Washington D.C. Protest 1971

My junior year in high school, my homeroom teacher owned a VW bus and asked her entire class to go with her to the protest in Washington D.C. against the Vietnam War shown in this two part video. She later invited her brother to speak in one of her classes against the war. She was fired as a result even though one of her parents was on the local school board. Those were troubling times, just as we are in now. I hope those viewing this video of the protest will be encouraged to start their own efforts or continue their efforts to end our misguided, illegal and immoral occupation of a foreign country against the will of their people and not remain comfortably numb to it all.

April 24-May 5: Half a million attend antiwar rally in DC jointly sponsored by NPAC and PCPJ. During the week leading up to the march, Vietnam Veterans Against the War conduct “Operation Dewey Canyon III” in D.C., which included Lt. John Kerry (later a Senator) testifying before Congress and culminated Friday April 23 with nearly 1,000 veterans throwing their medals over the Capitol steps. By this time VVAW has 11,000 members and 26 regional coordinators. In the ten days following the joint march there are further actions sponsored by PCPJ, constituent groups and the “Mayday Tribe.” The main event is the Mayday attempt to “shut down the government” through civil disobedience, which results in the largest number of arrests (many improper) in U.S. history, 12,614. Years later a class action suit brought about $10,000 in damages to each improperly arrested person. (Spoke; Goines chron; Ramparts July 1971; Almanac; Guardian May 5, 1971)