The massacre was a response to the coup d'état of May Seventeenth that installed Chun Doo-hwan as military dictator and implemented martial law. Following his ascent to power, Chun arrested opposition leaders, closed all universities, banned political activities, and suppressed the press.
President Park was assassinated in October of 1979 on a wave of pro-democracy student protests. After Park's death, South Korea went through a brief period of political liberalization but this liberalization was abruptly ended by a military coup d'etat on December 12, 1979 led by Chun Doo Hwan. He, like President Park Chung Hee used the tensions between North and South Korea to legitimize martial law in the name of “national security”.

On the morning of 18 May, students gathered at the gate of Chonnam National University in protest of its closing. Over the course of the day, the conflict broadened to around 2000 participants. Although local police had initially handled the protests, by 4 pm, paratroopers from the Republic of Korea Special Warfare Command (ROK-SWC) took over. The arrival of 686 soldiers from the 33rd and 35th battalions of the 7th Airborne Brigade marked the beginning of a brutal and infamous phase of suppression of the massacre.

During this phase, South Korean soldiers indiscriminately clubbed demonstrators and bystanders. Soldiers used bayonets to attack, torture, and kill residents indiscriminately. Soldiers raided buildings unrelated to the demonstration, including hotels, cafés, and barbershops. The violent suppression of the protests by the ROK-SWC led the number of protesters to rapidly increase, exceeding 10,000 by 20 May. Under the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan, the South Korean government named the massacre the ''Gwangju Riot,'' and claimed that it was being instigated by "communist sympathizers and rioters" acting under the support of the North Korean government.