Anti-draft Week
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
During the summer of 1966, the Inter-University Committee for Debate on Foreign Policy held a national conference for opponents of the War in Vietnam in Cleveland, Ohio. Activists at that meeting formed the November 8th Mobilization Committee to raise awareness about the increasingly brutal war in Southeast Asia during the fall election cycle and cultivate a broad-based national antiwar coalition that could mobilize large-scale anti-war demonstration in the U.S. Longtime pacifist and anti-war activist, A.J. Muste, was elected founding chairman of the group, while other notable anti-war figures also played leadership roles, including Dave Dellinger, the editor of Liberation magazine, and Robert Greenblatt, a professor at Cornell University. According to the organization’s newspaper, The Mobilizer, Muste was chosen because he “earned the respect of virtually every sector of the social protest movements in this country, displaying leadership in his work as a pacifist, radical, labor and civil rights [activist.]” Muste was particularly adept at synthesizing the competing philosophical and strategic approaches of individual groups within the broader coalition.
Following the November 1966 elections, the organization changed its name to the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, often referred to as “The MOBE.” The Spring Mobilization Committee was a broad anti-war coalition made up of students, unionists, progressive religious leaders, civil rights and black power groups, women’s organizations, Third World communities, and other members of “oppressed” constituencies, and was tasked with organizing massive demonstrations in New York City and San Francisco on April 15, 1967. Civil Rights and anti-war leader, Rev. James Bevel, now led the organization following the death of A.J. Muste in February of 1967. The April 15 protests attracted an estimated 500,000 participants (400,000+ in New York and 75-100,000 in San Francisco), marking the event as one of the largest days of anti-war protest of the Vietnam War era. The organizers of the Spring Mobilization Committee sought to combine mass action with local community organizing. Each participating group had distinct interests, spurring a variety of internal challenges and sometimes conflicts, which reveal many of the important fault lines within the New Left of the late-1960s.
The April demonstrations were peaceful, with only five recorded arrests, all of people who opposed the demonstration. During the event in New York, Martin Luther King, Jr. Floyd McKissick, Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Benjamin Spock all gave speeches in front of the United Nations critiquing U.S. involvement in the war as well as the socioeconomic politics of the draft. Prior to the march, young men burned nearly 200 draft cards in Central Park. At the San Francisco event, Black nationalists led a march of mostly white demonstrators.
At a conference in the wake of the April demonstrations, the group again changed its name, this time to the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which functioned as a permanent national organizing committee to bring together existing anti-war groups, spur the creation of new ones and develop strategies to promote the anti-war movement among everyday Americans. The National Mobe, which adhered to a non-violent philosophy at a time when a growing number of other anti-war groups were questioning the effectiveness of non-violence, had headquarters in New York and San Francisco, as well as an office in Los Angeles.
Between 1967 and 1969, The MOBE continued to play a central role organizing and participating in several important anti-war actions. In October of 1967, MOBE participated in a protest at the Pentagon, which attracted more than 150,000 people and resulted in more than 700 arrests and numerous claims of police brutality. This effort to “confront the warmakers” was notable for the presence of anti-war activists and counter-culturalists, particularly the Yippies, who sought to “levitate” the Pentagon. In April 1968, MOBE supported SDS’s “Ten Days of Protest” and that August, MOBE had a significant presence at the anti-war protests that rocked the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In January of 1969, the organization, now called the New Mobilization Committee to End the War, or New MOBE, participated in the anti-Nixon demonstrations that took place during his inauguration in in Washington, D.C. And on October 15 and November 15, 1969, MOBE organized the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. The October event attracted hundreds of thousands of participants to demonstrations and “teach-ins” in cities across the country and beyond, with the largest gathering taking place in Boston, where more than 100,000 listened to anti-war Senator George McGovern. The November event drew more than 500,000 anti-war supporters to Washington, D.C., including a number of celebrities and performers. MOBE also coordinated a national anti-draft week between March 16 and March 22, 1970, but by that time, the group had begun to lose strength and ultimately dissolved, with some members drifting into the People’s Coalition for Peace and other joining the National Peace Coalition.
New Mobe
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1970
Button
Physical Object
April 4
Civil Rights and Black Power
This button commemorates the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1968, and the militant awakening his murder inspired. In the immediate aftermath of King's killing, urban rebellions erupted in dozens of U.S. cities.
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1968
Button
Physical Object
End Mass Murder in Vietnam
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
On April 15, 1967, the National Mobilization Committee organized a protest march against the Vietnam War from Central Park to the United Nations. One of the largest demonstrations of the Vietnam War era, an estimated 100,000 to 400,000 participated, including a range of anti-war and civil rights organizations. The march was peaceful, with five arrests, all of people who opposed the demonstration. During the event, Martin Luther King, Jr. Floyd McKissick, Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Benjamin Spock all gave speeches in front of the United Nations critiquing U.S. involvement in the war as well as the socioeconomic politics of the draft. Prior to the march, nearly 200 draft cards were burned by youths in Central Park. In San Francisco, Black nationalists led a march an estimated 20,000 mostly white demonstrators in San Francisco on the same day.
Here is a news footage of the march in New York:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=40m5gBgwjQE
The influence of the counterculture is evident in the design of this button.
National Mobilization Committee to End the War
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1967
Button
Physical Object
May Day Tactical Manual
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
"If the government won't stop the war, we will stop the government.” In 1971 this was the call to direct action by the Mayday Collective, a de-centralized movement which grew out of youth and student activists' opposition to the Viet Nam War. Their solution was the actual, physical shutting down of the US government, including blocking intersections in the nation’s capitol. To this end, the decentralized, non-violent direct action for the beginning of May, 1971 was first carefully planned. These plans and tactics were shared nationally through the widespread distribution of this 24-page newsprint booklet. What bridges to close, what traffic patterns to disrupt (in the DC metro area) were described and photographed within, having the unintended consequence of alerting the authorities of the who, when, where and what of planned demonstrations. This resulted in the LARGEST sweep of citizens off the street in American history. Some 14,000 law enforcement officers arrested 13,500 people in an act of civil disobedience larger then any act of participation by followers of either Gandhi or King. On the first day of the demonstrations, as 35,000 demonstrators met in West Potomac Park near the Washington Monument, the Nixon Administration planned to use low-flying helicopters to disrupt the gathering. That effort was stymied when demonstrators released a large number of helium balloons. On the second day, U.S. Park Police and Washington Metropolitan Police moved on the demonstrators, firing tear gas, knocking down tents and expelling protesters. Around 10,000 demonstrators regrouped at local churches and college campuses. On the final day, a massive show of military force finally ended the demonstration. Rennie Davis and Jerry Coffin of the War Resisters League are often credited as the original instigators of this action in 1970, with Michael Lerner and other anti-war activists, including a number of Yippies soon joining. The May Day protests lasted from May 1-3, 1971.
May Day Collective
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1971
booklet
Mobilization to End the War Now
Anti-War Movement
During the summer of 1966, the Inter-University Committee for Debate on Foreign Policy held a national conference for opponents of the War in Vietnam in Cleveland, Ohio. Activists at that meeting formed the November 8th Mobilization Committee to raise awareness about the increasingly brutal war in Southeast Asia during the fall election cycle and cultivate a broad-based national antiwar coalition that could mobilize large-scale anti-war demonstration in the U.S. Longtime pacifist and anti-war activist, A.J. Muste, was elected founding chairman of the group, while other notable anti-war figures also played leadership roles, including Dave Dellinger, the editor of Liberation magazine, and Robert Greenblatt, a professor at Cornell University. According to the organization’s newspaper, The Mobilizer, Muste was chosen because he “earned the respect of virtually every sector of the social protest movements in this country, displaying leadership in his work as a pacifist, radical, labor and civil rights [activist.]” Muste was particularly adept at synthesizing the competing philosophical and strategic approaches of individual groups within the broader coalition.
Following the November 1966 elections, the organization changed its name to the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, often referred to as “The MOBE.” The Spring Mobilization Committee was a broad anti-war coalition made up of students, unionists, progressive religious leaders, civil rights and black power groups, women’s organizations, Third World communities, and other members of “oppressed” constituencies, and was tasked with organizing massive demonstrations in New York City and San Francisco on April 15, 1967. Civil Rights and anti-war leader, Rev. James Bevel, now led the organization following the death of A.J. Muste in February of 1967. The April 15 protests attracted an estimated 500,000 participants (400,000+ in New York and 75-100,000 in San Francisco), marking the event as one of the largest days of anti-war protest of the Vietnam War era. The organizers of the Spring Mobilization Committee sought to combine mass action with local community organizing. Each participating group had distinct interests, spurring a variety of internal challenges and sometimes conflicts, which reveal many of the important fault lines within the New Left of the late-1960s.
The April demonstrations were peaceful, with only five recorded arrests, all of people who opposed the demonstration. During the event in New York, Martin Luther King, Jr. Floyd McKissick, Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Benjamin Spock all gave speeches in front of the United Nations critiquing U.S. involvement in the war as well as the socioeconomic politics of the draft. Prior to the march, young men burned nearly 200 draft cards in Central Park. At the San Francisco event, Black nationalists led a march of mostly white demonstrators.
At a conference in the wake of the April demonstrations, the group again changed its name, this time to the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which functioned as a permanent national organizing committee to bring together existing anti-war groups, spur the creation of new ones and develop strategies to promote the anti-war movement among everyday Americans. The National Mobe, which adhered to a non-violent philosophy at a time when a growing number of other anti-war groups were questioning the effectiveness of non-violence, had headquarters in New York and San Francisco, as well as an office in Los Angeles.
Between 1967 and 1969, The MOBE continued to play a central role organizing and participating in several important anti-war actions. In October of 1967, MOBE participated in a protest at the Pentagon, which attracted more than 150,000 people and resulted in more than 700 arrests and numerous claims of police brutality. This effort to “confront the warmakers” was notable for the presence of anti-war activists and counter-culturalists, particularly the Yippies, who sought to “levitate” the Pentagon. In April 1968, MOBE supported SDS’s “Ten Days of Protest” and that August, MOBE had a significant presence at the anti-war protests that rocked the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In January of 1969, the organization, now called the New Mobilization Committee to End the War, or New MOBE, participated in the anti-Nixon demonstrations that took place during his inauguration in in Washington, D.C. And on October 15 and November 15, 1969, MOBE organized the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. The October event attracted hundreds of thousands of participants to demonstrations and “teach-ins” in cities across the country and beyond, with the largest gathering taking place in Boston, where more than 100,000 listened to anti-war Senator George McGovern. The November event drew more than 500,000 anti-war supporters to Washington, D.C., including a number of celebrities and performers. MOBE also coordinated a national anti-draft week between March 16 and March 22, 1970, but by that time, the group had begun to lose strength and ultimately dissolved, with some members drifting into the People’s Coalition for Peace and other joining the National Peace Coalition.
Here is a news footage of the April 15, 1967, march in New York:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=40m5gBgwjQE
National Mobilization Committee to End the War
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1967
Button
Physical Object
Mobilize to End the War in Vietnam
Anti-War Movement
On April 15, 1967, the National Mobilization Committee organized a protest march against the Vietnam War from Central Park to the United Nations. One of the largest demonstrations of the Vietnam War era, an estimated 100,000 to 400,000 participated, including a range of anti-war and civil rights organizations. The march was peaceful, with five arrests, all of people who opposed the demonstration. During the event, Martin Luther King, Jr. Floyd McKissick, Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Benjamin Spock all gave speeches in front of the United Nations critiquing U.S. involvement in the war as well as the socioeconomic politics of the draft. Prior to the march, nearly 200 draft cards were burned by youths in Central Park. In San Francisco, Black nationalists led a march an estimated 20,000 mostly white demonstrators in San Francisco on the same day.
Here is a news footage of the march in New York:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=40m5gBgwjQE
National Mobilization Committee to End the War
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1967
Button
Physical Object
Poor People’s Campaign
Anti-Poverty Movement
The Poor People's Campaign was an inter-racial movement of the poor organized by Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The campaign took shape in 1967 and sought to mobilize poor people from around the country to descend on Washington, D.C. to set up an encampment in the nation's capitol and demand a broad legislative agenda to aid the economically disadvantaged. King was assassinated prior to the PPC, though the SCLC continued on in his honor. In the end, rainy weather and internal divisions further undermined the event.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1968
Button
Physical Object
South Africa Join the Protest Against Apartheid
Anti-Apartheid Movement
This flyer publicizes a protest rally in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in Los Angeles to commemorate the 9th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprisings in South Africa. The anti-Apartheid movement in the U.S. sought to compel American corporations to "divest" from South Africa.
Southern African Support Committee
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1985
photocopy
flyer
Thanks for the Dream Dr. King
Civil Rights Movement
This button includes a black and white profile photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. over a red, white, and blue field. The button reads, “Thanks for the dream Dr. King’’ in commemoration of the assassinated civil rights leader, placing his legacy in a patriotic context.
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
unknown
Button
Physical Object
ca. 1968
The Bread is Rising
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
Alluding to the secret code used by revolutionaries attending meetings during the French Revolution, “the bread is rising,” this button refers to the antiwar march organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War, which started in Central Park in New York City and ended at the United Nations. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, marched and spoke at the demonstration.
National Mobilization Committee to End the War
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1967
Button
Physical Object
Vietnam
Vietnam War
Comic created in 1967, written by Atlanta SNCC leader, Julian Bond, and illustrated by T. G. Lewis. Bond wrote the comic while battling to be seated in the Georgia House of Representatives. He had been elected to the Georgia House of Representative in 1965 with 82% of the vote, but the Georgia state legislature refused to seat him because of his statements (on behalf of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) in opposition to the Vietnam War. In the comic, Bond draws linkages between the war in Vietnam and the struggle for racial justice in the U.S., which was increasingly common among more militant activists during this period.
Julian Bond and T.G. Lewis
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1967
comic