health Center treated seven students for injuries and two students were admitted to hospitals. One officer received severe lacerations to the skull even though he wore a protective helmet.

On May 20, about 650 National Guardsmen arrived in Athens.

That same evening, about 400 students gathered on the steps of Baker Center delivering speeches and setting off firecrackers.

The National Guard troops remained on standby at the Athens County Fairgrounds, and the demonstration was contained by the police.

As quickly and unexplained as the disturbance began, it ended. The National Guard departed on May 22.

Director of the Athens Historical Society Joanne Prisley remembers the riots of 1968.

Prisley, who worked as a fraternity and sorority advisor at the time, said she thought the disturbance stemmed from a vocal group of people and did not reflect the feelings of most of the students at OU.

"I think there were people who did things just to get in the paper," she said.

But Edgar Whan, former English department director, said the reasons for the protests went deeper than a desire among students to leave school early or get their pictures in the papers. It was the beginning of something much bigger, he said

"The world was on fire and they were angry," Whan said. "These students and students protesting at universities across the country went on to stop the war."

- Articles from The Post and The Athens Messenger were used for background information for this story.