First Big Anti-Vietnam War March on Washington
Over 25,000 people attended the first national March on Washington to protest the Vietnam War. The size of the turnout surprised even the march organizers, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
The march established SDS as the first important anti-Vietnam War organization.
The Vietnam War created a number of civil liberties crises. They include (1) the lack of a Congressional Declaration of War as required by the Constitution (June 3, 1970); (2) threats to freedom of the press in the Pentagon Papers case (June 30, 1971); (3) spying on the anti-war movement by the CIA (August 15, 1967); (4) threats to freedom of expression, for example high school student protests (February 24, 1969); censorship of television programs (February 25, 1968); and directly and indirectly some of the events that led to the Watergate Scandal (May 9, 1969; January 27, 1972).
“We Must Name the System.” Reenactment of SDS President Paul Potter’s Speech at the march: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi3IBKzicuM
Read about the Anti-War Movement and the media: Todd Gitlin, The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left (1980)
Learn more at the SDS archives: http://www.sds-1960s.org/
Learn more about the history of marching on Washington: Lucy Barber, Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition (2002)