Ohio Students Join Inaugural Protest

January 20, 1969

Editors note: This story was written by Louis Heldman, Lantern Special Writer, and supplemented by information from wire services.

About 450 Ohio college students, including many from Ohio State, joined in Washington Sunday under the banners of Ohio Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) to participate in the counter-inaugural parade.

The parade, sponsored by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE), attracted students from the Ohio colleges of: Cuyahoga Community College, Kent State University, Oberlin College, Otterbein College, Ohio University, and the University of Cincinnati.

Members of the Ohio State SDS chapter estimated that 250 of the students were from USO. About 100 Ohio State students were housed in the Ohio Movement Center, at the Brightwood Park Methodist Church in suburban Washington, Saturday night.

A discussion at the Brightwood Park Church Saturday night, attended by about 50 members of the Ohio State delegation, revealed that many students were reluctant to engage in any activities that might lead to violence. Speakers said they were willing to show their anger against "the System," but not by violence means.

Washington police estimated the number participating in the counter inaugural parade Sunday was 5,000.

The march formed at 15th and Pennsylvania Avenues, within the shadow of the Washington monument. The march proceeded down Pennsylvania Ave. in the opposite direction of the inaugural parade tomorrow. There were minor incidents along the way.

Most violent were the fight outside the gleaming white marble Science and Technology Building after the march was over and a brief flareup at the foot of Capitol Hill about an hour earlier.

Mounted policemen rode into the disheveled throng to drive it back from a Smithsonian Institution building after stones had been thrown toward a dozen dignitaries arriving for a reception for Vice President-elect Spiro T. Agnew.

While invited guests in evening clothes entered the Smithsonian building, protesters battled officers with bottles, rocks, sticks, mud and oak slats torn from large litter baskets.

Police said they could not determine immediately how many demonstrators were arrested, but estimated the total at about two dozen. Park police said two officers had been hospitalized, but no details were available.

Agnew arrived at a side entrance and eluded the demonstrators who had gathered to jeer him.

Eight mounted policemen, with nightsticks upraised, drove the demonstrators back after the rock-throwing started. Apparently the sticks were not used and no injuries were reported by guests or protesters.

When the parade ended at the foot of Capitol Hill, some of the protest leaders urged the crowd to move on but others linked arms and refused to move. That brought on the first confrontation of the day.

"Most of them were charged with failure to move on," Assistant Chief of Police Jerry V. Wilson said, "but some of them are being held for assault on policemen and disorderly conduct."

Some youths in the throng tried to rip down an American flag flying in front of the NASA building within sight of the Capitol.

However, a band of fellow marchers ringed the flagpole and turned back their colleagues after a spirited shoving match.

Police moved in to take over afterwards without further incident.

A counter-inaugural ball was held on a mall between the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial. The Mobilization committee had announced the ball's featured performers as singers Judy Collins, Phil Ochs, Janis Joplin, and the Fugs. Ochs, a former Ohio State student, performed early in the afternoon in a rally before the march.

MOBE Organizing Mock Inauguration

January 15, 1969

By SUE URBAS
Lantern Staff Writer

Between 100 and 150 Ohio State students and Columbus residents are expected to travel to Washington D.C. this weekend for a counter inauguration, according to George Vargo, Education-4 and a National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE) volunteer. MOBE is sponsoring the counter-inauguration to protest the inauguration of President-elect Richard Nixon.

Buses will be provided for transportation, Vargo said. The buses will leave the University area on 10 p.m. Friday and will depart from Washington at 10 p.m. Sunday. Round trip tickets will cost $16.

Those interested in buses or more information should call The Ohio Peace Action Council at 299-3223, Vargo said.

Ohio Headquarters

Ohioians may stay at the Ohio Movement Center at Brightwood Park Methodist Church, 8 Jefferson, NW, where they will be able to eat and sleep. Most people are bringing sleeping bags and blankets, Vargo said. Food will be distributed at the church.

Workshops on militarism, imperialism, racism and women's liberation are scheduled for Saturday at Federal City College, Vargo said.

'Political Confrontation'

A counter-inaugural parade which will seek "a political, not a physical confrontation" with the Administration is planned for Sunday.

Demonstrations will include a counter-inauguration and a counter-state-of-the-union message and will precede a counter-inaugural ball.

The counter-inaugural ball will be held in a tent behind the White House and will feature Janis Joplin, Judy Collins, Phil Ochs and the Fugs.

On Monday an "organized presence" of the MOBE movement will be formed along the inaugural parade route, Vargo said. A guerrilla theatre will perform skits during the time the parade is marching.

Most of Marchers Were Students

They Gathered; They Protested; They Spent Night in Central Park

April 17, 1967

NEW YORK, N.Y.--No matter how you looked at it, the students -- the high school and college students -- made up the hard core of peace marchers here on Saturday.

The students were the ones who illegally slept in Central Park the night before the march--the students were the ones who were most enthusiastic about the march, even though some of them had traveled hundreds of tiring miles in cars and buses.

Some of the student marchers were bearded and wore levis and sandals, others wore suits and ties. There were the "hippies" who seemed to be mostly of high school age. And there were the girls in mini skirts.

Students Carry Signs

Almost all of the students carried signs protesting the war in Vietnam, signs which read: "Like Eichmann, Like McNamara;" "Stop the Bombing and the Lies, Negotiate With NFL;" "Wipe Out Poverty, Not People."

And, all of the students seemed to have an opinion on the war. Lauranne Biribauer, an Ohio State coed, said she had hitch-hiked to the march. "I'm here to demonstrate and help to show other people that there are a lot of people involved in this peace march and the ideas for peace."

Kenneth Brossman from Ohio State said, "We're here to try to express our feelings about the war in Vietnam; to let the world know that many, many people in the United States are against the policy of the United States in Vietnam."

One coed from Roosevelt University in Chicago, Ann Taylor, said: "We're opposed to our boys over there fighting, dying. For what? We don't know. So we're here to get them out of there."

Others Demonstrate

Students did make up the hard core of the march, but there were also a goodly number of married couples, war veterans, matronly-looking ladies and housewives in the march.

Paul Green, wearing a Veterans for Peace in Vietnam cap, said, "As veterans we are the ones most concerned about bringing peace to the world and stopping the bombing of Vietnam." Green's words were echoed during the march by other veterans who chanted, "no more veterans."

One of the most colorful marchers was Mrs. Clara DeMehia, who was selling anti-war buttons. "I'm a grandmother and I have a grandson who is about to leave for Vietnam but he'd rather go to jail than go to Vietnam. I'm selling buttons because it behooves us to carry some symbol against the war."

Several times during the march the marchers were pelted with paint, eggs and flour by people in apartments along the march route. But other than that, and a few minor fist fights, the demonstrations was quite orderly.

Draft Cards Burn

Before the march started, about 12 marchers burned their draft cards in the march formation area. Others burned cards which were "symbolic" of their draft cards. The New York police did not arrest any of them.

Probably the most colorful and the most humble group of marchers were 30 Teton Sioux Indians from the Rosebud Reservation in Winner, S.D. One of the Sioux, Johnny Walking Crow, said, "I sure hope there will be peace in Vietnam because there's a lot of our Indian boys out there in the war and we'd sure like to have them back."

The marcher most commented about was undoubtedly the Marine veteran, in full dress blues, who carried the American flag at the head of the march. Most abuse from the march watchers was directed at him.

One man in the crowd said, "Death to that Marine. Shoot that Marine. Death, death to the Marine. He's a traitor, a traitor to the country."

Through the entire march, the Marine carried the flag at the head of the parade, never missing a step and never once looking at the marchers. His eyes were directed to the American flag which he proudly carried.

Vietnam War Protestors Mass at U.N.

By DONNA J. PLESH
Lantern Staff Writer

April 17, 1967

NEW YORK, N.Y.--An estimated 100,000 to 125,000 anti-war demonstrators marched through the streets of midtown Manhattan Saturday.

Then they gathered near the United Nations Building to hear speeches against U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said, "I would like to urge students from colleges all over the nation to use this summer and coming summers educating and organizing communities across the nation against war.

"I would like to urge students to continue to pursue the path of alternative services and accept the role of conscientious objectors as many are doing."

Student Action Called For

Stokely Carmichael, leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, also called for more student action against the war.

"We must move our war to the high schools, and we must begin to organize anti-draft groups in the high schools," he said.

"Our position on the draft is very simple and crystal clear. Hell no, we ain't going," Carmichael said. He then led the crowd in the chant, "Hell no, we ain't going."

The New York Police Department estimate of the crowd was much lower than that of the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam, the group that organized the march. A spokesman for that group estimated the crowd at over 250,000.

OSU Students Gather

The marchers gathered for the demonstration early Saturday morning in the Sheeps Meadow area of Central Park. Members of the Spring Mobilization group had set up alphabetical divisions for those marching. An estimated 200 Ohio State students massed in section F with others from the Midwest.

The march was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., but was delayed until 12:15 p.m. by late arrivals.

Leading the marchers along the estimated two mile route were King, Dr. Benjamin Spock and singer Harry Belafonte. Carmichael led a group of marchers from Harlem who joined the main group in the midtown area.

At 1:15 p.m. the first group of marchers arrived in the United Nations Plaza area, where the speakers platform had been set up.

Crowd Is Entertained

Before the speeches started, and while thousands of other marchers were winding their way to the Plaza area, the crowd was entertained by a host of prominent folk singers including Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, The Freedom Singers and Peter Seeger.

Seeger led the crowd in a song which began, "One, two, three, four. Stop this lousy war."

Peter, of Peter, Paul and Mary, told the crowd, "The senators and congressmen should not stand in the halls. And I hope that they will not turn their heads or their eyes or close their ears to what's happening here."

Spock Voices Opposition

The first speaker, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Cleveland baby doctor, said, "We oppose this war because we love our country. We oppose this war because we believe this war is damaging our country in every way. America is now scorned and hated by millions of people of its former a small helpless country."

But it was King's 35-minute speech that the crowd had been waiting to hear.

"I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America," he said. "I speak out not with anger, but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart. And, above all, with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as the moral example of the world."

At 5 p.m., a heavy rain began falling and some marchers began leaving. A few minutes later the speeches ended.

Mrs. King Speaks

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, another anti-war demonstration was still in progress.

An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people marched through downtown San Francisco to protest the war in Vietnam.

Later, San Francisco police estimated that 50,000 people gathered in Kezar Stadium to hear Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, who recently returned from a visit to North Vietnam, and State Rep. Julian Bond of Georgia, speak against U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism

by Geoffrey R. Stone

On April 17, an SDS-sponsored event in Washington drew 20,000 demonstrators. Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, and Judy Collins sang; I. F. Stone, Staughton Lynd, and Senator Ernest Gruening addressed the crowd; and marchers presented proposals at the Capitol calling for an end to the war. In May, more than 20,000 people participated in a marathon teach-in at the University of California at Berkeley. The following month, 18,000 people attended an antiwar rally in Madison Square Garden. An interfaith delegation of Christian and Jewish clergy visited Washington to appeal for peace, and other religious leaders called for a new Geneva conference to bring about an end to the conflict.

[...]

On October 21, 1967, some 6,000 federal marshals and troops gathered in Washington in anticipation of the event. More than 100,000 antiwar demonstrators convened at the Lincoln Memorial to hear speeches and sing protest songs with Phil Ochs and Peter, Paul, and Mary. Dellinger then took the microphone and declared, "[T]his is the beginning of a new stage in the American peace movement in which the cutting edge becomes active resistance." Whether he knew what was about to happen next has never been clear.

A week in the war in Texas

Every week one Texan soldier dies in Iraq and 10 are wounded. Gary Younge reports on how war is affecting Bush's home state

Saturday October 6, 2007
The Guardian

In Texas, late summer, the sun clings to you like a second skin, baking the day and all those who venture into it. The Lone Star State is vast, the size of Germany, Italy and Denmark combined, and coping with the heat is one of the few things that unites everyone who lives here. On a sweltering Friday, Carl Rising-Moore and three others stand next to a ditch by the Broken Spoke ranch in Crawford, Texas, and wait for President George Bush to arrive home for a barbecue. Rising-Moore holds a banner saying "Traitor ... Impeach". The secret service tell him to move to the other side of the gate. He refuses. They arrest him and send him to jail.
More than 100 miles away in Fort Worth, Lance Corporal Patrick Myers returns home to streets lined with American flags and an escort of "Patriot Guard Riders" on motorcycles. Myers, 23, used to ride a motorcycle himself, but rolls home today in a wheelchair from an army medical centre in San Antonio. Two years ago he was driving his Humvee near the Syrian border in Iraq when it struck a wayside bomb and he lost both his legs.

In a New York courtroom, Texas oilman David Chalmers pleads guilty to conspiracy in a scheme to pay illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime in return for the right to buy oil.

And in Austin that same day, Will Martin, 19, stands in the shadow of the State Capitol at the head of a youth demonstration to announce the end of the war. "A lot of young people lack the confidence to challenge authority," Martin says. "We want to tell them that things can change if you want them to. The first step is to declare the war over."

While the war does not dominate daily conversation in America, it nags at people's consciousness, like a dripping tap or a wayward car alarm. "It is kind of like a low-grade fever," a Democratic congressman told the New York Times recently. "It worries them, but they are so used to the drumbeat of death, destruction and confusion, they don't know how to react."

Nowhere more so than in Texas, home to nearly 200,000 military personnel as well as the president who has deployed them. According to a recent Lyceum poll, Texans believe the war is by far the single most important issue facing the nation. Almost everyone here, including me, seems to have a relative or friend in the military or to have served themselves - my cousin from Houston has fought in the war.

In any average week, the body of one Texan soldier will be flown home from Iraq and 10 others will return wounded. In that sense, this random Friday was the beginning of a very regular week.

Friday, Austin

Martin had hoped for 1,000, but in the end only around 150 show up. Most I speak to are disappointed with the turnout. "We haven't had a good demonstration here since March," David Morris says. "It's hard to tell why people aren't more motivated."

Austin, a university town, has a reputation, as a liberal island marooned in a sea of Texan conservatism, that is not entirely deserved. Texas isn't that conservative and Austin isn't that liberal. The last time Bush's approval ratings were above 50% here was January 2006 - he's more popular in 20 other states. In 2004, the year Republicans took the state with 68% of the vote, Dallas elected a lesbian, Hispanic, Democratic sheriff. Most of the border counties are also Democrat. It may be the home state of the leader of the war on terror, but it was also the native land of the leader of the war on poverty, President Lyndon Johnson.

"Texas is unfairly characterised as homogenous and monolithic," says Daron Shaw, the director of the Lyceum poll. "On some issues, like gun culture, it's almost impossible to be too conservative. But on others, like immigration, it's a moving target and much more diverse than people give it credit for. When I conducted the recent poll, I was shocked by how polarised and disparate attitudes to the war actually were."

Back at the State Capitol, what the demonstrators lack in numbers they make up for in spirit. Six older women, one bare-breasted, spell out "I-M-P-E-A-C-H" on human billboards, while another man carries a banner rallying "Girlie men against imperialism". Most messages involve permutations of "oil", "troops", "impeach", "war", "Bush" and "Cheney".

The demonstration began as a re-enactment. In 1967, guitarist and activist Phil Ochs declared the Vietnam war was over to a crowd of around 100,000 (eight years before the White House recognised that the end had come). Forty years later, Martin and the other teenage organisers - some of whose parents had demonstrated against the Vietnam war - replicate Ochs' message, word for word at some points, for a smaller crowd and a different war.

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