Students picket calling for ‘peace race’ - 1962
More than 1,000 pickets filed past the White House February 17, 1962 during a student “Peace Race” (instead of arms race).
The “Peace Race” protest exceeded all expectations as more than 4,000 young people rallied, on the Washington Monument grounds while some laid a wreath in Arlington Cemetery.
Police said the protest was the largest White House demonstration since the protests calling for clemency for the Rosenbergs in 1953. The group engaged in lobbying the previous day calling for no resumption of nuclear testing.
Other demands included an end to civil defense, withdrawal of United States missile bases from Europe and for disarmament.
Perennial Socialist Party candidate for President Norman Thomas, 77, spoke to the crowd saying in part, “You will not live to my age…unless you stop the arms race.”
United Auto Workers secretary-treasurer Emil Mazey called for a de-militarized Germany as a step back from the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Howard University civil rights protester Jan Triggs vowed that the peace and civil rights movements would be joined at the hip.
The earlier lobbying effort involved meeting with Kennedy administration officials, Soviet officials and Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill.
Todd Gitlin, an early Students for a Democratic Society leader and an organizer of the protest said he was sure the long line of picketers in front of the White House looked good from the President’s window.
The students dressed in regular suits and wore ties. Folk-singing was discouraged by the Turn Toward Peace Student Council, which was one of the more conservative peace groups at the time.
During the picketing police arrested Sp. 4/C Robert E. Greenberg, a uniformed soldier on three-day leave from Fort Knox, Ky. Greenberg laid down on the sidewalk when police asked him to step out of the picketing line because he was in uniform.
Two other participants were also arrested when they tried to photograph Greenberg lying on the sidewalk.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsjDjYsZp
The photographer is unknown. The image is an Associated Press photograph housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.
Students picket calling for ‘peace race’ - 1962
More than 1,000 pickets filed past the White House February 17, 1962 during a student “Peace Race” (instead of arms race).
The “Peace Race” protest exceeded all expectations as more than 4,000 young people rallied, on the Washington Monument grounds while some laid a wreath in Arlington Cemetery.
Police said the protest was the largest White House demonstration since the protests calling for clemency for the Rosenbergs in 1953. The group engaged in lobbying the previous day calling for no resumption of nuclear testing.
Other demands included an end to civil defense, withdrawal of United States missile bases from Europe and for disarmament.
Perennial Socialist Party candidate for President Norman Thomas, 77, spoke to the crowd saying in part, “You will not live to my age…unless you stop the arms race.”
United Auto Workers secretary-treasurer Emil Mazey called for a de-militarized Germany as a step back from the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Howard University civil rights protester Jan Triggs vowed that the peace and civil rights movements would be joined at the hip.
The earlier lobbying effort involved meeting with Kennedy administration officials, Soviet officials and Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill.
Todd Gitlin, an early Students for a Democratic Society leader and an organizer of the protest said he was sure the long line of picketers in front of the White House looked good from the President’s window.
The students dressed in regular suits and wore ties. Folk-singing was discouraged by the Turn Toward Peace Student Council, which was one of the more conservative peace groups at the time.
During the picketing police arrested Sp. 4/C Robert E. Greenberg, a uniformed soldier on three-day leave from Fort Knox, Ky. Greenberg laid down on the sidewalk when police asked him to step out of the picketing line because he was in uniform.
Two other participants were also arrested when they tried to photograph Greenberg lying on the sidewalk.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsjDjYsZp
The photographer is unknown. The image is an Associated Press photograph housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.