Protests Across Time

Some might say that protesting is as American as apple pie. Certainly, when one looks back at our country's history, mass protests occur with some frequency.

Now, I grew up as a member of the 50s Silent Generation. I remember no significant protests during my teen years. However, when I look at the following decades and also review our history, there were certainly prominent protests over the years.

Recently, we celebrated National Press Freedom Day where the ability to have a free press to report on issues such as protests, marches, and uprisings is lauded. In many countries, these actions are not permitted. Hong Kong recently lost its long-enjoyed ability to hear news critical of mainland China and many reporting outlets are no longer. Apple Daily, one of the last, was shut down in 2021 and its owner, Jimmy Lai, is still jailed. Currently, in Russia, there are no outlets for news critical of the War against Ukraine; several press offices moved to other countries to report on the war and other issues critical of President Putin.

According to The Freedom Forum:

“Famous protests have shaped government policies, public opinion, and future protest movements.

Two First Amendment freedoms are the least known: freedom of assembly and freedom to petition. Freedom of assembly protects the right to gather peacefully. Freedom to petition protects the right to tell government officials without fear of punishment if you think a policy is good or want something to change.

When people have a protest, march, or rally, they use the freedom of assembly. They may also use the freedom to petition.

Famous protests have also raised questions about when these freedoms may be limited to protect public order and safety.”

Marches for Women’s Suffrage

Early in the 20th Century, the Marches for Women's Suffrage occurred from 1913 onward until women finally won the right to vote in all states in 1919 with the passing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. One of the most prominent happened in Washington, D.C. just before President Wilson's inauguration in 1913. Women in the UK and elsewhere were also marching then for the same causes. At times, the marchers were treated violently and arrested. Some were jailed and force-fed when they went on hunger strikes in protest. So, while the ultimate goal was obtained, it was not a quick or easy battle.

WWI Bonus Marchers

The Veterans from World War I marched to Washington in 1932 asking for a promised bonus for 1945 to be expedited because of the Great Depression that was then gripping the nation. Many set up camp near the Capitol. Since President Hoover was in office then, the site became known as Hooverville. The veterans were called agitators and communists, and their quest failed when Congress did not authorize the changes. The president called in the army and the police to break up the camps and disperse the protestors, causing much shock and dismay.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

This was the formal name of the March in 1963 where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Hundreds of thousands of marchers from all races and walks of life came to Washington on that day to demonstrate that they supported racial equality, justice under the law, and opportunities for jobs, education, and housing. Many advocates spoke that day, but we probably most remember Dr. King and John Lewis today.

Other significant Civil Rights Marches during that era were the Children's March in Birmingham, which, sadly, ended in violence against the marchers, and the March from Selma to Montgomery, which also ended in violence and galvanized a nation. That march is commemorated still.

Opposition to the Vietnam War

Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, there were protests against the Vietnam War. One of the largest was in 1967 with the March on the Pentagon. Although it started in a mostly peaceful manner, when protestors broke through fences and tried to enter the Pentagon, they were met with force and hundreds were arrested.

Students Strike to Protest Cambodian Invasion

After news of the invasion of Cambodia in 1970 by American forces, there was widespread condemnation, student on-campus strikes, professor teach-ins, and a march on Washington. Demands included impeachment of President Nixon, suspension of the national draft, immediate withdrawal of all troops from Southeast Asia, amnesty for protesters, and cessation of military actions on campuses. Violence broke out on several campuses against ROTC sites. But when National Guard troops were called in to quell peaceful protests at Kent State, their presence caused tragedy. Four students were killed and nine others were wounded. Millions of students across the country from over 1300 schools walked out of classes in protest of the killings. None of the Guardsmen were convicted for the incident.

The New York Times described the events at the time:

“Tens of thousands of students in dozens of educational institutions here and in adjoining states halted their studies yesterday to show their bitterness and anguish over the invasion of Cambodia and the killing of four Kent State University students.

Peaceful protests ranged from the occupation of buildings at New York University and Niagara University to a solemn memorial service for the slain students at the Prince ton University Chapel, where the congregation expressed its sense of crisis by reciting this verse from a poem by James Russell Lowell: “Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the [stjrife] of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.”

Elsewhere, the strife took place in the streets. Youthful antiwar demonstrators pelted mounted policemen with stones at the United Nations Plaza here. Policemen in riot gear were called to City College after a small group looted Townsend Harris Hall, the regional headquarters of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), of uniforms, boots, and pamphlets, which they used to fuel a bonfire.”

Abortion Rights Marches

According to History.com:

“A march and rally in support of reproductive justice for women draws several hundred thousand people to demonstrations in Washington, D.C. One of the largest protest marches in the nation’s capital, the pro-choice rally came as the U.S. Supreme Court was about to consider the constitutionality of a Pennsylvania state law that limited access to abortions. Many abortion rights advocates feared that the high court, with its conservative majority, might endorse the Pennsylvania law or even overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal.

By 1992, 12 years of Republican rule in the White House had weakened abortion rights, and the Supreme Court threatened to overturn the 1973 ruling. In April 1992, a massive pro-choice rally was held in Washington, and soon after, the high court refused to endorse Pennsylvania’s new restrictions and left the Roe v. Wade decision intact.

On April 25, 2005, more than a million abortion-rights activists again hit the Mall in Washington as part of the March for Women’s Lives. They protested what they saw as attempts by President George W. Bush’s administration to chip away at women’s reproductive rights, as well as the U.S. ban on aid to abortion clinics abroad. “

The Dobbs decision almost made these protests in vain.

Every year, anti-abortion marchers come to Washington to push their causes.

March for Our Lives – Protests Against Gun Violence

In 2018, the Times also reported on the student’s protest against Gun Violence, led by those who survived the Valentine’s Day massacre at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

“If they continue to ignore us, to only pretend to listen, then we will take action where it counts,” Delaney Tarr, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where a gunman killed 17 people last month, told tens of thousands rallying in Washington. “We will take action every day in every way until they simply cannot ignore us anymore.”

“That reality helped drive the Parkland survivors to Washington, as they led a crowd that filled blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and Capitol Hill. Thousands more rallied at about 800 “sibling” marches around the country and abroad, where students, like those in the capital, made eloquent calls for gun control and pledged to exercise their newfound political power in the midterm elections this fall.”

The Women’s Marches

In 2017, to protest the inauguration and rhetoric of the newly installed misogynistic president, women across the world spoke up and marched in protest. The descriptions and scenes below are from CNN.

“A day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, a sea of demonstrators poured into the streets to advocate for equality and human rights.

They were mothers, sisters, husbands and friends.

They walked in snow, rain, and sunshine, across state lines and international borders.

Some donned pink cat hats, faces painted brightly, some held signs calling for justice and protesting Trump’s rhetoric on immigration and a myriad of other topics. Walking shoulder to shoulder with thousands of others from different backgrounds in a shared desire to be inclusive (although some pro-life groups were controversially uninvited to the march) and make their voices heard. The images below show the scale of the protests.”

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/01/politics/womens-march-photos/

So, in conclusion, I am not disturbed by campus protests, as long as they are peaceful and non-violent and allow free expression and opposing views. Intimidation of those who disagree should have no place, nor should there be destruction of property, nor obstruction of education for those who seek to continue their learning. When police or other authorities are called onto campus, the chance for violence and injuries is increased.

I believe anti-Semitism is wrong. I believe the killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza is wrong. Certainly, kidnapping and killing of children deliberately or inadvertently is wrong. Withholding food, medical care, and sanitation is wrong. Killing, jailing, or targeting press members is wrong. Israeli, Palestinian, and Ukrainian citizens all have a right to exist and live in a peaceful world. I so wish that the wise diplomats in this world could make these wars end and allow all to live in peace.

Maybe the noise made by the students’ protests can fall on receptive ears. I hope these events will fade over time without further violence and that authorities will consider some of the demands the students are making. Certainly, a pause in ammunition shipments to Israel made this week by the Biden administration is a start, as are efforts to ensure a cease-fire, even though Netanyahu is said to have turned it down.

Til next week, I wish for peace on campuses and elsewhere.