A video unearthed from archives appears to show left-wing presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders being arrested in Chicago in 1963 while protesting racial segregation.

The footage shows a man wearing glasses and of similar appearance to Sanders being picked up by law enforcement officers in Illinois 53 years ago. The timing coincides with media reports of Sanders' arrest during a boycott while he attended the University of Chicago.

The Vermont senator studied in Chicago from 1960-64 and was arrested on 12 August 1963. At the time, Sanders was part of protest movement demonstrating against the segregation of Chicago public schools, slate.com reported. Sanders later became deeply involved in the civil rights movement.

The footage was discovered by the documentary film making group Kartemquin Films, which is revisiting the civil rights movement in Chicago in 1963. Their documentary '63 Boycott' looks at the protests involving more than 200,000 Chicago natives in protests against the policies of superintendent Benjamin Willis.

Willis, the head of Chicago's public school system, had refused to integrate black students and planned to solve overcrowding by placing African American students in aluminium trailers known as 'Willis Wagons'.

The minute-long clip showing Sanders' arrest appears to take place at the proposed site for a school which would have been made entirely of the trailers. Neither Sanders nor his campaign have confirmed the veracity of the video.

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