Students for a Democratic Society

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), left-wing U.S. student organization founded in 1960 as the youth group of the Social Democratic organization of the League for Industrial Democracy. As SDS became more radical, it broke from its parent organization and began championing the ideas that came to be considered characteristic of the New Left. The influence of SDS spread widely through U.S. universities, and it helped launch the movement against the Vietnam War (1965), as well as providing support for the civil rights movement. In 1969 it split into many competing factions.