Documents

Off the shelves and on to the Internet!

We have come to view ephemera as important and have begun collecting documents (leaflets, flyers, pamphlets or artifacts of interest)–particularly those that are of relevance to a blog post we have done or are related to one of our Flickr photo albums. They help to give the photographs more context and provide another primary source to researchers.

The document categories are in alphabetical order and within each category the documents are in chronological order:

(For Periodicals, Newspapers, Newsletters please see the Periodicals tab above)

Documents

Quick links to document categories (if greyed out, please scroll down)

Anarchism and Syndicalism

Weather Underground FBI Wanted Poster – 1972

While never specifically espousing an anarchist philosophy, the Weather Underground’s political beliefs and actions mirrored some of the characteristics of anarchism. The group formed as a result in a split of the mass student-based organization Students for a Democratic Society in 1969.

The Weathermen, as they were originally known, carried out their first major action later in the year—The Days of Rage in Chicago’s streets October 8-11th. Several hundred hard-core activists battled Chicago police over three days under the slogan “Bring the War Home.”

A major focus of the demonstration was the trial of the Chicago 8—antiwar leaders of various philosophies charged with fomenting a riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention.

The clashes with police ended with six Weathermen wounded by police gunfire, 287 arrested and a number of other injured. The police suffered several dozen injuries—none serious. Many of those charged failed to appear in court resulting in most of the wanted profiles on the linked document.

The Weather Underground went on to conduct a symbolic bombing campaign of government, industrial or other political targets until 1977 when the group essentially disbanded.

A few members went on to participate in the May 19^thCommunist Organization joint action with the Black Liberation Army of a 1981 robbery of a Brinks truck in New Jersey that resulted in the death of a guard and two police officers. Suspects were arrested over a five year period and sentenced to long prison terms.

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Antiwar

(See Vietnam War for Indochina conflict)

Anti-War League holds meeting in Bethesda, MD – Dec. 1915

The Anti-War League issues a flyer advertising a mass “Peace” meeting at Bethesda Hall in Maryland December 16, 1915 to oppose war preparations and America’s entry into World War I.

The Anti-War League was a local organization formed a few months earlier composed of pacifists, socialists and anti-interventionists to oppose U.S. participation in World War I, which was raging in Europe at the time.

The flyer put forward that, “The hysterical demand for Preparedness is the thin veil for covering a gigantic plan to stampede this nation into adopting European Militarism, all for the ·sake of huge profits to war speculators and munitions manufacturers. Hear both sides, come to this meeting and get the facts.”

The Rev. Martin L. O’Donoghue of the Glenarm, MD Catholic Church and a leader of the group headed up the speakers.

In addition to prominent members of the organization speaking, the flyer announced a woman suffragist and a U.S. congressional representative would speak.

The Anti-War League quickly expanded and established chapters in several other states, according to the group.

Free speech a victim of war hysteria: 1917

This drawing “It’s got to be uprooted” shows Uncle Sam looking angrily at a “The Treason Weed” that has handguns, an anarchist bomb, a German Pickelhaube helmet and a skull and crossbones referring to what Rogers believed were domestic enemies that would undermine the U.S. war effort.

The illustration was apparently drawn shortly after the U.S. entry into World War I in April 1917.

The anarchist bomb represents the so-called Galleanisti anarchists who believed in the propaganda of the deed and planted a number of bombs in first third of the 20^th Century to spark revolution. But it also refers more broadly to the Industrial Workers of the World, other anarchists and left-wing socialists who opposed WWI as a contest between the ruling classes of different countries for world domination where the only people dying were workers.

The Pickelhaube referred to German nationals who Rogers believed would act as German agents within the U.S.

During World War I, the U.S. enacted the Sedition Act, the Conscription Act and Espionage Act that were used to suppress dissent during the war resulting in the imprisonment of thousands, and/or deportments and/or revocation of citizenship—overwhelmingly because of speech and not any overt acts. As with those of Japanese descent in World War II, several thousand people of German descent living in the U.S. were also rounded up and put into camps and prisons without charges against them.

War hysteria captured in Rogers’ drawing: 1918

This drawing “Now for a Roundup” shows Uncle Sam rounding-up men labeled “Spy,” “Traitor,” “IWW,” “Germ[an] money,” and “Sinn Fein” with the United States Capitol in the background displaying a flag that states “Sedition law passed” referring to the Sedition Act of 1918 passed during World War I.

The IWW refers to the Industrial Workers of the World who, along with anarchists and left-wing socialists, opposed WWI as a contest between the ruling classes of different countries for world domination where the only people dying were workers. Sinn Fein refers to the Irish struggle for independence against Great Britain that was occurring during World War I.

The law, along with the Conscription Act and Espionage Act passed during the same period, were used to suppress dissent during the war and thousands were imprisoned, and/or deported and/or had their citizenship revoked as a result—overwhelmingly because of speech and not any overt acts.

Bomb Tests Kill People – 1962 ca.

The Washington Peace Action Center publishes a 4-page, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inch pamphlet urging the American people to make a moral choice and oppose nuclear weapons and particularly atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.

The pamphlet was published during a year that saw a groundswell of activity against atmospheric nuclear testing.

Hiroshima Day peace rally – Aug. 1968

A flyer by the Washington Mobilization for Peace, Women’s Strike for Peace, Washington Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), and the Washington Peace Center sponsor a Hiroshima Day (the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan in 1945) rally in Lafayette Park August 10, 1968.

The flyer calls for 1) an end to all bombing 2) peace talks with the south Vietnamese National Liberation Front, 3) U.S. troop withdrawal.

FEDS rally against proposed ballistic missile – May 1969

An 8 ½ x 11 one-sided flyer issued by Federal Employees for a Democratic Society (FEDS) calls for federal employees to rally May 4, 1969 at St. Stephens and the Incarnation church on 16^th Street NW against the proposed anti-ballistic missile system (ABM)

The rally drew about 100 government employees, according to the Washington Post, where they heard speakers denounce the proposed system as ineffective.

Professor Leonard Rodberg, a University of Maryland physicist, said that counter-measures would easily defeat the ABM system and that its implementation could easily sabotage arms control talks with the Soviet Union that were then underway.

Muckraking journalist I. F. Stone praised the involvement of federal employees and said that if the State Department had listened to its own staff, the Vietnam War could have been averted.

The rally raised about $150 toward a publishing a newspaper ad opposing the ABM system.

FEDS was not connected to the Students for a Democratic Society and enjoyed a brief existence before Federal Employees for Peace was founded later that year.

The Anti-Ballistic Missile system proposed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 and continued by President Richard Nixon would have built an extensive, very expensive defensive missile system against a first strike by the Soviet Union.

However both technical and cost issues put the project on hold and in 1972 an anti-ballistic missile treaty was reached with the Soviet Union to severely limit strategic ABMs.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Washington Area Citizens Against ABM – 1969

The Washington Area Citizens Against ABM publish a flyer in 1969 blasting the Washington D.C. City Council for not condemning the project and calling for funds authorized to be re-purposed for human needs.

However both technical and cost issues put the project on hold and in 1972 an anti-ballistic missile treaty was reached with the Soviet Union to severely limit strategic ABMs.

The Washington Area Citizens Against ABM was infiltrated by the FBI after an article was published in the Communist Party USA’s Daily Worker about the group. The infiltration of the group by the federal government was roundly condemned when it was revealed in 1976.

The FBI was ostensibly surveilling the Communist Party, but reported on a public forum where the Defense Department and opponents both made presentations, the planning of meetings, distribution of materials to schools and churches, plans to seek resolutions on the ABM from town councils, the names of local political leaders who attended meetings and forums, and other information that had nothing to do with the Communist Party.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Call for citizens hearings on ABM – Jun. 1969

A Washington Area Citizens Against ABM 8 ½ x 11 one-sided calls for citizen-sponsored hearings June 4 & 6, 1969 at the D.C. City Council chambers on the “ABM and its relationship to the District of Columbia”

The panel was composed of prominent city activists and included Julius Hobson, school desegregation, anti-freeway activist and school board member; Rev. Channing Phillips, pastor at Lincoln Temple and the first Black man to receive votes for nomination for President by a major U.S. political party; Rev. Joe L. Gibson, pastor at the Nash Methodist Church and anti-freeway activist; Rev. Charles Eaton, dean of student services at Federal City College; Rev. Walter Fauntroy, pastor at the New Bethel Baptist Church, veteran civil rights activist and later D.C. Representative to Congress; and Dr. George Wylie, executive director of the National Welfare Rights Organization.

However, both technical and cost issues put the project on hold and in 1972 an anti-ballistic missile treaty was reached with the Soviet Union to severely limit strategic ABMs.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Support the D.C. Nine – May 1969

f An unsigned flyer advertises and teach-in and rally May 27, 1969 at Georgetown University to support the D.C. Nine who were charged with breaking in and destroying records in the Dow Chemical office in Washington, D.C. March 22, 1969.

The nine protesters smashed glass, hurled files out a fourth floor window and poured blood on the remaining files and furniture at the Dow Chemical offices at 15th & L Streets NW Washington, DC and awaited police to arrive for their arrest.

In a prepared statement, the nine noted that Dow seeks “profit in the production of napalm, defoliants and nerve gas.”

On May 7, 1970, the nine were sentenced to terms ranging from three months to six years in jail. Their lawyer, Phillip J. Hirschkop was censured and sentenced to 30 days in jail for his trial conduct.

Seven of the nine appealed and won a reversal of their convictions at the U.S Court of Appeals in June 1972 that ruled that Judge John H. Pratt had erred when he denied the defendants the right to represent themselves. Hirschkop was cleared of contempt in a separate ruling in July 1972.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Nagasaki Day peace walk – Aug. 1969

An unsigned 8 ½ x 11, two-sided flyer calls for a commemoration of Nagasaki Day August 9, 1969 with a walk from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. to the Japanese Peace Lantern at the Tidal Basin near the cherry trees.

Events held on Hiroshima Day and Nagasaki Day annually mark the 1945 bombing of both cities by the U.S. using atomic bombs. The U.S. remains the only country that has used atomic weapons against an enemy–killing an estimated 200,000 Japanese, most of whom were civilians.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Week of protest against chemical & biological warfare: Jul. 1972

A flyer advertises a series of demonstrations against chemical and biological warfare weapons in the triangle formed by Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Frederick, Md. in July 1972.

The protests scheduled July 1-8 were sponsored by the Quaker Action Group, the War Resisters League, Catholic Peace Fellowship, and the Jewish Peace Fellowship with the support of the Friends Peace Committee in Philadelphia and elsewhere.

Protest targets included the White House, U.S. Capitol, Edgewood Arsenal, and Fort Detrick.

Hiroshima Day commemoration – Aug. 1972

The Washington Area Peace Action Coalition flyer advertising Hiroshima Day events and calling for a planning meeting of interested groups. Hiroshima Day annually marks the 1945 bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. using atomic bombs. The U.S. remains the only country that has used atomic weapons against an enemy–killing an estimated 200,000 Japanese, most of whom were civilians.

All-Peoples Congress poster – Oct. 1981

The People’s Anti-War Mobilization issues an 11 x 17 inch English/Spanish poster that calls for an All-Peoples Congress in Detroit, MI October 16-18, 1981 to build a “national day of resistance” to President Ronald Reagan’s domestic and foreign policy.

The All-Peoples Congress attracted a wide range of groups and individuals from left-leaning elected Democrats to the Revolutionary Communist Party. Upward of 3,500 people attended the event.

Both the All-People’s Congress (APC) and the People’s Anti-War Mobilization (PAM) were initiated by the Workers World Party. These coalitions supplanted the Communist Party-supported People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice and the Socialist Workers Party-aligned National Peace Action Coalition from the Vietnam era.

The Worker’s World Party began as a split-off from the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party in 1958, but eventually abandoned Trotskyism.

The APC and the PAM led a number of antiwar and domestic issue protests over the next 20 years. However, after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, Workers World initiated the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) coalition that organized large, mass demonstrations against U.S. imperialism during the 2000s and 2010s.

A 2004 split within Worker’s World Party in 2004 led to the dissidents form a new group, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), that largely gained control of ANSWER. The Workers World Party continues in name in contemporary times, but is largely defunct.

–Donated by Craig Simpson

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Civil Liberties

Free speech a victim of war hysteria: 1917

The illustration was apparently drawn shortly after the U.S. entry into World War I in April 1917.

The Pickelhaube referred to German nationals who Rogers believed would act as German agents within the U.S.

War hysteria captured in Rogers’ drawing – 1918

Amnesty Committee appeals for support and funds – 1922

The Joint Amnesty Committee issues a flyer that appeals for public support and funds for their 1922 campaign to free those imprisoned for speaking out against World War I.

The Joint Amnesty Committee was composed of the Washington committee and delegates from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Pennsylvania Committee for Political Prisoners, and the Maryland Civil Liberties Committee.

The Joint Amnesty Committee picketed in front of the White House to protest the imprisonment of 49 members of the Industrial Workers of the World and four other political prisoners, all of whom they believed had only exercised their Constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech in protesting United States involvement in World War I.

Thousands of Wobblies (IWW members) and anti-war activists were prosecuted on authority of the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. Among the most famous was Eugene Debs, chairman of the Socialist Party of the USA for giving an anti-draft speech in Ohio. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld these prosecutions in a series of decisions. It was not until the late 1950s and early 1960s that the Supreme Court required an “overt act” to crminalize activity as opposed to simple speech.

Virginia communists denounce Heller bill – 1940

The Virginia Communist Party issues a lengthy statement March 11, 1940 condemning the General Assembly for passing the so-called Heller Bill that would deny public facilities to communists or others.

Specifically, the bill would have instructed “custodians of all public buildings in Virginia” to deny the use of such buildings to anyone who “advocate, advise or teach the doctrine that the government of the United States or the Commonwealth of Virginia, or any political subdivision thereof should be overthrown or overturned by force violence or any unlawful means.”

After it passed the state senate without fanfare, a campaign was launmched to defeat the bill in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Delegate Francis Pickins Miller of Fairfax called it “a departure from the policies this state has cherished for three centuries” and declared it would “create a new public officer in Virginia, the custodian of dangerous thoughts.”

Gov. James Price ultimately vetoed the bill in a victory for the communists and civil liberties advocates.

Washington Committee for Democratic Action conference call – Apr. 1940

The Washington Committee for Democratic Action, the local affiliate of the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties, calls for a conference at the Washington Hotel at 15th and F Streets NW April 20-21, 1940.

Over 300 people attended the conference focused on civil rights, labor rights and gaining the right to vote and civil rights for District of Columbia residents.

The Washington Committee, along with the National Federation, merged with the International Labor Defense and the National Negro Congress to form the Civil Rights Congress in 1946.

In 1947 the Civil Rights Congress, along with the predecessor organizations, was listed as subversive by U.S. Attorney General Tom Clark.

National Federatio n for Constitutional Liberties membership brochure – circa 1940

The National Federation for Constitutional Liberties (NFCL) membership application brochure circa 1940 describes the purpose of the organization, lists its officers and provides a membership form.

The Washington Committee for Democratic Action was an affiliate of the national group that was founded at a convention in June 1940 and later merged in 1946 with the National Negro Congress and International Labor Defense to form the Civil Rights Congress..

In 1947, the NFCL was listed as a subversive organization, along with the Civil Right Congress, by U.S. Attorney General Tom Clark.

‘Five Men on a Hunger Strike’ – Mar. 1948

The American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born issues a tri-fold 8 ½ x 11 pamphlet describing the pending deportation cases of five left-wing leaders in the U.S. in 1948 and appeals for support.

The four, Gerhard Eisler a longtime Communist Party member in Austria, Germany and the United States; John Williamson, labor secretary for the Communist Party, Ferdinand C. Smith, Secretary of the National Maritime Union, CIO and Charles A. Doyle, vice president of the United Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers, CIO. A fifth labor leader, Irving Potash, manager of the Furriers Joint Council, was also slated for deportation.

Smith was the highest-ranking African American in the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) at the time.

The hunger strike ended when the four (Potash was released earlier) were granted bail on March 6th. However, all were ultimately forced out of the country at various times in the 1950s.

Virginia House Bill No. 6 criminalizing beliefs – Jan. 1948

House Bill No. 6, introduced January 15, 1948 in the House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly, seeks to criminalize beliefs—particularly the belief in the necessity of overthrowing the existing government of Virginia or the United States.

Further, mere membership in or aiding or abetting a group that believes in replacing the current government is considered felony criminal behavior under the bill.

The bill was introduced by Del. Frank P Moncure of Stafford and Del. Baldwin G Locher of Rockbridge County. Moncure said on the floor of the House, “Mr. Locher and myself have today introduced a bill which has for its purpose the barring of communism from the state off Virginia, and to outlaw the Communist Party…”

Penalties of from 3 to 5 years and fines up to $1,000 are provided for violators of the act.

A version of the bill ultimately passed in 1950 and remains part of the Virginia code.

Ad hits Mundt-Nixon anti-communist bill – 1948

A sample advertisement circa 1948 calls for the defeat of the Mundt-Nixon bill that would have required registration of members of the Communist Party and members of organizations deemed “communist-fronts” if their policies aligned with the Communist Party USA.

The Mundt-Nixon bill was the first anti-communist bill of the McCarthy era also known as the Second Red Scare.

U.S. Rep. Karl Mundt (R-SD) and U.S. Rep. Richard M. Nixon (R-CA), members of the House Committee on Un-American (HUAC) activities, sponsored the first anti-communist bill of the Cold War era.

They contended that a house-cleaning of the executive department and a full exposure of past derelictions regarding communists would come only from a body in no way corrupted by ties to the administration. The measure (HR 5852) contained anti-sedition provisions, but also reflected the view that the constitutional way to fight communists was by forcing them out into the open.

The bill thus would have required the Communist party and “front” organizations to register with the Department of Justice and supply names of officers and members. It would also require that publications of these organizations, when sent through the mails, be labeled “published in compliance with the laws of the United States, governing the activities of agents of foreign principals.”

A broad campaign was organized against the bill and many denounced as a violation of civil liberties.

While the bill ultimately failed in the Senate, most of its components, plus others, were enacted in the McCarren Internal Security Act in 1950.

Call for civil rights demonstration in Washington: Jun. 1948

An ad hoc committee called the National Non-Partisan Mass Delegation to Washington puts out a flyer calling for a gathering in Washington, D.C. June 2, 1948 to demand Congress pass civil rights legislation.

Specific demands included abolition of the poll tax, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission (The FEPC existed during World War II—similar to today’s EEOC), ending segregation in the armed forces, and passage federal legislation making lynching a crime.

Two of the main sponsors were NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois and actor, singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson.

Several thousand attended the demonstration and added defeat of the Mundt-Nixon anti-communist bill to its legislative demands.

Daily Worker on U.S. communist leaders’ arrest – Jul. 1948

The Daily Worker, publication of the Communist Party USA, reports on the initial arrest of its leaders July 21, 1948 for advocating overthrow of the U.S. government as defined under the Smith Act.

The issue also contains a statement issued by the Communist Party on the arrest of their leaders.

Negro Freedom Rally Committee flyer – Sep. 1949

Following the “Peekskill Riot” where a white supremacist mob attacked people who gathered for a Paul Robeson concert, protest rallies were organized around the country, including Washington, D.C.

Lawyers Guild challenges Mundt-Ferguson bill: 1950

The National Lawyers Guild pens a 15-page booklet attacking the 1950 Mundt-Ferguson anti-communist bill as unconstitutional.

“The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) was founded in 1937 as an association of progressive lawyers and jurists who believed that they had a major role to play in the reconstruction of legal values to emphasize human rights over property rights. The Guild is the oldest and most extensive network of public interest and human rights activists working within the legal system,” according to a description on the group’s website.

At the time, Virginia activist and attorney Clifford Durr was president of the group, D.C. civil rights icon Charles Hamilton Houston was a board member and Robert J. Silberstein who had relocated to D.C. to take a full-time role in the Guild, was secretary.

The bill was first introduced as the Mundt-Nixon bill in 1948 and was passed by the House of Representatives, but the Senate did not act on the bill. The same fate awaited the similar Mundt-Ferguson bill of 1950.

A mass campaign against the bills were conducted by left-wing and civil liberties organizations including a mass march on Washington, D.C.

However, after President Harry S. Truman called for stricter controls on communists, Senator Pat McCarren (NV) introduced a similar bill that added a provision that also required,

“The detention of persons who there is reasonable ground to believe probably will commit or conspire with others to commit espionage or sabotage is, in a time of internal security emergency, essential to the common defense and to the safety and security of the territory, people, and the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Enforcement was a fine not more than $10,000 or ten years in jail, or both. The bill passed both House and Senate overwhelmingly. Truman vetoed the bill on Constitutional grounds, but his veto was overridden.

The bill, along with the 1940 Smith Act, federal regulations and new state laws resulted in numerous show trials of Communist Party members Thousands were dismissed from their jobs. Several dozen were jailed and lengthy prison sentences were meted out. After being named publicly as communists, individual members were blacklisted from employment by most major employers.

The National Lawyers Guild itself would be listed as a communist-front, despite there being no evidence that it was anything but an organization providing pro-civil rights, peace, civil liberties and social justice services. The group suffered a severe drop in membership following the listing as individual attorneys feared for their careers, but the group persevered and continues to provide services in contemporary times.

Marie Richardson flyer – Dec. 1951

As the Second Red Scare moved into full swing, authorities brought felony charges against Marie Richardson Harris for lying on a federal job application. The federal government alleged she was a member of the Communist Party. Harris held the Library of Congress job for 2-3 months and handled no classified information.

However, she had been the first black woman to hold a full-time union position in a national union (United Federal Workers) and was executive secretary of the local National Negro Congress. She served 4 ½ years in prison.

The case of Marie Richardson Harris: The victim of a modern witch-hunt – 1952

Her defense committee had a fundraiser broken up by D.C. police and itself was later designated as a subversive organization by the U.S. government.

NLRB non-communist affidavit – circa 1955

The Taft-Harley Act passed in 1948 prohibited members of the Communist Party from holding labor union office if the union were to use provisions of the National Labor Relations Act. It required officers to sign a “non-communist affidavit” in order for the union to be eligible for National Labor Relations Board services and the use of the law in disputes with employers.

The unions of the American Federation of Labor quickly agreed to this, but the Congress of Industrial Organizations briefly resisted and tried to use non-compliance with signing the affidavit as a direct action way of neutralizing other anti-labor provisions in the Taft-Hartley Act such as prohibition on secondary boycotts, sympathy strikes, authorization for states to enact so-called “right to work” laws, among others.

The refusal to sign quickly collapsed as major unions such as the United Auto Workers signed and anti-communist fervor swept the U.S. It wasn’t long before the CIO expelled or forced out 11 major national unions for alleged communist-domination and all the remaining union leaders signed the affidavits.

Many mark the decline of the labor movement to the Taft Harley Act and the inability of labor to wage effective resistance.

SDS reprints Ramparts article exposing CIA student funding – Aug. 1967

In August 1967, the University of Maryland College Park chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) reprints the Ramparts magazine article in that blew the whistle on Central Intelligence Agency funding of the U.S. National Student Association (USNSA).

The SDS chapter distributed the article to USNSA delegates to the annual convention of the organization held that year at the University of Maryland and urged the group to disband.

The article exposed the long-running CIA relationship with the organization that included essentially running the group’s international operations and provided a building at 2115 S Street NW for the USNSA’s use and some other domestic funding as well.

The USNSA, composed of student governments throughout the country, did not dissolve. It cut its ties with the CIA over the next two years and at their 1969 convention in El Paso, Texas took a sharp turn to the left when Charles Palmer was elected president of the group.

USNSA staff member Larry Rubin’s notes on CIA student funding – 1967

The staff of the alternative newspaper Washington Free Press reprints former United States National Student Association (USNSA) staff member Larry Rubin’s diary of what USNSA officers were telling employees in January and February 1967 about revelations that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was funding the organization’s international and some of its domestic operations.

The Free Press staff distributed Rubin’s notes to delegates attending the USNSA convention at the University of Maryland College Park campus in August 1967 and along with the campus Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter called on the organization to dissolve.

Rubin’s notes and the Ramparts article revealed the long-running CIA relationship with the organization that included essentially running the group’s international operations and providing a building at 2115 S Street NW for the USNSA’s use and some other domestic funding as well.

The Resistance calls for support for indicted five – Jan. 1968

The Washington Area Resistance, a draft refusal group, publishes a flyer in January 1968 in support of five movement leaders indicted for “counseling, aiding, and abetting Selective Service registrants to resist the draft.”

The five were Rev. William Sloane Coffin, chaplain at Yale University; Dr. Benjamin Spock, pediatrician and anti-Vietnam War leader; Marcus Raskin, former White House aide; Mitchell Goodman, author and Michael Ferber, a Harvard University graduate student.

The flyer also calls for individuals to sign a pledge to stand with the five and calls for a demonstration January 12, 1968 at the Justice Department.

Four of the five were convicted of counseling draft evasion and sentenced to prison. Marcus Raskin was exonerated. The four convicted never served time as their convictions were overturned on appeal.

A flyer protesting HUAC hearings in D.C. – 1968

A September 1968 flyer advertising protests at the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings in Washington, D.C. into the clashes at the 1968 Democratic Convention. The flyer is unsigned, but lists the alternative newspaper Washington Free Press as a contact on the reverse side.

At the hearing, prominent Yippie Abbie Hoffman was arrested for wearing an American flag shirt while his compatriot Jerry Rubin was hustled out of the hearing when he showed up bare-chested with an ammunition bandolier and a toy M-16 rifle [see Rubin and Hoffman].

Rubin and other Yippies tried to stand in silent protest of the “unfair treatment” they received at the hands of the committee.

Fact sheet on antiwar seaman Roger Priest – 1969

A 1969 fact sheet on the case of Roger Priest, a Navy seaman who worked at the Pentagon charged with a variety of offenses for his publication of an anti-Vietnam War newsletter called OM. The flyer is uncredited.

OM had a print run of 1000 and featured anti-Vietnam War articles and information as well as acting as a “gripe” forum for armed service members.

The court martial at the Washington Navy Yard included charges of soliciting fellow soldiers to desert, urging insubordination and making statements disloyal to the United States.

He was convicted of minor charges and received a reprimand, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge for promoting disloyalty. Upon appeal the charges were voided and he was given an honorable discharge.

Stop the Trial – Nov. 1969

A flyer from the Youth International Party (Yippies) advertises a “Stop the Trial” demonstration at the U.S. “Injustice Department” in Washington, D.C. against the trial of the Chicago 8 after the main Moratorium anti-Vietnam War mass march November 15, 1969.

The flyer specifically notes Bobby Seale, Black Panther leader and one of the Chicago 8 defendants—those charged with conspiracy to foment violence at the Democratic Convention in Chicago the previous August.

The rally following the march advertised by the Yippies erupted into street fighting with police by the 10,000 or more people who attended after a barrage of rocks broke windows at the Justice Department and struck police officers.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

The Day After (TDA) Watergate protest flyer – 1970

A flyer advertises for a The Day After demonstration to protest the pending verdicts of the Chicago 8—defendants charged with fomenting disturbances at the 1968 Democratic Convention by their speech.

The 600-1000 demonstrators who gathered would later march on the Watergate home of Attorney General John Mitchell (People’s Tour of the Watergate) where they clashed with police in some of the bitterest street fighting in D.C. of the anti-Vietnam War period.Fighting broke out between police who used batons and tear gas and protesters who used rocks, bottles and sticks.

145 people were arrested during the hours-long confrontation that followed the initial halt of the march. The 145 were later awarded damages after a lawsuit. The demonstration was organized weeks in advance with leaflets advertising “The Day After (TDA)” the verdict with a time and place to gather. The TDA was used multiple times over the next few years as a way to spread the word about an action in the pre-internet era.

This flyer should be viewed in conjunction with a related flyer below.

A flyer containing a map called a “Tour Guide” for the Watergate The Day After demonstration – 1970

A “tour guide” map of a planned demonstration to follow the verdict in the Chicago 7 (formerly Chicago 8) trial produced in February 1970. The creators are not known.

The defendants were charged with conspiracy to foment disturbances at the 1968 Democratic Convention.

The demonstration was organized weeks in advance with leaflets advertising “The Day After (TDA)” the verdict with a time and place to gather. The TDA was used multiple times over the next few years as a way to spread the word about an action in the pre-internet era.

This flyer should be viewed in conjunction with a related flyer above.

Dillingham for Sheriff poster – 1970

A full page ad in the alternative newspaper Quicksilver Times was the only expense J. Brinton “Brint” Dillingham recorded during his September 15, 1970 Democratic primary quest for Sheriff of Montgomery County, Md.

Dillingham campaigned on freeing all political prisoners, including those incarcerated because of their economic status, and disarming sheriffs’ deputies. Early in the campaign in November 1969, Dillingham blasted incumbent Sheriff Ralph W. Offutt charging that sheriff’s deputies used undue force in shooting a convicted cattle rustler in the rump when he tried to escape from jail.” Offutt responded, “if that long-haired s.o.b. wants to make an issue, let him.”

Later in the campaign he sought writs of habeus corpus for a dozen people charged with crimes but held in jail because they couldn’t make bail. When the election was held, Dillingham drew a surprising 10,000 votes to Offutt’s 40,000.

Brint Dillingham for Sheriff: 1970

“To whom it must concern,” — a flyer from J. Brinton “Brint” Dillingham’s campaign for Sheriff of Montgomery County, Md. In the September 15, 1970 Democratic primary.

Dillingham was a well-known advocate for youth and an antiwar and civil rights activist when he filed for the election.

Dillingham campaigned on freeing all political prisoners, including those incarcerated because of their economic status, and disarming sheriffs’ deputies.

In the flyer, Dillingham pledges to:

— End the war in Indochina by “making Montgomery County the pilot for a nationwide general strike.”

–arrest the procedures of the “illegitimate, illegal and unconstitutional” draft board and adult and juvenile courts.

–free “all political prisoners, especially juveniles, from our jails.”

–use the sheriff’s powers to auction in order to “make land and housing available to those who so desperately need it.”

Original held in the Jeffrey T. Goldthorpe collection.

To the Fascist pigs who entered our apartment 8/19/70 – Aug. 1970

After coming home to find their apartment had been entered, but nothing taken on August 19, 1970, activists Robert “Bob” Simpson and Eleana Simpson left a note for the suspected agents who searched the premises.

The Simpsons lived in Langley Park, Md. apartments at the time.

During that period, police and FBI agents routinely surreptitiously entered offices and residences of left wing and black activists to conducted searches.

One of the most prominent break-ins of left-wing activists in the Washington area was the search of the offices of the alternative newspaper Washington Free Press in January 1970 where suspected agents broke into the office through an adjacent rest room and rifled through files.

The Simpsons were active supporters of the recently established chapter of the Black Panther Party and well-known antiwar activists.

Mother Jones collective exposes alleged police agent – 1970 ca.

The Mother Jones Collective in Baltimore, a Marxist-Leninist formation that grew out of the student movement, puts out a flyer describing a suspected police agent named John Shaw circa 1970.

The Mother Jones collective along with the Mother Bloor collective in Maryland were typical formations that grew out of the student movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s that laid some of the basis for the new communist movement of the 1970s.

The Mother Jones collective held Marxist-Leninist study sessions, developed communist work at factories, shipyards other places of employment in Baltimore, held rallies and demonstrations and defended the Baltimore Black Panther office among other activities.

U. of Md. ‘wanted poster’ of undercover police – 1970 ca.

The first in a series of “wanted” posters put out anonymously on the University of Maryland campus of police agents and informers following the student strike of 1970.

This one features state police officers John Paul Cook and Bob Wacker.

U. of Md. ‘wanted poster’ of undercover police (2) – 1970 ca.

The second in a series of “wanted” posters put out anonymously on the University of Maryland campus of police agents and informers following the student strike of 1970.

This one features alleged state police officer or informer Jim Lair.

U. of Md. ‘wanted poster’ of police/FBI informant (3) – 1970 ca.

The third in a series of “wanted” posters put out anonymously on the University of Maryland College Park campus of police agents and informers following the student strike of 1970.

This one features alleged police/FBI informant Thomas Hyde.

Pocket rights card – Aug. 1972

A card given out to protesters at the 1972 Republican Convention that outlines rights during arrest and contains the phone numbers of attorneys.

Washington Area Spark FBI File – 1973-74

The U.S. National Archives posted online a redacted Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file dated 1973-74 related to an investigation of the original Washington Area Spark newspaper.

The file contains a mixture of facts, incorrect information, speculation and an astounding lapse in collecting publicly available information. It also spends considerable time trying to understand the political viewpoints of the individuals they are investigating, but without success.

Among the individuals named are Robert “Bob” Simpson (RIP), Craig Simpson, Sue Reading and Barbara Myers.

One of the things the FBI failed to understand was that the inhabitants of a group house in Takoma Park were not synonymous with the Washington Area Spark collective. The house at 201 Lincoln Avenue was a collection of people associated with the University of Maryland who shared a house to cut expenses. The Simpson brothers and Reading were all regular contributors to Spark whereas Myers was not.

The FBI also struggles to understand the politics of the group and mixes up the political leanings and orientations of different individuals. For example, attending a demonstration sponsored by the group Youth Against War and Fascism is not the same as being close to or joining that organization.

Another example is alleging that Craig Simpson published an underground newspaper at the University of Maryland College Park. Simpson said recently, “I’d very much like to take credit for it, but it’s something I never did.”

The FBI was interested in learning if Spark contributors had a “propensity for violence,” but found little evidence. However, it is astounding that they failed to note Bob Simpson’s 1972 arrest at a George Wallace rally at Capital Plaza for inciting to riot. They also failed to note that Craig Simpson had been arrested in 1970 for assault on a police officer in one incident and carrying a deadly weapon and destruction of government property in another 1970 incident. Nor did they note Meyer’s 1970 arrests at the University of Maryland for occupying Skinner Hall or her arrest as one of the Donut Shop 10. All that was public information that they failed to uncover.

Likewise, they had had an interest in foreign contacts. They noted Meyers’ trip with the Venceremos Brigade to Cuba, but failed to note Bob Simpson’s membership in the Irish Republican Clubs or his application to join a Venceremos Brigade trip to Cuba.

The agents were unable to determine where the newspaper was published. The mystery could have been solved by contacting the Carroll County Times

Two of the redacted informants’ names mentioned in the FBI files are believed to be “Ted Falk,” a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War who was believed to be an undercover Maryland State Police officer and Sheila O’Connor, a National Lawyers Guild activist believed to be an FBI informant.

Other information was obtained by the FBI calling or visiting people like the landlord at 201 Lincoln Avenue, postal officials and others that could verify details on the investigation.

Falk was denounced by two separate campus activists who swore they saw Falk enter the campus police station on separate occasions. They alleged that Falk had no explanation for his visit to the police there.

With suspicions aroused, activists called a meeting and asked Falk if they could use his apartment for the meeting. Falk agreed and the meeting was held at an apartment off of Knox Road in College Park, MD.

The apartment was sterile—no personal items or clutter—only dated furniture and wall hangings–apparently a furnished apartment. Under the pretext of using the restroom, one meeting attendant checked Falk’s closet and found there were no clothes in it.

When the meeting convened, the agenda unknown to Falk was to denounce violence in no uncertain terms so that Falk would simply lose interest and leave the group. The ruse worked as Falk never came to another meeting.

O’Connor’s career was much longer. She began cozying up to left wing political activists around the time of the 1971 Mayday demonstrations. Her sordid activities are covered in a Counterspy article on her dated Spring 1976 entitled, “Congressional Aide Spies on Left.”

For at least seven years she and her husband published a newsletter that was mailed to law enforcement and intelligence agencies entitled, “Information Digest.” The two were S. Louise Rees and John Rees, better known to the Washington, D.C, left-wing community as Sheila O’Conner [sometimes O’Donnell] and John Seeley. They had a number of informant sources that provided unsubstantiated information for their newsletter.

She later ingratiated herself to the National Lawyers Guild where she rose to a leadership position.

It was during her time at the National Lawyers Guild that she reported on the Washington Area Spark and On The Move newspapers.

O’Connor worked for a time for U.S. Rep. Larry McDonald (D-GA) during the mid-1970s, one of the most right-wing members of the House of Representatives at the time.

O’Connor would later move to the West Coast and acted as a private investigator under the name O’Donnell for many left-wing organizations, including former University of Maryland activist Judy Bari. Bari was then a prominent environmental activist on the West Coast and was the victim of an attempted assassination by car bomb.

It is not known whether O’Connor/O’Donnell continued to be a double agent, but it seems likely.

However, the left-wing on the West Coast was apparently unaware of her past duplicitous activity and an obituary written by David Helvarg and published January 5, 2023 on the LAProgressive site is effusive in its praise.

O’Connor/O’Donnell ingratiated herself to those on the left by providing factual details using her investigative skills that they were unaware of. This was the method O’Connor/O’Donnell used to gain the trust of activists while she acted as a double-agent.

The publication of Information Digest was a predecessor of the right-wing sleuths who attempt to infiltrate left-wing circles in contemporary times.

CounterSpy wrote in 1976, “Experts consulted by CounterSpy including Frank Donner, of the ACLU Political Surveillance Project and Wes McCune, veteran analyst of America’s right wing, were astounded by the sophistication and depth of Information Digest. Donner believes Information Digest demonstrates that the private, abundantly financed right-wing elements have better information on liberals and radicals than that normally processed by the government.”

Original posted by the U.S. National Archives.

Information Digest – Mar. 1973

Information Digest (the front page of one issue shown here) was a right-wing publication that provided information on left-wing activities and individuals written by Sheila Rees (aka O’Donnell, O’Connor) and John Rees (aka Seeley) from 1968 to at least 1976.

The incorporation papers of Information Digest declare that the company would “provide an investigative service for various branches of government, state, federal and local and to prepare memoranda, reports, books, pamphlets and bulletins with respect thereto.”

The two had a number of informant sources that provided unsubstantiated information for their newsletter, including law enforcement as well as activists playing both sides or inadvertently revealing information.

O’Connor had a long career. She began cozying up to left wing political activists around the time of the 1971 Mayday demonstrations. Her sordid activities are covered in a Counterspy article on her dated Spring 1976 entitled, “Congressional Aide Spies on Left.”

She later ingratiated herself to the National Lawyers Guild where she rose to a leadership position.

It was during her time at the National Lawyers Guild that she reported on the Washington Area Spark and On The Move newspapers.

O’Connor worked for a time for U.S. Rep. Larry McDonald (D-GA) in the mid-1970s, one of the most right-wing members of the House of Representatives at the time.

It is not known whether O’Connor/O’Donnell continued to be a double agent, but it seems likely.

She was able to gain trust from left-wing activists because of her ability to provide reliable intelligence information to them. This method of ingratiating herself caused them to drop their guard as she acted as a double-agent.

Original supplied by a Freedom of Information Act request.

Get Nixon before he gets you – Apr. 1974

A poster by Quid Pro Quo Productions calls for people to “Stake out the White House’ and “March on Congress” April 27, 1974 in a protest designed to expedite President Richard Nixon’s departure from office. The main slogan was “Get Nixon! …before he gets you.”

Unlike many who simply called for impeachment, the poster calls for new elections.

Nixon had been the target of demonstrations since his first election in 1968 over the Vietnam War and other foreign policy, civil rights, labor and poverty issues.

While he was overwhelmingly re-elected in 1972, the revelations that his administration spied on opposition groups, including the Democratic Party eroded his support. When evidence began emerging that he was personally responsible for covering up the spying, his support evaporated.

The “impeach Nixon” demonstration was held April 27, 1974 in Washington, DC that drew about 10,000 participants.

The protest was organized by a broad range of groups—from Democratic Party allied groups to the Revolutionary Union, a Maoist group.

Nixon resigned August 9, 1974.

Courtesy of the American University Special Collections Patrick Frazier Political and Social Movements Collection.

“Throw the Bum Out” flyer – Apr. 1974

On The Move newspaper, the successor to the original Washington Area Spark, issues a two=-sided flyer urging people to participate in an anti-imperialist contingent within a larger “Impeach Nixon” march to be held April 27, 1974

President Richard Nixon had been the target of demonstrations since his first election in 1968 over the Vietnam War and other foreign policy, civil rights, labor and poverty issues.

An “Impeach Nixon” demonstration was held April 27, 1974 in Washington, DC that drew about 10,000 participants.

An anti-imperialist contingent was mainly organized by the Revolutionary Union (RU). The RU popularized the slogan “Throw the Bum Out. “Several groups that exist today trace their roots to the RU, including the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) and the two Freedom Road Socialist Organizations (FRSO).

After the main rally, the anti-imperialist contingent marched to the Justice Department and held a rally where a brief confrontation with police ensued.

Nixon resigned August 9, 1974.

–Return to Main Menu–

Civil Rights and Black Liberation Before 1955

Slave market of America – 1835-36

This depiction of slavery in the District of Columbia is a large 11’ x 14’ broadside issued by the American Anti-Slavery Society in an attempt to influence Congress to outlaw slavery in the city of Washington, D.C. 1835-36.

The Library of Congress provides the following description of this broadside:

“A broadside condemning the sale and keeping of slaves in the District of Columbia. The work was issued during the 1835-36 petition campaign, waged by moderate abolitionists led by Theodore Dwight Weld and buttressed by Quaker organizations, to have Congress abolish slavery in the capital.

“The text contains arguments for abolition and an accounting of atrocities of the system. At the top are two contrasting scenes: a view of the reading of the Declaration of Independence, captioned ‘The Land of the Free,” with a scene of slaves being led past the capitol by an overseer, entitled “The Home of the Oppressed.’

“Between them is a plan of Washington with insets of a suppliant slave (see ‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother?’ no. 1837- ) and a fleeing slave with the legend ‘$200 Reward’ and implements of slavery. On the next line are views of the jail in Alexandria, the jail in Washington with the ‘sale of a free citizen to pay his jail fees,’ and an interior of the Washington jail with imprisoned slave mother Fanny Jackson and her children.

“On the bottom level are an illustration of slaves in chains emerging from the slave house of J.W. Neal & Co. (left) [Alexandria, VA], a view of the Alexandria waterfront with a ship loading slaves (center), and a view of the slave establishment of Franklin & Armfield in Alexandria.”

The battle over slavery in the District of Columbia reached a crescendo 1835-36, but the pro-slavery forces in Congress were still dominant.

From the D.C. Emancipation website:

“The effort to send abolitionist petitions to Congress gained strength in the mid-1830s when thousands of petitions flooded the House of Representatives. In response, southern Congressmen instituted the “Gag Rule” in 1836, banning the introduction of petitions or bills pertaining to slavery.”

Slavery wouldn’t be outlawed within the city of Washington, D.C. until 1862.

Petition for integrated D.C. public schools – 1870

An April 29, 1870 petition for integrated District of Columbia schools by the National Executive Committee of the Colored People is printed in “Index to the Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate of the United States for the3 Second Session of the Forty-First Congress 1869-’70.”

The petition was inserted into the Congressional Record by U.S. Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA), a long-time civil rights advocate and one of the so-called radical Republicans that fought for equality for Black Americans and punishment for former Confederate leaders in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War.

The petition regarding District of Columbia schools was taken up by Sumner in an 1870 national civil rights bill that would have required integrated schools nationwide along with a requirement that all publicly funded entities be integrated.

The mixed race school requirement was the most contentious provision, but it survived in the bill until near the end of debate when the bill passed in 1875. The 1875 Civil Rights Bill, enacted shortly after Sumner’s death, was the last civil rights bill passed by Congress until 1957. Its equal protections provisions for publicly funded entities were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1883.

Headquarters Central Bureau of Relief, D.C. – 1889

The Central Bureau of Relief issues a proclamation October 31, 1889 declaring their intent to lead a fight for “political and civil rights and privileges for the Colored American Citizen in the United States.”

The organization intended to “urge the thorough and complete organization of the people throughout the United States, in that by a united effort, we may be able to assist in relieving the millions of our brethren in the south from lawless men, who openly and unblushingly set at defiance the Constitution and laws of our common country.”

The document also issues a convention call.

The organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., was founded days before with representatives throughout the United States and headed by initially by Perry Howard, a black Republican Party leader from Mississippi who also practiced law in the District of Columbia.

Perry H. Carson, the leader of the District’s working class black communities, also served on the executive board of the organization and would later be elected president of the organization and chair a convention sponsored by the group.

A terrible blot on American civilization – 1922

A broadside prepared by the Committee on Public Affairs of the Inter-Fraternal Council and issued by the District of Columbia Anti-Lynching Committee of the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women cites 3,424 lynchings in the previous 33 years and lists the congressional representatives who voted against the Dyer anti-lynching bill in 1922.

The backside of the flyer depicts the 1922 Silent March on Washington, D.C. and an illustration of Black people voting against those who defeated the anti-lynching bill.

Dyer was the sponsor of several anti-lynching bills through the years, but the 1922 bill came closest to passage when it cleared the House 231-119.

The first Black American political march in Washington, D.C. took place in 1922 when more than 5,000 silently marched through the city in support of the Dyer anti-lynching bill.

The bill ultimately died in the Senate where Democrats staged a filibuster.

A federal anti-lynching bill wasn’t passed until one hundred years later in 2022 when the Emmett Till Antilynching Act was signed into law.

The Northeastern Federation of Colored Women was the regional grouping of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs. The Association was founded in 1896 and its first president was District of Columbia resident Mary Church Terrell. The organization continues to exist today.

Stop lynching; demand death penalty – 1931

A flyer advertising a December 29, 1931 Washington, D.C. meeting sponsored by communist aligned groups to protest recent lynchings is shown above.

The flyer demands the death penalty for the murderers of Matthew Williams in Salisbury, Maryland and Sam Jackson and George Banks in Lewisburg, West Virginia.

The League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the International Labor Defense and the Scottsboro Defense Committee were all communist-led organizations.

The Dawning of a Better Day – 1936

Longtime District of Columbia civil rights leader Francis J. Grimke publishes an open letter in the fall of 1936 entitled “The Dawning of a Better Day” predicting that current events would lead toward progress in race relations despite entrenched opposition.

The letter addressed calls by alumni to fire University of North Carolina Chapel Hill English professor Dr. E. E. Ericson after he, along with other white people, dined with Communist Party vice-presidential candidate James Ford and other black communists at Ford’s hotel room October 25, 1936.

Dr. Roy W. McKnight, president of the Mecklenburg chapter of the Alumni Association, was among those objected, calling on the school to conduct a “general housecleaning” and declared:

“I believe a university professor should enjoy the right of freedom of speech and liberality of thought; as a matter of fact, it is his duty to do so. But when a faculty member s conduct and philosophy of life become so opposed to American tradition, especially to Southern tradition as to be offensive to the sensibilities of the thousands of alumni and the taxpayers of the state, then it is time to act.”

In his prediction of a “better day,” Grimke cites the formation of a committee on freedom of conscience that rebuked calls for dismissal of the professor and a ban on interracial dining, a broad-based defense of the “Scottsboro Boys” committee in Birmingham, Al.; and a Commission on Interracial Cooperation with headquarters in Atlanta, Ga.

Protest D.C. refusal to permit Marian Anderson concert – 1939

A poster for a mass meeting March 26, 1939 protesting the District of Columbia Board of Education’s refusal to permit the all-white Central High School (now Cardozo) to be used for the acclaimed black American singer Marian Anderson’s concert is published by Marian Anderson Citizens Committee.

Activists sought the use of the high school after Anderson was turned down for the use of the Daughters of American Revolution’s Constitution Hall because she was black.

Among the advertised speakers were Oscar Chapman, Charles Hamilton Houston, Mary McLeod Bethune and Rev. Albert T. Mollegen at the event to be held at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church at 16^th and M Streets NW.

The March 26th protest meeting was held after a month-long campaign that involved hundreds of people rallying and attending Board of Education meetings in an attempt to secure Central High for the singer.

The Marion Anderson concert was ultimately held at the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939 drawing some 75,000 people while millions more listened to the radio broadcast–effectively become the largest civil rights demonstration in the U.S. up to that point in time.

Historic Marian Anderson concert flyer: 1939

A handbill for the historic Marian Anderson concert performed outdoors at the Lincoln Memorial April 9, 1939 where an integrated crowd of 75,000 listened to her performance after she was barred from the District of Columbia Central High School and the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Constitution Hall because she was black.

The flyer was produced by the Marian Anderson Citizens Committee, a broad coalition of black groups and activists and white New Deal liberals.

The denial of facilities to Anderrson marked a high point in a continuing civil rights movement in the city that began earlier in the 1930s with the Scottsboro campaign, a boycott of stores in black communities that refused to hire black front-line employees, and a mass campaign against police brutality. Campaigns to break down Jim Crow hiring would continue against defense contractors and the Capital Transit Company during World War II and end with the picketing of eating establishments 1949-53 until the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the District’s so-called “lost laws” prohibiting discrimination. Mass campaigns against school inequity and hiring would continue into the 1970s.

Negro Congress meeting against police brutality: Jun. 1939

The Washington Council of the National Negro Congress issues a flyer for a mass meeting June 25, 1939 during a campaign in the city against police brutality that lasted from 1936-41.

Among the speakers listed were Jacob Baker, president of the United Federal Workers of America; Major Ernest Brown, superintendent Metropolitan Police; Judge William H. Hastie; Rev. J. S. L Holloman, Interdenominational Ministers Alliance; Dr. C Herbert Marshall, president of the D.C. NAACP; George Goodman, secretary of the Washington Urban League; Eugene Davidson, administrator of the New Negro Alliance; Harry Lamberton, Chair of the American League for Peace and Democracy; John P. Davis, secretary, National Negro Congress; Rev. Arthur Gray, chair of D.C. National Negro Congress and Pastor of Plymouth congregational Church.

New Negro Alliance claims victories in rally flyer – Jun. 1939

The New Negro Alliance produces a flyer in June 1939 entitled “$50,000 Reward!” contending that their picketing has resulted in 50 new jobs for black clerks at stores on 7^th Street, 14^th Street and U Street NW in the past year since they started protests in front of People’s Drug Store.

The 50 jobs represented a $50,000 reward to the black community, according to the Alliance.

The flyer also called for a joint rally at the Second Baptist Church and 3^rd and I Streets NW with the left-leaning National Negro Congress to mark the one-year anniversary of the campaign against People’s.

The Alliance began their picketing and store boycotts in 1933 and had initial success at A&P grocery stores, Highs Dairy Stores, and a number of independent merchants. But the boycott never forced the largest employers, Sanitary (Safeway) grocery stores or People’s (now CVS) drug store, to hire black clerks.

Even with the mixed success, the New Negro Alliance tactics, the Scottsboro campaign, the D.C. campaign against police brutality and the Marian Anderson concert all represented a breakout from church meetings toward direct action and protests in the streets for the D.C. civil rights movement during the 1930s.

‘To All Fair Minded People” – People’s Drug boycott – Jun. 1939

The New Negro Alliance produces a flyer on the one-year anniversary of their boycott against People’s Drug Store in June 1939 calling for customers to stop patronizing all stores in the drug chain over the company’s refusal to hire black clerks in black neighborhoods.

Washington Committee for Democratic Action conference call — Apr. 1940

Over 300 people attended the conference focused on civil rights, labor rights and gaining the right to vote and civil rights for District of Columbia residents.

Labor speakers included Rep. John Coffee (D-Wa.); John P. Davis, National Negro Congress; Arthur Stein, D.C. council of the United Federal Workers and David Lasser, president of the Workers Alliance; and Cecil Owen, president of the Washington Industrial Council, CIO.

Civil rights speakers included Rep. John Gavagan (D-N.Y.); Charles Hamilton Houston, general counsel of the NAACP; and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of the Communist Party

The Washington Committee, along with the National Federation, merged with the International Labor Defense and the National Negro Congress to form the Civil Rights Congress in 1946.

March on Washington: 1941

A March 1941 letter from A. Phillip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, to NAACP leader Walter White inviting him to join a march on Washington for fair employment.

The March on Washington Movement led to President Franklin Roosevelt issuing an executive order banning discrimination in defense-related industry and enforcing it through a Fair Employment Practices Commission. The planned march was cancelled after Roosevelt’s order.

‘Mass Meeting’ for the hiring of Black operators: Oct. 1942

A mass meeting to demand that the Capital Transit Co. hire Black bus and streetcar operators is advertised for November 3, 1942 with Rev. Adam Clayton Powell as the principal speaker.

The meeting sponsored was held at the Vermont Ave. Baptist Church and was timed to coincide with the World War II-era Fair Employment Practices Commission on Capital Transit hiring practices. Hundreds attended the wartime protest sponsored by the Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities.

Among the leaders of the group were Selma F. Kaslick of United Office and Professional Workers; CIO, William S. Johnson, chairman of the committee and president of Hotel & Restaurant Employees Local 209; AFL; Ralph Matthews of the Afro-American newspaper, Dorothy W. Strange of the Washington council of the National Negro Congress; Jewel Mazique of Alpha Kappa Alpha and United Federal Workers Local 28; Thelma Dale of the Washington Negro Youth Federation and Martha W. Dudley, Washington League of Women Shoppers.

The FEPC did order Capital Transit to desegregate its operator ranks and the company hired one Black operator in the spring of 1943. However White operators refused to train Bernard Simmons and the company dismissed him.

The Committee sponsored mini-street rallies in downtown Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1943 and a mass march May 7, 1943 through the streets of the city by some 2,000 participants.

However, the FEPC would refuse to enforce its order and preeminent civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston resigned from the FEPC in protest.

The company wouldn’t desegregate until 1955 (after U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the Thompson Restaurant case desegregating public accommodations in the city and Bolling v. Sharpe case desegregating District of Columbia schools) when an agreement was reached between civil rights activists, the federal government, Capital Transit and the transit union.

Many of the leaders to the fight against Capital Transit would later be red-baited during the anti-communist hysteria following World War II. William S. Johnson was forced out of his position as leader of the cooks’ union in the city and still later in the 1950s fired from his job as a cook in what is now the Parkway Deli following newspaper stories that contained accusations he was a communist.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.’

‘Mass Meeting’ for the hiring of Black operators (2): Oct. 1942

A mass meeting to demand that the Capital Transit Co. hire Black bus and streetcar operators is advertised for November 3, 1942 with Rev. Adam Clayton Powell as the principal speaker.

See description above.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Petition to support hiring Black transit operators – circa 1942 ca.

An undated petition by the Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities calls for signatures to support the November 30, 1942 Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) decision to order Capital Transit Co. to hire Black bus and streetcar operators.

The FEPC order followed a meeting November 3, 1942 that was held at the Vermont Ave. Baptist Church and was timed to coincide with the World War II-era Fair Employment Practices Commission on Capital Transit hiring practices. Hundreds attended the wartime protest sponsored by the Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities.

Following the FEPC order to desegregate Capital Transit’s operator ranks, the company hired one Black operator in the spring of 1943. However White operators refused to train Bernard Simmons and the company dismissed him.

The Committee sponsored mini-street rallies in downtown Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1943 and a mass march May 7, 1943 through the streets of the city by some 2,000 participants.

Capital Transit unwittingly hired a Black woman, Sarah Grayson, as a streetcar operator in 1943, but discharged her in May 1944 when they determined she was Black.

The FEPC would ultimately refuse to enforce its order and preeminent civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston resigned from the FEPC in protest.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Jobs for Negroes Committee calls meeting on FEPC – Jan. 1943

A letter to members from the Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities calls for an emergency meeting after January 1943 cancellation of Fair Employment Practices Commission hearings on discrimination by railroad companies and unions.

The meeting was called by the Council of United Negro Labor Leaders of Washington and the Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities and set for January 17^th at the YMCA at 1816 12^th Street NW.

The railroad hearings were seen as critical to the effectiveness of the FEPC where railroads operating in the south and some railroad unions colluded to eliminate the jobs of Black workers. The hearings had been indefinitely postponed in response to industry pressure.

The Committee on Jobs was leading a fight against the Washington, D.C. Capital Transit Company for the hiring of Black bus and streetcar operators.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Committee on Jobs bus and trolley operator application: 1943 ca.

The Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities solicits job applications for Black bus and streetcar operators at the Capital Transit Company.

The group waged a campaign during World War II to desegregate the transit company that included rallies and a mass march, but was ultimately betrayed by a Fair Employment Practices Commission decision to not enforce its desegregation order.

See description above.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Protest postponement of FEPC railroad hearings – Jan. 1943

A flyer calls upon organizations and individuals to protest the January 1943 cancellation of Fair Employment Practices Commission hearings on discrimination by railroad companies and unions.

The flyer was issued in the name of Joint Conference on F.E.P.C. Emergency, the Council of United Negro Labor Leaders of Washington and the Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities and endorsed by three dozen organizations.

The leaflet urges “telegrams, resolutions and letters” be sent to War Manpower Commissioner Paul V. McNutt and President Franklin Roosevelt.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Committee on Jobs Capital Transit campaign update: Sep. 1943

The Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities writes a letter to its members September 10, 1943 outlining the progress made and the next steps to be taken in obtaining the hiring of Black bus and trolley operators at the Washington, D.C. Capital Transit Company.

‘Colored Americans of Washington, DC Unite Today’ – 1943

A Phillip Randolph’s March on Washington Movement’s DC branch calls for a mass meeting of war workers October 28, 1943 at the 12^th Street YMCA auditorium to press for equality and a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).

Randolph created the March on Washington Movement after he split from the National Negro Congress over the group’s February 1941 resolutions to establish closer relations with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and a resolution opposing entry into World War II—then a conflict mainly between Germany and Italy on one side and France and Great Britain on the other.

Randolph headed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, an American Federation of Labor affiliate and so opposed favoring the CIO and believed that the U.S. would ultimately enter World War II on the side of England and France.

The threatened march prodded President Franklin Roosevelt to issue an executive order desegregating employment in the defense industry and providing for a Fair Employment Practices Commission to implement the changes. In return, Randolph called off the march.

However, at this point in time, Randolph was threatening another march on Washington proposed to be held in the spring of 1944.

In a series of speeches starting in Denver, CO in November 1943, Randolph urged a united front with labor and liberals to press for equality and said only pressure on Washington, DC could solve Black people’s problems.

“The state does not act because of the morality of issues, it is rather disposed to react to pressures only. Thus, if the Negro does not find a way to exert pressures on the government at Washington, his problems will remain unsolved,” Randolph said.

He continued by saying that “the humiliating situation which Negroes in the armed forces suffer, it appears that a March on Washington will be necessary as early as next spring,” according the The Call of Kansas City, MO.

In his speech at the New Hope Baptist Church in Denver, the Afro American reported that, “Randolph declared that the Civil War was ‘an uncompleted bourgeois revolution’ which must be completed by the colored people, labor and the liberal element in the nation. If, indeed, its purpose of freeing and giving status to colored Americans is to be realized.,”

However, Randolph never called a 1944 march and the Armed Forces weren’t desegregated until after World War II on July 26, 1948 when President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order to do so.

Original held by the Smithsonian Institution Anacostia Community Museum, Henry P. Whitehead Collection.

‘End the Poll Tax’ – Spring, 1944 ca.

This undated flyer, probably from the spring of 1944 and sponsored by more than a dozen organizations, calls for a mass picket line at the U.S. Capitol building if a filibuster begins against a bill to outlaw poll taxes.

A mass picket line was set up May 16, 1944 as a filibuster began on the latest anti-poll tax bill in the U.S. Senate.

Poll taxes (a tax levied when voting in an election) were imposed in many Southern states as one of several methods to minimize African American voters. Laws typically excluded from the tax anyone whose father and/or grandfather, had voted prior to the Civil War—assuring that African Americans were subject to the tax and most white Southerners were not.

The broad-based National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax (NCAPT) spearheaded ultimately unsuccessful efforts to end the tax from 1940-48. Pickets and protests were rare during World War II, but civil rights demonstrations were fairly common as activists sought to link the fight against fascism to the fight to end Jim Crow.

The House of Representatives passed a bill in 1945, but Senate inaction killed it. Leaders of the 1940s effort to abolish the poll tax included Virginia Durr, a leader of the interracial Southern Conference on Human Welfare; Mary McLeod Bethune of the Bethune-Cookman College; and U.S. Rep. Vito Marcantonio who often took positions similar to the U.S. Communist Party. The NCAPT disbanded in 1948 as anti-communist hysteria began sweeping the country.

Any poll tax imposed in federal elections was outlawed with the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1964 as the modern civil rights movement gained momentum. Poll taxes in state elections were outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Mass Meeting’ on race discrimination’ in DC – Oct. 1944

A flyer announcing a “Mass Meeting” Friday, October 20, 1944 at the 15^th Street Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C. is issued by The Institute on Race Relations.

The Institute, headed by Tomlinson Todd from 1941-51, was a “one-man pressure organization if there ever was one,” according to Ernest E. Johnson of the Associated Negro Press. Todd lobbied, held mass meetings, sponsored speakers and hosted a radio show on WOOK called American All in Washington, DC attempting to desegregate public accommodations like restaurants and theatres, all while holding a day job at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving.

Todd was credited by veteran civil rights leader Mary Church Terrell with uncovering Washington, D.C. so-called “lost laws” from 1872 and 1873 that prohibited discrimination in public accommodations.

The laws were dropped from the statue book in 1901, but were not repealed. They continued to be enforced up until 1912. However, this was the period in which Jim Crow was being imposed in the federal government and in other facets of life in the District of Columbia and the laws were not enforced thereafter.

Despite his discovery of these old laws, Todd didn’t put all his eggs in one basket and prevailed upon U.S. Rep. William A Rowen (D-IL) and U.S. Sen. Warren Barbour (R-NJ) to introduce bills in 1943 that would prohibit discrimination in public accommodations in the District of Columbia. He hoped that Congress would act in the District of Columbia when they weren’t prepared to act nationwide—much like Congress ended slavery and granted the right to vote to Black males in Washington, D.C. prior to do so nationwide.

The bills were bottled up in committee, so Todd was lobbying to secure enough congressional signatures for a discharge petition that would force a floor vote.

He was using the mass meetings as one tool to put pressure on Congress to act. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful.

In this flyer, Todd cites the incident of a “one-legged colored soldier of this war [WWII] who was actually refused a cup of coffee in Thompson’s Restaurant.” Thompson’s was a national chain that was desegregated in the north, but refused to serve Black clientele at its restaurants in the south, including Washington, D.C.

Mary Church Terrell took up the fight to enforce the “lost laws” in 1948, forming a Coordinating Committee for Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws (CCEDA). In early 1950, Terrell and other civil rights activists sought service at the same Thompson’s at 725 14^th Street NW that refused service to the Black war veteran. The group was refused service and sued. The technicality of the law required the city to sue and Terrell persuaded the District government to do so.

In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 1873 law and restaurants throughout the city then largely desegregated along with movie theaters. A year later the Bolling v. Sharpe US Supreme Court decision ended legal segregation of public schools. Actual desegregation remained a fight into modern times, with some gains being reversed in contemporary times.

The flyer is courtesy of Henry P. Whitehead collection, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Michael A. Watkins.

‘War Declared on Discrimination’ in DC – Nov. 1944

A flyer announcing that “War Declared on Discrimination in Public Places in the Nation’s Capital” advertises a mass meeting Sunday, Nov. 19, 1944 at the 15^th Street Presbyterian Church sponsored by The Institute on Race Relations.

The bills were bottled up in committee, so Todd was lobbying to secure enough congressional signatures for a discharge petition that would force a floor vote.

He was using the mass meetings as one tool to put pressure on Congress to act. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful.

The flyer is courtesy of Henry P. Whitehead collection, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Michael A. Watkins.

D.C. NAACP Victory Mass Assembly – May, 1945

The District of Columbia branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) holds a Victory Mass Assembly at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church on M Street NW May 6, 1945 following the victory of Allied forces in Europe over Adolph Hitler’s Nazi regime.

The war against Japan was ongoing at the time.

The program includes Judge William Hastie, police chief Edward J. Kelly, opera singer Lillian Evanti, former Liberian ambassador Dr. Rafael O’Hara, rights activist Eugene Davidson and civil rights and liberties attorney George E. C. Hayes.

‘Save the FEPC’ – Jun. 1945

A flyer by the D.C. branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Washington, D.C. Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) urges attendance at a rally June 23, 1945 to save the World War II Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).

Funding was scheduled to lapse for the FEPC June 30^th and the appropriation was facing stiff opposition from southern congressional representatives and senators.

A filibuster was staged and the issue was resolved in Congress to appropriate funds for the termination of the FEPC by June 30, 1946.

The Evening Star reported 2,500 attended the June 22^rd rally in the Auditorium at 19^th and C Streets NW where they heard Walter White, secretary of the national NAACP, call for an “avalanche” of telegrams to senators and representatives.

After hearing from a dozen speakers, the crowd filled out telegram forms provided by the Washington Industrial Council, CIO.

The FEPC, already severely weakened by an inability to enforce its orders to desegregate war-related industry, would go out of existence a year later. It wouldn’t be until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s that spurred the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act creating the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission that the federal government gained a means to enforce desegregation.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

The D.C. NAACP ‘Case Against Lansburgh’s’ – Oct. 1945

An October 11, 1945 flyer targeting Lansburgh’s Department Store for a campaign to desegregate its lunch counter is launched by the Washington, D.C. branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The flyer urges the public to close their credit accounts at Lansburgh’s in order to pressure the store. The effort did not succeed in desegregating Lansburgh’s.

It would be another four years before the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws was launched in late 1949 headed by long-time rights activist Mary Church Terrell that would ultimately break the back of Jim Crow in the city.

‘Do You Want a Permanent FEPC?’ – Jan. 1946

The District of Columbia branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) issues a flyer advertising a January 27, 1946 meeting to advocate for a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).

One of the main pillars for the African American civil rights movement of the 1940s was the creation of a Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) that would ensure legal equality in hiring and promotion in the workplace. Other major issues were passage of a federal anti-lynching law and a federal law prohibiting imposition of poll taxes. Of these, only the FEPC achieved partial success in that decade.

A Phillip Randolph, head of the Sleeping Car Porters union and prominent civil rights spokesperson, understood that the U.S. was moving closer to intervention in Europe through its build-up of defense industry and sought to pressure the federal government to guarantee non-discrimination in the workplace. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt failed to act, Randolph called for a march on Washington to be held July 1 1941.

The pressure on President Roosevelt built as 100,000 African Americans were predicted to march in Washington, D.C. Such an event would be a major embarrassment for the U.S. since fascist forces in Europe could point to American hypocrisy. A week before the march, Roosevelt agreed to issue an executive order desegregating defense industries and establishing an FEPC. In return, Randolph cancelled the march.

The FEPC terminated with the war’s end in 1945 and activists waged a serious campaign for a permanent FEPC until 1950. The campaign resulted in President Harry S. Truman issuing an executive order desegregating the U.S. Armed Forces in 1948. The House approved a permanent FEPC in 1950, but Southern Democrats staged a filibuster in the Senate and the bill failed.

Legal results for fair employment were not obtained until the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, although the act has been weakened in recent years.

D.C. NAACP meeting protesting police riot in Columbia, Tennessee – Apr. 1946

This handbill by the D.C. chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) calls for a protest meeting April 7, 1946 at the Asbury Methodist Church at 11^th and K Streets NW

The meeting was called to protest a police riot in Columbia, Tennessee that resulted in shootings and looting black businesses and mass arrests of black people by state police after a white lynch mob had gathered in town.

The incident, along with the 1946 Moore’s Ford, Georgia lynching of four black Americans, galvanized the civil rights movement after World War II.

One of the main speakers was Channing Tobias, a leading civil rights figure at the time having developed a career in the black section of the YMCA and was director of the Phelps Stokes Fund that invested in education at the time of the meeting.

The other was Mrs. James Morton (first name unknown) of Columbia who provided eyewitness testimony of the destruction wreaked by state police.

Mass Meeting on Segregation in the Nation’s Capital – Dec. 1946

The Institute of Race Relations sponsors a mass meeting on discrimination and segregation in “theaters and other places in the Nation’s Capital” December 15, 1946 at the Metropolitan Baptist Church on R Street NW..

A broad range of participants are listed from the left-wing National Negro Congress to religious leaders.

The Institute of Race Relations was headed by Tomlinson Todd, a worker at the Bureau of Engraving, who rose to prominence in the city with his radio show that featured interviews with prominent Black leaders as well as the heads of movie theaters and department stores to discuss breaking down segregation in the city.

News accounts at the time quoted Howard University President Mordecai Johnson denouncing Jim Crow as “an instrument of economic exploitation and political discrimination designed first of all to separate a minority from the rest of human kind.”

“It is an instrument of economic policy designed so as to take advantage of a minority so as to make them always available for the cheapest living at the lowest possible wages.

Todd was credited with publicizing the so-called “lost laws” from the 1870s that prohibited discrimination in public accommodations like theaters and restaurants.

The long campaign to end segregation in the city was brought to a climax when the U.S. Supreme Court held that those old laws were still valid in the Thompson restaurant case of 1953. A year later the Bolling v. Sharpe case ended legal segregation in public schools.

Actual desegregation would proceed in fits and starts in the coming years and some of the gains made have now been reversed.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution Anacostia Community Museum–Institute on Race Relations records.

NAACP recruiting flyer: Make D.C. stand for Democracy’s Capital – Jan. 1948

The D.C. branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People publishes a flyer for their 1948 membership drive.

The group pitched making D.C. stand for “Democracy’s Capital” in terms of a beacon for non-discrimination.

Letter to Bureau of Engraving workers on promotions – Mar.1948 ca.

The United Public Workers of America (UPWA) Local 3 writes to their members in an undated letter, but probably June 1948, outlining procedures for clerks to seek upgrades.

UPWA Local 3’s biggest fight came when they led a multi-year campaign against discrimination at the agency resulting in a resounding victory when the government opened the ranks of skilled plate printers to Black Americans in 1950.

Margaret Gilmore, chair of UPWA Local 3, led a broad coalition against Jim Crow at agency that included the Federation of Civil Associations, the Cafeteria Workers Union, the DC Coordinating Committee to End Discrimination, the NAACP, the civil liberties committee of the Elks, the Eastern Star and luminaries such as Howard University President Mordecai Johnson, long time civil rights activist Rev. William H. Jernagin and civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston.

The plate printer positions had traditionally been filled by the American Federation of Labor all-white printers union. The UPW, a Congress of Industrial Unions (CIO) organization railed against the fact that not a single African American was employed as a plate printer anywhere in the United States.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

NAACP mass meeting to support Truman’s civil rights plan – Apr. 1948

The Washington, D.C. branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) calls for a city-wide meeting April 18, 1948 at All Souls Church on 16^th Street NW appealing to people “Don’t wreck the President’s civil rights plan; support it.”

There is a handwritten date of 1943 in the upper right hand corner. However this seems incorrect. Arthur Powell Davies, listed on the flyer, didn’t become pastor of All Souls Church until the fall of 1944. The date of April 18^th falls on a Sunday in both 1943 and 1948, making 1948 the more likely year.

The call to support the President’s plan was at odds with Paul Robeson, the Civil Rights Congress and other activists that took a more confrontational approach and demanded immediate action.

It also came during a time when former vice president Henry Wallace had announced he would make a third-party candidate run for president on a platform of peace, civil rights and labor rights.

The rally served as an implicit endorsement of Truman and a rejection of Wallace.

Call for civil rights demonstration in Washington – May 1948

Two of the main sponsors were NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois and actor, singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson.

Religious, fraternal groups back union fight for equality – Mar. 1949

Margaret Gilmore, Chair of United Public Workers of America (UPWA) Local 3, writes to her members in March 1949 announcing a broad-based conference to be held March 11^th to help win permanent “status for non-permanent printers assistants, and to eliminate job discrimination and segregation at the Bureau [of Engraving].”

UPWA Local 3 led a multi-year campaign against discrimination at the agency resulting in a resounding victory when the government opened the ranks of skilled plate printers to Black Americans in 1950.

Gilmore, led a broad coalition against Jim Crow at agency that included the Federation of Civil Associations, the Cafeteria Workers Union, the DC Coordinating Committee to End Discrimination, the NAACP, the civil liberties committee of the Elks, the Eastern Star and luminaries such as Howard University President Mordecai Johnson, long time civil rights activist Rev. William H. Jernagin and civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Advertisement calls for end to Jim Crow at the Bureau of Engraving – May 1949

A display ad published in the Washington Afro American May 7, 1949 by a number of prominent labor and black organizations in the D.C. area calling on President Harry Truman to end Jim Crow at the Bureau of Engraving.

A broad coalition led by Margaret Gilmore, president of United Public Workers of America Local 3, organized pickets at the Bureau of Engraving and at the White House.

Gilmore led a multi-year fight against Jim Crow at the agency that printed U.S. money, winning major victories along the way.

Letter on fight for equality at Bureau of Engraving – Sep. 1949

Margaret Gilmore, Chair of United Public Workers of America (UPWA) Local 3, writes to her members September 12, 1949 giving an update on the struggle at the Bureau of Engraving for racial equality on the job.

UPWA Local 3 led a multi-year campaign against discrimination at the agency resulting in a resounding victory when the government opened the ranks of skilled plate printers to Black Americans.

Gilmore, led a broad coalition against Jim Crow at agency that included the Federation of Civil Associations, the Cafeteria Workers Union, the DC Coordinating Committee to End Discrimination, the NAACP, the civil liberties committee of the Elks, and luminaries such as Howard University President Mordecai Johnson, long time civil rights activist Rev. William H. Jernagin and civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston.

In February 1950 after many years of internal organizing and public pickets, rallies and speeches, the Bureau of Engraving opened the ranks of plate printers to Black Americans.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

CIO Union seeks permanent status for Black workers – 1949 ca.

Margaret Gilmore, Chair of United Public Workers of America (UPWA) Local 3 (CIO), writes to her members circa 1949 giving an update on the struggle at the Bureau of Engraving for permanent status for all temporary workers.

The letter seeks individual petitions for permanent status, reports on a meeting with the Rep. William Dawson, the only Black elected representative in Congress, and informs members of a planned visit to the White House.

During World War II hundreds of temporary employees were hired at the Bureau of Engraving, including many temporary White printers, without competitive exams or consideration of tenure at the Bureau and often had to be trained by Black assistant printers and helpers.

By an agreement with the all-White printers union, the White temporary printers were given permanent status. At the same time, the Bureau began eliminating the positions of temporary Black workers that held printer assistant and printer helper positions.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Negro Freedom Rally Committee flyer – Sep. 1949

Following the “Peekskill Riot” where a white supremacist mob attacked people who gathered for a Paul Robeson concert, protest rallies were organized around the country, including Washington, D.C.

Save the Martinsville 7 from the electric chair – Mar. 1950

A flyer by the Committee to Save the Martinsville Seven calls for a rally in Richmond, Virginia March 23, 1950.

The Martinsville 7 were seven African American men convicted of raping a white woman in 1949 and sentenced to death. All 45 men executed in Virginia’s electric chair up until 1951 for the crime of rape were black men convicted of assaulting white women.

A nationwide campaign by the Civil Rights Congress highlighted the issue of racial injustice, but failed to stop the executions. The men were electrocuted by the state of Virginia in February 1951.

Announcement of 2 interracial workshops – Jul. 1950

The civil rights group Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), a pacifist group dedicated to non-violent social change, issue a call for interracial workshops in July 1950 following clashes during attempts to integrate public swimming pools in Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, MO and the subsequent closure of the pools.

The purpose of the workshops was to prepare participants to engage in a non-violent campaign to re-open the pools.

Participants were to be housed in an integrated hotel in the two cities that still largely practiced Jim Crow.

Workshop leaders included Mary McLeod Bethune, National Council of Negro Women; E. Franklin Frazier, Howard University Department of Sociology; Leon Ransom, counsel for the District of Columbia NAACP; representatives of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union; the Congress of Industrial Organizations; and U.S. Department of Justice; and Sushila Nayar, formerly Gandhi’s personal physician.

Why the Crusade on the Martinsville Seven – Nov. 1950

The Civil Rights Congress and the Virginia Committee to Save the Martinsville Seven publish a flyer November 8, 1950 explaining why the Virginia case of seven black men sentenced to death was important for the fight against white supremacy.

The Martinsville 7 were charged with the rape of a white woman, Ruby Stroud Floyd, in a black neighborhood of Martinsville, Virginia on January 8, 1949. After a long legal battle led by the NAACP and a grassroots campaign led by the Civil Rights Congress, the seven were executed in 1951 on February 2nd and February 5th.

Civil Rights Congress highlights Martinsville 7 case – Jan. 1951

The January 8, 1951 Charter Bulletin, newsletter of the Civil Rights Congress, features the Martinsville 7 case on the front page.

The Martinsville 7 were seven African American men convicted of raping a white woman in 1949 and sentenced to death.

All 45 men executed in Virginia’s electric chair up until 1951 for the crime of rape were black men convicted of assaulting white women.

A nationwide campaign by the Civil Rights Congress highlighted the issue of racial injustice, but failed to stop the executions.

The men were electrocuted by the state of Virginia in February 1951.

Civil Rights Congress takes on white supremacy – Feb. 1951

A Civil Rights Congress (CRC) flyer issued March-April 1951 on the execution of the Martinsville 7, Willie McGee’s pending execution and the re-trial of the Trenton 6.

Washington Mobilization to Free Willie McGee flyer – Mar. 1951

The Washington Mobilization to Free Willie McGee calls on demonstrators arriving for a “Peace Crusade” to support freedom for Willie McGee, a black man convicted of raping a white woman in Mississippi and sentenced to death.

The flyer called for a prayer vigil at the U.S. Supreme Court March 15th, lobbying Congress March 16th and a vigil in front of the White House. McGee was scheduled to be executed March 20^th.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black issued a stay, but the full Court would not hear the case. More demonstrations were held in D.C., including one in which protesters chained themselves to the Lincoln Memorial, but McGee was executed May 8, 1951.

Washington Mobilization to Free Willie McGee press release – Mar. 1951

The Washington Mobilization to Free Willie McGee writes two press releases March 15, 1951 about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and the case of Willie McGee.

The first press release that applauded Black for issuing a stay in the case was ultimately issued March 16, 1951 after Black acted on the petition. The other draft condemned Black and was not issued.

Jack Zucker, who issued the release, was the legislative director of the United Shoe Workers of America, CIO and a member of the Communist Party.

Marie Richardson flyer – Dec. 1951

As the Second Red Scare moved into full swing, authorities brought felony charges against Marie Richardson Harris for lying on a federal job application.

The federal government alleged she was a member of the Communist Party. Harris held the Library of Congress job for 2-3 months and handled no classified information.

The case of Marie Richardson Harris: The victim of a modern witch-hunt – 1952

The Committee to Defend Marie Richardson Harris publishes an 8-page description of the case and appeals for help defending Ms. Harris who was sentenced to prison for failing to disclose communist affiliations on a government job application.

Her defense committee had a fundraiser broken up by D.C. police and itself was later designated as a subversive organization by the U.S. government.

DC Anti-Discrimination Pamphlet – 1952

The group headed by Mary Church Terrell, the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws, put out regular updates to the public about which restaurants served both black and white people.

The committee was conducting pickets and boycotts of those that operated Jim Crow. Most of the chain restaurants and lunch counters in the downtown area desegregated under this pressure prior to the group winning the Thompson’s Restaurant case in 1953 where the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Washington, D.C.’s so-called “lost laws” of 1872 and 1872 that banned discrimination in public accommodations.

Celebrate defeat of DC White supremacists at Rosedale – Nov. 1952

A November 1952 flyer by the Washington Interracial Workshop, an affiliate of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) announces a benefit dance party celebrating the integration of the Rosedale playground and pool after a four-year struggle.

Rosedale Playground opened in 1913, yet it was restricted to Whites-only in a neighborhood where Black families had been living since the late nineteenth century. As the Black population in the neighborhood grew, this “public” facility became off-limits to an increasing number of area residents, including children who lived virtually next door to it.

In 1948, a local chapter of the Young Progressives of America that was(recently formed after the dissolution of the American Youth for Democracy organization and independent of the Progressive Party—organized with Black neighborhood residents to demand entry to Rosedale’s pool and recreation center.

The racially mixed group picketed the facility several times over the course of a few weeks, chanting “Jim Crow Must Go,” and bringing attention to the fact that four neighborhood black boys who were playing in the street outside the playground were arrested when their ball hit a street lamp.

Despite these demonstrations, the Board of Recreation renewed its commitment to the whites-only policy at Rosedale.

Meanwhile protests continued at other segregated facilities. The Young Progressives would attempt a swim-in at the Anacostia Pool in 1949 resulting in a clash with White supremacists and arrests by police.

In May 1952, when a group of ministers pointed out the obvious safety concerns in the neighborhoods surrounding Rosedale: “colored children . . . must either play in the streets or cross dangerous Benning Road to play in the school grounds adjacent to Browne Junior High School,” protestors gained traction. Numerous civic groups stood behind the effort, lobbying District Commissioners.

Later that summer after a young Black teenager, seeking relief on a hot night climbed the fence at Rosedale Pool and drowned, protests ratcheted up.

Pacifist activists with the Summer Interracial Workshop—organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)—descended on the District, where they joined the Citizens Committee to Integrate Rosedale Playground in picketing the Recreation Department and the playground.

After fighting broke out, the city closed the playground. Within one week of its closure, more than 100 neighborhood children climbed over and under the fence in what was “believed to have been a spur of the moment inspiration by several parents in the area who have grown impatient,” reported The Afro-American.

Finally, on October 17, 1952, the Board announced that the playground and recreation center would be open to all. Rosedale Pool was officially desegregated six months later. However, it was not until shortly after the public schools were legally desegregated in 1954 that all of DC’s recreation facilities became open to Black patrons.

Description adapted from DC Historic Sites, Civil Rights Tour: Recreation—Rosedale Playground

The flyer is courtesy of the Courtesy of the Civil Rights Movement Archive, https://www.crmvet.org/index.html

Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws appeal – 1953

The U.S. Court of Appeals rules against the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws in the Thompson’s Restaurant case and the group puts out an appeal for funds.

The U.S. Supreme Court would later reverse that decision and uphold Washington, D.C.’s so-called “lost laws” of 1872 and 1872 that banned discrimination in public accommodations.

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Civil Rights and Black Liberation After 1955

D.C. NAACP flyer for annual meeting and elections – 1957

A Washington, D.C. NAACP branch flyer advertising its annual meeting December 15, 1957 where the president of the organization gives an annual report and elections of officers are held.

The meeting was to be held at the Turner Memorial Church and 6^th and Eye Streets NW. Eugene Davidson was elected as president of the branch to his sixth term.

Davidson was a long time civil rights advocate in the city who once headed the New Negro Alliance that organized boycotts of merchants that wouldn’t hire front line black employees while doing business in the black community.

The Afro American newspaper gave an account of the meeting and quotes Davidson’s report on the state or racial progress in the city in its December 28, 1957 edition.

MLK speech at Youth March for Integrated Schools – Oct. 1958

The text of a speech written by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was delivered at the 1958 Youth March for Integrated Schools in Washington, D.C. October 25, 1958 by his wife Coretta Scott King.

King was recovering from an assassination attempt in New York City where a woman stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener during a book signing event in Harlem and he unable to deliver the speech himself.

The march drew about 10,000 participants to Washington, D.C. to demonstration that was spearheaded by A. Phillip Randolph, Jackie Robinson, Harry Belafonte, Bayard Rustin, Daisy Bates and Roy Wilkins in addition to King.

King said in part that “Walking for freedom has been an inseparable part of the Negro struggle for full emancipation” citing the “courageous slaves [who] broke out of plantations and, despite terrifying dangers, began a long march north, to freedom.”

“Many years later, when abuse and insults grew intolerable in Montgomery, Alabama, the tradition or walking in protest for human rights was revived. Bus segregation in Montgomery was crushed under 50,000 marching feet.”

“Keep marching and show the pessimists and the wale of spirit that that are wrong. Keep marching and don’t let them silence you. Keep marching and resist injustice with the firm, non-violent spirit you demonstrated today.”.

The demonstration was the second of three spear-headed by King 1957-59 pressing the Eisenhower administration to enforce the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing public school segregation of races.

The protest helped to cement King’s status as the leading spokesperson on civil rights and helped hone the organizational skills that would bear fruit in the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom.

This document is courtesy of the Civil Rights Movement Archive.

White supremacist petition to impeach VA governor – Feb. 1959

The Virginia Committee to Impeach the Governor circulates a petition calling for the removal of Gov. Lindsay (sic) Almond (misspelled Lindsey in the petition) in February 1959.

The petition is otherwise unsigned, but contained an Arlington, VA post office box as the return address.

A few Virginia schools had recently been desegregated under federal court order. Virginia had conducted a “mass resistance campaign against school desegregation that including closing public schools in some counties.

Almond was elected governor in 1957 on a segregationist platform. He initially resisted federal court orders to desegregate saying a one point that he would fight, “those whose purpose and design is to blend and amalgamate of the White and Negro races” and citing “the livid stench of sadism, sex immorality, and juvenile pregnancy infesting the mixed schools of the District of Columbia and elsewhere.”

But to the outrage of the segregationist wing of the Virginia Democratic Party, Almond allowed schools in Norfolk and Arlington to desegregate under federal court order and muscled a bill through the state legislature that permitted counties to determine whether to desegregate.

The petition received widespread publicity in the state with references to it in nearly every newspaper throughout Virginia.

The petition said in part,

“Whereas: Lindsey (sic) Almond has pusillanimously failed to use the militia, the State Police, the power of the Legislature, and many other means at his disposal to resist the illegal encroachments of the Jewish Communist controlled NAACP, acting in the disguise of the Federal Government, in spite of his sacred oath to defend his people and his state from such encroachments, and,

“Whereas: Lindsey (sic) Almond was aware, at the time he made the promises to prevent integration which got him elected, that the entire power of the Jewish integration machine, and the Federal Government which it controls, would be brought to bear to destroy the freedom and sovereignty of his state and his people, and he has traitorously deserted the battle he undertook in the face of first strong enemy presence, and passively cooperated with the enemy in placing Negroes in Virginia schools for the first time in history.”

Nationally syndicated investigative journalist Drew Pearson eventually tracked down the origins of the petition to Seaboard White Citizens Council—a Washington, D.C. area White supremacist organization.

In an early version of doxing, Pearson found that “the [post office] box was rented on February 3 by Floyd Fleming, grizzled old hate agitator and sidekick of rabble rouser John Kasper. The Seaboard White Citizens Council was built around them. Two of Fleming’s henchmen, Eugene Colson and H. Cary Hansel, also signed the rental papers for the box.”

“The group operates largely from [George Lincoln] Rockwell’s home at 6513 Williamsburg Blvd,” Pearson continued. Rockwell would go on to form the American Nazi Party in October 1959—the organization he is most famous for.

NYC rally builds for 1959 Youth March on Washington – Apr. 1959

The New York City Youth March for Integrated Schoois issues a flyer calling for a rally the week before the 1959 Youth March on Washington for the “final push” featuring Jackie Robinson and Daisy Bates and urging those wishing to go to D.C. to purchase bus tickets.

The Youth March for Integrated Schools was the third march on Washington in as many years designed to speed integration of schools following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision outlawing segregation.

The 1959 march drew the largest of the three at 26,000 and nearly exceeded the 1932 Bonus Army’s 30,000 as the largest protest demonstration up to that time in D.C.

The march cemented Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s status as the preeminent civil rights leader and helped hone the mobilization and logistics necessary to stage the massive 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom.

The flyer is courtesy of the online Civil Rights Movement Archive

Flyer for the Youth March on Washington – 1959

A flyer for the April 18, 1959 Youth March on Washington to demand enforcement of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision desegregating public schools and for civil rights legislation championed by the Republican leaders in Congress and supported by U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (D-N.Y.).

The flyer was published by the Youth March for Integrated Schools of New York.

The demonstration drew 26,000 people to Washington, D.C. April 18, 1959 as estimated by U.S. Park Police.

Demonstrators integrate Crisfield, MD restaurants – Dec. 1960

An anonymous writer details the effort by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to desegregate restaurants in Crisfield, MD in December 1960.

CORE waged a campaign around the state during this period, conducting demonstrations in the Baltimore and Washington suburbs, in Annapolis and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Crisfield was chosen as a target because it was the hometown of Governor J. Millard Tawes and would test Tawes’ statements about supporting the rights of Black people.

Ten student members of CORE were arrested Christmas Eve for refusing to leave the CITY restaurant. A second demonstration was planned to bring in the New Year.

Demonstrators met at the Shiloh Methodist Church in Crisfield, the same church that served as the headquarters for the 1938 crab pickers’ strike, and set out to attempt to desegregate the CITY restaurant.

The owner must have gotten word that the sit-in demonstrators were coming and closed early. However, to the surprise of the demonstrators, residents of Crisfield began approaching them to come to six different previously-segregated restaurants in town where they would be welcomed.

In the week in between demonstrations centuries-old practice of White supremacy in the town had been overturned.

Courtesy of the Civil Rights Movement Archive, https://www.crmvet.org/index.html

William Moore special supplement to CORE newsletter – 1963

A supplement to the regular CORE newsletter published in June 1963 chronicles the murder of Baltimore civil rights worker William Moore.

Moore worked in Baltimore as a letter carrier when he became involved in the civil rights movement there. He staged two lone marches—one to Annapolis and one to Washington, D.C. to deliver letters written by him urging the Maryland governor and the president to support civil rights.

He decided to stage a march through Alabama to see Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett and deliver another letter. He was murdered near Reece City, Alabama August 23 1963.

Jazz benefit for Julius Hobson’s ACT – 1964

A flyer advertising a benefit jazz concert for ACT, a civil rights group initiated by Julius Hobson in the city after he was expelled by CORE earlier in the year, is scheduled for November 23 1968 at WUST at 9th and V Streets NW.

ACT was not an acronym and was the full name of the civil rights organization that existed briefly from 1964 until about 1968 with chapters in several cities. When other civil rights organizations began abandoning direct action after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, ACT tried to pick up the slack.

The flyer corresponds with a campaign by ACT for a citizen review board of complaints of police brutality. ACT held a series of street corner meetings throughout the District of Columbia in 1964 where the demand was raised.

The image on the flyer shows a police officer firing a gun at a black person with an X over the police officer indicating ACT’s demand for an end to police brutality.

D.C. SNCC calls for anti-draft march – May, 1967

The Washington, D.C. Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee calls on black youth to protest the draft May 8, 1967 by joining a march from 14^th and H Streets NE to the Rayburn Office Building.

About 100 students from different East Coast colleges marched from the Rosedale playground to the Rayburn Building where they were barred from entering the building or attending a hearing being conducted by U.S. Senator Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.) on the draft.

Call for a black power conference at Howard – May 1967

Huey LaBrie, one of the leaders of the student protests at Howard University in 1967 issues a call for a black power student conference to be held in Washington, D.C. May 19-21, 1967.

The informal conference was a run-up to the larger Newark Conference held in the summer ofr1967 that included the NAACP, The Urban League, Afro-American Unity, Harlem Mau and Maus along prominent leaders such as Jessie Jackson, Ron Karenga, Floyd McKissick, Rap Brown, and Charles 27X Kenyatta.

Following up the Newark conference, Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) pulled together a Black United Front in the District of Columbia in January 1968 that was intended to act as a unified voice for black people in the city.

LaBrie was the brother of Aubrie LaBrie who was a prominent black leader at San Francisco State University. Huey LaBrie was a leader of the 1967 Black Power Committee on the Howard campus along with Dr. Nathan Hare, Robin Gregory and others.

Appeal to those facing induction into the military: 1967 ca.

The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and The Resistance publish a flyer handed out to draftees facing military induction outlining rights and appeals.

SNCC had morphed from a student civil rights organization into a Black liberation organization by 1967. It had always been opposed to the war in Vietnam. The Resistance was formed by four California-based anti-draft activists as a national network for direct action and non-cooperation with the Selective Service System.

Preparation for Black Rebellion in DC – Aug. 1967

The D.C. affiliate of Vietnam Summer issues a flyer in August 1967 announcing the formation of a “Committee of Emergency Support” in the event of a Black rebellion in the city.

The group adopted a statement of purpose:

“We are in sympathy with the despair of the Black people in America. We share their sense of powerlessness to relieve oppressive conditions by conventional political means. We are all frustrated in our attempts to control the decisions which affect our lives in the Capitol City. We are all victims.

“We are ready in an emergency to assist the Black community of Washington with food, housing, me3dical care, and legal aid. We are committed to act to remove repressive military and political intervention.”

The Committee said in the flyer that it was a non-membership group but included 40 doctors available on a 24-hour call to provide medical assistance to injured persons, law students and lawyers to provide legal aid, and individuals responsible for coordinating housing, collection and distribution of food and medical transportation.

The flyer was signed by Shirley Cowgill and Sue Orrin from Vietnam Summer.

Draft Resisters Need Your Support – Nov. 1967

As part of the leadup to draft resisters week Dec. 4-11, 1967, Ethel and Julius Weisser sponsor a support party held on Dec. 1^st for Akida Kimani, a black liberation activist facing extradition to California for draft evasion.

Archie Stewart provided music for the event. Kimani made a name for himself as an activist/leader in the Afro American Association, a black self-help group formed in 1962 in California with chapters in a number of cities and a few overseas.

Ethel and Julius Weisser were long-time activists in a wide variety of social and economic causes in the Washington, D.C. area.

Ethel Weisser was once secretary of the Washington Area Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1950s and fought a D.C. ballot initiative on mandatory minimum sentencing in the 1980s,

Ethel Weisser also served as a spokesperson for the local chapter of the Grey Panthers for more than 25 years.

Stewart was a local jazz guitarist who was performing with The New Thing group at the time and became a fixture at clubs and coffeehouses in the city during the 1970s.

White Man’s Road Through Black Man’s Home – 1968

This is a poster designed by Sammie Abbott of the Emergency Committee for the Transportation Crisis in 1968 that encapsulated the group’s fight against planned freeways in the District of Columbia.

In January 1967, Abbott used the words “a white man’s road…through black men’s homes,” in testimony before the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) on the North Central Freeway.

Abbott may have used the words first, but Reginald Booker turned them into a slogan that galvanized black opposition to new highways and put the issue in stark racial terms. Abbott, a graphic arts designer, produced the dozens of posters and flyers that featured it.

The group would successfully lead a confrontational fight against new freeways, for public takeover of the private bus company and for construction of the new Metrorail system that resulted in almost complete victory against powerful opponents.

Flyer for the Poor People’s Campaign (national office ) – 1968

An early flyer by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference national office in Atlanta, Ga. calling for a Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1968.

The early demands were “jobs, income and a decent life.”

The six-week Poor People’s Campaign from May 21st until June 24th for economic justice and against the Vietnam War drew upwards of 100,000 people at its peak in addition to the 3,000 encamped on the national mall.

Flyer for the Poor People’s Campaign (Mississippi) – 1968

An early flyer by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Grenada, Mississippi calling for a Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1968.

The early demands were “Decent Jobs and Income!” and “The Right to a Decent Life.”

UMD Poor People’s Campaign support contacts – Mar. 1968

The University of Maryland Committee in Support of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign publishes a list of College Park campus contacts in March 1968.

King would be assassinated prior to the campaign that brought several thousand people to Washington, D.C. who lived in plywood huts near the Lincoln Memorial May-June 1968 and conducted demonstrations and token civil disobedience throughout the city.

King had initially envisioned shutting down the city using civil disobedience to demand a minimum guaranteed income, among other demands, but those plans were abandoned after his death.

At its peak, the campaign drew upwards of 100,000 people to a rally.

Bob Simpson, a vintage and current Washington Area Spark contributor is listed as one of the contacts.

Marshals needed for Poor People’s Campaign – Mar. 1968 ca.

A plea for demonstration marshals is issued by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Poor People’s Campaign circa March 1968.

The flyer issues the plea in the name of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., indicating that it was printed prior to King’s assassination. Also of note is the plea for men—the movement for women’s equality had not yet come into full bloom.

UMD Poor People’s Campaign rally – Apr. 1968

An unsigned flyer, probably by the University of Maryland Committee in Support of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign advertises a rally April 9, 1968 and calls on the school administration to open the campus for marchers to stay and to provide food and supplies.

King was assassinated days prior to the issuance of this flyer.

The campaign that brought several thousand people to Washington, D.C. who lived in plywood huts near the Lincoln Memorial May-June 1968 and conducted demonstrations and token civil disobedience throughout the city.

King had initially envisioned shutting down the city using civil disobedience to demand a minimum guaranteed income, among other demands, but those plans were abandoned after his death.

At its peak, the campaign drew upwards of 100,000 people to a rally.

Poor People’s Campaign questions and answers – Apr. 1968

The Poor People’s Campaign sets out its goals and beliefs in an 8 ½ x 11, four-page question-and-answer style flyer circa April 1968.

Poor People’s March timetable of events flyer – Apr. 1968

The Poor People’s Campaign of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) publishes on April 28, 1968 a six-page detailed timetable of the planned events of the campaign.

Poor People’s Campaign volunteer committees – Apr. 1968

The Poor People’s Campaign describes 18 volunteer committees to build the campaign in an 8 ½ x 11, three-page flyer circa April 1968.

Eldridge Cleaver speech flyer at American University – Oct. 1968

Black Panther Party Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver, presidential candidate on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket and author of Soul on Ice is invited to speak on the American University campus in Washington, D.C.

The Panthers would establish a small chapter in the city in 1970 and prominent leaders, including David Hilliard, Huey Newton, Elbert “Big Man” Howard, Donald Cox, Eldridge Cleaver, and Kathleen Cleaver all made public appearances in the city.

Flyer and rallies call for King holiday – 1969

A flyer by the Metropolitan Community Aid Council calls for a national holiday and four Washington, D.C. community rallies April 4, 1969 on the one year anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassination

The early calls for a national holiday on the anniversary of his assassination later gave way to demands for a holiday on King’s birthday.

The original is held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Boycott VA ABC Stores – May 1969

A May 1969 anonymous flyer calls for the boycott of Northern Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) stores in protest of discrimination against Black people in hiring.

The Alexandria Urban League initiated pickets at the state ABC store at 430 King Street along with another ABC store in the city May 15, 1969 after the liquor agency did not respond to previous entreaties to hire more black people to front line positions.

At the time of the picket there were only three black clerks in the 40 Northern Virginia ABC stores.

Later pickets were present at three other ABC stores, the homes of two ABC district supervisors who lived in the area and the group launched a boycott of the ABC stores.

Most of the picketers were recruited from students at T.C. Williams and George Washington High Schools.

The picketing spurred the Virginia Council on Human Relations, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP to join in the effort to desegregate employment in the stores.

The Human Relations Council issued a report in September 1969 that laid out in detail the widespread discrepancy in the number of black people employed above the level of porter.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

A Memorial to Malcolm X – May 1969

A flyer published by the Malcolm X Memorial Committee advertises two days of events in the Washington, D.C. area in May 1969 commemorating the slain Black nationalist leader and his birthday.

The D.C. Committee was headed by chair Jan Bailey and co-chair Jean Koko Hughes, two people closely associated with Black nationalist leader and former SNCC chair Stokely Carmichael and who often traveled with him.

The previous year the committee attempted to have merchants in the 7^th Street and 14^th Street corridors shut their businesses on May 19^th (Malcolm X Birthday) to mixed success.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

A Freedom School at Eastern High School – Sept. 1969

A September 28, 1969 letter from Acting Director of the Washington, D.C. Freedom School Charles Robinson to students in the public school system urging them to join in establishing a Freedom School annex at Eastern High School

It became the first public school curriculum to be designed by students.

The program ran concurrently with D.C. school year, offering elective credit in lieu of elective courses from regular curriculum at Eastern High School.

Two 3-hour sessions daily in Black History, Black Literature, Black Philosophy, Community Organization, Third World Studies, Contemporary Problems, Economics, Black Art and Drama, Black Music, Swahili.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Coolidge student march against the war flyer – Oct. 1969

A flyer advertises a demonstration held during the Vietnam Moratorium by black students at Coolidge High School in Washington, D.C. October 15, 1969.

Over 100 students from Coolidge High School sought to enter the White House grounds with a black pinewood coffin containing letters from students asking President Nixon to end the war.

Refused entry by White House guards, the students pressed forward anyway. Park and metropolitan police bolstered the guards and arrested three students and one passerby. 500 bystanders gathered around the confrontation angrily shouting at police to let the arrested students go.

D.C. WITCH urges participation in Panther defense – 1969

The Washington, D.C. Women’s International Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH) group issues a flyer calling on women to participate in a November 22, 1969 protest in New Haven, Conn. Against treatment of six Black Panther Party women that were imprisoned.

The reverse side of the flyer is a joint call by the New England Women’s Liberation Group and the Black Panther Party to join in the demonstration.

Freedom Seder – April 1969

The first Freedom Seder organized by Arthur Waskow and scheduled for April 4, 1969 at the Lincoln Memorial Temple in Washington, D.C. is advertised in this flyer.

Also advertised in the first Freedom Sedar are readings by Channing Phillips, Phillip Berrigan and Rabbi Balfour Brickner. The three would weave the theme of Black liberation into the story of Passover. Topper Carew also ended up participating along with others.

Black Panthers seek to recruit D.C. white student allies – Dec. 1969

During the Black Panther recruiting drive in December 1969 led by Jim Williams, the group also sought to set up an affiliated chapter of the National Committee to Combat Fascism (NCCF).

The flyer publicizes a number of events designed to familiarize area students with the Panthers and to recruit members to the NCCF chapter.

The tour came shortly after the Chicago police murder of Fred Hampton on Dec. 4^thand this event is addressed on the reverse side of the flyer.

The NCCF only functioned for a short time, but the Panthers established a full-fledged chapter at their announcement of the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention at the Lincoln Memorial in June 1970.

Black Panther International Section letterhead – 1970 ca.

Letterhead from the Black Panther Party International Section in Alger, Algeria circa 1970. The purpose of handwriting on the back side is unknown.

The note on the back directs Craig [Simpson] to room 39 and is signed Bill L, but Simpson has no recollection of the event or who Bill L is. The other numbers, in different handwriting, are possibly a locker combination.

The Panther’s International Section was established in 1969 after Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver went into exile there after flights to Montreal and Cuba.

The Panthers in Algiers established close ties with many other national liberation movements, including those in Africa, Palestine and Vietnam. The Panthers increasingly linked their struggle in the U.S. to the larger struggle of colonized people against Western capitalist countries.

Things in Algeria took a turn for the worse with a hijacking of an airplane in August 1972 by Willie Roger Holder and Cathy Kerkow who obtained a $500,000 ransom to release the passengers. The plane landed in Algiers, but the money was seized by Algerian authorities and returned to the U.S.

Cleaver denounced the action, believing that the money would help finance his group. In turn the Algerians cut their telephone lines and placed the International Panthers under house arrest. They were released six days later.

Cox resigned from the group. The Algerians forced Cleaver to resign as head of the Algerian Panthers and in early 1973 he moved to France. Kathleen Cleaver set out on her own and the other International Panthers settled in Germany and France. The Panthers International section was dead by 1974.

Flyer calling for a strike and school boycott on King’s birthday – 1970

A flyer calling calling for a work stoppage on the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr January 15, 1970 also advertises a rally at Howard University.

The work and school boycott achieved some success across the Washington, D.C. City agencies reported absenteeism as high as one-third of the normal staff. In the sanitation department where garbage collectors had which been designated as “essential” employees, 70 percent were absent.

Teachers across the city were absent in higher rates as well with the Washington Post reporting that 40 teachers were absent at the Moten Elementary school in Anacostia.

Students across the region also boycotted classes. The Washington Post reported that 800 students out of 2,400 at Eastern High School in the city were absent. “School attendance also declined in Arlington, Prince Georges and Fairfax counties, the newspaper reported.

Call to support the Panther New Haven 9 – Apr. 1970

An unsigned and undated flyer (circa April 1970) addressed primarily to the black community calling for rallying around the Black Panther Party New Haven 9 that including Panther chair Bobby Seale.

The flyer specifically addresses criticism from some sectors of the black community over the support of the Panthers’ white allies and is published just before a mass rally to coincide with the opening of the trial of Seale and Ericka Huggins.

Ericka Huggins, a D.C. native and a New Haven, Ct. Panther leader, and Seale were charged with the murder and kidnapping of an alleged police informant, Alex Rackley. Huggins was one of the main leaders of the New Haven Panther chapter. The trial resulted in a hung jury for the two and prosecutors dropped all charges against them shortly afterward.

Call to protect the D.C. Black Panther organizing office – Apr. 1970

An unsigned, undated flyer calling on supporters of the Black Panther Party to protect the Party organizing headquarters in Washington, D.C. and to attend the May 1, 1970 rally in New Haven, Ct. in support of Panther chair Bobby Seale and New Haven Panther leader Ericka Huggins.

For a period of days, white supporters sat outside the National Committee to Combat Fascism, the Panther organizing office, on 18^th Street NW as a buffer against possible police action until the immediate threat subsided.

Carpools were organized from Washington, D.C. to New Haven where 15,000 demonstrated for the Panther leaders’ freedom. They had been charged with murder, but the trial resulted in a hung jury and charges were dropped thereafter.

The D.C. police did raid the Panther’s on July 4, 1970 while they were celebrating on the holiday with community members.

The flyer was probably published in late April 1970.

Remember the Augusta Six – May 1970

A rally is called at the University of Maryland College Park May 20, 1970 to honor the six slain black men in Augusta, Ga. who were shot to death by police—most apparently in the back—while they were protesting the violent death of a 16-year-old that was in police custody.

The campus was under martial law at the time following two weeks of confrontations between students and National Guard and police. Gatherings were prohibited. This is likely why the flyer is unsigned. The first demand of the 1970 student strike was the ending of repression of black people.

Black Panther Party call for a rally and press conference at the Lincoln Memorial – June 1970

The Black Panther Party issues a call for a rally and press conference at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to be held June 19, 1970—Emancipation Day—to announce plans for a Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention.

The tabloid-sized call was put out by the D.C. chapter of the National Committee to Combat Fascism—a Panther allied group that permitted whites to join.

The broadside referred to Judge Julius Hoffman’s chaining Panther leader Bobby Seale to a chair during the trial of the Chicago 8:

“The shackling like a slave of Black Panther Party Chairman Bobby Seale is like the reincarnation of Dred Scott 1857. This brazen violation of Bobby Seale’s Constitutional rights exposes without a doubt that black people have no rights that the racist oppressor is bound to respect.”

The press conference drew about 1,000 people.

Black Panther Party Message to America – Jun. 1970

The Black Panther Party issues a “Message to America, delivered on the 107^th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation at Washington, D.C., Capital of Babylon, world racism and imperialism, June 19, 1970.”

The proclamation was issued at a rally at the Lincoln Memorial atte4nded by about 1,000 people on the occasion of calling for Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention to write a new document outlining what a new America would look like.

Black Panther Party call for a Revolutionary Peoples Constitutional Convention – June 1970

The Black Panther Party issued its call for a Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. June 19, 1970 (Juneteenth).

This tabloid size paper contains the proclamation and essays by Chair Huey Newton and Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver.

D.C. Black Panther Party press release – July 1970

A press release by the newly formed Washington, D.C. chapter of the Black Panther Party issued July 5, 1970 after a raid by the D.C. police.

Call to plenary session of the Revolutionary Convention – Aug. 1970

The four regional offices of the Black Panther Party, including the southern regional office headquartered in Washington, D.C., publish this two-sided invitation to the plenary of the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention to be held in Philadelphia, Pa. September 5-7, 1970.

Guide to the Philadelphia plenary of the Black Panther Revolutionary Convention – Sept. 3, 1970

A four-page pull-out guide produced by the alternative newspaper Philadelphia Plain Dealer to the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention Plenary (RPCC) held in Philadelphia, Pa. Sept. 4-7 organized under the auspices of the Black Panther Party.

Contains the agenda, workshop information, maps of the city and convention proceedings, a guide to legal issues, a list of information centers and friendly nearby restaurants.

The Plenary of the RPCC was generally deemed a success by the 10,000 participants, but a coordinated effort to deny a venue for the convention itself held in Nov. 1970 in Washington, D.C. ultimately doomed the effort to adopt a unified platform for revolutionary groups.

Admittance slip to Black Panther RPCC Plenary – Sep. 1970

An admittance slip to the Black Panther Party’s Revolutionary Peoples Constitutional Convention Plenary Session held at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa. Sept 5-7^th 1970.

The Philadelphia plenary drew over 7,000 (the Panthers claimed 15,000) and generated much excitement that unity would be achieved among disparate struggles in the country.

However, the Constitutional Convention itself to be held in Washington, D.C. in November 1970 was a different story.

The D.C. Armory Board turned down the Panthers, citing the need for the armory in the event the National Guard was called up to quell Panther violence.

This position flew in the face of the Philadelphia, Pa. plenary conducted weeks before without incident. Even the Washington Post editorialized against the transparent attempt to suppress the Panthers. Court appeals failed.

The Panthers had already been turned down by the University of Maryland and would be rejected by Howard and American Universities as well. Howard demanded a large upfront cash payment far exceeding the resources of the Panthers.

The Panthers ultimately cobbled together churches and other facilities and held a semblance of a convention attended by a few thousand with workshops and the drafting of different parts of a revolutionary constitution, but a venue was never found for the requisite mass meetings.

Recently released from prison, Black Panther chair Huey Newton addressed those that could fit into St. Stephens Church before the convention participants dispersed.

The dream of a common revolutionary platform was not achieved.

Southern Regional Headquarters Black Panther Party on venue for planned revolutionary convention – Sept. 1970

A two-sided informational flyer put out by the Southern Regional headquarters of the Black Panther Party located in Washington, D.C. early in the battle (probably late Sept. 1970) over obtaining a venue for the planned Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention.

The reverse side of the flyer appeals for logistical support for the planned convention.

The Armory Board would turn down the Panthers, citing the need for the armory in the event the National Guard was called up to quell Panther violence.

The Panthers would also be turned down by the University of Maryland and would be rejected by Howard and American Universities as well. Howard demanded a large upfront cash payment bond far exceeding the resources of the Panthers.

Panther Trial News, What’s Really Happening at the Trial of Bobby and Ericka – Oct. 25, 1970

Panther Trial News, What’s Really Happening at the Trial of Bobby and Ericka covers developments in the case of Black Panther leaders Ericka Huggins and Bobby Seale and their co-defendants.

The trial was the subject of a number of demonstrations, including a gathering of upwards of 10,000 in New Haven, CT May 2, 1970 just before the trial opened.

In May 1971 the jury deadlocked 11 to 1 for Seale’s acquittal and 10 to 2 for Huggins’ acquittal. Prosecutors dropped the charges shortly afterward.

D.C. Black Panther Party free children’s breakfast program – Oct. 1970

Although the D.C. chapter only formed a few months previously, this flyer announces the opening of a second location for the Black Panther Party free breakfast for children program. One at their Community Center at 1932 17th Street NW and the other at 2804 14th Street NW.

Black Panther Party calls for rally at Malcolm X Park – Oct. 1970

The Black Panther Party calls for a rally at Malcolm X Park protesting the failure of the D.C. Armory Board to permit the Panthers to use the facility for the planned Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention.

The Panthers would also be rejected by the University of Maryland, Howard University and American University before cobbling together several church venues and a private school.

However none of the facilities had the capacity to host the necessary mass meetings and the attempted convention ultimately did not achieve its goals.

Draft explanation of Panther RPCC convention – Oct. 1970

A short draft flyer explaining the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention (RPCC) in Washington, D.C. was written circa October 1970 probably by Craig Newman of the Mother Bloor Collective.

The flyer explains the need for a new U.S. constitution and explains the plenary session held in September in Philadelphia and the upcoming RPCC sponsored by the Black Panther Party in November.

Mother Bloor was formed in the main by former University of Maryland student activists as one of many Marxist-Leninist collectives that sprung up around the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s during the height of the anti-Vietnam War and Black power movements.

Maryland’s Mother Bloor Collective and DRUM defend Panther’s RPCC – Oct. 1970

The Democratic Radical Union of Maryland (DRUM) and the Ella Reeve Bloor Collective (Mother Bloor) publish an explanation of the Black Panther Party-sponsored Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention plenary session in Philadelphia, Pa. and re-iterate that the full convention scheduled for Washington, D.C. in November 1970 will be held.

Due to political pressure from the federal government and local authorities, suitable venues in the Washington, D.C. area, including Howard University, the University of Maryland and the D.C. Armory all rejected the Panther convention. While several thousand streamed into the city and small activities were held, no plenary session was ever convened.

On the back side of the flyer are hand-written lyrics to a song popularized by the Weather Underground: Red Party Fights to Win.

Panther Defense Committee reprint of a Washington Post editorial on freedom of assembly – Oct. 1970

Panther Defense Committee reprint of a Washington Post editorial on freedom of assembly: Oct. 1970

The Black Panther Defense Committee publishes a flyer reprinting an October 16, 1970 editorial condemning the D.C. Armory for refusing to host the Panther-sponsored Reovlutionary People’s Constitutional Convention scheduled for Washington, D.C. in November.

The flyer declares that the convention will not be stopped and “will be held if it has to be held in the streets.” It also makes an appeal for funds.

2 women issue call to oppose capitalism – 1970 ca.

A flyer issued in Washington, D.C. circa 1970, possibly as part of the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention (RPCC) and signed by Rita McBrayer and Diane Bishoff, calls on women to organize to overthrow capitalism.

It says in part:

“The white man will laugh as he has done throughout history at these truths. He will destroy all of us bearing no exceptions. It was through his stupidity that wars were started, people f color were pushed back, even the original inhabitants, the Indians. His so-called greatest invention, democracy, is only oppressive capitalism in which one can buy democracy.”

It ends by calling for:

“All power to the people

Free political prisoners

Free oppressed peoples

Be strong women”

Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention Plenary workshop reports – Nov. 1970

An unsigned document provides workshop reports and notes from the plenary session of the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia held Sept. 5-7, 1970 for the upcoming Constitutional Convention scheduled in Washington, D.C. Nov. 27-29, 1970.

The convention was an attempt by the Black Panther Party to unite disparate elements of a larger “movement” and provide a revolutionary blueprint for future struggle.

The Washington convention faltered when a large venue could not be secured due in part to FBI and other federal interference.

The Washington convention concluded without formalizing a revolutionary constitution.

The workshop reports include the following areas:

Women

Gay Men

Lesbian

Control of the means of production

Control and use of the land

Control and use of the military

Internationalism

Self determination for minorities

Self determination for street people

The family and the rights of children

Revolutionary Artist

Religious Oppression/New Humanism

Drugs

Health

Noticeably absent was any discussion of the environment nor a specific workshop on law enforcement, education, housing, guaranteed national income, or social security/pensions.

Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention bumper sticker – Nov. 1970

A bumper sticker for the Black Panther Party—sponsored Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in Washington, D.C. to be held November 27-29 1970 at an as yet unidentified location does not have a credit line but was probably the Panthers..

A suitable venue was never found with the D.C. Armory Board, Howard University and the University of Maryland rejecting the group, among others.

The convention was cobbled together at various churches through the city, but was unable to hold a mass gathering of the several thousand who arrived in the city.

As a result of having no venue, there was no vote or amendments or discussion of the results of the Philadelphia plenary session held in September or the workshops held in Washington, D.C.

Black Panthers call for D.C. Revolutionary Convention – Nov. 1970

The Ministry of Information for the Black Panther Party issues a call for a Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in Washington, D.C. to be held November 27-29 1970 at an as yet unidentified location.

This 11 x 17 pamphlet contained a long treatise on the way forward for revolutionaries. Unfortunately several pages are missing from this copy.

However, enough remains that lays out a critique of Marxism in the U.S. that can be identified with the Eldridge Cleaver trend within the party.

The tract posits that the lumpen proletariat (long-term unemployed, petty criminals) are the revolutionary class in the United States and specifically criticizes predominantly white left-wing groups that upheld the working class.

Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention handout – Nov. 1970

This 4-page unsigned handout expresses the views of the Black Panther Party and was probably published by that organization.

It was part of the package of materials given to people who registered for the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in November 1970.

RPCC women’s workshop issues statement of solidarity with Panthers – Nov. 1970

The women’s workshop of the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention issues a statement of solidarity with the Black Panther Party during the Nov. 27-29 convention.

The Jewish Urban Guerrilla and the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention – Nov. 1970

The Jews for Urban Justice put out a flyer In November 1970 for a series of workshops held simultaneously with the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in Washington, D.C. posing the question, “Is it possible to be a revolutionary, support the Panthers, and still be a Jew?” among other topics.

The group was formed in the summer of 1968 to oppose anti-black racism from white Jewish landlords and business owners.

The JUJ was a key organizer of a Freedom Sedar that drew over 800 diverse people in 1969 and participated in the Poor People’s Campaign, welfare rights and the Delano grape boycott, among other activities. Its most prominent member was Arthur Waskow, a founder of the Institute for Policy Studies and a long-time left-wing activist.

Position paper on workers for Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention: 1970

The Democratic Radical Union of Maryland (DRUM), a primarily student group based at UMD College Park, puts out a flyer outlining its position on workers for the Revolutionary Peoples’ Constitutional Convention scheduled for Nov. 27-29 in Washington, D.C

The convention was spearheaded by the Black Panther Party.

It calls for workers control of the means of production, minority guaranteed a proportional share of work and decision-making, guaranteed employment, a national production plan, and guaranteed education and training.

Angela Answers 13 Questions – Circa Nov. 1970

A four-page tabloid-size pamphlet produced by the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Committees to Free Angela Davis reprints a Joe Walker interview with Davis conducted for Muhammad Speaks—the newspaper of the Nation of Islam.

It was the first wide-ranging interview conducted with the open Communist Party member Davis following her October 13, 1970 arrest for “aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder” for the attempted escape of Jonathan Jackson and two other prisoners in California during which they were killed along with a judge they had kidnapped.

Prosecutors alleged she provided the weapons used by the prisoners in the attempted escape. A nationwide “Free Angela” movement followed.

She was acquitted in a high profile June 1972 trial and continues to be active in social justice causes.

SCLC calls for War Against Repression – Apr. 1971

An 8 ½ x 11 flyer issued by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) headed by Ralph Abernathy calls on people to join the mule train sponsored by SCLC arriving in Washington, D.C. April 28, 1971.

The SCLC’s War Against Repression put forth demands calling for an end to hunger, jobs and income, justice, representative government, quality education, right to organize unions, and an end to the war in Vietnam.

It was the first major action by the SCLC in Washington, D.C. since Resurrection City in 1968.

The week between the massive antiwar rally April 24, 1971 and the onset of the Mayday demonstrations beginning May 1, 1971 were taken up by a week of demonstrations by the People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Vietnam Veterans Against the War staged a series of demonstrations prior to the April 24th rally meaning that the city was beset by three continuous weeks of anti-Vietnam War demonstrations culminating in the attempt by the Mayday Tribe to shut down the U.S. government through non-violent civil disobedience.

The SCLC and PCPJ conducted large-scale sit-ins outside the Selective Service Agency, Justice Department, and other government agencies. Hundreds were arrested during these protests prior to the mass arrest of an estimated 12,000 during the Mayday demonstrations.

The original is held in the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_F_0082a.

D.C. Patriot Party distributes ‘Free Bobby Seale’ flyer – 1971

A flyer published by the Patriot Party, a white left-wing revolutionary organization aligned with the Black Panther Party, that was distributed in the greater Washington, D.C. area in 1971 and calls for freedom for Bobby Seale, a Panther leader.

The Patriot Party organized in the Washington, D.C. area 1970-71 out of the Panther office and their Community Center focusing are far southeast Washington where working class whites still lived and the inner suburbs of Prince George’s County.

The Patriots struggled in the D.C. as Arthur Turco, one of the leaders of the national organization, was indicted in May 1970 for ordering the killing of Baltimore Black Panther suspected of being an informant. The indictment of Turco and a number of Baltimore Panthers consumed much of the effort by Patriot organizers in the Washington area.

The organization was not related to the later right wing organization of the same name.

Call for an anti-Klan rally in Maryland – 1971

A flyer for an anti-Klan demonstration sponsored by Youth Against War and Fascism (YAWF) in Rising Sun, Maryland June 19, 1971.

About two miles outside of town, a counter-demonstration of about 50 organized by YAWF picketed the Klan picnic held prior to their scheduled night rally and cross burning.

The demonstration was held on a ten foot strip of land between the road and George Boyle farm fence on Sylmar Road. The state had erected “no parking” signs only days before and stationed state troopers nearby. Demonstrators were forced to have several vans drive back and forth along the narrow road in the event of trouble.

The only incident occurred when a young Klansman spit across the fence at demonstrators. The night rally brought Robert Shelton, Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America, to the farm for hate speeches and their cross burning before a crowd of several hundred.

Call for Library of Congress employee meeting – Jun. 1972

An 8 ½ x 11 one-sided flyer issued by Black Employees at the Library of Congress (BELC) calls for a meeting at Christ Child Settlement House June 29, 1972.

The flyer also mentions the group’s affiliation with Government Employees United Against Racial Discrimination (GUARD)—a city-wide umbrella organization of federal groups in most departments government plus two organizations in D.C. government—fire and sanitation.

In the early 1970s, black employees at the Library of Congress were occupying the lowest paying jobs without opportunity for promotion. BELC was formed in a lunchroom conversation in July 1970.

It took years of struggle, but the lawsuits were ultimately successful with the primary suit winning $8.5 million in 1995. The final disposition wasn’t done until 2002 when the Howard Cook and Tommy Shaw Foundation was established with money from covered persons who could not be located.

The judge authorized the committee to use interest generated by the foundation principal–or enhanced by foundation fundraising –to pay for the education and training of African-American employees seeking to advance their careers at the Library and to assist employees pursuing discrimination claims against the Library. The principal was to be held until persons not found could be located.

‘African Liberation Day/A Common Black Struggle’ – Apr. 1972

An unsigned flyer entitled “A Black Beginning / African Liberation Day / A Common Black Struggle” calls for participants for the first African Liberation Day demonstration in Washington, D.C. May 27, 1972.

The nearly all-black crowd estimated at 12,000 began at Malcolm X Park and wound its way through Embassy Row where short rallies were held at the South African and Portuguese Embassies, the Rhodesian information office and the State Department where the US was denounced for evading international sanctions by permitting trade and investment in white-controlled African countries.

At the time white settler governments ruled over Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa, and Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau were still direct colonies of Portugal. Armed liberation struggles and political resistance were underway in all four countries by the overwhelmingly black population.

The march ended on the grounds of the Washington Monument that was renamed by the marchers “Lumumba Square” after assassinated Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.

Speakers included Osusu Sadaukai, march organizer and president of the Malcolm X Liberation University in Greensboro, NC, Amiri Baraka, Haki R. Madhubuti, George Wiley, Cleveland Sellers, Elaine Brown and Walter Fauntroy. A telegram from Kwame Ture was read to the crowd.

Speakers voiced support for the liberation movements and condemned the US for its support of the minority regimes and for its prosecution of the Vietnam war.

The first meeting of 32 independent African countries to form the Organization of African Unity was held May 25, 1963. At the meeting Africa Freedom Day, that had been celebrated on April 15, was changed to May 25 and renamed African Liberation Day.

Fight the Energy Freeze: Jan – 1974

The D.C. branch of the African Liberation Support Committee puts its turn toward Marxism into practice as it issues a flyer January 26, 1974 calling for a meeting at Pride, Inc. to fight the energy crisis.

Annapolis Report, Vol. 2. No. 2 – Feb. – 1974

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Maryland Public Employees Council 67 reports in its February 12, 1974 legislative newsletter on its efforts to convince the state legislature to declare Rev. Martin Luther King’s birthday a state holiday.

The Maryland House and Senate later passed the bill making Maryland the second state to honor Dr. King’s civil rights legacy in 1974.

Baraka’s vision for Congress of Afrikan People – Mar. 1974

Imamu Amiri Baraka writes a short analysis of the situation facing black revolutionaries that is delivered to the Congress of Afrikan People (CAP) in March 1974 and represents the transformation of the organization from a pan-Africanist, black nationalist organization to a Marxist-Leninist.

Baraka’s gives his analysis of the current situation and lays out a political program and organizational program to further the cause of black liberation.

Specifically he calls for expanding CAP cadre and working within the African Liberation Support Committee and the broader National Black Political Assembly.

CAP would ultimately re-name itself the Revolutionary Communist League (Marxist-Leninist-Mao Tse-tung Thought), later merging into the League of Revolutionary Struggle (Marxist-Leninist) before that group split. Part of the League joined the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

‘Finally Got the News’ open letter – May 1974

A flier distributed by the African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC) In May 1974 and labeled Fact Sheet No. 1 urges government workers in Washington, D.C. to participate in an upcoming conference and march.

This marked the third African Liberation Day march. The first was held May 25, 1972 when upwards of 15,000 people marched in support of struggles against White minority regimes and neo-colonial regimes in Africa.

By 1974, the ALSC was dominated by anti-imperialist trends. Owusu Sadaukai, an ALSC founder and former head of Malcolm X Liberation University in Durham, N.C.; the African People’s Congress led by Amiri Baraka; and the All-African People’s Party in the U.S. led by Kwame Ture were among the leaders and organizers.

The demonstration on May 25, 1974 drew over 5,000 people according to estimates in the Washington Post and Evening Star newspapers as it wound around the northwest part of the city, including marching down U Street NW, passing the White House and ending with a rally at Malcolm X Park.

African liberation activist D.C. newspaper – May 1974

The Washington, D.C. chapter of the African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC) briefly published a tabloid newspaper in 1974 called Finally Got the News named after the film of the same name that depicted the League of Revolutionary Black Workers struggle in Detroit.

The large African Liberation Day rally in 1972 was the driver behind forming the national ALSC composed mainly of pan-Africanists and black nationalists.

By 1973 a split was developing within the ALSC over working with white organizations that supported African liberation as urged by some leaders of the movements in Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.

Read the local Finally Got the News May 1974 issue to understand the shift in emphasis to the black working class along with supporting African liberation.

ALSC links community struggles to imperialism – Nov. 1974

The African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC) links the fight against U.S. imperialism to the struggles taking place in District of Columbia communities in this November 1974 flyer advertising a program of speakers and a film at the Savoy Elementary School in Anacostia.

By 1974 most leaders within the District of Columbia ALSC had turned toward Marxism-Leninism and were publishing a tabloid newspaper called Finally Got the News that covered and analyzed community issues as well as national and international events.

Donated by Craig Simpson

Call to march against white supremacy in Boston – Dec. 1974

The Emergency Committee for a National Mobilization Against Racism issues a call to march in Boston Dec. 14, 1974 after white mobs hurled racial epithets and attacked school buses carrying black children at the South Boston High School.

Four buses left Washington, D.C. carrying about 180 people while dozens more made the drive up the east coast to join an estimated 15,000 demonstrators who ranged from pacifists to Marxist poet Amiri Baraka.

Comedian and activist Dick Gregory told the crowd, “Let’s not fool ourselves, the schools in South Boston are just as bad as the schools in Roxbury. What we really want is an end to bad schooling.”

CAP offers critical support for Boston busing march – Dec. 1974

The Congress of Afrikan People (CAP) issues a flyer offering critical support to a march against racism in Boston, Massachusetts at the height of the Boston busing crisis where thousands of white parents and students fought against integration of schools in that city in 1974-75.

CAP called for upholding the right of all students to attend any school, but called the focus misplaced and instead put forth the demand of a decent education for all students, black and white.

CAP was a Black Marxist-Leninist organization headed by renowned poet Amiri Baraka. It eventually became the League of Revolutionary Struggle and later many of its member joined the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

African Liberation Day – May 1975

An unsigned flyer advertises an African Liberation Day march May 24, 1975 beginning at Malcolm X Park at 16^th & Euclid Streets NW with a rally to follow.

This was the fourth African Liberation Day and the local event drew over 1,000 to the park, including a significant minority of White people for the first time..

The event was sponsored by the local chapter of the African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC).

Unlike previous African Liberation Day marches, this one eschewed the White House and instead paraded through the neighborhoods around Malcolm X Park, including marching up 18^th Street and along Columbia Road NW before returning to the park for a rally.

Speakers denounced American military involvement and business exploitation in Third World countries. And they also denounced racism and capitalism in the U.S..

One speaker, Carl Turpin, told the crowd that racism among working class Black and White workers only served to keep the two groups from uniting and working toward social progress.

“I work with working class people,” he said. “At my job the White workers think they are better than the Blacks, and the Blacks think that they are better than the Spanish speaking workers. We must bring an end to this,” he said according to the Washington Post.

One of the organizers, Phyllis Jones, said the event was important because many different types of people attended with a common purpose.

“These people are not only here to support African liberation,” she said. “Many came because they understand the relationship between the present economic crisis and the capitalistic economic system,” according to the Post.

Wilmington 10 brochure – May 1975

A 1975 brochure issued by the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression (NAARPR) calls for a demonstration in Washington, D.C. to support the Wilmington 10—Rev. Ben Chavis, eight Black high school students and one White woman–charged with arson and conspiracy during racial disturbances in Wilmington, N.C. in 1971.

The May 31, 1975 rally drew over 1,000 to Lafayette Park where they heard speeches by Communist Party Black leader Angela Davis and Joan Little, whose 1974 acquittal in North Carolina for killing a jail guard during an attempted rape drew national attention.

The NAARPR’s brochure attempts to link the state of North Carolina’s long battle to attain low-wages in their factories to the repression of the 10 defendants.

I Am We newsletter—Huey Newton and Panther support committee: 1975

The Committee for Justice for Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party publishes its third newsletter May-June 1975.

“I Am We,” the national newsletter published in Oakland, Ca,. contains reports of a call for an investigation into CIA “abuses against minority and civil rights organizations” and poetry from Huey Newton, including “Revolutionary Suicide.”

‘Free Joanne Little’ picket at Justice Department – Jul. 1975

The Socialist Workers Party initiates a flyer advertising a picket line July 14, 1975 in support of Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann) Little, charged with murdering one of her North Carolina jailers who attempted to rape her,

The picket line at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. coincided with the first day of Little’s trial at the Wake County Courthouse in NC and was endorsed by a broad range of groups and individuals, including the D.C. Women’s Center, Rep John Conyers (D-MI), District of Columbia National Organization for Women (NOW), Northern Virginia NOW, Black Employees of the Library of Congress, RAP, Inc., and the D.C. chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women.

The flyer also calls for donations to Little’s defense fund.

Simultaneously a national demonstration took place at the Wake County Courthouse in North Carolina where thousands rallied in her defense.

Little was jailed for minor crimes in the Beauford County, NC jail. On August 27, 1974 White guard Clarence Alligood was found dead on Joan Little’s bunk naked from the waist down with stab wounds to his temple and heart. Semen was later discovered on his leg. Little had fled the scene.

Little turned herself in a week later and claimed self-defense against sexual assault but was charged with first degree murder.

The case attracted national attention in part because Little would have received the death penalty if convicted. Civil rights advocates, death penalty opponents and women’s rights advocates all rallied to her defense.

The jury of six blacks and six whites deliberated for about an hour and a half before delivering a not guilty verdict.

Little may have been the first woman in United States history to be acquitted using the defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault. Her case also has become classic in legal circles as a pioneering instance of the application of scientific jury selection.

Original held at the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_F_0131

Congress of Afrikan People Unity & Struggle newspaper: 1976

Unity and Struggle—the newspaper of the Congress of Afrikan People (CAP) led by Imamu Amiri Baraka.

CAP was at this point a Marxist-Leninist organization that followed the positions of the People’s Republic of China, including accepting the so-called three-worlds theory where the U.S. and the Soviet Union were equal enemies of people world-wide.

As one of three marches on African Liberation Day in 1976, the African Liberation Support Committee marched from the White House to Malcolm X Park. By this point in time the ALSC had come to be dominated by organizations and individuals learning toward Maoism, including CAP and Baraka.

End the Triple Oppression of Black Women – Feb. 1976

‘End the Triple Oppression A coalition of groups calls for a demonstration and press conference at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Washington, D.C. February 28, 1976 protesting discrimination against two Black women—one at the V.A. Hospital and the other at Niesner’s department store.

The flyer charges that Barbra Droze, a dietary worker, was fired by the V.A. after protesting sexual harassment. Glen Hilliard, active in the Retail Clerks Local 400 union organizing campaign at Niesner’s was fired and denied unemployment. With the help of community groups, she secured her unemployment on appeal.

The sponsors included the October League (M-L), one of the groups that composed the new communist movement of the 1970s; D.C. Unite to Fight Back, a multi-issue group initiated by the October League; the Alliance for Labor and Community Action, a multi-issue group influenced by the October League; Save The People (STP), a group set up by ex-Black Panthers Nkenge and Patrice Touré to continue the prison, free breakfast and health programs after the national Panther Party called all cadre to move to the West Coast; Congress of Afrikan People, the group headed by the poet Amiri Baraka that had moved to adopt Marxism-Leninism; and the D.C. International Women’s Day Coalition.

Donated by Craig Simpson

Call to protest U.S. visit of South African official Pik Botha – May 1981

The Coalition to Stop U.S.-South African Collaboration issues a flyer to protest the state visit of the White-supremacist regime Minister of Foreign Affairs Pik Botha in Washington, D.C. May 14, 1981.

The coalition was composed of D.C. Bank Campaign, Southern Africa Support Project, Trans Africa and the Washington Office on Africa.

Botha was invited to the White House to confer with U.S. President Ronald Reagan after meeting with Secretary of State Alexander Haig earlier in the day.

All-Peoples Congress poster – Oct. 1981

The All-Peoples Congress attracted a wide range of groups and individuals from left-leaning elected Democrats to the Revolutionary Communist Party. Upward of 3,500 people attended the event.

The Worker’s World Party began as a split-off from the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party in 1958, but eventually abandoned Trotskyism.

–Donated by Craig Simpson

Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration: 1992

A 1992 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration at Howard University’s Crampton Auditorium featuring Mint Condition.

Singer Chris Walker received second bill. Both Mint Condition and Chris Walker had released popular albums at the time and were a big draw for the event.

King’s birthday became a federal holiday in 1986.

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Communists

The Communist Party’s Third Period

The Communist Party in the U.S. was the leading activist organization in the country from its formation in 1919 into the 1950s when it fell victim to an anti-communist crusade and internal divisions that decimated the organization.

It was supplanted by activist civil rights organizations like SCLC, CORE and later SNCC and the Students for Democratic Society and other “New Left” organizations in the 1960s. The Third Period was an analysis adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. The Comintern’s made an economic and political analysis of world capitalism that divided recent history into three periods.

The “First Period” that followed World War I was defined by a revolutionary upsurge that saw a brief seizure of power by the working class in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Iran and failed revolutionary attempts in Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Bessarabia, Georgia, Estonia and Belgium.

The “Second Period” saw capitalist consolidation for most of the decade of the 1920s.

The “Third Period,” according to the Comintern’s analysis began from 1928 onward and was to be a time of widespread economic collapse and mass working class radicalization. This economic and political discord would again make the time ripe for proletarian revolution if militant policies were rigidly maintained by communist vanguard parties, the Comintern believed.

The analysis initially seemed accurate as the Great Depression swept Western economies.

Communist policies during the Third Period were marked by a denunciation of reformism and political organizations espousing which was seen as an impediment to the movement’s revolutionary objectives. While the analysis was accurate in understanding the coming crisis of capitalism, revolution did not occur in any Western countries.

The errors in understanding conditions led the Comintern to believe that the 1932 Bonus March in the U.S., with thousands of veterans gathering in the nation’s capital, was a revolutionary situation.

The rise of the Nazi Party to power in Germany in 1933 and destruction of the largest organized communist movement in the West there shocked the Comintern into re-assessing the tactics of the Third Period.

From 1934, new alliances began to be formed under the aegis of the so-called “Popular Front” against fascism. The Popular Front policy was formalized as the official policy of the world communist movement by the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern in 1935. Third period documents available:

Stop lynching; demand death penalty – 1931

A flyer advertising a December 29, 1931 Washington, D.C. meeting sponsored by communist aligned groups to protest recent lynchings is shown above.

The flyer demands the death penalty for the murderers of Matthew Williams in Salisbury, Maryland and Sam Jackson and George Banks in Lewisburg, West Virginia.

The League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the International Labor Defense and the Scottsboro Defense Committee were all communist-led organizations.

Toward a Soviet America by William Z Foster – 1932

This book documents the rise of socialism in the Soviet Union, the crisis facing capitalism, the need for revolution, and a vision of what a socialist society would be like in the United States.

The book also attacks social-democrats and liberals calling them “Social Fascists” because they seek to give the masses concessions in order to calm them and prevent communist revolution. It is probably the best-known book published by the Communist Party, USA.

Foster organized the packing house workers along industrial lines during World War I and led the failed steel strike of 1919 that also organized workers along industrial lines. It would be another 20 years before Foster’s industrial strategy was successful.

He served as chair of the Communist Party USA from 1924-34 and from 1945-57.

Call to join & support Hunger March – 1932

A 4-page handout from the Joint Committee For Support of the National Hunger March of the Workers International Relief calls on workers to support and join the 1932 caravans and demonstration in Washington, D.C. to demand immediate relief and a national unemployment insurance system.

The columns from across the country were scheduled to arrive in Washington, D.C. December 4, 1932 and stage a march and rally December 5^th on the opening day of Congress. The columns took a number of different routes with stops in a number of cities designed to rally support and acquire provisions and funds to support the marchers.

The publication outlines the conditions of the unemployed, analyzes the cause, provides a map of the route the different columns will take and critiques other proposed measures. It demands immediate federally funded $50 winter relief for every unemployed plus $10 for each dependent; government and employer funded unemployment insurance; immediate payment of the World War I veterans’ bonus; and an end to subsidies for banks.

The march was largely organized by the Communist Party-influenced Unemployed Councils that were demanding jobs and unemployment insurance in cities across the country.

The pamphlet was issued under the auspices of the Workers International Relief, an agency initially organized in Berlin to provide humanitarian aid to the Soviet Union, but later expanding its scope to assisting workers in many countries. The agency was attached to the Communist International.

The Washington, D.C. Hunger marches of 1931-32 gained nearly as much publicity at the time as the more enduring Bonus Army marchers of 1932-34.

With one-third of the nation unemployed, the call for a march demanding relief and jobs struck a chord throughout the nation.

Highway of Hunger: The Story of America’s Homeless Youth by Dave Doren – 1933

This pamphlet portrays a bleak future for youth whether they are the children of unemployed or college graduates—unless a revolution led by the Communist Party prevails. Doran joined the Young Communist League in 1930 and went to the Deep South to build up membership of the YCL among the unemployed.

In Scottsboro, Alabama, he was beaten up after he became involved in the campaign to free the “Scottsboro Boys.” In 1931 he joined the Communist Party USA and worked as a trade union organizer with agricultural workers in Alabama, textile workers in North Carolina) and coal miners in Pennsylvania).

By 1936 he was the party’s director of trade union activities. He joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight fascism in Spain. After showing heroism in a number of battles, he was promoted to political commissioner for a battalion.

He was believed to be captured and executed on April 2, 1938 in Gandesa, during the Retreats phase of the Spanish Civil War.

Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International and Draft Resolution of the 8th Convention of the Communist Party, USA – Mar. 1934

These were two documents produced at the end of the third period and reiterate the premises of the 1928 analysis with few changes. In practice, the formation of a united front against fascism began to be implemented in 1934 but these documents had not caught up to the times.

Following the Nazi seizure of power in Germany in 1933 and the subsequent crushing of the Communist Party in Germany—the largest in the West—caused Soviet leader Josef Stain to rethink whether a revolutionary situation, in fact, had developed.

He came to the conclusion that the greatest danger lay in the development of fascism in the advanced capitalist countries and began urging an anti-fascist alliance with sections of the capitalists that were opposed to fascism. It was widely called the “Popular Front.”

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Liquidation of the U.S. Communist Party

After pursuing the Popular Front strategy for 10 years, CPUSA chair Earl Browder formulated a new analysis after the Teheran conference in 1943 between Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Josef Stalin.

The Teheran conference cemented the World War II alliance between England, the United States and the Soviet Union and Browder believed that a permanent truce had been arranged between the anti-fascist capitalists and the communists. He proposed liquidating the U.S. Communist Party and replacing it with a Communist Political Association that would act as a kind of “left wing” of both the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Only a few U.S. communists in leadership positions opposed the change; notably William Z. Foster, the former chair; Anna Damon, executive secretary of the International Labor Defense and Sam Darcy, a communist leader who led the 1930 unemployed march in New York and played a key role in the West Coast Longshore strike of 1934.

A Communist Party convention in 1944 completed the transformation. After World War II ended, it became clear that the United States and the Soviet Union would be in competition although it was not yet clear that a complete break would occur.

A letter was circulated among high party officials in Moscow denouncing Browder’s move to dissolve the party. It was partially based on Foster’s opposition to Browder’s move. French communist leader Jacques Duclos put his name to the letter and released it publicly.

The CPUSA was reconstituted and Browder expelled. However, there was little time for the party to come to terms with the easy acceptance of Browder’s liquidation of the organization before the Cold War and anti-communist hysteria swept the US in the late 1940s.

Many later analysts believe this left the communists unprepared for the onslaught they would face and in the end, leave them marginalized.

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U.S. Communist Party during the 2nd Red Scare

After World War II, the former allies of the U.S. and the Soviet Union quickly became in competition with each other, particularly after the U.S. promulgated the Marshall Plan designed to rebuild Western Europe along a capitalist economy.

The most provocative part of the plan offered the same type of aid to some Eastern European countries that it had earlier agreed would be in the Soviet sphere of influence.

Once the dividing line became clear, both Republican and Democrats took aim at the U.S. Communist Party with a series of laws and propaganda designed to discredit the party.

Where once the party had been a very junior partner in the Roosevelt New Deal, it now had a target on its back. Dozens were jailed, hundreds lost their jobs and countless more who were not communists at all had their reputations besmirched. Eleven unions were forced out of the mainstream labor movement that represented about 3.5 million members.

Many have charged that the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg was primarily designed to send a message to communists and supporters in the U.S.

Virginia House Bill No. 6 criminalizing beliefs – Jan. 1948

Further, mere membership in or aiding or abetting a group that believes in replacing the current government is considered felony criminal behavior under the bill.

Penalties of from 3 to 5 years and fines up to $1,000 are provided for violators of the act.

A version of the bill ultimately passed in 1950 and remains part of the Virginia code.

‘Five Men on a Hunger Strike’ – Mar. 1948

Smith was the highest-ranking African American in the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) at the time.

The hunger strike ended when the four (Potash was released earlier) were granted bail on March 6th. However, all were ultimately forced out of the country at various times in the 1950s.

Ad hits Mundt-Nixon anti-communist bill – 1948

The Mundt-Nixon bill was the first anti-communist bill of the McCarthy era also known as the Second Red Scare.

U.S. Rep. Karl Mundt (R-SD) and U.S. Rep. Richard M. Nixon (R-CA), members of the House Committee on Un-American (HUAC) activities, sponsored the first anti-communist bill of the Cold War era.

A broad campaign was organized against the bill and many denounced as a violation of civil liberties.

While the bill ultimately failed in the Senate, most of its components, plus others, were enacted in the McCarren Internal Security Act in 1950.

D.C. May Day Rally flyer – 1948

A May Day rally flyer sponsored by the Communist Party of the District of Columbia around the demands of D.C. suffrage, against Jim Crow, for equal rights, for peace—against the war makers.

The rally was to be held at the National Press Building May 2, 1948.

Daily Worker on U.S. communist leaders’ arrest – Jul. 1948

The Daily Worker, publication of the Communist Party USA, reports on the initial arrest of its leaders July 21, 1948 for advocating overthrow of the U.S. government as defined under the Smith Act.

The issue also contains a statement issued by the Communist Party on the arrest of their leaders.

House Un-American Activities Committee anti-communist guide – Jun. 1948

“100 Things You Should Know About Communism in the USA.” is published by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) June 17, 1948.

The 32-page guide posed questions on how you can tell if someone is a communist and listed what it said were the principal communist officers, both nationally and locally.

It was the first of a series of handbooks on communism to be published by the congressional committee and was later updated at least once in subsequent years.

Those named for the Maryland and District of Columbia district of the Communist Party located at 210 West Franklin Street, Baltimore, Md., and 527 Ninth Street NW, Washington, D.C. were:

Chairman (district)—Phil Frankfeld
Secretary (district)—Dorothy Blumberg
Chairman (District of Columbia section)—William Taylor
Vice chairman (District of Columbia section)—William S. Johnson
Secretary (District of Columbia section)—Elizabeth Searle
Treasurer (District of Columbia section)—Mary Stalcup
Literary director (District of Columbia section)—Casey Gurewitz
Cumberland organizer—Mel Fiske
Director, membership committee—Constance Jackson

Marie Richardson flyer – Dec. 1951

However, she had been the first black woman to hold a full-time union position in a national union (United Federal Workers) and was executive secretary of the local National Negro Congress.

She served 4 ½ years in prison.

The case of Marie Richardson Harris: The victim of a modern witch-hunt – 1952

Her defense committee had a fundraiser broken up by D.C. police and itself was later designated as a subversive organization by the U.S. government.

Maryland Civil Rights Congress calls for Rosenberg clemency – 1953 ca.

The newly formed affiliate of the Civil Rights Congress issues a press release calling on Maryland Gov. Theodore McKeldin to urge clemency and President Dwight Eisenhower to grant clemency to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg following the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear their case.

The Rosenbergs were convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union during the second Red Scare and executed in 1953 despite a world-wide campaign for clemency..

NLRB non-communist affidavit – circa 1955

The Taft-Harley Act passed in 1948 prohibited members of the Communist Party from holding labor union office if the union were to use provisions of the National Labor Relations Act.

It required officers to sign a “non-communist affidavit” in order for the union to be eligible for National Labor Relations Board services and the use of the law in disputes with employers.

Many mark the decline of the labor movement to the Taft Harley Act and the inability of labor to wage effective resistance.

Communists against the ERA in Virginia – 1974

An unsigned 8 ½ x 11 single-side flyer lists the organizations that testified in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) at a 1974 bill hearing in the Virginia General Assembly.

The full text of the Equal Rights Amendment is:

Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

The ERA had broad support among both left-leaning and centrist groups. Conservative and far right-wing groups generally opposed it. The organization that stands out for its opposition to the ERA is the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).

Communists had historically been champions of women’s rights and the opposition seemed incongruous.

The CPUSA initially opposed the ERA because it would wipe out protective legislation for women in industry such as restrictions on working hours. Instead the Communist Party helped to initiate a Charter Movement in the 1930s that sought to eliminate sex-based discrimination in employment, including equal pay and opportunities for all women while preserving and expanding protective legislation.

The Charter’s language protected labor legislation while explicitly guaranteeing equal rights. The text began,

“Women shall have full political and civil rights; full opportunity for education; full opportunity for employment according to their individual abilities, with safeguards against physically harmful conditions of employment and economic exploitation.”

Further it declared that women ‘shall receive compensation, without discrimination because of sex. They shall be assured security of livelihood, including the safeguarding of motherhood.’

The Charter also emphasized the right to unionize and the expansion of the economic justice programs of the government and upheld women’s reproductive rights.

Perhaps the most explicit and central aim of the Charter movement was proclaimed that “…where special exploitation of women workers exists, such as low wages, which provide for less than the living standards attainable, unhealthful working conditions, or long hours of work which result in physical exhaustion and denial of the right to leisure, such conditions shall be corrected through social and labor legislation, which the world’s experience shows to be necessary.”

The Charter movement took hold in many countries around the world with its emphasis on women’s rights in the workplace.

The formation of the Charter movement effectively split women activists at the time. During the period of the 1930s and 1940s the CPUSA enjoyed its largest numbers and had influence far beyond its membership.

Communist leaders argued against the ERA, Denise Lynn quoted communist leaders in her 2014 paper on the issue.

“In a memo to local CPUSA women’s committees, Cowl [Margaret Cowl, head of the CPUSA’s Women’s Commission] outlined the CPUSA’s opposition to the ERA. The amendment, Cowl argued, sounded progressive, but it would ‘do away with all industrial laws which apply to women and not to men;’ more specifically, ‘it would cancel all state minimum wage laws applying to women alone.’ Earl Browder head of the CPUSA, echoed Cowl’s concern, claiming that not only would the amendment eradicate existing legislation, but it would ‘prevent the enactment of protective legislation thereafter.’”

The second Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s decimated the CPUSA and though it continued to provide organizational muscle to a number of causes, including civil rights, labor, and anti-Vietnam War activities, its influence was greatly diminished.

Further, in the U.S., the Civil Rights Act of 1964 effectively nullified much of the protective legislation still in place and provided for equal pay, job access and other conditions for women in the workplace.

In 1976 the CPUSA dropped its opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and came out in favor of it.

Original held in the Elizabeth Smith collection of Virginia ERA Ratification Council Records, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Branch Cabell Library, Special Collections.

Communist Party 1965-90

‘The People Protest the Mess in Reagan’s Backyard’ – 1981

Maurice Jackson, chair of the DC/Virginia District of the Communist Party U.S.A, analyzes the political and economic state of the District of Columbia and sets for the Communist Party platform for progress in the city in a 16-page pamphlet in 1981.

The pamphlet is entitled, “The People Protest the Mess in Reagan’s Backyard.”

Jackson would run unsuccessfully for city council several times, has written several books and in contemporary times is Associate Professor of History and African American Studies and an Affiliated Professor of Performing Arts (Jazz) at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.,

Jackson would leave the Communist Party in 1991 in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union to form the Committees of Correspondence, along with about one-third of the party membership. The new organization rejected Leninism and embraced democratic socialism.

It has changed its name in contemporary times to the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and permits dual membership in the Socialist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists of America. (DSA).

The Communist Party continues to organize in the District of Columbia and Virginia in contemporary times.

Donated by Craig Simpson

–Return to Main Menu–

The New Communist Movement

The student upsurge in the mid and late 1960s produced a number of groups that styled themselves as anti-revisionist–those who rejected the Soviet Union’s state as going against Marxist-Leninist principles and headed toward restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union.

At one time the largest of these groups, the Revolutionary Union that subsequently evolved into the Revolutionary Communist Party sunk roots into the working class, established a student group and other organizations in other strata of society, did work among artists, poets and singers and mimicked in many ways the U.S. Communist Party of the Third Period.

New Communist Movement documents

Mother Jones collective exposes alleged police agent – 1970 ca.

The Mother Jones Collective in Baltimore, a Marxist-Leninist formation that grew out of the student movement, puts out a flyer describing a suspected police agent named John Shaw circa 1970.

Call for an anti-imperialist contingent in national antiwar march – May 1972

A flyer by the Attica Brigade, a youth group associated with the Maoist Revolutionary Union calls on people to join an anti-imperialist contingent in a larger march on Washington, D.C. to oppose the Vietnam War May 21, 1972.

While speeches took place before a crowd of 10-15,000 on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, several thousand in the anti-imperialist contingent tossed rocks, bottles and other projectiles while police responded with clubs and tear gas.

D.C. police chief Jerry Wilson was hit six times with objects including a wooden stick that caused blood to run down his face.

Wilson was quoted, “They usually run when I walk toward them. This time they threw bigger rocks.”

A dozen police officers were injured and 178 protesters were arrested during the confrontation.

Third World Newsreel brochure – 1974

An early 7-page brochure from Third World Newsreel distributed in Washington, D.C. features new 16mm films available for rental in 1974. The brochure also contains suggested themes comprised of several films and refers to a catalogue.

Their website describes their history:

“Founded in December 1967 as Newsreel, an activist filmmaker collective in New York, our organization quickly expanded into a network with chapters across the US. Originally producing and distributing short 16mm films that highlighted key social movements of the era—including the anti-war and women’s movements, and civil and human rights movements.

“Newsreel gained unique access to groups such as the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords Party. This period of activism attracted many artists who later became renowned filmmakers, such as Norman Fruchter, Susan Robeson, Robert Kramer, Christine Choy, Tami Gold, Allan Siegel, and Deborah Shaffer.

“In the mid-1970s, as the global landscape of solidarity movements evolved, New York Newsreel was reborn as Third World Newsreel, reflecting a deepened commitment to developing filmmakers and audiences of color.

“Today, TWN honors the progressive vision of its founders and remains the oldest media arts organization in the U.S. devoted to cultural workers of color and their global constituencies.”

Baraka’s vision for Congress of Afrikan People – Mar. 1974

Baraka’s gives his analysis of the current situation and lays out a political program and organizational program to further the cause of black liberation.

Specifically he calls for expanding CAP cadre and working within the African Liberation Support Committee and the broader National Black Political Assembly.

CAP offers critical support for Boston busing march – Dec. 1974

CAP called for upholding the right of all students to attend any school, but called the focus misplaced and instead put forth the demand of a decent education for all students, black and white.

Alliance for Labor & Community Action Unemployment Committee – circa 1975

The Alliance for Labor and Community Action (ALCA) Unemployment Committee issues a 4-page, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inch pamphlet circa 1975 entitled “Fight Back” setting out their principles of unity, demands, and a description of who they are and calling on the jobless to join the group.

The Washington, D.C. area-based group was initiated by the October League (M-L), a Marxist-Leninist group that had its roots in the 1969 split of the Students for Democratic Society.

The ALCA was active locally building support for the Washington Post strike and advocating for the unemployed, among other issues.

Its effort to recruit workers into the ALCA was disappointing, although the group was able to mobilize some workers for its various actions.

The October League (M-L) formed the Communist Party (M-L) in 1977, but the group dissolved in 1982.

May Day Celebration – May 1975

The DC Anti-Imperialist Committee advertises a May Day celebration at All Souls Church in Washington, D.C. May 4, 1975.

The sponsors included The Worker newspaper, Revolutionary Union, Ethiopian Student Union, Eritreans for Liberation, Iranian Students Association and the Ethiopian Women’s Study Group. The event was endorsed by the African Liberation Support Committee, Congress of African People, February First Movement and the Wounded Knee Defense Committee.

These groups at this point in time had either adopted Marxism-Leninism as a guiding principle or had strong group of adherents within them.

The flyer declared, “When the working class assembles, the ruling class trembles” and “Today hundreds of millions of the working people of the world Mark May 1^st with strikes and demonstrations, declaring war by the disinherited workers against the class of idle rich.”

DC Anti-Imperialist Committee Principles & Tasks – 1975 ca.

A set of principles and political tasks are set forward by the D.C. Anti-imperialist Committee circa 1975 in an 8 ½ x 14 single-page document.

Some of the members in 1975 were The Worker newspaper, Revolutionary Union, Ethiopian Student Union, Eritreans for Liberation, Iranian Students Association and the Ethiopian Women’s Study Group. The event was endorsed by the African Liberation Support Committee, Congress of African People, February First Movement and the Wounded Knee Defense Committee.

The document upholds the right of self-determination for all nations; recognizes the quality of all people, including people of color and women; calls for opposition to puppet governments and sets forth internal procedures for the coalition, among other points.

Donated by Craig Simpson

Congress of Afrikan People Unity & Struggle newspaper – 1976

Unity and Struggle—the newspaper of the Congress of Afrikan People (CAP) led by Imamu Amiri Baraka.

We’ve Carried the Rich for 200 Years – 1976

As the 200^thbirthday of the United States approached in 1976, the Revolutionary Communist Party had a different vision of what that meant and organized a protest during the bicentennial celebration in Philadelphia.

About 3,000 marched through the streets of the city chanting revolutionary slogans and carrying banners—many from factories and plants from around the country.

It was the last worker-based demonstration organized by the group, although it carried out a protest against revisionism in the communist movement attended by several hundred during the U.S. visit of Chinese premier Deng Xiaoping in Washington, D.C. in 1979 that resulted in the arrest of dozens and the exile of its leader Bob Avakian for many years.

Other significant demonstrations by the group include May Day events and antiwar demonstrations during both Iraq wars.

End the Triple Oppression of Black Women – Feb. 1976

Donated by Craig Simpson

DC Fight Back regional conference – Mar. 1976

A 4-page, 5 ½ x 8 ½ pamphlet calls for activists to come to a regional Fight Back conference to be held March 27, 1976 at the Sumner School at 17^th & M Streets. NW.

Workshops were scheduled on various topics including women, national question, trade unions, world situation, unemployment, the economic crisis, police repression, youth, hospital workers, government workers, Reisner’s department store struggle and the Washington Post strike.

Fight Back was a national organization initiated by the October League (M-L) to act as a vehicle for activists to engage in various struggles under the leadership of the OL.

It was formed Dec. 27-28 1975 at a conference in Chicago that drew 1,500 people. There was little debate at the conference over position, strategy and tactics—a criticism leveled by those attending from the Congress of Afrikan People, a group led by the poet Amiri Baraka.

In Washington, D.C., the October League was already heavily influencing the Alliance for Labor and Community Action—serving the same purpose as Fight Back. The OL in the city attempted to maintain both organizations for a period of time in the mid-70s.

The October League (M-L) would later go on to form the Communist Party (M-L) in 1977, but by 1982 most of the leadership had rejected Leninism and the organization dissolved that year.

A post-mortem analysis of the October League/Communist Party (M-L) by Redweldor found:

“The Fight Back was a flop. All those stories in The Call [the OL/CPML newspaper] about mass meetings, demonstrations, committees here and there were part fabrication, part wishful thinking. There was no fighting response, spontaneous or organized, to the economic crisis during the seventies.

“Worse than a flop. The Fight Back was counter-productive. False expectations foster demoralization. The burn-out that spread through CPML after the Founding Congress started with the Fight Back.”

Donated by Craig Simpson

‘200 Years is Long Enough’ – Jun. 1976

The Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) issues a 30-page Marxist-Leninist analysis of the American revolution and class struggle in the U.S. up until 1976—the 200^th anniversary of the American revolution.

The document retains relevance as the 250^th anniversary approaches. The pamphlet critiques the Bicentennial celebrations of the day as a diversion from the class struggle that is needed for a second American revolution to overthrow the capitalist system.

The documents puts the American revolution in context and hails it as a step forward, but outlines its deficiencies through the economic crisis, unemployment, oppression of Black people and other issues holding down the workers of the United States up until the then present time.

In making the case, much of the document could have been written today as it points out the growing wealth gap between the ruling class and the working class. It writes that “millions of workers live paycheck to paycheck” while the capitalists profit from their labor.

The pamphlet details various struggles by the people that resulted in temporary gains, but concludes that the only ongoing solution is socialist revolution.

The RCP would stage a national demonstration in Philadelphia under the banner “We’ve Carried the Rich for 200 Years, Let’s Get Them Off Our Backs” that drew about 3,000 in protest of the official celebrations.

It would be the last mass mobilization conducted by the group that would splinter into two groups in 1977—The RCP with about 60% of the membership and the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters with about 40%. The split was over a number of issues, but was highlighted by the Chinese denunciation of the Cultural Revolution and the arrest of four of Mao Zedong’s leading supporters, including his wife. The RCP sided with the “Gang of 4” while the RWH continued to support the Chinese government.

The RCP would veer sharply away from mass mobilization, pulling most of its cadre out of the mines, mills and factories by 1980. It continues to exist in contemporary times led by Bob Avakian.

Pamphlet donated courtesy of Connie Lednum.

–Return to Main Menu–

D.C. Area Miscellaneous

Washington Committee for Democratic Action conference call — Apr. 1940

Over 300 people attended the conference focused on civil rights, labor rights and gaining the right to vote and civil rights for District of Columbia residents.

Civil rights speakers included Rep. John Gavagan (D-N.Y.); Charles Hamilton Houston, general counsel of the NAACP; and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of the Communist Party

The Washington Committee, along with the National Federation, merged with the International Labor Defense and the National Negro Congress to form the Civil Rights Congress in 1946.

The Fugs handbill – Spring 1967

A two-sided promotion handbill for The Fugs distributed in the Washington, D.C. area in spring 1967 by Edmiston-Rothschild Management quotes the New York Times calling the band, “Originality, courage and wit!…The Fugs are clever, biting and effective satirists.”

Others had more derisive terms for the band characterizing them as “avant-rock noise music.”

A description in FBI files said the Fugs were the “most vulgar thing the human mind could possible conceive” and Ezra Taft Benson, later president of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, condemned the group as “satanic.”

The Fugs helped launch the counter-culture movement of the mid-1960s with songs like “Kill for Peace,” “Doin’ All Right,” and “I Couldn’t Get High.”

YMCA Camp ‘Letts Talk” – Aug 1968

The August 18, 1968 edition of the YMCA Camp Letts newsletter Letts Talk shows the spread activist sentiment among youth at this point in time when a newspaper class at the camp interviewed campers and staff on their one wish—see page 4.

The peace symbol clearly indicates the editors’ point of view. In the interviews one staff member calls for an “End to the war in Indochina” while another staff member calls for “An end to pollution.”

The camp had been founded in 1906 as a relatively low-cost summer camp for white boys. It was nominally integrated in 1961 and began co-ed operations in 1975. Many of the counselors and staff of the camp were drawn from University of Maryland students.

UMD student government initiates “free university” – Oct. 1968

The University of Maryland College Park Student Government Association sponsors a “free university” on the campus with alternative seminars for those “tired of mass produced education” in the fall of 1968.

The 21 topics ranged from “The Urban Transportation Crisis or ‘White Men’s Roads’ through Black Men’s homes,” to “Introduction to the Philosophy of Ayn Rand.”

The free university was part of a “free community” movement in the greater Washington, D.C. area that involved free health clinics, breakfast for children’s programs, books, concerts and educational courses. The movement also included alternative newspapers, food co-ops, record co-ops and other alternative models.

Freedom Seder – April 1969

The first Freedom Seder organized by Arthur Waskow and scheduled for April 4, 1969 at the Lincoln Memorial Temple in Washington, D.C. is advertised in this flyer.

D.C. Newsreel benefit – 1969

A flyer from the radical Washington Newsreel promotes the organization and a fundraiser scheduled for April 4, 1969 and announces that films will start to be made in the D.C. area within the next two months.

Newsreel were radical filmmakers that joined together in New York in 1968 and a few months later spread to San Francisco. Distribution centers were eventually set up in many cities around the country, including Washington, D.C.

Local filmmakers also began to join the effort.

In the era before Youtube, DVDs and streaming, Newsreel was a way for radical independent film makers to explore subjects and themes not covered by mainstream filmmakers or news outlets and gain audiences.

California Newsreel is the direct successor to this effort and continues to operate today.

DC Free University party and concert flyer: 1969

A flyer/mailer advertises a party July 26^th and concert August 16, 1969 sponsored by the Washington Area Free University.

The Free University was part of a broad experiment in creating an alternative network of community based, collective life in the city during the late 1960s/early 1970s that included a free clinic, free universities, free concerts, alternative press, collective living, food cooperatives and other ventures.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

University of Maryland Free University: Fall 1969 ca.

The University of Maryland College Park Free University course offerings are outlined in this six-page, 8 ½ x 11 mimeographed guide circa fall 1969. The document is difficult to read due to the faded ink.

The Free University was organized by students and faculty who put forth the philosophy in the guide:

“The primary purpose of the program is to free faculty and students alike. In the rigid classroom structure many instructors find themselves teaching courses outside their fields of interest or competence. Due to college requirements and lack of personnel, many courses of current or even limited interest are bypassed.”

“The student too is encumbered with requirements and often find it difficult to achieve any kind of rapport with his instructor in the presence of 350 other classmates. It is also impossible to get “up tight” with a television.”

“Thus the free university offers a natural outlet for frustrated teachers and student alike.”

Courses covered radical politics, philosophy, self-help and a range of other topics. One of the professors, Peter Goldstone, would become a flashpoint for protest when he was terminated along with another professor in the spring of 1970.

Boycott meat – Oct 1969

A flyer calling for a picket line in front of the A&P and Safeway stores at the Lee-Harrison shopping center in Arlington, VA October 6, 1969 protesting price increases of meat.

The action was organized by the For Lower Prices (FLP) movement that started in New York and spread to several dozen cities.

The group handed out flyers and urged shoppers to sign petitions to boycott meat for a week.

The same day R. DeLorenzo of Levittown, N.Y. testified before Congress that the FLP had brought down prices $0.30 per pound since they started the boycott. The hearing was a congressional investigation into the rising meat prices.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

FLP – For Lower Prices – Oct. 1969

A small approximately 3’ x 5’ sticker that reads “FLP,” that stands for “For Lower Prices” is distributed in October 1969 during a picket line in front of the A&P and Safeway stores at the Lee-Harrison shopping center in Arlington, VA October 6, 1969 protesting price increases of meat.

The action was organized by the For Lower Prices (FLP) movement that started in New York and spread to several dozen cities.

The group handed out flyers and urged shoppers to sign petitions to boycott meat for a week.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Sticker urges meat boycott – Ocl. 1969

A small approximately 3’ x 5’ sticker calling for boycotting meat to achieve lower prices is distributed in October 1969 during a picket line in front of the A&P and Safeway stores at the Lee-Harrison shopping center in Arlington, VA October 6, 1969 protesting price increases of meat.

The action was organized by the For Lower Prices (FLP) movement that started in New York and spread to several dozen cities.

The group handed out flyers and stickers and urged shoppers to sign petitions to boycott meat for a week.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Call for demonstration against meat prices – Oct. 1969

A flyer issued by the For Lower Prices movement calls for a picket line the residential area of N Pocomoke Street in Arlington, VA beginning October 6, 1969 protesting price increases of meat.

The target is of the protest is unclear, but the group also picketed grocery stores at the Lee-Harrison shopping center during the same time period.

The For Lower Prices (FLP) movement started in New York and spread to several dozen cities.

The group handed out flyers at the shopping center and urged shoppers to sign petitions to boycott meat for a week.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

‘Excel with Cassell’ school board flyer – Nov. 1969

School activist and freeway opponent Charles I. Cassell issues a flyer calling on voters to elect him to the District of Columbia school board in November 1969.

Cassell, a close ally of long-time school activist Julius Hobson, initially was ruled defeated by 34 votes when ballots were initially counted.

However, days after the results were announced a batch of uncounted ballots was discovered. This led to a court case over whether to count the ballots.

Ultimately the ballots were tallied and on January 16, 1970, Cassell was ruled to have won the election 12,499 to 12, 497—a whopping margin of two votes.

Underground paper criticism halts ‘love festival’ – 1970

The Emergency club and the Corcoran Gallery put out a leaflet calling for a “Now Love Festival” featuring concerts, a parade, a mass wedding, a costume party and circus acts scheduled for February 13-15 1970.

The festival was cancelled after criticism from the left-wing alternative newspaper Quicksilver Times which pointed out that the 10,000 fliers distributed did not advertise the admission prices for many of the events, leading many youth to believe the events were free of charge. The newspaper also took issue with commercializing “love.”

The newspaper’s criticism caused the Corcoran Gallery to fear that youth would steal or damage some of their artwork. Emergency owner Mike Schrielman defended the cover charges as a means of providing some money for struggling performers and said neither organization would make money off of the festival.

After meeting with Quicksilver Times staff, Schrielman tentatively re-scheduled the event for May 1 where it could be held outside and costs would be lower and the event could be free of charge.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

D.C. Newsreel lists available films – circa 1970

A circa 1970 flyer from the radical Washington Newsreel describes the films that are available to rent.

Newsreel were radical filmmakiers that joined together in New York in 1968 and a few months later spread to San Francisco. Distribution centers were eventually set up in many cities around the country, including Washington, D.C.

Local filmmakers also began to join the effort.

Some of the early films included:

Black Panther; Mayday; High School, San Francisco State Strike; Army Film; People’s Park, Yippie; People’s War; Day of Plane Hunting; Isle of Youth; and La Jolie Moi de Mai (My Beautiful May).

The Jewish Urban Underground coffeehouse – Oct. 1970

An 8 ½ x 14, two-sided flyer for the newly opened Jewish Urban Underground Coffeehouse circa October 1970 that featured a speakers’ calendar.

The coffeehouse was sponsored by Jews for Urban Justice which describes itself in the flyer aas “…a group of Washington-area people who are actively involved in a struggle and resistance against a society which it now considers oppressive and unjust. We are involved in attempting to create a community of people who can work, live and struggle together. We are regularly involved in attempting to talk with other Jews, who have been turned-off to their heritage by an assimilationist Amerikan Jewish community…”

The Jewish Urban Guerrilla and the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention – Nov. 1970

The group was formed in the summer of 1968 to oppose anti-black racism from white Jewish landlords and business owners.

Revolutionary holiday card by Insurgent Press – 1970 ca.

An image of a revolutionary holiday card circa 1970 produced by Insurgent Press, a left-wing press that operated in Washington, D.C. in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s. At one point it was operating out of a building at 11^th and K Streets NW.

The card’s front reads “Peace on Earth” and when you open it, it reads “By Any Means Necessary” with an image of a Vietnamese holding an automatic rifle in the air. A quote by Mao Zedong on the nature of war is on the inside fold.

Women’s Fest sponsored by Community Bookshop: 1971

A flyer by the Community Bookshop announces a women’s festival in March 1971.

The Community Bookshop sold radical books, pamphlets and newspapers of various left-wing stripes, including communist, socialist, anarchist, environmentalist, feminist, gay and lesbian literature and also hosted community events and speakers during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The bookshop was located in the Dupont Circle area near the intersection of 20^thand P Streets NW.

Feminists and left-wing radicals resurrected International Women’s Day (March 8^th) during the late 1960s. It had been suppressed as a “communist” holiday during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s. In turn, March became women’s history month.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Petey Greene to speak at UMD College Park – May 1971

An 8 ½ x 11, one-sided flyer issued by Alpha Epsilon Phi fraternity at the University of Maryland College Park advertises a speaking engagement by Ralph “Petey” Greene on May 6, 1971 in Skinner Auditorium on campus.

The flyer also contains a drawing of Greene and a description of Greene saying “he has been a former ex-convict, ex-dope addict, ex-alcoholic, he now works at United Planning Organization and Efforts from Ex-Convicts.”

Greene grew up in the African American section of Georgetown, dropped out of high school and was given a bad conduct discharge from the Army.

Greene had more than 50 arrests when his life turned around in the Lorton Reformatory, becoming an organizer for prisoners’ social functions and a model prisoner.

Upon his release he helped organize welfare mothers into the local chapter of the National Welfare Rights Organization and stage noisy demonstrations demanding reforms.

When trash collection stopped on a block in the Shaw neighborhood, Greene organized a group to go the Sanitation Department that resulted in thrice-weekly sweep-ups.

When a builder wanted to raze part of the block and put up high rises, Greene organized the residents to go to a zoning hearing where the builder was requesting a special exception.

The hearing examiner and the builder were shocked to see the room packed and the zoning change was denied.

Greene later entered show business as a stand-up weaving his own real life experiences as a burglar, stick-up man, drug addict, alcoholic and ex-con into his shtick.

His nightclub gigs started when he performed for drinks and tips. He went on to become a television and radio talk-show host and a two-time Emmy Award-winner.

Later when he got his Washington, D.C. radio and TV shows, Greene often discussed issues such as racism, poverty, drug usage, and current events among others—one of the pioneering “shock jocks” and reality TV hosts.

He served as an inspiration to many of the downtrodden who struggled to leave behind alcohol, drugs and crime.

Greene died in January 1984 at age 53.

Original held in the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_F_0126

Community Bookshop calendar – Jul. 1972

The Community Bookshop publishes a calendar for July 1972 that covers both radical history events and current meetings scheduled at the bookstore.

Community Bookshop was a left-wing, counterculture bookstore and community meeting place at 2028 P Street NW.

The bookshop started out on Washington Circle in the George Washington University neighborhood. In the late 1960s, the bookstore moved to the Dupont Circle neighborhood in 1970, itself a center of counterculture, anti-war, and leftist groups and residents. At the time, it was being run by Barbara Labinski.

The bookstore carried material from all stripes on the left, including books, pamphlets and newspapers. It’s eclectic approach to left wing causes is encapsuled in the calendar with events ranging from meetings of the food coop, film showing of Inside North Vietnam, a group marriage meeting, and a film showing of the Young Lords.

The bookstore also played a role in the early Gay Liberation Front where “members began lobbying the bookstore to stock queer magazines and books,” which it did. “Relations with the Gay Liberation Front were so warm that GLF’s May 1972 Gay Pride celebration featured an evening of “Gay readings” at the bookstore,” according to Historypin.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Letter from a Regional Addiction Prevention (RAP) graduate (1) – 1973

Letter from a Regional Addiction Prevention (RAP) graduate (2) – 1973

These two letters from Regional Addiction Prevention (RAP) graduate Marc Sher in 1973 to the Washington Area Spark collective illustrates the radical politics that at least one resident refined going through a nearly year-long residential addiction treatment.

Sher became addicted to the free methadone in order to get high. The methadone was give out by facilities without screening at the time to anyone, including Sher–who was not a heroin addict.

The vintage Montgomery Spark wrote in 1972:

“RAP’s left-wing analysis of the heroin plague has led to attacks on the organization from reactionary elements who seek to capitalize on an addict’s plight through methadone maintenance or other exploitive methods.”

“RAP’s ‘success rate,’ as government authorities call it, has been remarkably higher than other types of treatment. This is probably because RAP’s residents learn that the root of the heroin problem lies in society’s illnesses, and by knowing this, the individual can better realize how to cope with their problems.”

–Return to Main Menu–

Draft/Selective Service

Flyer calls for protesting Senate draft hearings – May, 1967

A flyer published by the Washington Ad Hoc Vietnam Draft Hearings Committee calls for demonstrations at a Senate hearing on the Selective Service System scheduled for May 7-8, 1967.

The Ad Hoc Committee was composed of Students for a Democratic Society chapters at the University of Chicago, Boston University, Ratcliff-Harvard, Brooklyn College and the University of Maryland; along with ACT, D.C. Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Prince Georges Women’s Strike for Peace, Maryland Socialist League and Progressive Labor Party.

The group of about 100 demonstrators formed-up at Roosevelt playground in NE on May 8^th and marched first down H Street and then 4^th Street before entering the Capitol Grounds.

About half the group entered the Senate Rayburn Building only to find that the hearing was rescheduled. They demanded that a hearing be convened and that they be permitted to speak. After back and forth with Capitol police, they were forcibly expelled from the building and the Capitol grounds, but not arrested. The crowd grew to about 200 before dispersing.

D.C. SNCC calls for anti-draft march – May, 1967

The Washington, D.C. Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee calls on black youth to protest the draft May 8, 1967 by joining a march from 14^th and H Streets NE to the Rayburn Office Building.

The crowd grew to about 200 people and about 50 were eventually let into the building where they staged a sit-in in the lobby. They were forcibly ejected by Capitol police, but not arrested.

Anti-Draft Card – 1967

An anti-draft card is pictured from 1967 created by non-violent resistance groups to the U.S. Selective Service system.

The draft required young men to register and report for induction into the armed forces, unless the individual met certain conditions whereby induction could be postponed or halted. This system favored the wealthiest.

The anti-draft card was conceived as a way to support those who were burning their draft cards in defiance of the law and refusing induction. It declared the signer to be part of a conspiracy to violate draft laws potentially subjecting the individual to prosecution.

Flyer targeting draft inductees – 1967 ca.

An unsigned flyer circa 1967 urges men reporting for their induction into the U.S. Armed Forces to walk away and contact peace groups for draft counseling. It finishes by urging the men to “Seize the Time, Resist Illegitimate Authority.”

The flyer lists a. number of peace groups to contact, along with their phone numbers, including The Washington Peace Center, George Washington Draft Counseling, Washington Draft Information, the Washington Free Clinic and Montgomery County Draft Counseling.

Say No to Military Conscription – 1967

“Say No to Military Conscription,” was a flyer produced by the Peacemakers in late 1967 and distributed in Washington, DC that urged individuals to follow their conscience in resisting the draft during the Vietnam War despite the criminal penalties that accompanied such actions.

It included a list of names of some of those who made the pledge to refuse to cooperate with the Selective Service System and provided a form to fill out to join those resisters.

The Peacemakers worked in conjunction with other pacifist groups and The Resistance—a draft refusal group founded during the Vietnam War.

The Peacemaker organization was founded in April of 1948 and advocated nonviolence and disarmament.

The Resistance calls for nationwide antidraft actions – 1967

The national office of The Resistance, an anti-draft group that espoused direct action and non-cooperation with the Selective Service System, publishes a flyer advertising draft-card burning actions beginning October 10, 1967.

The Resistance established chapters across the country and coordinated successful actions of draft card burnings, turn-ins, sit-ins at draft boards, support for those refusing induction and other actions in October and December of 1967, but the national group quickly lapsed while local groups continued anti-draft actions.

Appeal to those facing induction into the military: 1967 ca.

The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and The Resistance publish a flyer handed out to draftees facing military induction outlining rights and appeals.

The Resistance conscription refusal flyer – Oct. 1967

A flyer from The Resistance calling on draft-eligible people to refuse to cooperate with the U.S. Selective Service System and return their draft cards at a demonstration October 16, 1967.

The call was nationwide with the largest protest in Oakland, Ca. The Washington, D.C. demonstration at the draft board headquarters at 1724 F Street NW drew about 70 people.

Ten draft cards and about 50 anti-draft cards (statements that declared a refusal to cooperate with the draft) were given to Selective Service officials.

Hell No, We Won’t Go – Nov. 1967

A 1967 flyer calling for a demonstration in support of Matthew Clark, an antiwar activist who burned his draft card and returned his draft classification card to the Selective Service headquarters in Washington, D.C.

He was ordered to report to the Rockville draft board for subsequent induction into the armed forces in Baltimore, Md.

Draft Resisters Need Your Support – Nov. 1967

Ethel and Julius Weisser were long-time activists in a wide variety of social and economic causes in the Washington, D.C. area.

Ethel Weisser also served as a spokesperson for the local chapter of the Grey Panthers for more than 25 years.

Stewart was a local jazz guitarist who was performing with The New Thing group at the time and became a fixture at clubs and coffeehouses in the city during the 1970s.

The Christian Resistance – Nov. 1967 ca.

The Washington Area Christian Resistance and The Resistance publish an appeal to those of draft age of the Christian faith to join with direct action and non-cooperation with the Selective Service System in late 1967.

Call for renewed Selective Service refusal – Dec. 1967

The Washington Area Resistance issues a call for renewed anti-draft non-compliance actions scheduled for December 4, 1967 in this four-page, 8 ½ x 5 ½ flyer.

A “Stop the Draft Week” had been held in October 1967 where about 75 people gathered at the national Selective Service headquarters October 16, 1967 in Washington, D.C. and turned in or burned about 50 draft cards. Days later on October 20^th, several hundred rallied at the Justice Department and turned in about 1,000 draft cards.

On December 4^th, demonstrators would rally at St. Stephens Church, march on the Selective Service headquarters and march to the State Department. An event at the Ambassador Theater was also held.

The first “Stop the Draft” protests in October 1967 involved thousands of resisters and supporters across the country who destroyed or returned over 1,000 draft cards despite a penalty of 5 years in jail and a $5,000 fine for doing so. In Oakland, upwards of 10,000 had swarmed the induction center and closed it down for most of two days.

The leaders of the Oct. 20^th D.C. demonstration and those whose draft cards were turned in were facing prison terms of up to five years and a $10,000 fine for “aiding and abetting” draft resistance. It was also a crime to fail to have a draft card in your possession.

Atty. General Ramsey Clark said of the protesters, “The law will be enforced. Persons whose draft cards are discarded and who have no valid card in their possession face accelerated induction or criminal prosecution.”

The protest occurred the day before a massive march on the Pentagon that drew 100,000 people—the largest Vietnam War protest in Washington, D.C. up to that point in time.

The demonstrators initially rallied at the Reformation Lutheran Church at 222 East Capitol Street NE before marching to the Justice Department.

Five leaders of the Oct. 20^th anti-draft protest were later indicted. Mitchell Goodman, writer; Benjamin Spock, a famous pediatrician and author; Marcus Raskin, leader of a Washington think tank; Rev. William Sloane Coffin, chaplain at Yale; and Michael Ferber, a graduate student at Harvard, in what became known as the “Boston Five” conspiracy trial.

All the defendants were convicted except Raskin and sentenced to two years in prison. Spock and Ferber were acquitted by a federal appeals court, but the court ordered a re-trial of Coffin and Goodman. The Justice Department, however, declined to retry the case.

Seven leaders of the Oakland demonstrations at the induction center were also indicted, but were acquitted outright in a major victory for the antiwar movement.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Stop the Draft Week – Dec. 1967

A flyer advertising a series of demonstrations in Washington, D.C. Dec. 4-9, 1967 for “Stop the Draft Week.”

The protests were part of a nationwide effort that week that resulted in demonstrations and civil disobedience in dozens of cities across the U.S.

Locally demonstrators rallied at St. Stephens Church, marched on the Selective Service headquarters and marched to the State Department. An event at the Ambassador Theater was also held.

The Washington, D.C. demonstrations were sponsored by D.C. chapter of The Resistance, a nationwide draft resistance group; the Washington Mobilization Committee Against the War in Vietnam, the umbrella group for anti-Vietnam War opposition; and the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, a Socialist Workers Party-influenced student group.

The Washington Area Resistance Freakout – 1967

The Vietnam-era draft resistance group sponsored an event at Washington’s Ambassador Theater (formerly Knickerbocker) before holding a protest on Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s lawn–1967. The group staged several high profile demonstrations in support of those who refused induction into the armed services in the Washington, D.C. area.

Resistance issues Boston 5 protest flyer – Jan. 1968

The Washington Area Resistance issues a flyer for a January 12, 1968 demonstration at the Justice Department against the indictment of five prominent Vietnam War opponents a week before.

The Boston Five, as they were known, were Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr, chaplain of Yale University; Dr. Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, Marcus Raskin, a former White House aide; Michael Ferber, a Harvard University graduate student and Mitchell Goodman, author. They were accused of “conspiracy to counsel aid and abet” selective service resistance.

News accounts put the number of demonstrators at between 100-150 who denounced both war and racism.

The protesters later marched on Western High School where they engaged in draft counseling as students left classes for the day around 2:30 p.m.

What!? me worry about the draft!” – 1968 ca.

The University of Maryland College Park chapter of Washington Area Resistance issues a short pamphlet urging potential draftees into the military to receive counseling on their options circa 1968.

The Resistance led direct action against the draft as well as draft counseling in the greater Washington, D.C. area in 1967-68 during the Vietnam War era.

Call for anti-draft actions – Jan. 1968

An unsigned flyer, probably put out by The Resistance, calls for a demonstration at the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C. in protest of the indictments of Dr. Benjamin Spock, Marcus Raskin, Mitchel Goodman and Michael Ferber for “conspiracy to counsel aid and abet” draft resistance.

The flyer also called for participants to go to Western High School (now Duke Ellington) to counsel high school students on the draft.

Draft Law and Its Choices – Mar. 1968

The Washington Area Resist (formerly Resistance) issues a flyer for a conference to train draft counselors on selective service law in March 1968 at St. Stephens Church at 16^th and Newton Streets. NW.

W.A.R. led direct action such as induction refusals and draft card turn-ins in the area 1967-68 during the Vietnam War.

D.C. Draft Resistance Union formed – early 1968

An undated appeal for funds from the recently formed Washington Draft Resistance Union was issued in early 1968.

The group pulled together The Resistance, Students for a Democratic Society, independent campus groups and draft counselors to build resistance to the Selective Service system that was providing the soldiers for the Vietnam War.

It was initially headed by Cathy Wilkerson, the regional SDS coordinator based in Washington, D.C. Wilkerson would go on to play a prominent role in the Weather Underground that carried out a series of symbolic bombings on government, corporate and other symbols of capitalism 1971-75.

Draft Prince Georges draft counselor flyer -1968

A draft of a flyer for draft counselors Robert and Eleana Simpson targeted toward working class youth in Prince George’s County, Md circa 1968..

The two counseled young people on draft law and options from 1968-69 during part of the peak period of the Vietnam War.

Seeking plaintiffs to challenge the draft – 1968

The Washington Area Draft Resistance Union and the Students for a Democratic Society seek plaintiffs to challenge to constitutionality of the Selective Service law in this 8 ½ x 11 one-sided appeal published in May 1968.

Shortly after this appeal for plaintiffs, the case of Holmes v. United States was decided that upheld the constitutionality of a peacetime draft when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case May 27, 1968.

Among other arguments, Holmes had argued that a draft without a declared war was unconstitutional.

Donated by Robert “Bob” Simpson

A National Call: Free the Catonsville Nine – Oct. 1968

The flyer calls for a national demonstration to be held coinciding with the trial of the Catonsville Nine—Catholic and peace activists who took draft records of about 800 young men outside the selective service office and set them afire with homemade napalm on May 17, 1968.

The nine waited at the scene to be arrested in what was the second “hit and stay” action of non-violent direct action resistance to the draft and the Vietnam War.

Thousands showed up to support the nine, but they were all convicted and sentenced to three years in prison.

Draft counseling letter to Va. military inductees: 1969 ca.

A letter from draft counselors David Lusby and Jim Shea circa 1969 targeted toward selective service inductees in Virginia outlines alternatives to military service.

The letter was likely handed out to inductees at local draft boards where inductees were bussed to Richmond or at the Richmond induction center itself.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Repeal the Draft – 1969 ca.

A poster-style flyer urges a repeal of the Selective Service Act that authorized the draft of men into the military.

The National Council to Repeal the Draft (NCRD), organized in January 1969, with headquarters in Washington, DC, had as its objective the elimination of conscription.

With the official end of the draft on June 30, 1973, NCRD closed down its Washington operation in July of that year, thus bringing to an end their effort to end conscription in the U.S.

Statement of the ‘Silver Spring 3’ – May 1969

The statement of the Silver Spring 3 (Michael Bransome, Leslie Bayless and John Bayless) issued on the day they destroyed the records of the Selective Service office (draft board) in Silver Spring, Md. May 21, 1969.

The three were part of a nationwide “hit and stay” movement that began a year earlier with the destruction of draft records by nine people led by Father Daniel Berrigan and Phillip Berrigan in Catonsville, Md. May 17, 1968.

The tactic involved destroying documents or property involved in continuing war, particularly the Vietnam War, but staying and awaiting arrest. The participants generally admitted their actions, but attempted to plead their case to the jury as following a higher law.

Leslie Bayless,(22), John Bayless (17) and Michael Bransome (18) lived nearby and carried out the act while inviting activist Marilyn Webb to photograph the event. The three poured black paint and their own blood on the records.

Les Bayless received three years in addition to a five year sentence for refusing draft induction. Bransome fled to Canada and ultimately Sweden after being threatened with death while in jail. John Bayless, a juvenile at the time, received three years probation.

Original held in the Jeffrey T. Goldthorpe collection.

Draft registration card – Sep. 1969

A Selective Service draft registration card from September 1969 is the type that all men over 18 were required to carry on their person at all times during the Vietnam War era.

The back side of the card spells out the penalties for failing to carry or mutilating the card as up to five years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.

The law was only enforced against those who willfully destroyed their cards through draft card burnings, mass turn-ins of draft cards in protest of the war or other willful actions.

A separate card spelled out the classification that the draft card holder was given. The most dreaded was 1-A, which meant a person was subject to be drafted into the armed forces at any time, subject to a physical.

Other codes indicated deferments or exemptions to the draft.

The back side of the card also notes that the local draft board is Silver Spring. That draft board was broken into by three antiwar activists in May 1969 who destroyed draft records and splashed their own blood and black paint onto the walls in protest of the Vietnam War.

The three were Leslie Bayless, 22; Jonathan Bayless, 17; and Michael Bransome, 18.

Les Bayless received three years in addition to a five year sentence for refusing draft induction. Bransome fled to Canada and ultimately Sweden after being threatened with death while in jail before his release on bond. John Bayless, a juvenile at the time, received three years probation.

No Draft – Dec. 1969 ca.

The D.C. Moratorium, the local arm of the Vietnam Moratorium Committee that organized the October and November 1969 Moratoriums that involved millions of Americans in activities against the Vietnam War, publishes a flyer calling for an end to the draft and outlining the reasons for doing so.

Draft counseling centers – 1970 circa

A flyer lists selective service (draft) counseling locations in Washington, D.C., Arlington, Va. and College Park, Md. as well as counseling for military personnel circa 1970.

Fuck the Draft film festival – Jan. 1970

A “Fuck the Draft” film festival is sponsored by the Washington Peace Center in January 1970 as a fundraiser to support draft counseling for young men eligible to be inducted into the U.S. armed services.

The films scheduled were Seasons Change, Army Film, People’s Park, Bobby Seale, The Brig, Up against the Wall Miss America, High School Rising, San Francisco State and October 15^th and were scheduled over two days.

Rally and march to national selective service – Mar. 1970

A flyer advertising a rally and march to the national selective service headquarters March 19, 1970 sponsored by various peace groups.

Upwards of five hundred people rallied outside the Selective Service System headquarters at 1724 F Street NW, Washington, DC in opposition to the draft and the Vietnam War.

Several people burned draft cards—a felony—in protest and a coffin filled with draft cards was also delivered to the office.

The groups listed on the flyer are DC Moratorium (local affiliate of the Moratorium Committee), Student Mobe (Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam), Wash. Mobe (Washington Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam), WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom), WSP (Women’s Strike for Peace), and Conspiracy ( a local group opposing the trial of the Chicago 8/7 for riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention).

Demonstrate to End the Draft – Mar. 1970

The Student Mobilization Committee publishes a flyer as a co-sponsor of anti-draft actions taking place the week of March 15-19, 1970.

Upwards of 500 people rallied March 19^th at the Sylvan Theater and at the national draft board of F Street NW. Several people burned draft cards and a coffin filled with draft cards was left at the door.

Other organizations sponsoring the protest included the Vietnam Moratorium Committee in one of their last acts before the group was dissolved, Episcopal Peace Fellowship, New Mobilization Committee, Young Socialist Alliance, D.C. Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, Washington Peace Center, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Women’s Strike for Peace.

The Student Mobilization Committee began as the student arm of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, but became a separate organization where the Socialist Workers Party, the dominate Trotskyist organization at the time, and it’s youth arm the Young Socialist Alliance had considerable influence.

NoVA Resistance calls for anti-draft week – Mar. 1970

The Northern Virginia Resistance issues a call for four days of anti-draft demonstrations in Arlington and Fairfax counties and in Washington, D.C. March 17-20 1970.

During the advertised March 19^th protest in Washington, D.C., 350 protesters blocked the entrance to the national Selective Service headquarters. The demonstrators carried a black coffin with several hundred draft cards that they left outside the building. Those that turned in their draft cards were committing a felony at the time.

The protest was part of a week-long series of demonstrations against the draft involving more than 100 cities following a call of the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and carried out largely by local units of the Society of Friends and the War Resisters League and the Resistance.

Across the country hundreds were arrested for blocking the entrances to draft boards in dozens of towns and cities. In Raleigh, N.C. two protesters were arrested for splashing blood on the steps, walls and door of an induction center while in Syracuse, NY, a group of 2,000 demonstrators prevented a bus load of inductees from taking their physicals.

Some draft boards closed during the week of protests including 96 draft boards in New York City; and draft boards in San Francisco, Holly Wood and San Rafael, CA; and San Antonio, TX.

Draft resistance was a significant part of the anti-Vietnam War movement. The group, The Resistance, was a loose-knit national organization that advocated civil disobedience against compulsory induction into the Armed Forces of the United States.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

The Washington Area Military and Draft Law Panel – 1970 ca.

The Washington Area Military and Draft Law Panel publishes a brochure describing its mission and services focusing on low-income and/or black potential draftees into the military and current service members serving.

The group of approximately 40 attorneys in the D.C. area provided draft counseling and legal assistance to active duty personnel.

The WAMADLP was initiated by the National Lawyers Guild.

You Don’t Have to Go – Sep. 1970 ca.

A flyer published by the Democratic Radical Union of Maryland (DRUM) and the Mother Bloor Collective calls on students at College Park to seek draft counseling and oppose the war in Vietnam.

DRUM grew out of the May 1970 student strike on the College Park campus while Mother Bloor was a local Marxist-Leninist collective some student activist leaders formed to chart a path forward for those radicalized in the civil rights and Vietnam War struggles.

DRUM lasted about two years while most of the member of Mother Bloor affiliated with the Workers World Party or its youth group Youth Against War and Fascism.

Draft classification card – Nov. 1971

A Selective Service System classification card showing a II-S status dated November 23, 1971.

The classification II-S signified that the recipient’s draft eligibility was deferred while he remained a full time student.

The II-S deferment was ended by Congress in September 1971 for all future draft registrants.

The classification 1-A was dreaded by many in the Vietnam War era because it meant you were likely to be pressed into military service in a war that many disagreed with.

The back side of the card spells out the penalties for failing to carry or mutilating the card as up to five years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.

The law was only enforced against those who willfully destroyed their cards through draft card burnings, mass turn-ins of draft cards in protest of the war or other willful actions.

A separate “draft registration card” was also required by law to be carried by all those eligible for the draft.

Draft classification card – Nov. 1972

A Selective Service System classification card showing a 1-H status dated November 14, 1972.

The classification I-H signified that the draft registrant was not currently eligible for military or alternative service.

By this time, a draft lottery by birthdate had been conducted and a birth date of August 2, 1951 gained a lottery number of 102 out of 365. For those born in 1951, 125 was the highest number pressed into military service.

However, by that time the Vietnam War was winding down and fewer draft registrants were called than in previous years, resulting in the re-classification to 1-H. The last person drafted for the Vietnam War occurred December 28, 1972. The last person drafted into the military occurred on June 30, 1973.

The classification 1-A was dreaded by many in the Vietnam War era because it meant you were likely to be pressed into military service in a war that many disagreed with.

The back side of the card spells out the penalties for failing to carry or mutilating the card as up to five years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.

The law was only enforced against those who willfully destroyed their cards through draft card burnings or mass turn-ins of draft cards in protest of the war.

A separate “draft registration card” was also required by law to be carried by all those eligible for the draft.

Attention Faculty – Nov. 1972

A call for a U. of Md. faculty draft counseling committee that would provide alternatives to the selective service to all UMD students. The flyer lists as contacts Aaron Strauss, Jack Goldhaber and Harold Gainer.

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Fight Against Fascism

Action Now!

The American People’s Mobilization urged “Victory over Fascism” and called for the U.S. to aid Great Britain and the Soviet Union in their fight against Nazi Germany.

Action Now! Dated June 29, 1941 was one of the first national pieces of literature published by the group and initiated a petition campaign with the goal of one million signatures. In addition, Action Now urged local groups to join with other groups urging the U.S. to aid Hitler’s opponents, conduct campaigns against American First groups, hold meetings and rallies and write letters to the editor in support of aiding Great Britain and the Soviet Union.

From the period of the signing of the peace treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union August 23, 1939 and the invasion of the Soviet Union June 22, 1941, the American Peace Mobilization urged the U.S. to stay out of the war. The organization’s name was changed immediately after the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941.

The American People’s Mobilization existed from 1941-46 when its name was changed again to the National Committee to Win the Peace following the end of World War II.

Invitation to Join the Communist Party by Robert Minor – 1943

The pamphlet wraps itself in the American flag and closely hues the Popular Front thesis of the Communist Party. There is no real mention of revolution or socialism and the tract puts forward several important, but ultimately reformist demands.

Anti-Communist Stamps – 1968 ca.

The United States Anti-Communist Congress, headed by Herbert Philbrick who made a career out of anti-communism, issues a set of stamps featuring a hammer and sickle with an X over it circa 1969.

According to the Congress:

“Anti-communist experts, who have been combating communism for years, tell us that the U.S.A.C. official insignia – the red hammer and sickle crossed out with a big .,X,, – is the most devastating anti-communist “message” they have ever seen. Its meaning is clear: WIPE OUT COMMUNISM, destroy it, get rid of it, wherever it exists. USE THESE STAMPS at every opportunity – on your letterheads, envelopes, greeting cards, on the back of your business card. Give them to your friends. Every stamp is a psychological blow against communism. Order extra sheets now. Just $1.00 for .one sheet of 100 stamps.”

Philbrick was a U.S. counterintelligence agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who spied on the Communist Party of the United States during the 1940s.

Philbrick studied engineering at Lincoln Technical Institute of Northeastern University in Boston, and in 1938 he became an advertising salesman. Through a sales call, he became interested in the Massachusetts Youth Council and later helped to set up a subsidiary organization in Cambridge.

Gradually he came to believe that the organization was controlled and used for propaganda by the Communist Party. He took his suspicions to the FBI and was asked by them to act as an undercover agent. He did so for nine years, reporting on activities that violated the Smith Act and other laws. On April 6, 1949, he broke cover to testify against 11 Communist leaders who had been indicted under the in part on evidence he had provided. All 11 were found guilty, and Philbrick became a public figure. In 1952 he published a record of his undercover work called I Led Three Lives, which became a best-seller and later the basis for a television show.

Philbrick made a career out of anti-communism through the Anti-Communist Congress and the Liberty Lobby organizations, newspaper columns as well as lectures through the U.S. His targets included organizations far beyond the Communist Party, including peace groups and civil rights groups.

Philbrick died in 1993.

The Smith Act that criminalized speech was first upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dennis (one of the first 11 convicted under the act at the dawn of the second Red Scare) versus United States.

However in 1957, the Court ruled in Yates v. United States that prohibited actions turned on the difference between abstract advocacy and advocacy that called for immediate action.

The convictions in Dennis and the charges in Yates were dependent on showing that a conspiracy was in place to overthrow the government. In its decision in Yates to reverse the convictions and send the case back to the lower courts with new instructions, the Court drew a distinction between political positions that advocated an abstract point (for example, the advocacy was not connected with any effort to overthrow the government) versus advocacy that involved immediate or future actions.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

American Independent Party candidate for President George Wallace handbill – Nov. 1968

A handbill passed out at polling places in Maryland November 5, 1968 for white supremacist candidate for president George Wallace who was running as a third-party candidate on the American Independent Party ticket.

Wallace hoped to garner enough electoral votes to throw the election into the House of Representatives where he could be a kingmaker and bargain to preserve white supremacy in the south. He won five southern states, but Richard M. Nixon won enough electoral votes to win the presidency.

Wallace ran behind both Nixon and Humbert Humphrey in Maryland in 1968, gaining about 170,000 votes to the other two nominees who each received about 470,000.

American Nazi Vietnam War flyer – 1970

A flyer entitled “Smash the no-wing System” and distributed in 1970 by the National Socialist White People’s Party based in Arlington, VA puts forth the Nazi organization’s views on the Vietnam War.

The back side of the flyer lays out its racist, anti-Semitic agenda.

Nazi appeal to join affiliated student group: 1970

An appeal to help “Build a New Order” by joining the National Socialist Liberation Front is distributed by the National Socialist White People’s Party (NSWPP) based in Arlington, Va. in 1970.

The Liberation Front was created by the Nazi group in 1969 as a student organization, mimicking left-wing student organizations such as W.E.B DuBois Clubs, affiliated with the Communist Party, and the Young Socialist Alliance, affiliated with the Socialist Workers Party.

The group was established by NSWPP member Joseph Tommasi who developed personal and ideological differences with NSWPP commander Matt Koehl. Tommasi denounced Koehl and other members of the leadership at a party congress in 1970 and called for waging an immediate revolution.

It was during the early 70s that infamous white supremacist David Duke joined the National Socialist Liberation Front.

Koehl expelled Tommasi in 1973 for allegedly smoking marijuana and entertaining young women at party headquarters, as well as misusing party funds.

Tommasi re-organized the Liberation Front in 1974 with two tiers—an above ground organization and an underground organization that would wage guerrilla war.

Tommasi was killed by an NSWPP member in front of the NSWPP local headquarters in El Monte, CA during a confrontation. No one was charged in Tommasi’s death.

Following Tommasi’s death, the group underwent several leadership changes and changes in tactics. In the mid 1980s, the group’s leader was arrested on a weapons charge and the Liberation Front fell apart.

Nazi ‘Had Enough, Whitey?’ flyer – 1970

An appeal to white supremacists to join the student National Socialist Liberation Front is distributed by the National Socialist White People’s Party (NSWPP) based in Arlington, Va. in 1970.

A platform is printed on the back side. Both sides are chocked full of racial stereotypes and slanders.

‘Why Does the System Hate National Socialism’ – 1970

The National Socialist Liberation Front (the student group of the National Socialist White People’s Party) publishes a tract attempting to explain the merits of national socialism in 1970.

An application to join the group is one the flip side of the flyer.

Early ‘March for Victory’ flyer – 1970

An early version of a flyer for fundamentalist Christian preacher Rev. Carl McIntire’s “March for Victory” that was ultimately held in Washington, D.C. April 4, 1970 protesting President Richard Nixon’s “no win” policy in Indochina.

March organizers claimed 50,000 but news organizations generously estimated 10-15,000 people took part in a protest against President Richard Nixon’s “no win” policy in Vietnam.

The march was sponsored by right-wing Christian preacher Rev. Carl McIntire. Who described himself as a fundamentalist equated Christianity with anti-communism. McIntire favored “peace through victory” in Vietnam and a return of prayer to the schools.

‘White People’s Revolution in America’ – July 1970

A flyer invites the public to a Nazi rally July 5, 1970 at L’Enfant Square (Now National Gallery of Art Sculpture Gallery) at 9^th and Constitution NW, Washington, D.C. calling for a “White People’s Revolution in America.”

National Socialist White People’s Party rallies at Lafayette Park on July 3, 1970, the National Mall July 4, 1970 and L’Enfant Square at 9th & Constitution on July 5, 1970 were disrupted by hundreds of people in counter demonstrations.

Many counter demonstrators were also in town for protests against Honor America Day and for the first annual marijuana smoke-in.

At the rally on the 9^th and Constitution NW, Nazi speaker Robert A. Lloyd III said, “At the root of our domestic crisis is the racial crisis caused by the presence of two dangerous alien races, blacks and Jews. Unless we resort to drastic social surgery, we will die as a nation and a race.”

Lloyd and other Nazi speakers were shouted down with laughter, jeers, epithets, obscenities and occasionally rhythmic clapping that drowned at the two-dozen Nazis.

American Nazi fundraising pledge – September 1970

A color form mailed in September 1970 invites supporters of the National Socialist White People’s Party based in Arlington, VA to pledge monthly funds to the organization.

The organization was founded by George Lincoln Rockwell in March 1959 and the same year was renamed the American Nazi Party.

Rockwell led the group through his flamboyant actions through the 1960s. In late 1966 or early 1967 Rockwell re-named the group the National Socialist White People’s Party to reflect his belief that the Nazi name and use of the swastika was hurting recruitment. Rockwell was assassinated by a disaffected member in August 1967 and Matt Koehl became the leader.

Koehl led the group through a number of splits and into a semi-religious version of white supremacy and an affiliate participated in the 1979 Greensboro Massacre with local Klan that killed five “Death to the Klan” marchers in Greensboro, NC.

In the 1980s the group was pressured by lawsuits, including the IRS, and Koehl sold off all of its assets in Arlington, VA. Early in the decade he moved the group’s national operation to Wisconsin and Michigan and renamed the group New Order that continues to exist today advocating for white supremacy.

Freedom Rally flyer by March for Victory Committee – 1970

An early call by the March for Victory Committees led by Rev. Carl McIntire for a demonstration in October 1970 following their spring march that featured Georgia Governor Lester Maddox speaking to a crowd of 10-15,000 and calling for victory in Vietnam.

The rally date was later changed to October 3, 1970 where an estimated 15-20,000 staged a march that rejected President Richard Nixon’s phase-down of the war in Vietnam and instead called for outright defeat of the Vietnamese.

South Vietnamese Vice President Nguyễn Cao Kỳ was to speak at the rally but opposition from the Nixon administration and a threatened mass anti-Ky demonstration caused Ky to cancel his appearance and instead gave a statement that was read to the crowd.

Several hundred antiwar counter-protesters occasionally clashed with pro-war marchers at the October protest leading to 49 arrests.

March for Victory in Vietnam flyer – Sep. 1970

The National March for Victory Committee flyer calls for a March for Victory [in Vietnam] led by Rev. Carl McIntire October 3, 1970 in Washington, D.C.

The demands were “Win the Peace Through Military Victory; Defeat the Viet Cong by strength; Free the POW’s First; Bring the Boys Home in Triumph; Prayer, Bible Reading in School; and Freedom of Choice [probably not abortion though].

An estimated 15-20,000 attended the October march and rally—far less than the 500,000 predicted and far fewer than the 100,000-500,000 that national antiwar marches regularly drew.

Several hundred antiwar counter-protesters occasionally clashed with pro-war marchers at the October protest leading to 49 arrests.

American Nazi ‘fall building campaign” – Oct. 1970

A two-sided letter mailed in October 1970 by the self-styled commander of the National Socialist White People’s Party, Matt Koehl, urges members and supporters to increase their donations so that the organization can move to “Phase III—the mass action phase.”

The white supremacist organization was founded by George Lincoln Rockwell in March 1959 and the same year was renamed the American Nazi Party.

Koehl led the group through a number of splits and into a semi-religious version of white supremacy. A North Carolina affiliate participated in the 1979 Greensboro Massacre with local Klan that killed five “Death to the Klan” marchers in Greensboro, NC.

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Immigrant Rights

‘Five Men on a Hunger Strike’ – Mar. 1948

Smith was the highest-ranking African American in the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) at the time.

The hunger strike ended when the four (Potash was released earlier) were granted bail on March 6th. However, all were ultimately forced out of the country at various times in the 1950s.

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LBGTQ+

Gay Liberation Front – 1970 ca.

A flyer from the New York-based Gay Liberation Front that was distributed in Washington, D.C. during 1970-71.

The flyer signifies a call for LGBT people to “come out of the closets and into the streets.”

The GLF was formed in New York in the wake of the Stonewall Riot in June 1969 that marked the end of passive acceptance of discrimination. Soon after, similarly named groups popped up in cities around the U.S., including in the District of Columbia.

The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) advocated for sexual liberation for all people; they believed heterosexuality was a remnant of cultural inhibition and felt that change would not come about unless the current social institutions were dismantled and rebuilt without defined sexual roles.

To do this, the GLF was intent on transforming the idea of the nuclear family and making it more akin to a loose affiliation of members without biological subtexts.

Prominent members of the GLF also opposed and addressed other social inequalities between the years of 1969 to 1973 such as militarism, racism, and sexism, but because of internal rivalries the New York GLF officially ended its operations in 1973.

In D.C. at least two communal collectives existed in the Dupont Circle area. They were multi-racial and initially included members of both sexes, but as time passed the women moved on to form their own groups like the Furies.

Locally the GLF staged the Nov. 28, 1970 demonstration at the Zephyr Bar on upper Wisconsin Avenue after four GLF members were refused service.

Several dozen GLF members and supporters came to the restaurant and staged an impromptu demonstration chanting slogans inside the restaurant. Some minor property damage occurred and twelve GLF demonstrators were arrested, although charges were later dropped.

The GLF also was responsible for the Nov. 1970 disruption of a conference on the “psychiatric treatment of homosexuals” at Catholic University.

The D.C. GLF also played a role in the Panther’s Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention also in Nov. 1970. They wrote an expansive platform proposal on gay and lesbian rights that was adopted by the convention.

Gay Revolution Party Manifesto – 1970

An anonymous flyer, probably produced by one or more members of the D.C. Gay Liberation Front, reprints a gay revolution party manifesto that originally appeared in Ecstasy, Issue 2, 1970.

The tract goes beyond calling for an end to discrimination against gay people and for equality and foresees an end to gender roles and the family structure as being a key to ultimately eliminating the caste system in which straight males dominate.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Mayday is Gayday – Apr. 1971

The Gay Mayday Tribe, a collection of anti-Vietnam War gay activists issues a flyer calling for gay participants in the mass April 24, 1971 antiwar demonstration to stay in Washington and conduct civil disobedience during demonstrations sponsored by the People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) April 26-30th and the Mayday demonstrations sponsored by PCPJ and the Mayday Tribe May 1-5, 1971.

The 8 ½ x 14, one-sided handout also calls for a gay dance and to make Mayday a Gayday.

The call reads, “’We will act on the ultimatum, “If the government won’t stop the war, the people will stop the government.’ Several thousand gay people will show, in our gay action created by us (not for us by straights) that our struggle and the struggle of the Vietnamese are one and the same.”

Hundreds of participants including some in the gay contingent, were arrested during the week of April 26-30^thand around 12,500 were arrested during the Mayday protests—the largest mass arrest in a three-day period in U.S. history—eclipsing the mass arrests that took place during the 1968 Black rebellion in the District of Columbia following the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Militant gay activists in D.C. were anchored by the Gay Liberation Front collectives and radicals within the Gay Activist Alliance 1970-73. They were active in the Black Panther-sponsored Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention, held dance-ins at clubs that prohibited gay dancing and confronted police raids on gay people in addition to the anti-Vietnam War activities.

Original held in the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_F_0103

First gay student dance in the DMV – Apr. 1971

A poster publicizing the area’s first campus gay dance to be held on Saturday April 3, 1971 at the University of Maryland College Park, sponsored by the University of Maryland Student Homophile Association.

The group, (re-named the Gay Student Alliance in 1972), scheduled near weekly dances in the early 1970s during the school year. Other campus LGBTQ+ groups began holding dances in the early 1970s at a time when they were prohibited by most venues.

The Gay Liberation Front of Washington held several dance-ins at clubs that barred same-sex dance partners and were joined by University of Maryland College Park students to break up the ban. The restaurant/bar Mr. Henry’s in College Park, MD and in SE Washington, D.C. were two of the venues targeted in that time period of 1971-72.

The Student Homophile Association at College Park won an early court case against the school. The organization was granted recognition on campus by the student government and had requested a $250 appropriation—the smallest appropriation of all other recognized student groups.

The budget committee of the board of regents recommended against the request. The student government president Madison Jones, the professional staff of the student activities office, and many of the university’s counseling center staff, as well as S.H.A. itself all protested the committee’s recommendation.

However, the regents went ahead and denied the funding saying has the right to give or withhold funds in whatever manner it may so choose.

The Student Homophile Association then sued and Judge James R. Mille of the Fourth District Court of Maryland ruled that the regents must appropriate the money, if available.

Henry F. Leonnig, the American Civil Liberties Union volunteer lawyer who represented G.S.A. said at the time the decision means that “any student organization has the right to be treated equally and fairly regardless of its nature.” Because the decision was handed down in Federal court, he said, it should provide a precedent for other campuses around the country.

Original held at the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_P_0030

Mayday/GLF Gay dance benefit – Apr. 1971

An undated 8 ½ x 11 flyer publicizes a gay benefit dance held April 17, 1971 at the DMZ GI Coffeehouse at 918 9^th Street NW Washington, D.C.

The event was meant to raise funds for the D.C. Gay Liberation Front, Gay May Day and a Gay coffeehouse. Tickets sold for $1.50 and free beer and movies were advertised.

The Gay May Day tribe came together to rally gay people to participate in the anti-Vietnam War civil disobedience in Washington, D.C. April 26-May 5, 1971. They formed a gay contingent on May 3^rd when demonstrators attempted to shut down the federal government in opposition to the Vietnam War.

Militant gay activists in D.C. were anchored by the Gay Liberation Front collectives. The GLF was active in the Black Panther-sponsored Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention, held dance-ins at clubs that prohibited gay dancing and confronted police raids on gay people in addition to the anti-Vietnam War activities.

In 1971 Howard Grayson of the Gay Liberation Front attempted to raise funds to establish a gay coffeehouse for youth under the age of 18. It’s unclear whether the effort was successful.

Original held in the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_F_0097.

Gay week at UMD College Park: 1971

The Student Homophile Association issues an 8 ½ x 11 one-sided flyer announcing “Gay Week,” including a “Symposium on Homosexuality,” a coffeehouse and a picnic May 13-16, 1971.

While the group didn’t use the phrase “gay pride,” this represents a precursor to what would become gay pride festivals in the Washington, DC area in 1972 and then from 1975 onward.

The organization also sponsored the first gay student dance in the Washington, D.C. area April 3, 1971. The group later was merged/renamed the Gay Student Alliance.

The Student Homophile Association then sued and Judge James R. Mille of the Fourth District Court of Maryland ruled that the regents must appropriate the money, if available.

Original held in the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_P_0033

‘Better blatant than latent’ – 1971 ca.

This unattributed gay “come out” sticker circulated in Washington, D.C. circa 1971

1971 was an early period in the open LGBTQ+ rights movement in the Washington, D.C. area with active groups bursting into the public square, including the D.C. Mattachine Society, the Gay Liberation Front, the Gay Mayday Collective, the Furies, the Gay Activist Alliance and gay alliance groups on college campuses like George Washington University and the University of Maryland.

All of these except the Mattachine Society arose 1969-71 and began staging public demonstrations and publishing newsletters, flyers, bumper stickers and other media espousing LGBTQ+ rights.

The long running Washington Blade began publishing in 1969. Activists also began writing articles for local alternative publications like the Washington Free Press, Quicksilver Times and Off Our Backs.

The Gay Liberation Front participated in the 1970 Black Panthers’ Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention and wrote an extensive platform on LGBTQ+ rights. The GLF also “liberated” straight clubs in this period by organizing same-sex dancing at them.

The D.C. Mattachine Society had been staging open protests since 1965 and in 1971 Franklin Kameny of the Mattachine Society ran for D.C. Delegate as an openly gay man. Throughout the period of 1969-73, LGBTQ+ activists gathered together to participate as a group in anti-Vietnam War protests in the city.

The first official Washington, D.C. Gay Pride Day was held in June 1972, though there would be many more battles in the years to come, including those in contemporary times.

Original held in the Jeffrey T. Goldthorpe collection

‘Some of your best friends are gay’ – 1971 ca.

This unattributed gay acceptance sticker addressed to “straights” circulated in Washington, D.C. circa 1971 and sought to provoke “straights” to re-think their prejudices.

Original held in the Jeffrey T. Goldthorpe collection

Post-Mayday statement by gay males – Aug. 1971

Gay males active in the May 1971 Mayday demonstrations that attempted to shut down the U.S. government through non-violent civil disobedience, issue a statement following a post-demonstration conference in Atlanta Aug. 10—17 1971

For five days, Mayday demonstrators had captivated the city through their cultural and political message of attempting to shut down the government in protest of the Vietnam War.

A number of Mayday organizers sought to continue this as a political trend and organized a “gathering of the tribes” conference in Atlanta where this statement came from.

The statement connects struggle against anti-gay bias to the struggle against imperialism, capitalism and racism.

The statement concludes:

“We encourage and support both actions of Gay collectives which need to be of a secretive cadre nature as well as open public demonstrations – and will constantly strive to live together, organize together, and act together in ways which smash male supremacy and which encourage the growth of a gendered-free society.”

However, the overall effort to keep the Mayday movement going failed.

Following the conference, several Mayday organizers set up in New York City to organize an “Off the Wall” campaign to disrupt Wall Street in the fall of 1971 similar to the way the Mayday demonstrations had disrupted Washington, D.C.

However local New York activists were lukewarm, at best, to the plan and it was never put into action.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

First D.C. gay pride festival – May 1972

An 8 ½ x 11 two-sided flyer advertises the first gay pride celebration in Washington, D.C. to be held May 2-7, 1972 at various venues but centered at Community Bookshop at 20^th & P Streets NW.

The reverse carries a map of the activities and advertisers supporting the events.

Among the events advertised are a gay art show, a gay pride drag show, a workshop by the
Faggot Study Group, a gay speakers rally at Lafayette Park, a gay student rap session, a gay poetry reading, free gay movies, community workshops on gay subjects, a free gay dance and arts festival, a gay mass in the park, a gay-in picnic in Rock Creek Park and a vigil for gay prisoners at Patuxent State Prison.

The artwork on the handout was from Motive Magazine, a long running student publication of the Methodist Church. The staff broke away from the church in 1972 and published a lesbian issue and a gay men’s issue as their last hurrah. The lesbian issue was produced by the Furies, a radical lesbian group in Washington, D.C.

Interestingly, the alternative press barely covered the event. The Quicksilver Times noted the events in their calendar, but did not cover any of the activities. The Gay Blade made no mention of them. The Washington Post covered the speakers at Lafayette Park, but nothing else.

Original on file at American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_F_0098a.

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Labor Movement

GPO worker appeal for night premium pay – Dec. 1886

Craft workers at the Government Printing Office (GPO) petition Congress for the establishment of a night differential December 28, 1886.

Included in the appeal are examples of night differentials in the private sector. The appeal also calls for the establishment of specific hours of night work in three different areas of the GPO—Congressional Record, press room and bill room.

The appeal is signed by individual workers. The typographical union was already established at the GPO—Government Printing Office Council, No. 211, National Union—but it is not clear if it played a role in lobbying Congress.

The petition received the support of Public Printer Thomas E. Benedict who wrote that office craft workers were petitioning Congress for a wage increase. In is annual report he noted that “the rates of wages as fixed by law are now insufficient. Believing that just compensation is necessary to faithful service, I am prepared to full indorse any such claim based upon recognized merit or upon evidence that the Government rates are now below those prevailing in private printing office.”

Benedict also supported the effort to establish a night differential, writing that, “It is just and proper that Congress should make some provision for extra pay for night labor. The rule allowing such extra pay is now universal in the printing trade. Much night work is required to be done during the sessions of Congress, and those assigned to such work at the same pay for day work justly feel that they suffer hardship.”

The petition occurred after the introduction of a bill introduced by Rep. John Farquhar (R-NY) to establish a differential. The bill was reported favorably out of the House Committee on Labor, but apparently never received a vote.

The bill was the latest of several bills over the previous ten years to achieve the same goal.

A night premium would finally be established at the GPO by Congress in 1891 that provided for a 20 percent differential for night work.

Federal workers and their unions were permitted under law to lobby Congress at that point in time. However, in 1919, a law was passed that prohibited “grassroots lobbying” by federal workers and severely limited direct contact with Congress.

The law was later amended and liberalized the lobbying ban, but federal employee contacts with Congress remains a point of contention in contemporary times.

Original held at the Library of Congress, Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 207, Folder 37.

Illustrated History of the Washington Central Labor Union – 1900

The 439-page book describes itself as a “Commercial history of the city of Washington, photographs and biographies of citizens, photographs and biographies of officers, miscellaneous statistics, etc.”

Of interest to labor historians and local unions and members seeking more knowledge of their history, the book contains brief descriptions of unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor’s umbrella organization in the city—the Central Labor Union.

It also contains photographs and brief descriptions of the officers of the CLU and delegates from the local unions to the Central Labor Union along with some other local union officers.

There are no women union officers or delegates pictured and apparently only one black man—from the Hod Carriers union (today’s laborer’s union)–Thomas Jackson.

Proposed constitution of DC Federal Employees Union No.. 2 – Jun. 1919

A proposed constitution of the Washington, D.C. Federal Employees Union 2 is published as a ballot for ratification that would take effect July 1, 1919, if passed.

Local 2 pre-dated the establishment of the national union and was directly chartered by the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in May 1916 and elected F. M. McLarin as its first president.

The national union, which came to be known as the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), was founded at a labor convention in Washington, D.C. on September 17, 1917 as an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor.

The proposed new constitution for Local 2 was a result of the formation of the national union.

NFFE is the oldest federal union and continues to represent federal workers in contemporary times.

At first NFFE focused mainly on lobbying to secure its goals including proposing bills for a federal job classification system, pension system and salary increases. The Evening Star reports McLarin and Florence Etheridge testifying before a congressional committee to seek higher salaries December 27, 1916.

Unlike many unions of the time, it also encouraged the participation of women and elected Washington, D.C.’s Etheridge to the first national council, making her one of the few women with leadership positions in labor at the time.

Initially, the union organized some of the federal workers along craft lines in accordance with the practice of the AFL, but quickly began organizing units department-wide.

This led to a split with the AFL in 1931 over this issue. The AFL had awarded several crafts that NFFE had organized to other unions. The dispute over industry-wide versus craft unionism would lead to the foundation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) later that decade.

In 1963, NFFE was a strong proponent of the Equal Pay Act, which mandated pay equity between men and women in the workplace.

In 1999, NFFE merged with the International Association of Machinists (IAM), but maintains its identity as a separate department within the IAM. The merger also placed the union back under the umbrella of the merged AFL-CIO.

Local 2 remains the broad organization of NFFE in the Washington, D.C. area with sub-branches in different departments, including Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, General Services Administration, Passport Service, Park Service, and Housing and Urban Development.

Original held at the Library of Congress, Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 208, Folder 27.

Mules are Mules – 1926 ca.

The International Association of Machinists publishes a 4-page, 3.5 x 5 inch pamphlet using mules to illustrate the benefits of cooperation and thereby of joining a union.

The pamphlet was published sometime from 1926-1939 when A. O. Wharton was president of the IAM.

Records of Bill Marshall Fudge – 1933-54

Bill Marshall Fudge was a machinist apprentice and journeyman, 1933-54, Member of International Association of Machinists Columbia Lodge 174 and worker on the Virginian Railway Company.

Virginian Railway Company Pass – 1933 (Machinist Apprentice)

Union Dues Book 1 – 1940-44 (shows initiated July 17, 1940, General Work” (Journeyman))

Union Dues Book 2 – 1944-49 (shows he was 34 years old, 6’ ½”, 200 lbs. and lived at 1326 28^th Street SE Washington DC 1945-49 “General Work” (Journeyman))

Union Dues Book 3 – 1950-54 (shows initiated July 17, 1940, “General Work” (Journeyman))

Civil Service Reinstatement League conference – Jan. 1934

The Civil Service Reinstatement League issues a flyer announcing a January 2-3, 1934 conference of government workers at the Thompson School at 12^th & L Sts. NW, Washington, D.C.

Nineteen organizations, including delegates from American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) local unions and the Women’s Party, American Federation of Teachers, Central Labor Union, International Association of Machinists, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American Legion veterans preference Committee, League for American Civil Service, American Federation of Letter Carriers and the National Alliance of Postal Clerks, attended the two-day conference.

Eleanor Norton from the AFGE local at the Labor Department, chaired the meeting.

The conference focused on eliminating the “marriage clause” and restoring the 15 percent pay cut imposed by the 1932 Economy Act.

The Reinstatement League was initiated by AFGE July 8, 1933 after protests following the implementation of the 1932 Economy Act championed by former President Herbert Hoover.

AFGE itself was a relatively new union, chartered by the AFL in 1932 to represent government workers.

Newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt implemented the law and dismissed approximately 4,000 government workers and instituted a 15 percent pay cut for the rest. Vacations were also cut from six weeks to three weeks and a “marriage clause” requiring the firing of a worker who also had a spouse working for the government,

AFGE held a mass meeting at the American Federation of Labor (AFL) headquarters where the League was formed.

AFL President William Green quickly obtained a July 12, 1933 meeting with Roosevelt. Green announced after the meeting that Roosevelt was “thoroughly receptive to the idea that victims of the economy program be given first available jobs.”

However, no progress was made for two weeks and Eleanor Norton, a League member from the Labor Department, organized a delegation of 30 laid-off workers to call on AFGE headquarters to demand action from the League.

But the response of AFGE was to disband the League.

Norton re-organized the League as an independent organization and led protests at agencies that were not hiring off of the reinstatement list and continued to fight for restoration of pay, vacation and to repeal the “marriage act.”

The militance of a number of locals in the Washington, D.C. area led AFGE to expel a number of lodges in 1936-37. These formed the core of the Congress of Industrial Organization’s United Federal Workers of America that was chartered in 1937.

Jacob Baker, a former assistant administrator of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, was elected president. Eleanor Norton, the Labor Department worker who headed the Reinstatement League, became secretary treasurer.

In 1944 Norton would be elected president of the union, becoming the first female president of a CIO union. The progressive union that entwined civil rights with labor issues would also appoint Marie Richardson as what is believed to be the first full-time Black representative of a major union.

March on Washington – 1941

A March 1941 letter from A. Phillip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, to NAACP leader Walter White inviting him to join a march on Washington for fair employment.

‘Mass Meeting’ for the hiring of Black operators: Oct. 1942

A mass meeting to demand that the Capital Transit Co. hire Black bus and streetcar operators is advertised for November 3, 1942 with Rev. Adam Clayton Powell as the principal speaker.

The meeting was held at the Vermont Ave. Baptist Church and was timed to coincide with the World War II-era Fair Employment Practices Commission on Capital Transit hiring practices. Hundreds attended the wartime protest sponsored by the Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities.

The Committee sponsored mini-street rallies in downtown Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1943 and a mass march May 7, 1943 through the streets of the city by some 2,000 participants.

However, the FEPC would refuse to enforce its order and preeminent civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston resigned from the FEPC in protest.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.’

‘Mass Meeting’ for the hiring of Black operators (2): Oct. 1942

A mass meeting to demand that the Capital Transit Co. hire Black bus and streetcar operators is advertised for November 3, 1942 with Rev. Adam Clayton Powell as the principal speaker.

See description above.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.’

Petition to support hiring Black transit operators – Dec. 1942 ca.

The Committee sponsored mini-street rallies in downtown Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1943 and a mass march May 7, 1943 through the streets of the city by some 2,000 participants.

Capital Transit unwittingly hired a Black woman, Sarah Grayson, as a streetcar operator in 1943, but discharged her in May 1944 when they determined she was Black.

The FEPC would ultimately refuse to enforce its order and preeminent civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston resigned from the FEPC in protest.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Jobs for Negroes Committee calls meeting on FEPC – Jan. 1943

The Committee on Jobs was leading a fight against the Washington, D.C. Capital Transit Company for the hiring of Black bus and streetcar operators.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Committee on jobs bus and trolley operator application: 1943 ca.

The Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities solicits job applications for Black bus and streetcar operators at the Capital Transit Company.

See description above.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.’

Committee on Jobs Capital Transit campaign update: Sep. 1943

‘Colored Americans of Washington, DC Unite Today’ – 1943

However, at this point in time, Randolph was threatening another march on Washington proposed to be held in the spring of 1944.

However, Randolph never called a 1944 march and the Armed Forces weren’t desegregated until after World War II on July 26, 1948 when President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order to do so.

Original held by the Smithsonian Institution Anacostia Community Museum, Henry P. Whitehead Collection.

Letter to Bureau of Engraving workers on promotions – Mar.1948 ca.

The United Public Workers of America (UPWA) Local 3 writes to their members in an undated letter, but probably June 1948, outlining procedures for clerks to seek upgrades.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Religious, fraternal groups back union fight for equality – Mar. 1949

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Advertisement calls for end to Jim Crow at the Bureau of Engraving – May 1949

A broad coalition led by Margaret Gilmore, president of United Public Workers of America Local 3, organized pickets at the Bureau of Engraving and at the White House.

Gilmore led a three-year fight against Jim Crow at the agency that printed U.S. money, winning major victories along the way.

Letter on fight for equality at Bureau of Engraving: 1949

UPWA Local 3 led a multi-year campaign against discrimination at the agency resulting in a resounding victory when the government opened the ranks of skilled plate printers to Black Americans.

Gilmore, led a broad coalition against Jim Crow at agency that included the Federation of Civil Associations, the Cafeteria Workers Union, the DC Coordinating Committee to End Discrimination, the NAACP, the civil liberties committee of the Elks, and luminaries such as Howard University President Mordecai Johnson, long time civil rights activist Rev. William H. Jernagin and civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston.

In February 1950 after many years of internal organizing and public pickets, rallies and speeches, the Bureau of Engraving opened the ranks of plate printers to Black Americans.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

CIO Union seeks permanent status for Black workers – 1949 ca.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Negro Freedom Rally Committee flyer – Sep. 1949

Following the “Peekskill Riot” where a white supremacist mob attacked people who gathered for a Paul Robeson concert, protest rallies were organized around the country, including Washington, D.C.

D.C. Telephone Traffic contract with C&P – 1950

The 1948 contract agreement between Washington Traffic Division No. 50 and the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. was the first Communications Workers of America (CWA) contract used as a pattern for other local unions.

The union, formerly the Washington Telephone Traffic Union (1935-47), became Division 50 of the new Communications Workers of America at a June 1947 convention following a failed six-week strike by the National Federation of Telephone Workers April-May 1947 that had sought a national bargaining agreement.

The 1948 contract was the first three-year agreement signed with an AT&T subsidiary and came at a time when local telephone unions had been weakened by the strike and further by a split between national unions—the independent CWA and the Telephone Workers Organizing Committee of the CIO.

The Washington, D.C. contract was used by the national union as a pattern for 10 local unions across the country in 1948 with its three-year deal that provided no immediate wage increase, but allowed for two wage reopeners—one in the first year and one in the second year of the agreement.

The Washington union was chosen because of its militancy and because C&P was a wholly-owned subsidiary of AT&T. Mary Gannon, the leader of the union from 1940-49 led the union on dozens off work stoppages during her tenure and was a voice for women within the larger national union before leaving the local union early in 1950.

Agreement between C&P Telephone and CWA – 1953

A copy of the 1953 labor agreement between C&P Telephone of the District of Columbia and the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

At this point in time CWA had re-organized and formed District 2 that covered a large geographical area around Washington, D.C., including all the C&P named AT&T subsidiaries, and the D.C. installer’s former union president, Glen Watts, was now District 2 director.

Contracts with C&P in the Washington, D.C. area had been conducted separately by the traffic (operator) local union and the installers local union for about 10 years before joint negotiations were conducted again–resulting in this agreement with C&P Telephone.

The agreement covered C&P workers in the District of Columbia and the inner suburbs of Maryland and Virginia.

Watts would go on to become president of the national union.

NLRB non-communist affidavit – circa 1955

The Taft-Harley Act passed in 1948 prohibited members of the Communist Party from holding labor union office if the union were to use provisions of the National Labor Relations Act.

It required officers to sign a “non-communist affidavit” in order for the union to be eligible for National Labor Relations Board services and the use of the law in disputes with employers.

Many mark the decline of the labor movement to the Taft Harley Act and the inability of labor to wage effective resistance.

Parents alerted to student walkout in support of teacher strike – Feb. 1968

Springbrook High School notifies parents of students who participated in a walkout Feb. 2, 1968 in support of a Montgomery County, Maryland teachers strike.

Defying court injunctions and threatened fines, the union held firm until a settlement was reached that tilted largely in favor of the MCEA (National Education Association affiliate) demands and re-affirmed its dominance as the voice for teachers in the county.

Farm Workers ‘Boycott Grapes’ flyer – 1969 ca.

A United Farm Workers Organizing Committee leaflet passed out in the Washington, D.C. are circa 1969 during the years-long boycott of California table grapes in an effort to secure a labor contract for farmworkers.

The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) union reached a three-year contract with major grape growers in 1970 after years of struggle and a nationwide grape boycott.. They also expanded into the lettuce fields and into the Florida fruit groves and vegetable fields and became the United Farmworkers Union.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Call for commemoration of 4-year grape strike – Sep. 1969

A two-sided 8 ½ x 11 flyer issued by the Grape Strike Support Committee calls for a rally on the Washington Monument grounds and a march to Arlington Cemetery September 7, 1969 on the fourth anniversary of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee strike against California grape growers.

National Liturgical Conference -Washington Lay Association coordinated the event.

The actual march was changed to L’Enfant Plaza because of the ban on political demonstrations at Arlington Cemetery. The demonstration was also honoring Robert F. Kennedy who before his death had been a prominent supporter of the union and the strike.

More than 500 would gather at the Sylvan Theater on the Monument grounds to hear speeches by U.S. Rep. James O’Hara (D-MI), J.C. Turner, president of the D.C. Central Labor Council and chair of the local strike support committee, among others.

Turner called on the Nixon administration to stop buying grapes for troops abroad. The Defense Department had recently increased the number of table grapes it was purchasing.

Rev. Richard McSorley of Georgetown led the service at L’Enfant Plaza.

The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) union would reach a three-year contract with major grape growers in 1970 after years of struggle and a nationwide grape boycott. They also expanded into the lettuce fields and into the Florida fruit groves and vegetable fields and became the United Farmworkers Union.

The union was forged out of unity between Filipino-American and Mexican-American farm workers in the great 1965-1970 strike against the grape growers in Delano, California, the UFWOC won the public to the cause of agricultural labor through a nation-wide consumer boycott of table grapes and exposure of pesticide use.

The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee was chartered in 1966 by the AFL-CIO in the afterglow of the historic farm worker “Pilgrimage to Sacramento” led by Cesar Chavez. Other principals include Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Four-year anniversary of grape strike – Sep. 1969

A flyer issued by the Grape Strike Support Committee calls for a rally on the Washington Monument grounds and a march to Arlington Cemetery September 7, 1969 on the fourth anniversary of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee strike against California grape growers.

See additional description under previous item.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Teachers union calls for D.C. home rule: 1969

A 5 ½ x 8, 4-page flyer put out by the Washington Teachers Union Local 6 calls on demonstrators attending the national antiwar demonstration November 15, 1969 to support home rule in the District of Columbia.

The flyer also urges support for increased financial support for D.C. public schools and for funding a teachers’ raise. A third demand issued was a halt to the Three Sisters Bridge project.

William “Bill” Simons was elected president of the local in 1964 and would go on to lead the union for 25 years. Collective bargaining rights were obtained in 1967 when Local 6 bested the National Education Association in an election amongst teachers.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Washington, D.C. Teacher

The Washington, D.C. Teacher was the newsletter of the Washington Teachers Union (American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 6).

The issues available include articles on new methods of education, anti-Vietnam War activities, a demonstration against red-baiting surrounding Antioch College, contract talks and other local union business.

The following issues of the Washington Teacher, usually published as a tabloid, are currently available:

Vol. 5 No. 7 – June 1970

Special Issue – July 1970

Vol. 6 No. 1 – October 1970

Vol. 6 No. 5 – April 1971

D.C. teacher’s union calls rally over contracts – May 1971

The Washington Teachers Union (American Federation of Teachers Local 6) mails a letter to members May 25, 1971 outlining the status of contract negotiations and calling for a rally at the Leckie Elementary School June 3^rd and an emergency meeting June 10^th.

The reverse side of the flyer contains a map to Leckie School.

The Washington Post reported 500 union members showed up on the playground outside of Leckie School at Chesapeake Street and Martin Luther King Ave. SW, threatening a strike if an agreement were not reached soon.

D.C. Teachers’ Union school board endorsements – Nov. 1971

The Washington Teachers’ Union writes a letter November 15, 1971 to its members urging them to attend a union meeting and also vote for the union-endorsed school board candidates in an upcoming election.

The school board election held November 23, 1971 marked Marion Barry’s first election, winning an at-large seat by defeating incumbent Anita Allen. Barry-endorsed candidates all won their elections.

The teachers’ union did not endorse in the Barry/Allen race, but all five of their endorsed candidates won.

The election established Barry and the teachers’ union as two dominant forces in city politics.

Call for Library of Congress employee meeting – Jun. 1972

An 8 ½ x 11 one-sided flyer issued by Black Employees at the Library of Congress (BELC) calls for a meeting at Christ Child Settlement House June 29, 1972.

In the early 1970s, black employees at the Library of Congress were occupying the lowest paying jobs without opportunity for promotion. BELC was formed in a lunchroom conversation in July 1970.

Farmworkers urge Safeway boycott – 1973

An 8 ½ x 11, two-sided flyer by the Washington, D.C. area United Farm Workers calls on consumers to boycott Safeway stores in an effort to pressure lettuce growers to recognize and bargain with the union.

Picket lines were set up at numerous stores throughout the Washington, D.C. area, including the Langley Park and Georgetown Safeway stores.

Original held in the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_F_0140a.

First issue of University of Maryland AFSCME newsletter – Sep. 1973

The first issue of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1072’s AFSCME in Action newsletter from September 1973.

The union represented about 1300 University of Maryland College Park campus workers but did not have collective bargaining rights at that time.

The issue covers campus layoffs, racial discrimination, a rival employee association, the union picnic, safety, a call to impeach Nixon and other issues.

The local president was Gladys Jefferson. Saul Schneiderman’s name appears in the newsletter as one of the contacts. He would later take a job at the Library of Congress and go on to become AFSMCE president at that location.

Annapolis Report, Vol. 2. No. 2 – Feb. – 1974

The Maryland House and Senate later passed the bill making Maryland the second state to honor Dr. King’s civil rights legacy in 1974.

Support Trailways Drivers – Apr. 1974

The Trailways Strike Support Committee issues a flyer calling for a weekly picket line at the Trailways terminal on 12th St. NW in support of Trailways bus drivers who had been on strike for two years. The drivers were members of the United Transportation Union

The 300 drivers for the Safeway Trails Company (a subsidiary of the Trailways Company that Gulf Oil had a controlling interest in) began a strike April 2, 1972.

Trailways was an interstate bus company and a competitor of the Greyhound bus lines.

Two months after this picket line, an administrative law judge ruled unfair labor practice charges levied by the National Labor Relations Board to be without merit.

That decision was upheld in March 1975 by the full National Labor Relations Board and the strike was lost.

This strike foreshadowed the bitter seven-week 1983 Greyhound strike that ended in defeat for the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and a disastrous 1990 three-year strike that also ended in defeat for the ATU.

Original held in the American University Library, Archives and Special Collection, Patrick Frazier Collection.

Transit union working cards – 1974-77

A 1977 yearly card (top) issued by the Amalgamated Transit Union for members in good standing. These were stickers that were usually displayed by union members on operator trap boxes (below) or mechanic tool boxes.

The ATU previously issued monthly cards like this, but began issuing yearly cards because of the expense. Later they began issue permanent plastic cards.

Trap boxes were used to carry transfers, schedules, running time cards, shop cards, refund slips and scrip, and other items used daily by bus operators. Some operators would keep their punch (for punching transfers) in their trap box when not on duty.

The trap box (bottom) displays monthly cards issued in 1974.

WMATA & union letters ordering striking workers back to work – May 1974

Shortly after the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA also known as Metro) took over four privately owned bus companies in addition to the task of building a subway, the contract between Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 and the new public company expired.

The union called a strike on May 1, 1974 after the contract expired, negotiations stalled and Metro had not specifically agreed to arbitration as provided for in the expiring labor contract and the Interstate Compact that created Metro.

The union argued that the clause in the expiring contract permitted a legal strike when the company refused to arbitrate. A federal judge disagreed and fined the union $50,000 per day (later reduced to $25,000) until workers returned to work.

Attached are back-to-work letters from the union and the company after workers continued the strike after the judge’s order.

People’s Grand Jury in Washington Post strike – Feb. 1976

The Alliance for Labor and Community Action and the National Lawyers Guild sponsor a “People’s Grand Jury on the Washington Post Strike at the Metropolitan AME Church at 16^th & M Streets NW February 7, 1976.

The Alliance was the community group organized by the October League (M-L), a Marxist-Leninist group that grew out of the Students for a Democratic Society. The Alliance did strike support work and advocated for the unemployed, among other activities in the Washington, DC area in the mid-1970s.

The National Lawyers Guild was established in 1937 as a progressive bar association and continues to operate in contemporary times. A Lawyers Guild member and long-time defense attorney for a number of high-profile left-wing cases, Arthur Kinoy,, was the “prosecutor” at the “People’s Grand Jury.”

The pressmen’s union walked out October 1, 1975 and were joined by several other craft unions while other crafts initially respected the picket line. The exception was the Newspaper Guild of writers and editorial workers who twice voted to cross the picket line.

Some damage was done to the presses as the strike initially took hold—the Post claimed “millions” while later estimates were between $12,500 and $275,000.

The Post skillfully used the damage as “an attack on the free press” and highlighted the lack of any significant number Black workers among the pressmen in a city that was majority Black.

The pressmen responded by forming an umbrella group of the craft unions to help solidify the strike and helped create a strike support committee of community activists that sought to counter the Post’s propaganda campaign.

By December 1975, the Post made a final contract offer to the pressmen that would have gutted seniority rights and other long-standing work rules and provided for nominal wage increases. The offer was rejected by the pressmen and the Post began hiring permanent replacements for the pressmen.

The month before, in November 1975, a grand jury was questioning witnesses on the disabling of the presses and the “People’s Grand Jury” was a response to this development and in the hopes of winning broader public support.

The support committee along with the Post craft unions staged a mass demonstration and attempted to boycott major advertisers in the newspaper. They also held a series of smaller protests, including one at the AFL-CIO where union chief George Meany had them arrested.

The strike was essentially lost shortly after the People’s Grand Jury when the other striking craft unions reached contract agreements with the Post and the remaining unions honoring picket lines went back to work.

The strike and related support work continued as the pressmen sought to fend off criminal charges. 15 pressmen were ultimately indicted. Most received fines or short suspended sentences though one of the pressmen was sentenced to a year in jail.

The light sentences were a vindication that the damage to the presses had been minimal, but it was a hollow victory.

End the Triple Oppression of Black Women – Feb. 1976

Donated by Craig Simpson

Files of the Metro Employees Action Alliance – 1976

The Metro Employees Action Alliance (originally named the Ad Hoc Committee) was a brief-lived caucus with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 approximately May-September 1976.

It questioned union leaders at meeting, publicized the management’s contract proposals, made contract proposals of their own, raised money and hired a public relations firm to counter negative press on Metro workers and their union.

It was the first of several organized caucuses that eventually helped produce new leadership of the union that replaced the “business unionism” of the time.

The surviving records:

WMATA management proposals for contract changes – May 1, 1976

Questions to be asked at the union meeting – May 18, 1976

Summary of Metro contract proposals circulated to union membership – circa May 22, 1976

Caucus meeting agenda – May 28, 1976

Draft notice to members of Metro’s contract proposals – circa May 28, 1976

The Trades Unionist – Oct. 1976

The October 15, 1976 issue of the Trades Unionist covers a rally to support the Washington Post pressmen’s strike, a commemoration of long-time Cafeteria Workers Union Local 473 president Oliver Palmer, the fight to increase the minimum wage, political endorsements and covered the meeting of the Central Labor Council delegates meeting where there was a lively fight over endorsing Statehood Party candidate Josephine Butler.

The Trades Unionist was published by the Washington, D.C. Central Labor Council since 1896, but the shrinking of union membership eventually forced it to end publication. It was replaced in the 21^st Century with a daily online newsletter by the umbrella labor group for unions in the greater Washington area.

The Central Labor Council is now known as the Washington Metropolitan Council, AFL-CIO.

Courts out of labor disputes: Apr. 1977

Supporters of the striking Washington Post pressmen’s union call for a rally April 16, 1977 to defend 15 union members going on trial for alleged actions during the 1975-77 strike.

Several hundred attended the rally that claimed victory after the 15 pressmen pled guilty to misdemeanor charges the previous day in return for federal prosecutors dropping felony charges.

The U.S. Attorney had obtained indictments against the 15 pressmen. On the one-year anniversary of the strike, close to 1,000 pressmen and their supporters rallied at McPherson Square and marched to the Post building where they burned Katherine Graham in effigy (see <a href=”https://flic.kr/s/aHsju9eWWj” rel=”noreferrer nofollow”>flic.kr/s/aHsju9eWWj</a>).

On May 20, 1977, fourteen pressmen were given sentences that ranged from fines to one year in jail. The other pressman was previously sentenced to probation.

Workers Dinner – Apr. 1977

The Baltimore-Washington Worker publishes a 4-page pamphlet inviting workers to a dinner at the Worker offices at 3609 Fleet Street, Baltimore Md on Sunday, April 3, 1977.

The dinner brough together 150 workers and their families from the steel, garment, electrical and other industries in Baltimore as well as workers from transit, telephone and trucking in Washington, D.C. to plan for Mayday 1977 activities.

Eugene O’Sullivan, a pressman and prominent leader during the Washington Post strike, was one of the main speakers.

The Worker was initiated by the Revolutionary Union (later Revolutionary Communist Party) and distributed at factories, mills, shops and other worksites primarily in Baltimore from 1973-78. In 1977 it became the Baltimore-Washington Worker and was distributed at Metrobus garages, the main Post Office, UPS, Safeway and Giant warehouses, Western Electric, Government Printing Office and other blue collar work locations in and around the District of Columbia.

The newspaper did not survive the 1978 split in the Revolutionary Communist Party.

National Workers Organization.–A Powerful Weapon for Our Class – Jun. 1977

The Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) publishes a 37-page pamphlet in June 1977 analyzing current conditions and historical parallels of the U.S. working class and concludes that there is a need for a national intermediate organization between trade unions and the RCP.

The pamphlet also contains photos of U.S. working class struggles during that period of the 1970s when a strike wave swept the nation and rank-and-file caucuses were formed in many workplaces across the U.S.

The National United Workers Organization was modeled after the Communist Party’s 1920s-30s Trade Union Educational (later Unity) League.

It sought to act as a vehicle for advanced workers who were not communists. A number of local workplace organizations, caucuses within unions and independent workers newspapers joined in the September 1977 convention held in Chicago.

However, the United National Workers Organization did not survive the 1978 split within the Revolutionary Communist Party that paralleled the split in the leadership within the People’s Republic of China between the “Gang of Four” and the rest of the Chinese Communist Party central committee.

The split also involved differences in U.S. strategy and the RCP would within a few years pull all its cadre out of the mines, mills and factories and concentrate instead in minority communities.

Stand Up Fight Together – 1977

The eight-page pamphlet published by the Organizing Committee for a National Workers Organization in 1977 acted as a convention call to unite rank-and-file caucuses throughout the U.S. around a militant program to fight for working class gains and against U.S. imperialism.

The Organizing Committee was organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party, a group was formed as the protest movement of the 1960s and early 1970s began to ebb. The RCP grew out of the Revolutionary Union and upheld Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought at its 1975 founding.

The United Workers Organization was modeled after the Communist Party’s 1920s-30s Trade Union Educational (later Unity) League.

‘Bust the Union-busters’ – July 1977

A flyer from the Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee (UWOC) calls for a demonstration July 12, 1977 in Arlington, Va. against a seminar being conducted for employers how on to avoid or break unions.

The demonstration sponsored by the UWOC attracted about 35 people to picket the Sheraton Motor Inn at Columbia Turnpike and Washington Blvd. against the Advanced Management Research seminar.

The demonstration was co-sponsored by the Organizing Committee for a National Workers Organization. The protest was ignored by the mainstream media but covered by Kojo Nnamdi on WHUR radio.

Picnic fundraiser for National Workers Organization convention: July 1977

The Baltimore, Md. And Washington, D.C. Organizing Committees for a National Workers Organization advertise a July 17, 1977 picnic fundraiser at Greenbriar State Park in Maryland.

The United Workers Organization was modeled after the Communist Party’s 1920s-30s Trade Union Educational (later Unity) League.

Fundraising picnic ticket for National Workers Organization. convention: July 1977

The Baltimore, Md. And Washington, D.C. Organizing Committees for a National Workers Organization ticket for a July 17, 1977 picnic fundraiser at Greenbriar State Park in Maryland.

Raffle fundraiser for National Workers Organization. convention: Aug. 1977

The Baltimore, Md. and Washington, D.C. Organizing Committees for a National Workers Organization hold a raffle with a drawing at a disco August 27, 1977 to raise funds for workers to attend the founding convention the following weekend of the United National Workers Organization in Chicago.

Entrance stub from founding Workers Organization convention: Sept. 1977

An attendance stub for the United National Workers Organization founding convention at the Pick Congress hotel in Chicago, IL September 3-4, 1977.

It sought to act as a vehicle for advanced workers who were not communists. A number of local workplace organizations, caucuses within unions and independent workers newspapers totaling about 1,500 people joined in the September 1977 convention.

1500 Found United National Workers Organization – Sep. 1977

The four-page English/Spanish, tabloid-sized broadside recounts the founding convention of the National United Workers Organization in 1977 that united a number of rank-and-file caucuses throughout the U.S. around a militant program to fight for working class gains and against U.S. imperialism.

The Organizing Committee was organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party, a group that was formed as the protest movement of the 1960s and early 1970s began to ebb. The RCP grew out of the Revolutionary Union and upheld Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought at its 1975 founding.

The United Workers Organization was modeled after the Communist Party’s 1920s-30s Trade Union Educational (later Unity) League.

Meat cutters union pushes ERA in Virginia – Oct. 1977

The Amalgamated Meat Cutters local unions in Virginia issue an 8 ½ x 11, single-sided flyer for an October 30, 1977 Richmond, VA conference on “Pass ERA in Virginia Now!”

The handout called for all labor and all other organizations supporting the Equal Rights Amendment to attend the conference where Addie Wyatt, International Vice President and Director of Women’s Affairs at the meat cutters union, would be the key note speaker.

The Virginia meat cutters local unions were subsequently absorbed by United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400, which continues to represent the workers today.

The campaign to pass the ERA in Virginia began shortly after Congress passed the 1972 constitutional amendment that provided for equal rights for women under the law. Congress also put a seven-year limit on obtaining ratification by the states.

Virginia’s politics at the time was very conservative and ratifying the ERA in the state was an uphill climb.

Pro-ERA activists at first eschewed militant tactics and concentrate on electing pro-ERA legislators and lobbying the state House and Senate. Silent vigils at the state capitol in Richmond were the main form of public demonstration.

A 2020 post by CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi described the later campaign:

“Tensions rose as the deadline approached and Virginia still hadn’t ratified. Two NOW leaders, Marianne Fowler and Jean Marshall Clarke, were arrested at the Virginia state Capitol, protesting after a House committee voted to kill the ERA, according to a 1978 Washington Post report. Fowler refused to leave the Capitol and in frustration spat on the officer who dragged her out.

“Efforts became even more aggressive after Congress voted to extend the ratification deadline to 1982.

“A number of pro-ERA female activists, mostly from Virginia, formed “A Group of Women” and began organizing public acts of civil disobedience to draw attention to the ERA, including chaining themselves to the White House in 1981, according to Megan Taylor Shockley’s book, “Creating a Progressive Commonwealth.” A year later, on Susan B. Anthony’s birthday, 10 of the group’s women scaled the White House fence – attempting to deliver an ERA petition to President Ronald Reagan – and were arrested, Shockley wrote.

“In February 1982, Virginia fell a vote short in the state Senate of passing the ERA after a Republican senator, Nathan Miller, took a business trip to avoid voting on the amendment, Shockley wrote.

“The world doesn’t stop because the General Assembly starts,” Miller told the Post at the time.

“Fowler and another activist, Pat Winton, chased Miller down at the Richmond airport to try to prevent him from leaving, according to Shockley.

“A news report quoted Fowler as saying the senator had looked “sheepish” when they caught up with him, and he avoided them by ducking into the men’s room, Shockley wrote. Miller didn’t respond to a CNN request for an interview.

“Falling one vote short was a feeling of “intense disappointment,” McCoy told CNN, adding that they had been let down when some candidates promised support for the ERA, only to change their minds once elected.

“’We all kept up a strong front and kept our emotions in check. There had been a number of disappointments before then. There was no demonstration as a group or as individuals to show our disgust,’ she recalled.

“Activists tried to keep the ERA alive by filing suit in the Virginia Supreme Court, which did not take up the matter, according to Shockley. By the June 1982 deadline, only 35 states had ratified the ERA – three shy of the threshold needed to add it to the Constitution – and five that had previously passed it by then had rescinded their support, throwing its future into serious doubt.”

The campaign was renewed in the 21^st century and after a more progressive Democratic Party took control of both Virginia legislative bodies in 2017, the ERA was passed in 2018. The ERA has now been passed by 38 states and activists are demanding that it be recognized as a valid amendment to the Constitution.

The effort now lies before the courts.

Original held in the Elizabeth Smith collection of Virginia ERA Ratification Council Records, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Branch Cabell Library, Special Collections.

Call for unemployed march on Washington – Jan. 1978

The Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee (UWOC) and the United National Workers Organization (UNWO) issue a call for workers to march on Washington, D.C. January 21, 1978 on the occasion of U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s first State of the Union address.

The relatively small turnout was overshadowed by farmers and pro and anti-abortion protesters who staged their own larger demonstrations.

Labor marches for equal rights for women – Jan. 1978

A two-sided, 8 ½ x 11 handout issued by Labor for Equal Rights Now (LERN) publicizes a January 22, 1978 march in Richmond, VA to support ratification, VA of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

At the time 35 of the 38 states needed for ratification had passed the amendment.

The front side of the flyer focuses on the details of the march on the state capital while the reverse side lists dozens of organizations supporting the event.

The Washington Post reported that more than 3,000 attended the march and noted its diversity of participants—conservative, young, older, liberal, former antiwar activists, labor union members, Black marchers and men, among other social strata.

The Post interviewed some of the participants like Virginia Acker and Charlotte Kyle of Waynesboro.

Acker said, “Now, I don’t support women’s liberation. I wanted to be treated like a lady, not a man. But ERA is different. When I found out we didn’t have equal rights if our husbands died, I decided we needed this thing.”

Kyle said, “Some of our men don’ understand this. They say women only have qual privileges in the kitchen and bedroom. But you don’t hear ‘em saying stuff like that when we’re on our way to work in the morning.”

Labor had rallied in Richmond for the ERA the previous year and would reprise this march with even greater participation in 1980.

Virginia’s politics at the time was very conservative and ratifying the ERA in the state was an uphill climb.

Pro-ERA activists at first eschewed militant tactics and concentrated on electing pro-ERA legislators and lobbying the state House and Senate. Silent vigils at the state capitol in Richmond were the main form of public demonstration. This 1978 march marked a change in tactics.

A 2020 post by CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi described the later campaign:

“Efforts became even more aggressive after Congress voted to extend the ratification deadline to 1982.

“The world doesn’t stop because the General Assembly starts,” Miller told the Post at the time.

“Fowler and another activist, Pat Winton, chased Miller down at the Richmond airport to try to prevent him from leaving, according to Shockley.

The campaign was renewed in the 21st century and after a more progressive Democratic Party took control of both Virginia legislative bodies in 2017, the ERA was passed in 2018. The ERA has now been passed by 38 states and activists are demanding that it be recognized as a valid amendment to the Constitution.

The effort now lies before the courts.Original held in the Elizabeth Smith collection of Virginia ERA Ratification Council Records, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Branch Cabell Library, Special Collections.

Arbitration award on Metro strike discipline – 1978

The Washington Metro system had been beset by three wildcat strikes and a work-to-the rule within a four-year period. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority sought to discipline workers who led and participated in the July 1978 strike over the refusal to pay a cost-of-living increase provided for in the labor agreement.

Workers eventually won the dispute, but over a 100 were disciplined for the strike and eight were fired for their roles in the work stoppage.

An arbitrator ruled on four fired defendants finding that discipline was warranted but that the terminations should be reduced to suspensions, largely because Metro had not disciplined employees for prior strikes or job actions.

The finding also affirmed that strikes are illegal under the Interstate Compact that created Metro that provides for “final and binding arbitration of all disputes.”

Metro memo on strikes – March 5, 1979

A March 5, 1979 memo to employees of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority warns that employees may be terminated for engaging in strikes following a decision by an arbitrator to reduce the penalties for individuals fired for striking to a suspension without pay.

A seven-day wildcat strike in 1978 resulted in WMATA firing eight and disciplining more than 100 others. An arbitration was held on some of the terminations and the neutral arbitrator reduced the terminations to unpaid suspensions because Metro had not taken any disciplinary action during previous strikes and had not advised employees that they may be terminated for engaging in strikes.

Files of the Metro Workers Rank and File Action Caucus – 1978-80

The Metro Workers Rank and File Action Caucus was formed in the wake of the 1978 cost-of-living wildcat strike that paralyzed bus service and the embryonic subway service for a week in July 1978. At least two caucuses arose out of the strike. One was influenced by the Progressive Labor Party and the other was the Action Caucus.

The caucus lasted about two years during which it held a fundraiser for workers fired during the strike, proposed more democratic bylaw changes, investigated the union’s finances and finding some discrepancies and running candidates for union offices in the elections scheduled for December 1979. The election was postponed for a month to January 9^th and a runoff was held January 16, 1980 in instances where no candidate received 50 percent plus one of the vote.

Two Action Caucus members won two board seats and Progressive Labor won one board seat out of the 15 seats available. Allies of the Action Caucus on the Unity Slate won two of the top five positions: secretary-treasurer and 2^ndvice president and also won two additional board seats. The incumbent president was defeated by an independent candidate.

Action

Vol. 1 No. 1 – Sept. 5, 1978

Vol.1. No. 2 – Oct. 1978

Vol. 1 No. 3 – Nov. 1978

Vol. 1 No. 4 – Jan. 1979

Vol. 1 No. 5 – Jun. 1979

Vol. 1 No. 6 – Aug. 1979

Minutes, flyers and election flyers (material related to the Action Caucus):

Caucus minutes – 7/30/78 – 8/79

Turn out for the arbitration hearings flyer – 8/21/78

Metro memo on strikes – 3/5/79

Report of the Local 689 audit committee – 10/2/79

Draft platform – 10/79 ca.

A vote for Mayo-Waller-Simpson is a vote for change – election flyer 11/79

Elect the Unity Slate platform – 11/79

Letter on the disqualification of Walter Tucker as presidential candidate—11/19/1979

Vote Mayo-Waller-Simpson in the runoff elections—1/16/80

Attend the new officers installation—2/80

Unofficial election results—2/80

Documents of meetings by Action Caucus with transit union caucuses in other cities

February 18, 1979 – Minutes of meeting between caucuses within TWU 234, TWU 100 and ATU Local 689

May 1979 ca. – Minutes of meeting between caucuses with TWU 234, TWU 100, ATU 689, ATU 998 and ATU 241.

May 1979 ca. – Proposal for resolutions for upcoming TWU and ATU International conventions

Files of the Metro Committee Against Racism (CAR)

The Metro Committee Against Racism was an ongoing caucus within Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 organized by the Progressive Labor Party from approximately 1978 until approximately 1996.

It criticized union leadership, ran candidates for union office and advocated for social and economic justice and against U.S. imperialism.

We currently have one issue of the newsletter Metro C.A.R.

No number or volume – August 1978 ca.

NOVA labor rallies in Alexandria for ERA – Dec. 1979

A two-sided flyer issued by Northern Virginia Labor for Equal Rights Now (LERN) publicizes an “ERA Education Week” that features a film showing at Falls Church High School and a rally in Alexandria, VA in December 1979 on the front side and a march in Richmond in January 1980 on the reverse side.

See description of January 1980 Equal Rights Amendment march in Richmond below.

Original held in the Elizabeth Smith collection of Virginia ERA Ratification Council Records, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Branch Cabell Library, Special Collections.

Labor march draws thousands supporting ERA – Jan. 1980

Labor for Equal Rights issues a two-sided 8 ½ x 11 flyer in January 1980 calling for a march in Richmond, VA to support passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) by the state.

The Washington Post reported:

“Despite cold, gray winter weather and a seven-year history of defeat, several thousand supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment marched here today [January 13^th] to demand that the legislature make Virginia the 36^th state to ratify the measure.

“The rally’s labor union sponsors claimed nearly 8,000 participants, making it “the largest rally ever held in the state of Virginia for the ERA,” according to march organizer Suzanne Kelly. That figure was more than double the 3,200 people who came for a similar protest two years ago.

“Police put the estimate at a considerably lower 5,000. Still, said a capitol police spokesman, “It’s one of the largest rallies we’ve had here in some time.”

Labor for Equal Rights was composed of Virginia labor unions, including Virginia State AFL-CIO, Virginia Education Association, United Auto Workers-Region 8, Teamsters Joint Councils 55 & 83 and United Mine Workers-District 28.

Virginia’s politics at the time was very conservative and ratifying the ERA in the state was an uphill climb.

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Marijuana

No documents at this time

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Miscellaneous

Townsend pension plan booklet – 1936 ca.

A pocket-sized 4-page publication by proponents of the Townsend pension plan advocates for this alternative to social security to be adopted circa 1936.

Dr. Francis Townsend and his followers garnered 15 million petition signatures supporting his alternative pension plan.

The main flaw in the plan was that the money generated by the 2% sales tax would not be enough to pay benefits at that level and Congress ultimately adopted the current social security system.

Patriot Party 10-Point Program – Oct. 1969

The 10-point program of the Patriot Party, a white left-wing revolutionary organization aligned with the Black Panther Party, was published in October 1969..

The Patriot Party was initially formed as the Young Patriots Organization in Chicago and later expanded nationwide as the Patriot Party. It was one of the component organizations of Black Panther Fred Hampton’s Rainbow Coalition in Chicago.

They rejected white supremacy but wore a confederate flag patch on their shirts.

They organized in the Washington, D.C. area 1970-71 out of the Panther office and the Panther’s Community Center focusing on far southeast Washington where working class whites still lived and the inner suburbs of Prince George’s County.

The Poor Revolutionist – 1969 ca.

This Christian tract by Chick publications was widely distributed at anti-Vietnam War rallies in the late 1960s and early 1970s in an attempt to turn young people away from activism.

In the booklet, the good Christian dies for his beliefs while the revolutionaries perish in battle or after being betrayed when the revolution succeeds. The revolutionaries go to hell and the good Christian goes to heaven.

The overall theme is that it is useless to struggle for a better life on Earth and that people should instead simply accept their fate and God.

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National Liberation and Anti-Imperialism

(for Indochina War, see Vietnam War)

Committee for Justice & Peace in the Holy Land – Jun.-Jul. 1948

The Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy land issues handouts circa June-July 1948 opposing the partition of the former British territory in Palestine and opposing the establishment of a state open to Jewish people from around the world.

See the two-page June 1948 handout and 2-page July 1948 handout.

The Committee was mostly composed of a number of Christian churches and worked closely with the American Council for Judaism, a Jewish organization opposed to Zionism.

The Committee was founded in February 1948 by Virginia Gildersleeve and Kermit Roosevelt Jr., for the purpose of lobbying the Truman administration to oppose the creation of the State of Israel and to lobby the United Nations to “reconsider its disastrous decision” to divide the land west of the Jordan River into two states: one Jewish and one Arab.

The Committee had several prominent Americans in its leadership including Gildersleeve, Barnard College Dean Emerita; Henry Sloane Coffin, former president of Union Theological Seminary; and Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt.

President Truman’s administration briefly vacillated on the partition question, but ultimately backed the creation of Israel.

Civil Rights Congress calls on U.S. president to denounce South African apartheid system – 1952

The Civil Rights Congress initiates a petition to President Harry Truman in 1952 calling on him to denounce apartheid in South Africa and uphold the right of all nations to self-determination, among other demands.

Among the signers were Washington, D.C. residents Ms. Adam S. Butcher, Dr. HJ. A. Callis, United Cafeteria Workers Business Manager Oliver T. Palmer and civil rights luminary Mary Church Terrell. Dr. John E. T. Camper, a former Progressive Party candidate for Congress in Maryland also signed.

Among the national luminaries were NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois; Ewart Guinier, former official in the United Public Workers and father of Lani Guinier, actor Sidney Portier and actor, singer and rights activist Paul Robeson.

‘Save the American Revolution’ – 1967

An undated flyer published most likely in the summer/fall of 1967 by the Washington Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam blasts U.S. foreign policy support for dictatorships while opposing popular revolutionary movements.

The flyer casts the theme that these revolutionary movements that were taking place in countries around the world were akin to our own American revolution and called on people to “Save the American Revolution.”

The Washington Mobilization was an umbrella organization for antiwar groups that grew out of the 1967 Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.

Committee of Returned Volunteers statement of purpose – Apr. 1969

The Committee of Returned Volunteers, composed of former Peace Corps and other volunteer service members who served overseas, publishes a packet that contains a statement of purpose in a packet distributed circa April 1969.

Also included in the packed is the question of whether the Peace Corps is developing an alternative path of development or an accomplice in exploitation and also contains an analysis of Peru and a critical analysis of the Hickenlooper amendment and its possible application in Peru.

Founded in 1966, the Committee of Returned Volunteers (CRV) was an organization of people who have worked in voluntary service programs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and in the United States.

The group‘s thinking evolved into an anti-imperialist perspective and concentrated its efforts on liberation of Third World countries and U.S. policy towards those countries.

DC WITCH celebrates Pan American week: 1969

The Washington, D.C. Women’s International Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH) group issues a flyer calling for a demonstration to hex the United Fruit Company as a representative company that “exploits the people of nations it purports to benefit, and manipulates United States government policy.”

The April 16, 1969 demonstration involved six women in witch costumes briefly invading the offices of United Fruit and “hexing” the company. The company called police and the women continued their protest outside on the sidewalk.

In addition to the United Fruit demonstration the Washington, D.C. WITCH women also protested the Gridiron Club exclusion of women; disrupted a congressional subcommittee hearing conducted by U.S. Rep William Natcher (D-KY), who was holding up Metrorail construction funds; and disrupted a meeting featuring D.C. police chief Jerry Wilson; among other activities.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

DC WITCH blasts United Fruit Company – circa 1970

Heidi Steffens, a member of the Washington, D.C. Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH) and also a member of Washington, D.C. Women’s Liberation writes a 13-page expose of the United Fruit Company circa 1970.

The paper critiques the United Fruit Company’s exploitation and control over Latin America, linking it to women’s liberation and corporate power.

WITCH had chosen United Fruit Company for an April 16, 1969 demonstration at its Washington, D.C. offices—first invading its offices chanting and later picketing outside on the sidewalk during the busy lunch hours (see flyer at https://flic.kr/p/2mEU95a.

WITCH chose United Fruit as part. of the “system which provides us with meaningless work·, tells us what to think, what to wear, how to live, what products we need, defines our friends and enemies, i.e., controls our lives” and “also dominates the economics and politics of much· of the rest of the world for their, i.e.; ‘American’ ends”

Steffens also join with a small group of other women in 1970 in publishing the long-running feminist journal Off Our Backs with her sister Nan, Marlene Wicks, Marilyn Webb and others. The journal would continue publishing until 2008.

The first W.I.T.C.H. group was established in New York City in October 1968. Its founders were socialist feminists, or “politicos”, who had formerly been members of the New York Radical Women group. They opposed the idea advocated by radical feminists that feminist women should campaign against “patriarchy” alone. Instead W.I.T.C.H. advocated for feminists to ally with a range of left-wing causes, to bring about wider social change in the United States.

The group and various others that sprung up in other cities, including Washington, D.C., initially adopted confrontation tactics and street theatre similar to the Yippies of that time period.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Black Panther International Section letterhead – 1970 ca.

Letterhead from the Black Panther Party International Section in Alger, Algeria circa 1970. The purpose of handwriting on the back side is unknown.

The Panther’s International Section was established in 1969 after Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver went into exile there after flights to Montreal and Cuba.

Formation of Patrick Sheils Irish Republican Club – 1970 ca.

An 8 ½ x 11, two-sided flyer stating the principles of the newly formed D.C. area Patrick Sheils Irish Republican Club is published circa 1970.

The club was loosely affiliated with the “Official IRA” as opposed to the “Provisional IRA,” or Provos, that were formed as a split-off from the original group in 1969.

The club held rallies and demonstrations, passed out flyers to the general public, sold copies of the United Irishman newspaper and raised funds to help pay for medical supplies, housing, doctors, food and other non-combatant services for those displaced or injured during what became known as “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland from 1969-98.

Revolutionary holiday card by Insurgent Press – 1970 ca.

Jose Marti—‘mastermind’ of the assault on the barracks–Moncada — 1970 ca.

A Cuban poster circa 1970 of Jose Marti with the inscription that can be translated as “mastermind of the assault on the barracks” followed by the name Moncada.

Marti was a Cuban poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country, and he was an important figure in Latin American literature.

Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Marti’s ideology became a major driving force in Cuban politics. He is also regarded as Cuba’s “martyr” and “patron saint.”

‘Defeat the U.S. Aggressors and all Their Running Dogs’ – May 1970

A May 20, 1970 statement by People’s Republic of China leader Mao Zedong after the U.S. invasion of Cambodia was a popular poster on the left wing of the antiwar movement in the United States and throughout the world.

Rally & march on the British Embassy – Mar. 1972

An 8 ½ x 11 flyer calls for a rally and march on the British Embassy for March 18, 1972 calling for an end to the British occupation of Northern Ireland.

More than 200 demonstrators rallied at Dupont Circle in the action sponsored by Youth Against War and Fascism, a group allied with the Workers World Party.

The rally featured the group singing Irish freedom songs, chanting Irish independence slogans and a guerrilla theatre group that depicted the Irish throwing out Uncle Sam and John Bull.

Chanting “Brits out of Northern Ireland,” “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, the IRA is gonna’ win,” “All the way, I-R-A,” “British troops must go,” and “Avenge the Derry massacre,” the group marched up Massachusetts Avenue toward the British Embassy.

Police halted the march at a small park about 500 feet from the Embassy where Sean Sheils, who said he was a member of the Irish Republican Army from Londonderry, Ireland, spoke to the group.

Sheils thanked them for their support and urged them to donate to the Irish relief fund that would help the humanitarian crisis there.

After burning the British flag—the Union Jack—the group dispersed.

Original held in the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_F_0114.

‘African Liberation Day/A Common Black Struggle’ – Apr. 1972

The march ended on the grounds of the Washington Monument that was renamed by the marchers “Lumumba Square” after assassinated Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.

Speakers voiced support for the liberation movements and condemned the US for its support of the minority regimes and for its prosecution of the Vietnam war.

American-Korean Friendship Center urges Nixon removal – 1972

An anti-Vietnam War flyer produced by the American-Korean Friendship and Information Center in 1972 contains an appeal to subscribe to their publication, Korea Focus, on the reverse side.

Flyer urges action on Chilean detainees – Sep. 1973

An anonymous flyer issued in Washington, D.C. urges Americans to appeal to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to intervene on behalf of Chileans detained after a September 11, 1973 coup and calls for their immediate release and the issuance of exit visas.

The flyer was published shortly after the Chilean military staged the coup and overthrew the elected government of Salvador Allende. Over 120,000 socialists, communists, revolutionaries and other left wing opponents were jailed, tortured with several thousand “disappeared.”

Third World Newsreel brochure – 1974

Their website describes their history:

“Today, TWN honors the progressive vision of its founders and remains the oldest media arts organization in the U.S. devoted to cultural workers of color and their global constituencies

Fundraiser for the Venceremos Brigade – Mar. 1974

The local branch of the Venceremos Brigade, an organization that promotes education and understanding of communist-led Cuba, calls for a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. March 15, 1974.

The Brigade sent groups of young people to Cuba to work and learn side-by-side with ordinary Cubans beginning in 1969.

Robert Simpson, an original and contemporary Spark contributor, was one of those who traveled to Cuba with the Brigade in 1974.

Note that the post office box is the same as that of the historical Washington Area Spark and that the flyer was printed by Insurgent Printing—a left-wing printing press at 10th & K Streets NW that published many flyers, leaflets and newsletters in the Washington, D.C. area during the early and mid 1970s.

African liberation activist D.C. newspaper – 1974

The large African Liberation Day rally in 1972 was the driver behind forming the national ALSC composed mainly of pan-Africanists and black nationalists.

By 1973 a split was developing within the ALSC over working with white organizations that supported African liberation as urged by some leaders of the movements in Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.

Read the local Finally Got the News May 1974 issue to understand the shift in emphasis to the black working class along with supporting African liberation.

Celebrate the Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution – 1974

A flyer advertising a New Year’s Eve party to be held Dec. 31, 1974 in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the Venceremos Brigade and the D.C. Chile Coalition.

The Venceremos Brigade is a long-standing U.S. group founded in 1969 supporting the Cuban revolution of 1959. It sponsors Americans, particularly students, on trips to Cuba to promote understanding and solidarity.

The D.C. Chile Coalition was formed after the U.S. backed coup that overthrew the popular government of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973. The group sponsored a number of demonstrations and events supporting opponents of the coup, particularly 1974-75.

ALSC links community struggles to imperialism – Nov. 1974

Donated by Craig Simpson

Palestine Liberation Struggle speakers – Nov. 1974

Nine organizations issue a 8 ½ x 11, single-sided flyer to attend speakers on the “Palestine liberation struggle” to be held at Douglass Hall on the Howard University campus November 20, 1974.

The speakers advertised were Fawaz Turki, a Palestinian author of “Disinherited;” Naseer Aruri, a Palestinian co-author of “Poetry of the Palestinian Resistance;” and Tim Thomas of the Youth Organization for Black Unity.

The sponsors were the Howard University Undergraduate Student Association; African Liberation Support Committee; Youth Organization for Black Unity; Liberal Arts Student Council; Political Science Society; Association of Arab Students at G.U., G.W.U., F.C.C., H.U., and the University of Maryland; Caribbean Unity Conference; Ethiopian Student Union of North America; and the Congress of African People.

Donated by Craig Simpson

African Liberation Day – May 1975

An unsigned flyer advertises an African Liberation Day march May 24, 1975 beginning at Malcolm X Park at 16^th & Euclid Streets NW with a rally to follow.

This was the fourth African Liberation Day and the local event drew over 1,000 to the park, including a significant minority of White people for the first time..

The event was sponsored by the local chapter of the African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC).

Speakers denounced American military involvement and business exploitation in Third World countries. And they also denounced racism and capitalism in the U.S..

One speaker, Carl Turpin, told the crowd that racism among working class Black and White workers only served to keep the two groups from uniting and working toward social progress.

One of the organizers, Phyllis Jones, said the event was important because many different types of people attended with a common purpose.

Shah’s U.S. visit; nine murdered under torture – May 1975

The Iranian Students Association in Washington-Baltimore publishes a 64-page account In May 1975 of protests against the state visit of the Shah of Iran and his wife receiving an award from Georgetown University.

The booklet contains a long statement by the student group, copies of letters and responses protesting the award and news articles about the protests, U.S. cooperation with the Shah and torture allegations.

The nine names on the front cover were those that students charged were tortured to death in the Evin prison, 30 miles north of Tehran in April 1975. Iranian authorities claimed they were killed during an escape attempt.

The students staged protests at the White House, Kennedy Center, Georgetown University and the Embassy of Iran, as well as in other areas of town. Most involved 300 or more students who wore paper masks to conceal their identity from SAVAK—the Shah’s secret police.

DC Anti-Imperialist Committee Principles & Tasks – 1975 ca.

A set of principles and political tasks are set forward by the D.C. Anti-imperialist Committee circa 1975 in an 8 ½ x 14 single-page document.

Donated by Craig Simpson

Conference on Iranian Student Hunger Strike – Jan. 1976

The Iranian Students Association Eastern Region issues a call in an 8 ½ x 11 flyer for a “Conference in Solidarity with I.S.A.’s Hunger Strike” to be held January 11, 1976 at the Dumbarton Methodist church at 3133 Dumbarton Pl. NW, Washington, D.C.

The Conference call begins, “According to latest news, the military dictatorship of the Shah in Iran through its notorious secret police (SAVAK), has once again begun to intensify its oppressive reign of terror. A group of Iranian revolutionaries who for long were under constant torture, have recently been sentenced to death by Shah’s military court.”

Resentment had been building against the Shah of Iran—installed by Western powers (including the U.S.) after they led a 1953 coup against the nationalist government of Mohammad Mosaddegh, which had nationalized foreign oil interests.

By 1976 there were widespread protests both within the country and by Iranians living abroad. Momentum grew over the next two years. Massive strikes and street demonstrations began in October 1977 and continued off and on until by the end of 1978 a broad-based uprising had paralyzed the country.

The Shah abdicated in early 1979 and fled the country. A struggle would then ensue between left wing insurgents, minority groups and Ayatollah Khomeini’s evolutionary guards. Khomeini’s forces would ultimately consolidate power by 1982.

Donated by Craig Simpson

Georgetown students host panel discussion on Chile – Apr. 1976

Students for a Democratic Foreign Policy at Georgetown University issue an 8 ½ x 11, single-sided flyer advertising a panel discussion and film April 19, 1976 about the counter-revolutionary coup in Chile engineered with the help of the American Central Intelligence Agency.

On September 11, 1973 the Chilean military with the backing of the United States staged the coup and overthrew the elected socialist government of Salvador Allende. Over 120,000 socialists, communists, revolutionaries and other left-wing opponents were jailed, tortured with several thousand “disappeared.”

The Chilean military leaders obtained the backing of the United States, a key element in their proceeding to overthrow the government and install Gen. Augusto Pinochet as ruler. Pinochet remained in power until 1990 and continued as a senator until 2002. He was arrested for human rights violations in 1998 and after a long legal battle was due to stand trial for his crimes when he died in 2006.

Months after the Georgetown panel discussion in 1976, Orlando Letelier (under Allende having served as U.S. Ambassador, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Interior and Defense) and Ronni Moffitt (A U.S. citizen assistant to Letelier) were killed by a car bomb explosion September 21^st at Sheridan Circle in Washington, D.C.

Letelier had moved to Washington D.C., where he became senior fellow of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank. Letelier became director of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute and taught at the School of International Service of the American University in Washington, D.C.

An American expatriate, acting on behalf of the Chilean government organized the assassination with the assistance of Cuban exiles. Over the years a number of people were charged and convicted of their parts in the assassination, but the organizers and participants in the bombing were only relatively given light sentences to prison or escaped justice entirely. Pinochet was never charged for ordering the bombing.

Donated by Craig Simpson

Iranian Students call for demonstration – May 1976

The Iranian Students Association Eastern Region issues a call for a “demonstration support revolutionary struggles of the Iranian people” beginning at 16^th & Columbia Road NW May 21, 1976 in this 8 ½ x 11, single-sided flyer.

Victory to the People of Southern Africa – May 1977

An early flyer from the African Liberation Day Coalition, a sponsor of one of the three separate African liberation marches in Washington, D.C. May 28, 1977.

The coalition was initiated by the Revolutionary Communist Party.

At the time Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa were under white minority regimes while a number of other states were in under semi-colonial rule.

Kwame Ture’s AAPRP led a march from Malcolm X Park to the White House. The AAPRP was a pan-Africanist organization.

The African Liberation Day Coalition marched from Kalorama Park to Lafayette Park. The group had ties to the Revolutionary Communist Party, which at the time was a Maoist group.

The African Liberation Support Committee marched from the White House to Malcolm X Park. By this point in time the ALSC had come to be dominated by organizations and individuals learning toward Maoism. The poet Amiri Baraka was associated with this group.

Each march consisted of a few thousand people and together marked a large outpouring for African Liberation Day.

Call to protest U.S. visit of South African official Pik Botha – May 1981

The coalition was composed of D.C. Bank Campaign, Southern Africa Support Project, Trans Africa and the Washington Office on Africa.

Botha was invited to the White House to confer with U.S. President Ronald Reagan after meeting with Secretary of State Alexander Haig earlier in the day.

All-Peoples Congress poster – Oct. 1981

The All-Peoples Congress attracted a wide range of groups and individuals from left-leaning elected Democrats to the Revolutionary Communist Party. Upward of 3,500 people attended the event.

The Worker’s World Party began as a split-off from the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party in 1958, but eventually abandoned Trotskyism.

–Donated by Craig Simpson

Solidarity with the People of Palestine – 1982 ca.

A “Solidarity with the People of Palestine” poster (that now has significant damage) was created by the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL) illustrates the state of Israel in flames while in the crosshairs of a weapon and was created circa 1982.

The poster designates May 15^th as the day of solidarity and was designed by Cuban artist Rafael Morante.

OSPAAAL was a Cuban political movement with the stated purpose of fighting globalization, imperialism, neoliberalism and defending human rights. The OSPAAAL was founded in Havana in January 1966, after the Tricontinental Conference, a meeting of over 500 delegates and 200 observers from over 82 countries. The organization shut down in 2019.

Washington Mines—DC World Trade & IMF protests – April 2000

The Washington Mines was a broadside in the form of a 4-page full-size newspaper created in April 2000 by activists protesting the World Bank’s financing of the exploitation of natural resources in the Third World for the benefit of corporations and at the expense of the general population in Third World countries.

Volume 2, Number A16 on the broadside was a reference to this being the second mass globalization protest following the “Battle in Seattle” in 1999 against the World Trade Organization—the second protest occurring in Washington, D.C. on April 16, 2000.

Somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 people participated in the protests. The protests were broken up by police using illegal tactics including raiding the protest headquarters without a warrant and utilizing mass arrests of everyone in an area that they surrounded.

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Native Americans

Native Americans march on the Bureau of Indian Affairs – Jun. 1968

A group of Native Americans participating in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Poor People’s campaign puts out a leaflet calling for a June 20, 1968 march on the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Two groups of Native Americans took part in the Poor People’s Campaign—one group set up tents at Resurrection City in West Potomac Park with the most of the rest of the participants in the campaign while the other group stayed at the Hawthorne School in SW.

It was the Hawthorne School group that marched on the BIA. The Evening Star newspaper reported:

“About 100 Indians marched on the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, circling the building. They carried placards, one of which read, ‘The Only Good Bureau is a Dead Bureau.’’

They staged at least one more demonstration when the Mexican-American contingent of the Poor People’s Campaign joined with the Native Americans to stage a peaceful march on the Justice Department.

Original held at the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections, Patrick Frazier collection. Note: the Patrick Frazier Collection has mis-dated this flyer. Correct date reflected above.

Flyer announcing The Long Walk for Survival – May 1980

The Long Walk for Survival was a cross-country demonstration by Native Americans that ended in Washington, D.C. with a series of demonstrations and prayer meetings over two weeks from Nov. 1-14, 1980 to draw attention to the issues of nuclear power and forced sterilization of Native women.

The walk began on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Gay six months earlier. About 100 demonstrators made the whole trek to Washington, D.C. where they were joined by several hundred more Native Americans and supporters.

They protested the forced sterilization of 60-70,000 Native women in the previous 12 years and the dumping of nuclear waste on Indian reservations as well a more general demand for more self-determination on the reservations.

Fundraiser for Leonard Peltier ‘Freedom Weekend’ – 1994

Chicago activists issue a flyer for a May 10, 1994 fundraiser on behalf of Freedom Weekend, a demonstration in Washington, D.C. calling for freedom for imprisoned American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Leonard Peltier who was convicted of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation June 26, 1975.

The national demonstration took place in Washington, D.C June 26, 1994 and involved over 500 participants, about half of whom were Native Americans according to the Washington Post.

The demonstration was part of a nationwide campaign to persuade President William Clinton to grant clemency to Peltier.

About 20 of the participants made up an advance contingent of a five-month cross-country caravan promoting clemency for Peltier, crisscrossing the U.S, and entering Washington, D.C. July 15, 1994.

The FBI vehemently opposed granting clemency and published an ad in the Washington Post on the same day as the national demonstration in July. More than 500 FBI agents would later picket opposing clemency.

Peltier and other Native American activists were involved in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation located in South Dakota and Nebraska. Three Native Americans, including Peltier, were charged with murdering the agents. The FBI claimed that the two agents were executed in cold blood after being wounded in the shootout.

Peltier and the other two men claimed that FBI agents opened fire first and they returned fire in self-defense. The two other defendants were acquitted in separate trials, but Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two life terms in prison.

A long campaign to free Peltier ensued, with support gathered from around the world for clemency.

Clinton ultimately decided against clemency and Peltier remained in prison until February 18, 2025 after President Joseph Biden granted clemency in the waning days of his administration.

FBI agents ad opposes clemency for Peltier: 1994

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents take out an approximately three-quarter page ad in the Washington Post July 15, 1994 to oppose clemency for Leonard Peltier, an imprisoned American Indian Movement (AIM) activist convicted of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation June 26, 1975 during a shootout.

The FBI agents were opposing a campaign that included a national demonstration in Washington, D.C. on the same day by about 500 demonstrators, according to the Washington Post.

The demonstration was part of a nationwide campaign to persuade President William Clinton to grant clemency to Peltier.

The FBI vehemently opposed granting clemency. Later more than 500 FBI agents would picket opposing clemency.

A long campaign to free Peltier ensued, with support gathered from around the world for clemency.

Clinton ultimately decided against clemency and Peltier remained in prison until February 18, 2025 after President Joseph Biden granted clemency in the waning days of his administration.

While Peltier supporters celebrated, Natalie Bara, President of The FBI Agents Association, said

“The FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) is outraged by then-0President Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, a convicted cop killer responsible for the brutal murders of FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. This last-second, disgraceful act by then-President Biden, which does not change Peltier’s guilt but does release him from prison, is cowardly and lacks accountability. It is a cruel betrayal to the families and colleagues of these fallen Agents and is a slap in the face of law enforcement.”

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Prison Rights

‘Sounds of Liberation’ – Alderson federal prison protest – Oct. 1971

A coalition of left-wing groups and Catholic pacifists issue a two-sided, 8 ½ x 11 handout sponsoring a demonstration at Alderson federal women’s prison in West Virginia October 2, 1971.

The demonstration was part of a nationwide day of protests following the rebellion at Attica prison in New York in September 1971 and its subsequent suppression by authorities that killed 43 people (33 inmates and 10 guards of whom 30 inmates and 9 guards were shot by law enforcement personnel.

The demonstration also followed a “riot” by the incarcerated women demanding better conditions.

Scheduled speakers included DeCoursey Squire of the Flour City Conspiracy, a group of Rochester, N.Y. pacifists who destroyed draft records; Ned Murphy of the Camden 28, another group of predominantly Catholic activists who destroyed draft records in Camden, N.J.; Pam Meyers of the Prisoners Solidarity Committee, whose husband was jailed for resistance in the U.S. military; Denise Oliver (Velez) of the New York Third World Women’s Coalition, also a leader in the Young Lords Party; and Mary Scoblick, one of the Harrisburg 7 and a former nun accused of “conspiring to raid draft boards in nine states, blow up heating pipes in Washington utility tunnels and kidnap presidential foreign affairs adviser Henry Kissinger.” Scoblick was acquitted.

Among the sponsors were the Committee to Free Angela Davis, the Harrisburg Defense Committee, People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice, Mayday, and Clergy and Laity Concerned.

A caravan of demonstrators left Washington, D.C. to attend the protest.

Original held in the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_F_0127.

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Slave Resistance/Revolts/Military Action

No documents at this time

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Socialism

“The Swimmers,” by John Reed – 1910

The Swimmers was published in The Forum. It was Journalist/Socialist John Reed’s first trade-published short story.

The piece was published in The Forum, 1910. John Silas “Jack” Reed (October 22, 1887 – October 17, 1920) was an American journalist, poet, and socialist activist, best remembered for Ten Days That Shook the World, his first-hand account of the Bolshevik Revolution.

DC New American Movement – 1972 ca.

The District of Columbia chapter of the New American Movement (NAM) publishes a 4-page, 5 ½ x 8 ½ pamphlet circa 1972 setting out its organizational principles, identifying contemporary issues and encouraging people to join the new organization.

NAM was founded in 1971 by radicals seeking to build a new democratic socialist organization in the wake of the collapse of the Students for A Democratic Society in 1969. The group quickly became the largest of the democratic socialist organizations that included the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the Socialist Party USA. The

In 1982 NAM merged with DSOC to become the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). DSA is the largest left organization in contemporary times, eclipsing the old SDS at its peak. The Green Party, for a time the large “left” formation, for many years was not explicitly socialist, but it 2016 adopted the description eco-socialist to describe itself.

Donated by Craig Simpson

The Bicentennial of What? A Revolution – 1976 ca.

A four-page tabloid-size broadside reprints Jeremy Rifkin of the People’s Bicentennial Commission’s June 11, 1974 speech before a bicentennial conference of corporate executives.

Rifkin recounts a history rooted in the uprising of people and democratic ideals, rather than the myth of America that was being promoted by the official Bi-Centennial Commission.

Declaration of Economic Independence – 1976

The People’s Bicentennial Commission, formed by democratic socialists Jeremy Rifkin and John Rossen, published a Declaration of Economic Independence in 1976 in conjunction with demonstrations and the July 4, 1976 rallies in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The declaration identifies corporations as the cause of economic distress in the United States and calls for a decentralized ownership of the means of production.

Celebrate 200 Years of the American Revolution – 1976

An 8 ½ x 11 poster published by the People’s Bicentennial Commission calls for a march and rally at the U.S. Capitol July 4, 1976.

Upwards of 25,000 demonstrators took part in the march to a spot on the National Mall near the U.S. Capitol July 4, 1976 calling for an economic revolution on the bicentennial of the nation’s birth.

The protesters disdained the official celebration as a mockery of the Declaration of Independence.

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Students

Highway of Hunger: The Story of America’s Homeless Youth – 1933

This pamphlet portrays a bleak future for youth whether they are the children of unemployed or college graduates—unless a revolution led by the Communist Party prevails.

Doran joined the Young Communist League in 1930 and went to the Deep South to build up membership of the YCL among the unemployed. In Scottsboro, Alabama, he was beaten up after he became involved in the campaign to free the “Scottsboro Boys.”

In 1931 he joined the Communist Party USA and worked as a trade union organizer with agricultural workers in Alabama, textile workers in North Carolina) and coal miners in Pennsylvania). By 1936 he was the party’s director of trade union activities.

He joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight fascism in Spain. After showing heroism in a number of battles, he was promoted to political commissioner for a battalion.

He was believed to be captured and executed on April 2, 1938 in Gandesa, during the Retreats phase of the Spanish Civil War.

Town Meeting for Youth – Mar. 1941

The American Youth Congress publicizes its successful February 1941 “Town Meeting of Youth” through a 16-page pamphlet recounting the event with articles and photos.

Several thousand delegates attend the “Town Hall of Youth” at Turner’s Arena in Washington, D.C. February 8, 1941. Locally, 198 delegates attended from the District of Columbia, 274 from Maryland and 35 from Virginia.

The delegates took time out from their three-day conference to picket the War Department demanding de-segregation of the armed services and defense industries.

The delegates took a strong stance against U.S. entry into World War II. Prior to the 1939 peace pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the group had targeted fascism.

The conference also endorsed and lobbied for a “youth bill” that would have provided education and jobs, endorsed retaining the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, called for “Scholarships not Battleships” and denounced the red-baiting “Dies Committee” of the House of Representatives.

Students for a Democratic Society Bulletin – Feb. 1965

This issue of the SDS newsletter contains the flyer for the first mass march on Washington, D.C. against the Vietnam War scheduled for April 17, 1965. It is located on page 13. A surprising 25,000 or more attended the march and rally.

Also of interest to Maryland readers is the article by Bob Moore, then active in the U-JOIN project (Union for Jobs or Income Now). Moore would later go on to lead the organizing effort for hospital workers in the city and become president of the Local 1199 affiliate in the city.

See all issues of The Bulletin in our periodicals section.

SDS flyer for first mass anti-Viet War march: Mar. 1965

A four-page flyer for the first mass march on Washington, D.C. in protest of the Vietnam War April 17, 1965 is produced by the Students for a Democratic Society.

Exceeding all expectations, 25,000 gathered in the city to picket the White House and rally at the Sylvan Theater before marching to the U.S. Capitol and presenting a petition against the War.

The march was mainly sponsored by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Other participating organizations included the Committee for Nonviolent Action, Women’s Strike for Peace, Student Peace Union, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, War Resisters League, Local 1199 of the Hospital Workers, District 65 of the Retail Workers and chapters of the Congress of Racial Equality.

SDS calls for march against Viet War – Nov. 1965

The national office of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) issues a call for a march on Washington, D.C. to be held Nov. 27, 1965 in one of the early national demonstrations against the war in Vietnam.

In this flyer, SDS begins to make a break with those calling for negotiations by stating,

“We must not deceive ourselves: a negotiated agreement cannot guarantee democracy. Only the Vietnamese have the right of nationhood to make their government democratic or not, free or not, neutral or not. It is not America’s role to deny them the chance to be what they make of themselves.”

Nearly 50,000 attended this demonstration—double the number that came the previous spring in the first major antiwar march on Washington.

U. of Md. Students for a Democratic Society Vietnam study guide – circa Spring 1967

The University of Maryland College Park Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) publishes a two-sided flyer circa Spring 1967 that provides a study guide for those interested in educating themselves on the war in Vietnam.

This was toward the end of the “teach-in” period of SDS where a lot of effort was put into educating fellow students about why the Vietnam War conducted by the United States was wrong. The “teach-ins” flourished across the country in 1965-66.

D.C. SNCC calls for anti-draft march – May, 1967

The Washington, D.C. Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee calls on black youth to protest the draft May 8, 1967 by joining a march from 14^th and H Streets NE to the Rayburn Office Building.

Call for a black power conference at Howard – 1967

Huey LaBrie, one of the leaders of the student protests at Howard University in 1967 issues a call for a black power student conference to be held in Washington, D.C. May 19-21, 1967.

SDS reprints Ramparts article exposing CIA student funding – Aug. 1967

The SDS chapter distributed the article to USNSA delegates to the annual convention of the organization held that year at the University of Maryland and urged the group to disband.

USNSA staff member Larry Rubin’s notes on CIA student funding – 1967

U. of Md. College Park Students for a Democratic Society constitution – circa 1968

The University of Maryland College Park Students for a Democratic Society constitution circa 1968.

This would have been a necessary document to becoming a recognized student group on campus with access to facilities.

What? Me Worry About the Draft? – 1968 ca.

The Washington Draft Resistance, University of Maryland College Park chapter appeals to students to seek draft counseling for alternatives to military service.

Parents alerted to student walkout in support of teacher strike – Feb. 1968

Springbrook High School notifies parents of students who participated in a walkout Feb. 2, 1968 in support of a Montgomery County, Maryland teachers strike.

U. of Md. SDS contemplates the upcoming Democratic Convention – Mar. 1968

The University of Maryland College Park Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) holds a talk on campus by Lee Webb of the Institute for Policy Studies about the upcoming Aug. 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

UMD Poor People’s Campaign support contacts – Mar. 1968

The University of Maryland Committee in Support of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign publishes a list of College Park campus contacts in March 1968.

King had initially envisioned shutting down the city using civil disobedience to demand a minimum guaranteed income, among other demands, but those plans were abandoned after his death.

At its peak, the campaign drew about 75,000 people to a rally.

Bob Simpson, a vintage and current Washington Area Spark contributor is listed as one of the contacts.

UMD Poor People’s Campaign rally – Apr. 1968

King was assassinated days prior to the issuance of this flyer.

King had initially envisioned shutting down the city using civil disobedience to demand a minimum guaranteed income, among other demands, but those plans were abandoned after his death.

At its peak, the campaign drew upwards of 100,000 people to a rally.

U. of Md. Students for a Democratic Society internal organizing letter – Aug. 1968

Gregory Dunkel, one of the prominent leaders of the U. of Md. College Park SDS who would later be banned from the campus for his activities during the student strike of 1970, writes a letter inviting members to two informal meetings for an exchange of ideas on what steps to take next.

Topics suggested for discussion included the Eugene McCarthy presidential campaign, the 1968 Democratic Convention, racism, campus politics, war-related issues, reports from national meetings, and Cuba.

SDS plans for fall school year – Sep. 1968

The Regional Office of the Students for Democratic Society (SDS) schedules an area-wide discussion group for September 7, 1968 to plan for the school year.

There were active chapters of SDS at George Washington University, American University, the University of Maryland as well as a number of at-large members in the Washington, D.C. area.

UMD SDS hits National Student Association – Fall 1968

The University of Maryland College Park chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) reprints an article from the Guardian in the fall of 1968 outlining the irrelevancy of the National Student Association (NSA) annual convention to the wider antiwar and radical movements.

The article recounts the goings-on at the NSA’s annual congress at the Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas earlier in August.

The SDS flyer also advertises their weekly meetings in the Student Union on campus an includes a membership application to the national office.

Washington Regional SDS recruiting flye – Fall 1968

The Washington Regional SDS office produced this two-sided flyer both as political analysis and a recruiting tool after the Aug. 1968 Democratic Convention that resulted in police violence against the 10,000 demonstrators that had assembled to protest the war and continuing oppression of black people.

The flyer contains an illustration of the city of Chicago as a fortress with Mayor Richard J. Daley, national guardsmen and other figures.

The flyer makes the case that change will not come through peace candidates like Eugene McCarthy and that the repression in Chicago takes the “movement” to a new level.

‘women: the struggle for liberation’ – 1969 ca.

Students for Democratic Society (SDS) Washington, D.C. area Regional Coordinator Cathy Wilkerson collaborates with Washington, D.C. Women’s Liberation and others to produce a tract during the first half of 1969 outlining an early view of women’s liberation at the onset of second wave feminism.

The 24-page, 8 ½ x 11 booklet covers the objectification of women, the culture of consumption, a critique of family, identification of capitalism as the cause of women’s oppression, the ideology of male supremacy, the system of male supremacy and measures to break free of the system.

The pamphlet was printed by the Washington, DC Region of the Students for Democratic Society with assistance from Washington Women’s Liberation. Others who assisted in writing the tract include Marilyn McNabb and Mike Spiegel. The section on consumption was taken from Naomi Jaffee and Bernadine Dohrn. Some of the text came from the SDS Ann Arbor National Council resolution on women.

Wilkerson was a frequent participant in SDS meetings 1968-69 in the area and helped organize a number of demonstrations on campuses and in the streets in the Washington, D.C. She would go on to be a leader in the Weather Underground that carried out a series of bombings of political targets in the U.S. The U.S. Capitol, the State Department and the Pentagon were among the Weather Underground targets.

The only casualties in the Weather Underground’s bombing campaign came when three members of the group were killed assembling a bomb in Wilkerson’s father’s townhouse in New York City in March 1970. Wilkerson and Cathy Boudin survived the explosion and immediately went underground.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

UMD student government initiates “free university” – Oct. 1968

The 21 topics ranged from “The Urban Transportation Crisis or ‘White Men’s Roads’ through Black Men’s homes,” to “Introduction to the Philosophy of Ayn Rand.”

National SDS recruiting booklet – Fall 1968 ca.

The. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) national office publishes an undated, but probably the fall of 1968, pull out a membership recruitment booklet that skillfully threads the needle between the arising factions and their viewpoints within the organization.

The booklet describes the evolution of the organization from a liberal-left group to a radical group with a bent toward revolutionary politics.

It describes the SDS positions on Vietnam and foreign policy, The draft and the military, on the black liberation movement, labor and the struggles of working people, and the student revolt.

It concludes with an appeal to subscribe to SDS’s publication, New Left Notes, and to join the organization itself.

SDS rally against 30 percent UMD tuition increase – Oct. 1968

The University of Maryland College Park Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) issues a flyer calling for a rally October 7, 1968 in front of McKelden Library against a 30 percent tuition increase approved by the Board of Regents.

The flyer blasts Gov. Spiro Agnew for raising taxes on working people and freezing the wages of state employees while proposing to cut the taxes of landlords

They also decried the spending of money on a new administration building on the flagship campus while the historically black campuses of the UMD system received no construction funds.

SDS demands:

No tuition or fee increase
End the freeze on state employees’ wages
1. Admit thousands of black and white working class students with subsidies if necessary
2. Hire enough teachers to reduce the student/faculty ratio by 50 percent.
3. Upgrade the black campuses in the university system

Eldridge Cleaver speech flyer at American University – Oct. 1968

Call for a student strike against the election – Nov. 1968

An unsigned flyer probably issued by someone in the Washington, D.C. Regional Office of the Students for Democratic Society (SDS) calls for a student strike and demonstrations coinciding with the national presidential election in 1968.

The strike call was issued to protest the three candidates—Democrat Hubert Humphrey, Republican Richard Nixon and American Independent George Wallace—and to demonstrate firm opposition to continued involvement in Vietnam.

Humphrey and Nixon favored continuing the war until a so-called honorable peace could be attained while Wallace favored continuing the war until outright victory.

The Washington, D.C. actions were part of a nationwide call for a student strike. The strike failed and attendance at the antiwar demonstrations held across the country was poor.

A little over two months later, the antiwar movement was reinvigorated with the counter-inaugural demonstrations held simultaneously with the victorious Nixon-Agnew ticket’s official installation in office.

UMD SDS calls for student strike against Viet War and election – Nov. 1968

The University of Maryland College Park Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) calls for a student strike and demonstrations coinciding with the national presidential election in 1968.

The strike was intended to protest the Vietnam War and the choices of candidates in the election.

Pilfering paper for alternative high school newsletter – Jan. 1969

High school activists at Springbrook High School conspire in January 1969 to pilfer lithograph paper to print their alternative newsletter “Outcry.”

Only one issue was published of the Springbrook High School student-produced newsletter where students signed their names to the articles and challenged the administration to discipline them.

Spark contributors Robert “Bob” Simpson and Craig Simpson are among the authors. Articles critique high school suppression of expression, the dress code, the 1968 elections, school presentation of drug information and a call for a student bill of rights.

The newsletter was published with assistance of the Washington Free Community and the Students for a Democratic Society.

The school administration called students’ parents in for a conference, but did not discipline the students since no profanity was used and they feared violating free speech.

Springbrook H. S. is located in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Copy of Outcry

UMD SDS expose of school’s military-industrial complex ties – Mar. 1969

The University of Maryland College Park Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter issues an eight-page pamphlet entitled “University of Maryland’s War Machine” March 4, 1969 detailing the interdependence of the U.S. military, U.S. intelligence agencies and corporate America with the university.

The introduction reads, “A brief summary of institutions of racism, economic exploitation and military aggression aided and abetted by the university.”

The pamphlet lists contracts and grants that aid the war machine along with the school’s stock ownership in corporations that aid the U.S. military and its effort in waging war against Vietnam.

Student boycott at George Mason – May 1969

An 8 ½ x 11 flyer calls for a boycott of classes at George Mason College May 16, 1969 in support of the renewal of left-wing associate professor James Shea Jr.’s contract and student input into administration decisions.

Media reports indicated that between 150-300 students and faculty rallied on the campus at noon and the battle over Shea’s contract resulted in a one-year extension.

Shea openly advocated against the Vietnam War and for Black, Women’s and Gay Liberation, along with greater student rights.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Draft Students for a Democratic Society principles – Jun. 1969

A two-page draft list of principles for the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), that mirrors the views of the national office, is circulated in the Washington, D.C. area in June 1969 prior to the group’s national convention that month in Chicago.

Three distinct ideological viewpoints were emerging within the largest organization that grew out of the New Left of the 1960s.

The best organized was The Progressive Labor Party-dominated Worker-Student Alliance that emphasized class struggle and rejected Black and Third World nationalism as “reactionary.”

The national office of SDS headed up another faction–the Revolutionary Youth Movement—that identified Third World struggles against the U.S. around the world as the principal contradiction and urged support for those struggles and an armed struggle within the U.S. The group also strongly identified with the youth counter-culture of the 1960s and would take the Weatherman name from a line in a Bob Dylan song.

The third faction to emerge within SDS was named the Revolutionary Youth Movement II and took its cues from Mao Zedong and the People’s Republic of China—upholding class struggle, but also emphasizing support for national liberation movements, including Black nationalism in the U.S. and particularly the Black Panther Party. The faction believed armed struggle within the U.S. was inevitable, but did not believe conditions were ripe at the time.

The convention formalized the split between the three factions, with the Worker-Student Alliance faction ultimately taking the SDS name until they changed it to the Committee Against Racism (CAR) several years later.

The national office faction ultimately became the Weather Underground, first organizing a “Days of Rage” in Chicago in October 1969 where about 1,000 participants battled police for several days. Injuries were inflicted on both sides and dozens arrested. Many in the Weatherman faction went underground at this point and the name was later changed to Weather Underground. The group would go on to conduct a symbolic bombing campaign against political targets, including the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and the State Department in the Washington, D.C. area.

The third faction quickly split up with many adherents joining Maoist-oriented groups, including the newly formed October League and the existing Revolutionary Union (later Revolutionary Communist Party).

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

‘Bring the War Home’ – Jul. 1969 ca.

An eight-page, 5 ½ x 8 ½ pamphlet by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) national office circa July 1969 issues a call for a national demonstration in Chicago scheduled for October 8-11, 1969.

Cathy Wilkerson, part of this faction of the national leadership, was SDS regional coordinator for the Washington, D.C. area.

The pamphlet was probably issued just after the June SDS national convention in Chicago where the group split into three factions—the name SDS controlled by Progressive Labor Party-aligned elements; most of the national SDS leadership initially becoming the Revolutionary Youth Movement (later becoming the Weather Underground) and a third faction styling itself Revolutionary Youth Movement II whose members largely joined Maoist groups like the Revolutionary Union and October League.

The call to action was likely issued while the faction that would become the Weather Underground was still using the SDS name.

The demonstration came to be known as “Days of Rage” where upwards of 1,000 demonstrators clashed repeatedly with Chicago police. Injuries were inflicted on both sides and dozens arrested. This faction of SDS did go underground after this militant action and began waging a type of guerilla war against the U.S. government, though it mainly bombed symbolic targets and the only casualties were three members who were killed when a bomb they were making went off prematurely in New York City in March 1970.

The pamphlet expresses frustration that protests and demonstrations against the Vietnam War and against oppression of Black people have not resulted in fundamental change. It urges more militant action in solidarity with the Vietnamese struggle against the U.S. and the South Vietnamese government and with the struggle of Black people in the U.S.

The action in October 1969 would be the first and last open demonstration by what became the Weather Underground, although small contingents aligned with the group would sometimes participate in larger demonstrations.

The group, or those aligned with it, carried out bombings of the State Department, the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol in the Washington, D.C. area.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection # M 520, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Viet students urge end to U.S. involvement – Sept. 1969

Two letters from South Vietnamese students dated in 1967 and 1969 encourage U.S. students to continue and intensify their opposition to U.S,. involvement in Vietnam.

The first letter, marked pages 3-4, is dated April 3, 1967 and is sent by the Union of Vietnamese Students in France and signed by three of its officers.

The second letter is dated September 16, 1969 and is from Le Van Nghia, a 24-year-old student at the Faculty of Letters, Saigon University and editor of the school newspaper.

A cover letter dated September 1969 explains the two letters and urges college student newspaper editors to print the two letters that were obtained by the American Friends Service Committee.

University of Maryland Free University: Fall 1969 ca.

The University of Maryland College Park initial Free University course offerings are outlined in this six-page, 8 ½ x 11 mimeographed guide circa fall 1969. The document is difficult to read due to the faded ink.

The Free University was organized by students and faculty who put forth the philosophy in the guide:

“Thus the free university offers a natural outlet for frustrated teachers and student alike.”

A Freedom School at Eastern High School – Sept. 1969

It became the first public school curriculum to be designed by students.

The program ran concurrently with D.C. school year, offering elective credit in lieu of elective courses from regular curriculum at Eastern High School.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Coolidge student march against the war flyer – Oct. 1969

A flyer advertises a demonstration held during the Vietnam Moratorium by black students at Coolidge High School in Washington, D.C. October 15, 1969.

Over 100 students from Coolidge High School sought to enter the White House grounds with a black pinewood coffin containing letters from students asking President Nixon to end the war.

George Mason Moratorium Committee flyer – Nov. 1969

The George Mason College Moratorium Committee advertises a series of events running up to the massive November 15, 1969 Moratorium demonstration in Washington, D.C.

The header of the 8 ½ x 11 single-sided flyer reads “To be against the war in Vietnam and to do nothing is indefensible.” The Moratorium was a soft-approach to a general strike and asked people to pause their activities in protest of the war.

The events publicized included films and a meeting.

The Northern Virginia events followed the October 15, 1969 Moratorium where upwards of two million people participated in protests in cities and towns across the country in local actions.

Following the October Moratorium, President Richard M. Nixon gave a speech that called for U.S. troops to continue fighting while eventually training South Vietnamese troops (Vietnamization) to fight against the forces of the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He also called on America’s “Silent Majority” to back him.

The antiwar movement responded with the largest demonstration to date in November. While the massive outpouring was mostly peaceful, sustained fighting broke out during an attempted march by 10,000 people on the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese) embassy near Dupont Circle during the evening of November 14.

Police eventually suppressed the demonstration through the use of tear gas, mace and un-holstered weapons but not before thousands of residents in the area were saturated with gas.

Fighting broke out again on November 15 when a large contingent broke away from the main demonstration to march on the U.S. Justice Department at 9th & Constitution Ave. NW. Once again sustained fighting between police and protesters broke out before police were able to suppress and scatter the breakaway march.

The Moratorium demonstrations signaled that the antiwar movement was gaining strength and would not dissipate. The war and large-scale demonstrations continued through Nixon’s second Inauguration in January 1973 before the Paris Peace Accords were signed shortly afterward. Nixon’s Vietnamization policy failed in 1976 when the forces of the DRV and NLF overran South Vietnam and ousted the U.S.-backed government.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

NVCC Moratorium antiwar march – Nov. 1969

The Northern Virginia Community College Moratorium Committee advertises an anti-Vietnam War march from the college to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors November 14, 1969 the day prior to the massive November 15, 1969 Moratorium demonstration in Washington, D.C.

The header of the 8 ½ x 11 single-sided flyer reads “Work for Peace.” The Moratorium was a soft-approach to a general strike and asked people to pause their activities in protest of the war.

The Northern Virginia march followed the October 15, 1969 Moratorium where upwards of two million people participated in protests in cities and towns across the country in local actions.

Police eventually suppressed the demonstration through the use of tear gas, mace and un-holstered weapons but not before thousands of residents in the area were saturated with gas.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Smash the 3-Sisters Bridge – Nov. 1969

A poster calling for a rally to “Smash the 3 Sisters Bridge” at Georgetown University followed by a march to the bridge site November 16, 1969 sponsored by the Student Committee on the Transportation Crisis.

The SCTC was set up by students at George Washington, American and Georgetown universities to assist the efforts of the long-standing Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis led by Reginald Booker.

The SCTC was influenced by the more radical faction of the recently fractured Students for a Democratic Society and by the Yippies.

The group engaged in a number of confrontations with police at and around the bridge site, resulting in stone throwing, tear gas and arrests.

A court order stopped construction on the bridge in Aug. 1970 and it was never resumed.

Black Panthers seek to recruit D.C. white student allies – Dec. 1969

During the Black Panther recruiting drive in December 1969 led by Jim Williams, the group also sought to set up an affiliated chapter of the National Committee to Combat Fascism (NCCF).

The flyer publicizes a number of events designed to familiarize area students with the Panthers and to recruit members to the NCCF chapter.

The tour came shortly after the Chicago police murder of Fred Hampton on Dec. 4^thand this event is addressed on the reverse side of the flyer.

Campus Research Guide on Institutional Racism – 1970 ca.

An unsigned, undated guide to institutional racism on college campuses is circulated in the Washington, D.C. area circa 1970.

The early guide poses questions to determine the ways and extent that White leadership of the campus established and/or maintained an institution that devalues and discriminates against Black people.

With a 55-year perspective, some of the questions seem simplistic, but offer a look into the early efforts to mitigate the long-standing effects of White supremacists that established many of the schools and the “white-spot blindness” that nearly all campus leaders had in subsequent years.

The effort to eradicate institutional racism gained considerable steam after the protests in Ferguson, MO and Minneapolis, MN and other cities during the late teens and early 20s of the 21^st century.

Those efforts produced an explosion of diversity recruiting efforts and attempts to mitigate and eliminate institutional bias on the nations’ campuses.

However, vehement resistance that was incorporated into the Make America Great Movement (MAGA) movement of Donald Trump has led to the reversal and elimination of many facets, including diversity efforts involving students and faculty, elimination of civil rights offices, reduction or elimination of Black Studies, re-vamping of history courses to uncritically extol the nation’s earlier leaders and policies, and restoring statues, building names, and other campus features uncritically extolling White supremacist campus leaders, among other measures.

In contemporary times, President Trump is using the expansive powers of the federal government to roll back gains of that last 50-plus years and re-assert White supremacy on the nations’ campuses.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Nazi appeal to join affiliated student group – 1970

An appeal to help “Build a New Order” by joining the National Socialist Liberation Front is distributed by the National Socialist White People’s Party (NSWPP) based in Arlington, Va. in 1970.

It was during the early 70s that infamous white supremacist David Duke joined the National Socialist Liberation Front.

Koehl expelled Tommasi in 1973 for allegedly smoking marijuana and entertaining young women at party headquarters, as well as misusing party funds.

Tommasi re-organized the Liberation Front in 1974 with two tiers—an above ground organization and an underground organization that would wage guerrilla war.

Tommasi was killed by an NSWPP member in front of the NSWPP local headquarters in El Monte, CA during a confrontation. No one was charged in Tommasi’s death.

Nazi ‘Had Enough, Whitey?’ flyer – 1970

An appeal to white supremacists to join the student National Socialist Liberation Front is distributed by the National Socialist White People’s Party (NSWPP) based in Arlington, Va. in 1970.

A platform is printed on the back side. Both sides are chocked full of racial stereotypes and slanders.

‘Why Does the System Hate National Socialism’ – 1970

The National Socialist Liberation Front (the student group of the National Socialist White People’s Party) publishes a tract attempting to explain the merits of Nazi concept of national socialism in 1970.

An application to join the group is one the flip side of the flyer.

Demonstrate to End the Draft – Mar. 1970

The Student Mobilization Committee publishes a flyer as a co-sponsor of anti-draft actions taking place the week of March 15-19, 1970.

UMD Statement on the arrest of the Skinner 87 – Mar. 1970

The University of Maryland College Park issues a statement on the arrest of 87 students March 24, 1970 who were protesting the dismissal of two popular professors.

Two professors, Peter Goldstone and Richard Roeloff, were denied a renewal of their contracts. Several hundred students seized Skinner Hall March 23 for 13 hours before police were called to arrest the demonstrators

Students briefly occupied three buildings on campus again on April 6th, including Skinner Hall, McKeldin Library and the South Administration Building.

The protest was largely forgotten when the campus erupted May 1, 1970 in protests against President Richard Nixon’s expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the subsequent shooting deaths of 4 students at Kent State University by the Ohio Guard.

Sentinel newspaper covers junior high protest – Mar. 1970

The Montgomery County Sentinel covers the March 25, 1970 disturbance at North Bethesda Junior High School that involved scuffles between students protesting the suspension of a student and those supporting the administration.

In March 1970, North Bethesda Junior High ninth grader Jeffrey Goldthorpe began circulating a “Student Bill of Rights” and distributing and/or selling pin back buttons.

On Tuesday March 24 1970, Goldthorpe was sent to school principal Ellis D. Glime’s office and suspended for distributing the materials without permission.

Wednesday March 25th, as school buses arrived before classes, approximately 25 students (mostly females) set up a picket line to call for Goldthorpe’s reinstatement. About 500 students gathered to watch the demonstration, and some opponents of the picketers according to the Montgomery County Sentinel “began taunting the picketers for their long hair and semi-hippy garb,” pushing and shoving them.

At least three fist fights broke out. At 8:25 a.m., as the school principal was leading Goldthorpe’s parents in for a conference, members of the county-wide Student Alliance, invited by the protesters, drove up and were surrounded by right-wing students who began rocking their cars and threatening them.

Glime called the county police, who arrived about 8:40 a.m., but by the time they arrived, the fights had already ended and students were entering the school. Some protesting students had called for a student walkout at 2:00 p.m.—other protestors advised against it— and subsequent pressure by the administration led to the walkout being cancelled. Some stated their intention of form a Student Alliance II in order to press for student rights.

Goldthorpe was reinstated the next day and he, along with others, continued to press for student rights at school and against the Vietnam war. That spring the administration arranged dialogues with some of the protesting students, their parents, as well as students and parents together, but the school administration never altered their restrictions on political communication and activity.

Principal writes parents about junior high protest – Apr. 1970

North Bethesda Junior High School Principal Ellis G. Gliime sends a letter dated April 3, 1970 to parents outlining his version of the events that began with a suspension of a student for passing out a student “bill of rights” and distributing anti-Vietnam War buttons and ended with a picket line and fighting between pro and antiwar students.

About 25 students picketed North Bethesda Junior High School March 25, 1970 over the school’s suspension of ninth grader Jeffrey Goldthorpe for passing out a student “bill of rights” and distributing anti-Vietnam War pinback buttons.

About 500 students gathered to watch the demonstration, and according to the Montgomery County Sentinelsome opponents of the picketers “began taunting the picketers for their long hair and semi-hippy garb,” pushing and shoving them.

Goldthorpe was reinstated the day after the protest and he, along with others, continued to press for student rights at school and against the Vietnam war. That spring the administration arranged dialogues with some of the protesting students, their parents, as well as students and parents together, but the school administration never altered their restrictions on political communication and activity.

Wanted poster for junior high principal – spring 1970

An original “wanted poster” of North Bethesda Junior High School Principal Ellis T. Glime posted during the night at the school in the spring of 1970.

The tongue-in-cheek poster was signed Youth International Party who were better known as the “Yippies,” a group embracing humorous protests during the Vietnam War era. The group ran a pig named Pegasus for U.S. president in 1968.

The “wanted poster” of Glime parodied the then-notorious posters of Weatherman and Black Panther fugitives while using a play on words naming him LSD Glime instead of Ellis T.

The clash between young people at the school embracing the era’s youth culture and anti-Vietnam War sentiments and the school administration began with the suspension of a student for passing out a student “bill of rights” and distributing anti-Vietnam War buttons. A picket line followed along with fighting between pro and antiwar students.

Call for Montgomery County students to protest Kent State killings – May 1970

An unsigned call for Montgomery County, Md. students to rally at Springbrook High School May 8, 1970 to protest the killing of four students at Kent State University during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration.

The flyer also calls upon students to attend a memorial service in New York City and to also participate in a University of Maryland rally along with canvassing, picketing and leafleting.

The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre, were the killings of four and wounding of nine other unarmed Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970 in Kent, Ohio, 40 miles south of Cleveland.

Striking AU students call for public support – May 1970

An 8 ½ x 11 one-sided flyer issued by Coalition for Community Involvement calling on the public to support the American University (AU) students who joined a nationwide student strike following President Richard Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia and the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University in Ohio.

The flyer was likely issued May 6, 1970 following the shootings at Kent State and reflecting the initial confusion surrounding the killings. The flyer reports six students dead. The early edition of the Washington Daily News reported four guardsmen and two students killed.

The flyer lists the three demands of the nationwide student strike—1) End to the war in Indochina 2) End political repression at home 3) End complicity of the university with repression and war. It also reports on the confrontations with police at Ward Circle May 4^th & 5^th.

Students at American University initiated a strike against the Vietnam War beginning May 1, 1970 after President Richard Nixon announced that the U.S. would expand the war into Cambodia the night before. By May 4^th, the National Student Association had called for a nationwide strike.

Original held in the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_F_0057

UMD student strike meeting flyer – May 1970

A May 1970 flyer advertises a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) meeting at the Arts and Sciences Building during the student strike at the University of Maryland (UMD) College Park following the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

At this point in time, SDS had already split into several factions at their June 1969 national convention. This flyer was from the Worker-Student Alliance (WSA) faction of the Students for Democratic Society (SDS), one of two that emerged from the June 1969 Chicago convention of the organization.

Though SDS no longer dominated the Left on the UMD campus, several of its leaders, including Karen Pomerantz and Mark Woodard, were prominent among the student strike leaders.

University of Md. College Park ‘Commuter Newsletter’ – May 8-10, 1970

A unsigned, undated three-page flyer (issued between May 8 and 10, 1970 and probably issued by members of the student strike committee) dubbed “Commuter’s Newsletter” recounts a faculty assembly vote at the University of Maryland College Park to endorse an immediate end to the war in Vietnam, opposing repression against the Black Panther Party and urging the school administration to keep the school facilities open during the student strike.

Demonstrations against the Vietnam War and a student strike began at the school May 1, 1970 after President Richard Nixon ordered U.S. troops to invade Cambodia-widening the war. A national student strike was called May 4, 1970, the same day that the Ohio National Guard gunned down four students and wounded nine others at Kent State University in Ohio.

The flyer also calls for students to support a liberal grading plan for classes of those engaged in the student strike.

The last page of the flyer reprints the faculty resolutions adopted at an assembly of 1,000 faculty members at Cole Field House May 7, 1970. The assembly was watched by 7,000 students in the stands.

University Record account of UMD administration building fire – May 15, 1970

The University Record dated May 15, 1970b publishes photographs and excerpts from a speech to the University of Maryland College Park board of regents by President Wiison Elkins describing damage to the administration building sustained during a student demonstration against the Vietnam War May 14, 1970.

Over 5,000 students again occupied U.S. Route 1 after the school’s faculty voted by a 2-1 margin to apply relatively strict grading criteria to students involved in the strike against the expansion of the Indochina War by President Richard Nixon and the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University by Ohio National Guardsmen.

Ed Beall, a left-leaning faculty activist led a group of students to put out the fire. Otherwise the building may have burned to the ground.

Beall, however, was not rewarded for his actions. Instead the board of regents at the school later fired the tenured professor for posting unauthorized signs on campus and other trivial matters.

Martial law order by National Guard at UMD – May 15 1970

A photograph of a May 15, 1970 order by Maryland National Guard commander Major Gen. Edwin Warfield III imposing a curfew at the University of Maryland College Park, banning the sale and possession of gasoline and banning gatherings on campus of more than 100 people.

It marked the second time the National Guard occupied the campus during the 1970 student strike against the U.S. expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the killings of students at Kent State University.

When the Guard arrived on campus the evening of May 14^th, the most bitter and prolonged fighting between students and police and National Guard occurred.

Shortly after this order, 25 students were banned from campus by Warfield at the request of university officials.

Students repeatedly defied the National Guard order and held rallies and marches of several thousand on May 18^th, 20^thand 22^nd.

The National Guard would occupy the campus again during anti-Vietnam War protests in 1971 and 1972.

Remember the Augusta Six – May 1970

Flyer announces formation of DRUM at College Park: 1970

The first flyer issued by the newly constituted Democratic Radical Union of Maryland (DRUM) announces its formation in late May 1970 out of the 1970 student strike coalition at College Park.

The May 1970 student strike was the first mass protest at the College Park campus and included occupation of buildings, the seizure of U.S. Route 1, confrontations with police and National Guard and a student strike that was part of a nationwide student strike against the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the shooting deaths of four student protesters at Kent State University in Ohio.

DRUM filled a year-long void caused by the splintering of the Students for Democratic Society (SDS) in the summer of 1969.

DRUM published The Radical Guide to the University of Maryland and the Route One Gazette and held a number of meetings and protests on and off the campus.

The spring 1971 antiwar protests on the campus that resulted in a Maryland National Guard occupation of the campus for the second straight year were largely guided by these activists.

Jailbreak flyer for N. Bethesda Junior High (1) – Jun. 1970

An original “jailbreak” flyer for North Bethesda Junior High School for the last day of school—June 18, 1970. The poster advertises a map on the back, but none was actually produced.

“Jailbreak” was a term popularized by the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) for student walkouts. The poster urges students to “tell the system to Get Fucked” and “Break this Jail,” but only a handful of students walked out of school early.

The “jailbreak” culminated a spring of unrest at the school that began with a clash between young people at the school embracing the era’s youth culture and anti-Vietnam War sentiments and the school administration.

A suspension of a student for passing out a student “bill of rights” and distributing anti-Vietnam War buttons occurred March 24,1 970 and a picket line followed the next day along with fighting between pro and antiwar students.

Jailbreak flyer for N. Bethesda Junior High (2) – Jun. 1970

An original “jailbreak” flyer for North Bethesda Junior High School for the last day of school—June 18, 1970.

Confront Mandel and the [UMD] Regents – Jun. 1970

President Wilson Elkins scheduled a meeting with the University of Maryland Board of Regents and Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel June 26, 1970 and students responded by calling a demonstration.

The flyer is unsigned, but likely issued by the Democratic Radical Union of Maryland (DRUM).

DRUM was formed from the student strike committee that attempted to guide the month-long student strike in May 1970 against the Vietnam War following President Richard Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia. The shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University May 4, 1970 by the Ohio National Guard helped fuel the strike and protests.

The War Drags on Rally at the U. of Md. College Park – Aug. 1970

An unsigned flyer calls for a rally against the Vietnam War August 4, 1970 on the Mall at the University of Maryland College Park. The flyer is unsigned but contains the demands of the Democratic Radical Union of Maryland and was likely put out by the group.

USNSA Congress News – August 16, 1970

USNSA Congress News – August 17, 1970

U.S. National Student Association (USNSA) Congress News October 16, 1970 reports on the passage of a resolution the previous night during their convention at Macalester College in Minneapolis, MN that authorizes the umbrella group of college student governments to negotiate a People’s Peace Treaty and organize demonstrations, including civil disobedience, beginning May 1, 1971.

While its politics were always liberal, the top officers of the organization permitted the CIA to use students to gather intelligence and attempt to blunt communist influence in international student gatherings from 1947-67.

Ramparts Magazine published an expose in 1967 blowing the lid of the scheme and the group extricated itself from CIA funding.

Despite its background as a Cold War front group, over the course of three years 1967-70, it turned from a tool of U.S. foreign policy to helping lead the fight against it, including the call for a national student strike against the Vietnam War in May 1970, the negotiations of a People’s Peace Treaty with North and South Vietnamese students in December 1970, and the endorsement and organization of the Mayday civil disobedience in Washington, D.C. in May 1971.

Radical Guide to the University of Maryland – Aug. 1970

The University of Maryland was relatively quiet during the late 1960s when turmoil swept campuses around the country over the Vietnam War and black liberation.

However, the campus exploded in 1970—first with the university’s mass arrests of students protesting the firing of two popular professors and later with massive antiwar demonstrations and resulting confrontations that ended in the campus being occupied by the National Guard.

The Guide was written and published by the Democratic Radical Union of Maryland (DRUM), a short-lived campus successor to the Students for Democratic Society (SDS).

It recounts the demonstrations of during the Spring of 1970 and puts forward the views of the students on important issues of the day.

Student Peace Lobby holds UMD candidate forum – Aug. 1970

The Student Peace Lobby holds a Prince George’s County candidate forum at the University of Maryland College Park August 4-5, 1970 and highlights the student candidates.

The Student Peace Lobby was a brief-lived campus organization that sought to elect anti-Vietnam War candidates, secure voting rights for students and lobby elected officials to oppose the Vietnam War.

Student Government Association president Madison Jones ran for sheriff on a platform of attempting to rein in the duties of the sheriff.

You Don’t Have to Go – Sep. 1970 ca.

A flyer published by the Democratic Radical Union of Maryland (DRUM) and the Mother Bloor Collective calls on students at College Park to seek draft counseling and oppose the war in Vietnam.

DRUM lasted about two years while most of the member of Mother Bloor affiliated with the Workers World Party or its youth group Youth Against War and Fascism.

Maryland radicals Mother Bloor Collective and DRUM defend Panther’s RPCC – Oct. 1970

On the back side of the flyer are hand-written lyrics to a song popularized by the Weather Underground: Red Party Fights to Win.

May Strike at U. of Md. film screening flyer: Nov. 1970

The Democratic Radical Union of Maryland (DRUM) sponsors a film November 9, 1970 on the student strike the previous spring that protested President Richard Nixon’s expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the shooting deaths of four Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard.

Anyone who has information on this film, please contact Washington_area_spark@yahoo.com We would love to digitalize it and post it on our site.

Position paper on workers for Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention: 1970

The convention was spearheaded by the Black Panther Party.

Call for action to stop Nixon’s new war escalation – Nov. 1970

A call to action at the University of Maryland College Park on the Vietnam War following an increase in bombing and a failed attempt to rescue American POWs is published by the Democratic Radical Union of Maryland (DRUM) circa November 1970.

This flyer disparages President Richard Nixon’s war escalation and provides facts to support an antiwar position. The flyer is partially damaged.

DRUM was a successor to the campus chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society that was formed out of the steering committee from the May 1970 student strike against the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard.

U. of Md. ‘wanted poster’ of undercover police – 1970 ca.

The first in a series of “wanted” posters put out anonymously on the University of Maryland campus of police agents and informers following the student strike of 1970.

This one features alleged state police officers John Paul Cook and Bob Wacker.

U. of Md. ‘wanted poster’ of undercover police (2) – 1970 ca.

The second in a series of “wanted” posters put out anonymously on the University of Maryland campus of police agents and informers following the student strike of 1970.

This one features alleged state police officer or informer Jim Lair.

U. of Md. ‘wanted poster’ of police/FBI informant (3) – 1970 ca.

The third in a series of “wanted” posters put out anonymously on the University of Maryland College Park campus of police agents and informers following the student strike of 1970.

This one features alleged police/FBI informant Thomas Hyde.

Student & Youth Conference on a People’s Peace – Feb. 1971

Packet distributed at Student and Youth Conference.

The Student & Youth Conference on a People’s Peace held at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor Feb 5-7 was organized by U.S. National Student Association (NSA) to ratify the “People’s Peace Treaty” negotiated between American students, led by NSA President David Ifshin, and Vietnamese student leaders in an attempt to end the war in Vietnam.

The 2000 attendees at the conference also endorsed the Mayday plan to confront the U.S. government with massive civil disobedience in Washington, D.C. if the war was not stopped.

Long time antiwar leader Dave Dellinger was quoted as saying, “We must move from the expression of opinion to action. We have to move to the stage of force without violence.”

Rennie Davis, another advocate of the Mayday plan, declared, “Unless Nixon commits himself to withdrawal by May 1—that is, if he won’t stop the war—we intend to stop the government.”

The conference marked the beginning of the organizing effort for the Mayday demonstrations where more than 12,000 people were arrested in Washington, D.C. in an attempt to block traffic to halt operations of the U.S. federal government.

Meal rules & schedule

Nearby restaurants

Eqbal Ahmad statement

Feb. 15, 1971 WIN magazine

National student antiwar conference at Catholic U. – Feb. 1971

The Student Mobilization Committee advertises a rally and a national anti-Vietnam War conference to be held at Catholic University February 19-21, 1971.

The rally was also sponsored by the National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC), one of two umbrella antiwar coalitions at the time. The other was the People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ). NPAC organized around a single issue of end the war while PCPJ embraced antiwar, social and economic justice issues.

The Student Mobilization Committee began as the student arm of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam—the predecessor of PCPJ and NPAC–but became a separate organization where the Socialist Workers Party, the dominate Trotskyist organization at the time, and it’s youth arm the Young Socialist Alliance had considerable influence.

At its high point SMC had chapters on dozens of campuses across the country.

Student Mobe schedules training, recruits volunteers – Mar. 1971

The Student Mobilization Committee publishes a flyer for anti-Vietnam War volunteer activities to build for a mass April 24, 1971 march on Washington, D.C. and a March 24, 1971 training session for those who wish to become antiwar activists.

Hundreds of thousands would march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. April 24, 1971 in the largest anti-Vietnam War demonstration of the era.

Crowd estimates varied from 200,000-500,000 participants.

The Student Mobilization Committee began as the student arm of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, but became a separate organization where the Socialist Workers Party, the dominant Trotskyist organization at the time, and its youth arm the Young Socialist Alliance had considerable influence.

Mother Bloor collective warns U. of Md. students of drug raids – Apr. 1971

Mother Bloor, a Marxist-Leninist study group based at the University of Maryland College Park that briefly formed its own organization, warns of the possibility of a police raid on the campus looking for drugs April 30-May 2, 1971.

No raids apparently took place, though the campus would be wracked by another year of anti-Vietnam War demonstrations that brought the National Guard back to occupy the campus for a second year.

Mother Bloor (1970-71), named after an early U.S. Communist Party labor leader, was formed in large by University of Maryland College Park activists around the same time as Mother Jones, a similar group in Baltimore named after another labor leader.

Both groups acted as communist political groups but ended up taking different directions. Most members of Mother Bloor affiliated with the Workers World Party—a split off from the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party in the 1959–while most Mother Jones members affiliated with the Revolutionary Union—a Maoist group with roots in San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s.

Student Mobe guide to DC mass antiwar demonstration – April 1971

A tabloid-sized guide to the massive April 24, 1971 anti-Vietnam War march on Washington and some of the subsequent events is published by the Student Mobilization Committee.

The April 24^th march was probably the largest single march against the war involving upwards of 500,000 people and was sponsored mainly by the National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC).

The four-page guide shows the march route, the sites of some coalition members gathering points, aid stations and nearby restaurants. It also lists planned activities endorsed by the SMC.

This tabloid contains no mention of the Vietnam veterans protest that occurred the full week before the NPAC sponsored march and no mention of the PCPJ marches and civil disobedience conducted the week after. It also does not mention the planned Mayday civil disobedience.

UMD antiwar coalition formulates demands – May 1971

The University of Maryland [College Park] Spring Action Coalition comprised of various campus left-leaning groups formulates its demands during a series of demonstrations in May 1971 on the campus.

The protests broke out at the same time Mayday demonstrations were occurring in nearby Washington, D.C. and resulted in the National Guard occupying the campus for the second year in a row. The Guard would also put down antiwar demonstrations on the campus in 1972.

The demands included kicking ROTC off the campus, implementing the People’s Peace Treaty and an end to disciplinary measures against students and guests.

U. of Md. students produce a guide to Mayday civil disobedience – 1971

The University of Maryland Mayday contingent produced a guide to the Mayday 1971 anti-Vietnam War demonstrations that were intended to shut down the government by using civil disobedience to block traffic in Washington, D.C.

Mayday civil disobedience poster – April 1971 ca.

A Mayday anti-Vietnam War demonstration poster is produced by the Student & Youth for a People’s Peace and the MAYDAY Collective in March 1971.

The poster includes a synopsis of the Vietnam War and the People’s Peace Treaty; upcoming planned demonstrations and other actions against the war; organizational principles and values; and a coupon to act as a Mayday organizer.

This is a 14” x 20,” purple ink on white paper poster.

The Mayday civil disobedience intended to shut down the federal government in protest of the Vietnam War would end up with over 12,000 over a four-day period—the largest in U.S. history.

UMD ‘People’s Response to Police’ poster – May 1971

A provocative 11 x 17 poster is issued anonymously for the price of $0.25 shows police officers falling under a barrage of rocks on the campus May 5, 1971 and seeking bail money for those students arrested during the confrontation.

The poster says the contributions will be directed to the Community Bail Fund, c/o the Student Government Association (SGA).

Students had earlier rallied on the campus mall against the Vietnam War and marched to the administration building where about 200 students, including SGA President Madison Jones, occupied the lobby of the building.

The remainder of the crowd first moved around the administration building to the Armory where the Reserve Officer Training Corps offices were and held a rally there where several windows were broken. The crowd then marched down to U.S. Route One where they blocked traffic.

In the late afternoon, police moved from both the north and south ends of Route One and cleared protesters off the roadway. Protesters retreated to the Chapel lawn overlooking U.S. Route One.

Police then moved onto the campus and attempted to break up the protest, though there was no law against gathering on the campus. A pitched battle ensued with police using their batons, police dogs and tear gas in an attempt to break up the crowd. Students responded with rocks and by picking up the tear gas canisters and tossing them back.

The back-and-forth confrontation continued for several hours and included a march by students to other end of campus where they blocked traffic at University Blvd. and Adelphi Road.

The National Guard would occupy the campus later that evening and declare a curfew and prohibit gatherings without permission.

Several dozen students were arrested on charges including assault, disorderly conduct and curfew violation.

Original held in the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_P_0041

DRUM and Mother Bloor urge on U. of Md. students – Fall 1971

A flyer published by the Democratic Radical Union of Maryland (DRUM) and the Mother Bloor Collective in the fall of 1971 calls on students at College Park to re-double their opposition to the Vietnam War after President Richard Nixon’s failed raid to rescue POWs and the withdrawal of a small number of troops.

DRUM lasted about two years while most of the members of the Mother Bloor collective affiliated with the Workers World Party or its youth group Youth Against War and Fascism.

Call for an anti-imperialist contingent in national antiwar march – May 1972

D.C. police chief Jerry Wilson was hit six times with objects including a wooden stick that caused blood to run down his face.

Wilson was quoted, “They usually run when I walk toward them. This time they threw bigger rocks.”

A dozen police officers were injured and 178 protesters were arrested during the confrontation.

‘Free Greg Dunkel’ – Jul. 1972

The local chapter of Youth Against War and Fascism (YAWF) issues a four-page flyer urging students to attend the July 28, 1972 trial of University of Maryland College Park graduate Gregory Dunkel who was facing prison time on charges of trespass and inciting to arson.

The charges originated from an anti-Vietnam War demonstrations on campus in the spring of 1972 when a large crowd of approximately 750 people in front of the steps at McKeldin Library. Dunkel, a long-time campus activist, urged the crowd to continue protests against the Vietnam War. Dunkel was one of several speakers.

The crowd later marched to the Armory that housed the campus Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC). Some rocks were thrown at the ROTC offices, breaking some of the windows. One demonstrator lit an American flag on fire and used it to light the curtains in one of the windows of the Armory on fire.

Demonstrators then marched to nearby U.S. Route One where they occupied the roadway resulting in Governor Marvin Mandel sending in the Maryland National Guard to occupy the campus for the third straight year.

The fire went out of its own accord.

Dunkel, who had urged no specific actions during his speech, was later cleared of all charges.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Protest arrests of two U. of Md. students – July 1972

An unsigned flyer protests the arrests of two students charged with minor acts of vandalism to the destruction of the Vietnam War. The flyer calls on students to attend the trials of Steve Moore and Bob Ferraro.

U. of Md. students protest arrests – Fall, 1972

A newly formed Md./D.C. Committee to Oppose Political Repression issues a flyer protesting the arrest of three University of Maryland students arrested during a May 10, 1972 antiwar demonstration on the campus where police engaged in well-documented police brutality against one of those arrested.

Freedom Party marches on Rockville, Md. – Nov. 1972

The Montgomery County Freedom Party sponsors an anti-Vietnam War demonstration November 8, 1972 where about 75 people marched to the military recruiting station in downtown Rockville, Md.

The Freedom Party was one of dozens of local groups that sprang up around the country on college campuses to fill the void caused by the collapse of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the summer of 1969.

It was one of the few local demonstrations against the Vietnam War in Montgomery County where the focus was usually on Washington, D.C.

The Freedom Party left its mark on the Rockville campus of Montgomery College from the fall semester of 1971 through the spring semester of 1973, publishing Spark newspaper, sponsoring a series of speakers and holding protests. At one point they held a majority of seats in the student government.

Weather Underground FBI Wanted Poster – 1972

A major focus of the demonstration was the trial of the Chicago 8—antiwar leaders of various philosophies charged with fomenting a riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention. The clashes with police ended with six Weathermen wounded by police gunfire, 287 arrested and a number of other injured. The police suffered several dozen injuries—none serious.

Many of those charged failed to appear in court resulting in most of the wanted profiles on the linked document.

The Weather Underground went on to conduct a symbolic bombing campaign of government, industrial or other political targets until 1977 when the group essentially disbanded.

Palestine Liberation Struggle speakers – Nov. 1974

Nine organizations issue a 8 ½ x 11, single-sided flyer to attend speakers on the “Palestine liberation struggle” to be held at Douglass Hall on the Howard University campus November 20, 1974.

Georgetown students host panel discussion on Chile – Apr. 1976

Donated by Craig Simpson

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Transit in the D.C. Area

‘Mass Meeting’ for the hiring of Black operators: Oct. 1942

A mass meeting to demand that the Capital Transit Co. hire Black bus and streetcar operators is advertised for November 3, 1942 with Rev. Adam Clayton Powell as the principal speaker.

The Committee sponsored mini-street rallies in downtown Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1943 and a mass march May 7, 1943 through the streets of the city by some 2,000 participants.

However, the FEPC would refuse to enforce its order and preeminent civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston resigned from the FEPC in protest.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.’

‘Mass Meeting’ for the hiring of Black operators (2): Oct. 1942

A mass meeting to demand that the Capital Transit Co. hire Black bus and streetcar operators is advertised for November 3, 1942 with Rev. Adam Clayton Powell as the principal speaker.

See description above.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.’

Petition to support hiring Black transit operators – Dec. 1942 ca.

The Committee sponsored mini-street rallies in downtown Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1943 and a mass march May 7, 1943 through the streets of the city by some 2,000 participants.

Capital Transit unwittingly hired a Black woman, Sarah Grayson, as a streetcar operator in 1943, but discharged her in May 1944 when they determined she was Black.

The FEPC would ultimately refuse to enforce its order and preeminent civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston resigned from the FEPC in protest.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.

Committee on Jobs bus and trolley operator application: 1943 ca.

The Committee on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utilities solicits job applications for Black bus and streetcar operators at the Capital Transit Company.

See description above.

Original held in the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, Henry Preston Whitehead Collection.’

Committee on Jobs Capital Transit campaign update: Sep. 1943

White Man’s Road Through Black Man’s Home – 1968

This is a poster designed by Sammie Abbott of the Emergency Committee for the Transportation Crisis in 1968 that encapsulated the group’s fight against planned freeways in the District of Columbia.

In January 1967, Abbott used the words “a white man’s road…through black men’s homes,” in testimony before the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) on the North Central Freeway.

ECTC anti-freeway song sheet – 1969 ca.

The Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis (ECTC) publishes an 8 ½ x 11, 2-page protest song lyric sheet circa 1969 for use at demonstrations and meetings against building planned freeways and bridges in and around the District of Columbia

The ECTC spearheaded pubic protests against freeway construction in the city, advocating to divert highway funds to build Metro.

The protests and parallel legal action eventually ended most freeway construction in the city. As a result of the campaign Metro took over four private bus companies in the region to run a public bus system and completed the Metrorail system.

Rally to rehabilitate Brookland homes – Jun. 1969

A rally is planned June 28, 1969 to make a second attempt at rehabilitation of homes condemned by the District government for the North Central Freeway in the Brookland area of the city.

The homes had been vacant for more than a year and had been vandalized. A court injunction had placed the planned freeway on hold.

On June 21st six people were arrested for entering one of the homes and attempting to begin rehabilitation. Following the publicity, Mayor Walter Washington announced that the city would rehabilitate the homes and place them up for sale.

Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis appeal – Aug. 1969 ca.

The Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis (ECTC) issues an appeal to the public to take action following a vote by the D.C. City Council in August 1969 to approve the construction of the Three Sisters Bridge.

The flyer appeals for financing a legal fight against proposed freeways, defense funds for those arrested during actions opposing freeways, help getting the freeway issue on the ballot as a referendum and help in the communities opposing the construction of new freeways.

The Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis (ECTC) spearheaded pubic protests against freeway construction in the city, advocating to divert highway funds to build Metrorail.

Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Student Committee on the Transportation Crisis meeting flyer – Oct. 1969

The George Washington University chapter of the Student Committee on the Transportation Crisis (SCTC) publishes an 8 ½ x 11 two-sided flyer advertising a meeting on campus October 19, 1969 following the arrest of 141 people protesting construction of the Three Sister Bridge to “Stop the Bridge, Free D.C.”

The SCTC and the larger Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis (ECTC) spearheaded pubic protests against freeway construction in the city, advocating to divert highway funds to build Metro.

Smash the 3-Sisters Bridge – Nov. 1969

Opposition to the bridge was seen as the key to stopping a planned series of freeways that would destroy thousands of primarily black homes and crisscross the city.

A court order stopped construction on the bridge located several hundred yards north of the existing Key Bridge in Aug. 1970 and it was never resumed.

Later on legislation passed Congress allowing localities to utilize unused freeway construction funds for subway building and D.C. then took freeway and bridge funds and used them to accelerate the building of the Metrorail system.

Call for 3-Sisters Bridge celebration – 1971

A flyer calling for a celebration October 30, 1971 of a U.S. Court of Appeals decision that effectively indefinitely delayed construction of the Three Sisters Bridge.

The court ruled that the government must start all over with the planning and review process.

Opposition to the bridge was seen as the key to stopping a planned series of freeways that would destroy thousands of primarily black homes and crisscross the city. A court order stopped construction on the bridge in Aug. 1970 and it was never resumed.

Transit union working cards – 1974-77

The ATU previously issued monthly cards like this, but began issuing yearly cards because of the expense. Later they began issue permanent plastic cards.

The trap box (bottom) displays monthly cards issued in 1974.

WMATA & union letters ordering striking workers back to work – May 1974

Attached are back-to-work letters from the union and the company after workers continued the strike after the judge’s order.

Files of the Metro Employees Action Alliance – 1976

The Metro Employees Action Alliance (originally named the Ad Hoc Committee) was a brief-lived caucus with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 approximately May-September 1976.

It was the first of several organized caucuses that eventually helped produce new leadership of the union that replaced the “business unionism” of the time.

The surviving records:

WMATA management proposals for contract changes – May 1, 1976

Questions to be asked at the union meeting – May 18, 1976

Summary of Metro contract proposals circulated to union membership – circa May 22, 1976

Caucus meeting agenda – May 28, 1976

Draft notice to members of Metro’s contract proposals – circa May 28, 1976

Arbitration award on Metro strike discipline – 1978

The Washington Metro system had been beset by three wildcat strikes and a work-to-the rule within a four-year period.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority sought to discipline workers who led and participated in the July 1978 strike over the refusal to pay a cost-of-living increase provided for in the labor agreement.

Workers eventually won the dispute, but over a 100 were disciplined for the strike and eight were fired for their roles in the work stoppage.

The finding also affirmed that strikes are illegal under the Interstate Compact that created Metro that provides for “final and binding arbitration of all disputes.”

Files of the Metro Workers Rank and File Action Caucus – 1978-80

Action

Vol. 1 No. 1 – Sept. 5, 1978

Vol.1. No. 2 – Oct. 1978

Vol. 1 No. 3 – Nov. 1978

Vol. 1 No. 4 – Jan. 1979

Vol. 1 No. 5 – Jun. 1979

Vol. 1 No. 6 – Aug. 1979

Minutes, flyers and election flyers (material related to the Action Caucus):

Caucus minutes – 7/30/78 – 8/79

Turn out for the arbitration hearings flyer – 8/21/78

Metro memo on strikes – 3/5/79

Report of the Local 689 audit committee – 10/2/79

Draft platform – 10/79 ca.

A vote for Mayo-Waller-Simpson is a vote for change – election flyer 11/79

Elect the Unity Slate platform – 11/79

Letter on the disqualification of Walter Tucker as presidential candidate—11/19/1979

Vote Mayo-Waller-Simpson in the runoff elections—1/16/80

Attend the new officers installation—2/80

Unofficial election results—2/80

Documents of meetings by Action Caucus with transit union caucuses in other cities

February 18, 1979 – Minutes of meeting between caucuses within TWU 234, TWU 100 and ATU Local 689

May 1979 ca. – Minutes of meeting between caucuses with TWU 234, TWU 100, ATU 689, ATU 998 and ATU 241.

May 1979 ca. – Proposal for resolutions for upcoming TWU and ATU International conventions

Files of the Metro Committee Against Racism (CAR)

The Metro Committee Against Racism was an ongoing caucus within Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 organized by the Progressive Labor Party from approximately 1978 until approximately 1996.

It criticized union leadership, ran candidates for union office and advocated for social and economic justice and against U.S. imperialism.

We currently have one issue of the newsletter Metro C.A.R.

Metro C.A.R. – August 1978 ca.

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U.S. National Domestic Politics and Issues

American Independent Party candidate for President George Wallace handbill – Nov. 1968

Wallace ran behind both Nixon and Humbert Humphrey in Maryland in 1968, gaining about 170,000 votes to the other two nominees who each received about 470,000.

Get Nixon before he gets you – Apr. 1974

Unlike many who simply called for impeachment, the poster calls for new elections.

Nixon had been the target of demonstrations since his first election in 1968 over the Vietnam War and other foreign policy, civil rights, labor and poverty issues.

The “impeach Nixon” demonstration was held April 27, 1974 in Washington, DC that drew about 10,000 participants.

The protest was organized by a broad range of groups—from Democratic Party allied groups to the Revolutionary Union, a Maoist group.

Nixon resigned August 9, 1974.

Courtesy of the American University Special Collections Patrick Frazier Political and Social Movements Collection.

“Throw the Bum Out” flyer – Apr. 1974

President Richard Nixon had been the target of demonstrations since his first election in 1968 over the Vietnam War and other foreign policy, civil rights, labor and poverty issues.

An “Impeach Nixon” demonstration was held April 27, 1974 in Washington, DC that drew about 10,000 participants.

After the main rally, the anti-imperialist contingent marched to the Justice Department and held a rally where a brief confrontation with police ensued.

Nixon resigned August 9, 1974.

Original held at the American University Library — Archives and Special Collections, Patrick Frazier collection.

Declaration of Economic Independence – 1976

The declaration identifies corporations as the cause of economic distress in the United States and calls for a decentralized ownership of the means of production.

‘200 Years is Long Enough’ – Jun. 1976

The pamphlet details various struggles by the people that resulted in temporary gains, but concludes that the only ongoing solution is socialist revolution.

The RCP would veer sharply away from mass mobilization, pulling most of its cadre out of the mines, mills and factories by 1980. It continues to exist in contemporary times led by Bob Avakian.

Pamphlet donated courtesy of Connie Lednum.

All-Peoples Congress poster – Oct. 1981

The All-Peoples Congress attracted a wide range of groups and individuals from left-leaning elected Democrats to the Revolutionary Communist Party. Upward of 3,500 people attended the event.

The Worker’s World Party began as a split-off from the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party in 1958, but eventually abandoned Trotskyism.

–Donated by Craig Simpson

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Unemployed

Photos of Coxey’s Army – 1894

Coxey’s Army of the unemployed, who marched on Washington in the Spring of 1894, marked the first well publicized protest demonstration in the nation’s capital.

The photos show “Miss Coxey” riding a horse with Jacob Coxey’s second-in-command “Bill Browne” leading the march on 14^th Street NW; “Bill Browne declaring that Coxey will speak at the U.S. Capitol; “Coxey’s Army” leaving Brightwood camp near Georgia and Missouri Avenues; “Coxey’s Army” marching on Pennsylvania Ave. NW; the U.S. Capitol police chief; and “Lieutenant Kelly,” who arrested Coxey, leading a group of police officers.

Spurred by the deprivation caused by the panic of 1893 (the country’s worst depression up to that point in time), Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey organized the march to demand a public works program that would provide jobs and built the country’s infrastructure to stimulate economic growth.

When the protesters finally reached the U.S. Capitol on May 1, 1894, the demonstration was broken up by police using clubs and horses. Coxey and several other leaders were jailed before Coxey could finish his speech.

However, the vast publicity would spur many others to march on Washington again, including Coxey who staged a second march in 1914.

Call to join & support Hunger March – 1932

The march was largely organized by the Communist Party-influenced Unemployed Councils that were demanding jobs and unemployment insurance in cities across the country.

The Washington, D.C. Hunger marches of 1931-32 gained nearly as much publicity at the time as the more enduring Bonus Army marchers of 1932-34.

With one-third of the nation unemployed, the call for a march demanding relief and jobs struck a chord throughout the nation.

Highway of Hunger: The Story of America’s Homeless Youth – 1933

This pamphlet portrays a bleak future for youth whether they are the children of unemployed or college graduates—unless a revolution led by the Communist Party prevails.

In 1931 he joined the Communist Party USA and worked as a trade union organizer with agricultural workers in Alabama, textile workers in North Carolina) and coal miners in Pennsylvania).

He was believed to be captured and executed on April 2, 1938 in Gandesa, during the Retreats phase of the Spanish Civil War.

Civil Service Reinstatement League conference – Jan. 1934

The Civil Service Reinstatement League issues a flyer announcing a January 2-3, 1934 conference of government workers at the Thompson School at 12^th & L Sts. NW, Washington, D.C.

Eleanor Norton from the AFGE local at the Labor Department, chaired the meeting.

The conference focused on eliminating the “marriage clause” and restoring the 15 percent pay cut imposed by the 1932 Economy Act.

The Reinstatement League was initiated by AFGE July 8, 1933 after protests following the implementation of the 1932 Economy Act championed by former President Herbert Hoover.

AFGE itself was a relatively new union, chartered by the AFL in 1932 to represent government workers.

AFGE held a mass meeting at the American Federation of Labor (AFL) headquarters where the League was formed.

But the response of AFGE was to disband the League.

Students for a Democratic Society Bulletin – Feb. 1965

This issue of the national SDS newsletter contains the flyer for the first mass march on Washington, D.C. against the Vietnam War scheduled for April 17, 1965. It is located on page 13.

Poor Peoples Benefit Concert – Aug. 1970

A flyer advertises a benefit concert for the National Welfare Rights Organization to be held August 23, 1970 at RFK Stadium.

The concert scheduled artists Miles Davis, Junior Walker and the All Stars, Mother Earth, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sha-na-na, Ramsey Lewis, Peaches and Herb and the Staples Singers among others.

However about half the artists failed to show; only about 3,000 of the expected 30,000 attendees actually bought the $6 tickets; and the event only broke even—producing no money for the NWRO.

Petey Greene to speak at UMD College Park – May 1971