In celebration of UCLA’s first 100 years, we’re traveling back to our early days to visit some of the people, places and moments in time that have had a lasting impression on who we are as a university.

The sixties shook the nation — a war in Vietnam, political assassinations on American soil, a fight across the country for civil rights and huge strides in science, sending men into space and the first words across the internet. Bruins today walk in the footsteps of the progress made during a time when UCLA students refused to accept the status quo, staging protests and sit-ins, blazing a path in search of a more just and equitable world.

The turmoil would bring about change, as students continued pressing forward. Over the events of the decade, both celebratory and challenging, UCLA found a voice for justice, and began to create a community where diverse voices were respected and protected. Amid the politics and changing times, campus continued to grow. New buildings brought people together, athletic teams scored major victories, opportunities arose to recognize diverse points of view and in a room in Boelter Hall, scientists took a first step towards changing the world.

During the 1960s, students were engaged in the political discourse as an array of world leaders came to UCLA to share their ideas. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos, Louis Lomax and columnist William F. Buckley, future Presidents Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie, writer and leader of the Black Panthers Eldridge Cleaver, and former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt all spoke on campus.

UCLA’s new student union officially opened in 1961. Located in the center of campus, the modern five-story structure was designed for student life, with a TV lounge, meeting rooms, bowling alley, dining space and a ballroom which, in a few weeks, was filled with 2,600 Bruins at a UniCamp fundraiser. In 1967, Ackerman Student Union was named for William C. Ackerman ’24, who came to UCLA in 1919 as a student and tennis player, and served 34 years as executive director of the Associated Students.

With a new building and an expanded program, the UCLA Medical Center continued to grow its reputation as a trailblazing center of excellence. In the early 1960s, UCLA surgeons were at the forefront of medicine, performing a historic parent-to-child kidney transplant, among the first in the United States. Today, the UCLA Kidney Transplant Program is one of the most active and innovative programs in the nation, performing 363 kidney transplants in 2017 and more than 8,000 in all.

Chemist Willard Libby became the first UCLA professor to win the Nobel Prize for his role in developing the process of radiocarbon dating. Archaeology, geology, geophysics and other sciences rely on radiocarbon dating for age determination; his work revolutionized these academic fields. In 1962, Libby became the founding director of UCLA’s Space Physics Center.

As a sign of the unstoppable progress into the future, in a room in Boelter Hall, two computers communicated for the first time. Professor Leonard Kleinrock and a student assistant, Charley Kline ’70, M.S. ’71, Ph.D. ’80, sent a host-to-host message over ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the precursor to today’s Internet. Kleinrock and a 40-person team were trying to log on to the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) host, “Lo” was the first word sent between the two. Although the team could not envision our interconnected world, they realized a historic event transpired that day.

In 1963, with the athletics department in the red, Chancellor Murphy brought on J.D. Morgan ’41 to oversee the program. In a change, Morgan would report directly to the chancellor, instead of to the Associated Students of UCLA (ASUCLA). In his 16 years as UCLA’s director of athletics Morgan turned the finances around, but is best remembered for the 30 NCAA championships Bruins won during his tenure. The home of UCLA Athletics was formally dedicated The J.D. Morgan Center in his honor in 1984.

UCLA dominated college hoops during these years, beginning UCLA’s status as a powerhouse in the sport. The team won the national championship in 1964, the first of a record-breaking 10 championships with Coach John Wooden over a 12-year period. In 1965, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ’69, then Lew Alcindor, joined the freshman team. In the first game ever in Pauley Pavilion, the freshmen beat UCLA’s No. 1-ranked varsity team 75–60, a sign of good times to continue.

While UCLA has always been an integrated school, the majority of faculty and students had been white. In the sixties, a movement began among the community to campaign for greater diversity. The establishment of UCLA’s prestigious ethnic studies programs were a step forward towards today’s collective commitment to a deep appreciation of the university’s many cultures and experiences.

When Dr. King spoke to students at the base of Janss Steps, he told the gathered crowd, “If democracy is to live, segregation must die.” Later that year California passed Proposition 14, nullifying the Rumford Fair Housing Act, which sought to end racial discrimination by landlords. The UCLA chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, dedicated to public service among the African American community, worked to defeat the proposition. Some consider Prop. 14, and the underlying issue of residential segregation, among the causes of the Watts Rebellion of 1965. The bill was later declared unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court.

Students organized against local businesses and apartment owners who would discriminate against students of color. Black students would apply for apartment leases in Westwood on UCLA’s housing list. If denied, white students would follow up with the same request. Students reported discrimination to chancellor Murphy and UCLA administration. While the administration supported the activists, change came slowly. In the fall of 1968, when Carolyn Webb '69, M.A. '72, was elected UCLA's first African American homecoming queen, some Westwood businesses refused to honor a longstanding tradition to present her with gifts, as they had for past winners.

In the 1960s, minority enrollment at the university was around 12%, with many minority and women students achieving individual success, but often feeling marginalized as a group. Willette Murphy Klausner ’61 was the first woman elected senior class president. Featured in the "college issue" of Mademoiselle, Klausner became the first African American to appear in an American fashion magazine. Training to be a teacher, Linda Alvarez ’63 became the first Latina to anchor a weekday newscast for an English-language TV station in Los Angeles.

Inspired by events such as this, students began work to establish a tradition of tolerance and acceptance. Five Asian-American students — Mike Murase, Dinora Gil, Laura Ho, Tracy Okida and Colin Watanabe — started a newspaper, Gidra, to represent their experiences. In 1966, African American students founded Harambee, renamed the Afrikan Student Union (ASU), to advocate for UCLA students of African descent. The UCLA Black Alumni Association (UBAA) was established in 1968, inspired by efforts to organize alumni of color by leaders such as former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley ’41 and UCLA Vice Chancellor emeritus Winston Doby. UBAA’s vision is to achieve and maintain equality by unifying UCLA’s African American alumni, students, faculty and community members. UBAA received the 2018 UCLA Award for Network of the Year in celebration of the 50th anniversary of service to the UCLA community.

Student groups protesting lack of representation on campus, came together to campaign for the creation of the Institute of American Cultures (IAC) to reflect the presence, history, and contributions of underrepresented groups on campus. Four student-led curriculum and research centers, among the first of their kind, were established in 1969 — the Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC), the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, the Asian American Studies Center and the American Indian Studies Center.

The centers enrich the university by contributing to the understanding of diverse cultural experiences. Each is home to important archives, research libraries and internationally renowned publishing efforts. In 2019, during UCLA's centennial, the centers will mark their 50th anniversary of expanding understanding of the value of diverse cultures. The IAC and the four centers continue to work for academic freedom, civil and human rights, and community activism.

On Jan. 17, 1969, during a meeting of the ASU, a dispute over the leadership of the new African American Studies Center turned violent as Black Panther Party members clashed with rival US Organization. UCLA student leaders and members of the Black Panther Party Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins were killed in UCLA's Campbell Hall. It has been said that FBI agents in the COINTELPRO program had fueled tensions between the organizations to provoke conflict. A plaque outside Room 1201 memorializes the lives lost, and for many the building has become a symbol of the adversity faced on campus by underrepresented students.

Dr. Robert Singleton, M.A. ’62, Ph.D. ’83, became the founding director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. A civil rights activist, Singleton had been a Freedom Rider, using nonviolent resistance to protest segregation. He was part of a diverse group of UCLA students who traveled south to join others riding buses to test a Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation. Singleton, his wife, Helen, and members of the group returned to UCLA in 2015 to tell their stories and be honored for their history-making contributions towards equal rights.

In 1969, UCLA professor, feminist and activist Angela Davis was dismissed by the UC Regents for being an outspoken member of the communist party. Students and faculty protested and she was reinstated by Chancellor Young, with 2,000 people attending her lecture in Royce Hall. Eight months later the Regents again dismissed Davis. She returned to UCLA in 2014 to teach a graduate seminar in gender studies saying, “I cannot imagine my life other than in that trajectory that was initiated here at UCLA.”

Dinners for 12 Strangers began in 1968 as a way to unite the Bruin community during a time of civil unrest. The first year, two dinners brought faculty, students and alumni with diverse viewpoints together for a meal and conversation in search of common ground. Organized by Alumni Affairs, this past year alumni hosted more than 500 dinners around the world involving more than 3,700 Bruins.

In 1969, Charles E. Young, M.A. ’57, Ph.D. ’60 became chancellor, the youngest ever to run a major university and the first UCLA alumnus in the role. Young would lead UCLA through the next three decades. As his term began, the UC Regents held a meeting at UCLA. More than 1,500 students gathered to protest the Vietnam War, with students calling for a dialogue between Chancellor Young and activists. In an unprecedented move, more than 100 officers were brought on campus to disperse the protests. A few days later, 1,200 students staged a sit-in in Murphy Hall, protesting the use of National Guard troops at UC Berkeley.

Protests began at UCLA in 1967 as students opposed to the war in Vietnam objected to Dow Chemicals recruiting graduates on campus. Dow produced napalm, a chemical agent used in the war. As the war progressed, demonstrations continued, increasing in size and intensity. Across campus students staged anti-war protests and sit-ins, and demonstrated to remove the ROTC from campus and for equal representation for underrepresented students. The turmoil of the late 1960s would carry over into the next decade, presenting the university with opportunities for more growth and change.

As the decade came to a close, UCLA celebrated its 50th anniversary. In its first 50 years the university had been transformed from a two-year teacher’s college into an internationally respected institution. The next 50 years would build on these accomplishments, inspired by past achievements, and setting the stage for future generations.