Law Monitoring Committee Records | University of Illinois Archives

Description: Law Monitoring Committee Records relating to campus disorders in May 1970, when students violently protested U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia, the involvement of the university in military research, the killing of students at Kent State and Jackson State universities, an allege racist murder by Champaign police and the refusal of the university to close in response to student strike demands. Classes were boycotted, thoroughfares blocked and university property and campus businesses damaged. Local and state police were joined on campus by National Guard troops. Confrontations, mass arrests and allege incidents of police brutality resulted. The series includes lists of Law Monitors and committees; summary reports of disorders; police and citizen brutality accusations, arrest reports and statements by Monitors participants and other witnesses; statements involving the Vito Santini case; summary notes and charts of incidents; photographs; newspaper clippings; printed material distributed on campus; Rumor Center report sheets (May 5-11, 1970); and related material including reports on policed procedures and jurisdictions, a legislative report and a survey of student opinion. A number was assigned each case of alleged brutality or illegal arrest and noted on each supporting document. The Law Monitoring Committee was formed as an ad hoc group of law students and faculty to prevent violence, advise student of their legal rights, monitor demonstrations, and gather information for later use by arrested students. Faculty advisor included Professor Michael D. Dooley, Peter Hay and Prentice H. Marshall. See also Record Series 37/4/9, 37/4/10, 39/2/20.