Campus Unrest and the Politics of Law and Order, Part 2

In our last episode, we explored the ascendency of a law and order candidate who defeated his major party opponents in the 1969 Minneapolis mayoral election. Charles Stenvig was a Minneapolis Police lieutenant who ran as an independent, promising to crack down on civil disobedience and crime by—as he described it—"taking the handcuffs off of the police.” Minneapolis had experienced racial unrest during the summers of 1966 and 1967, protests against the Vietnam War were taking place at the University of Minnesota in the late 1960s, crime was on the rise and voters were uneasy. Into this tableau came Stenvig whose victory challenged the widely accepted notion that Minneapolis was a liberal and progressive city. Stenvig was reelected to a second term in 1971 as concerns about civil unrest and crime persisted. In this episode, part two of our look at the politics of law and order.

Guests:

Gary Prevost, a retired professor of political science at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict, was a student activist on the U of M’s Twin Cities campus during that time.

University of Minnesota Professor of Political Science and African and African American Studies August Nimtz who witnessed the protests.