The FBI Sets Goals for COINTELPRO
Under Director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) was aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political groups within the United States. In the 1960's, COINTELPRO's targets frequently included civil rights [...]
"I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die-Rag"
In 1959, at the age of seventeen, Joe McDonald joined the Navy. After his discharge three years later, he enrolled in a Los Angeles college where he became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1965, McDonald moved to Berkeley, California just [...]
Vietnam War Protestors Confront M.P.s with Flowers
A Vietnam-era photograph shows a standoff between antiwar protesters and military police. The demonstration, which took place on October 21, 1967, included a march to the Pentagon, where "Yippies" Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin led a mock "exorcism" [...]
1960s Protesters Link to Earlier Black Freedom Struggles
In 1960, four African-American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, began "sitting in" at the local Woolworth store’s lunch counter, which, like virtually all such lunch counters at the time, did not serve black customers. The [...]
Women Protesters Rally at the March on Washington
In this photograph taken at the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, women marchers carry signs supporting a variety of demands.
Flyer Calls for Student Opposition to World War II
American college students in the early 1930s increasingly protested U.S. involvement in the war in Europe. They organized campus strikes around the nation and encouraged students to pledge non-cooperation in any war. This flyer is from the National [...]
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King delivered his first major public statement against the Vietnam War, entitled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence." Addressing a crowd of 3,000 at Riverside Church in New York City, King condemned the war [...]
An Aviation Hero Advocates Isolationism
The interwar peace movement was arguably the largest mass movement of the 1920s and 1930s, a mobilization often overlooked in the wake of the broad popular consensus that ultimately supported the U.S. involvement in World War II. The destruction [...]
Didactic Dramas: Antiwar Plays of the 1930s
The interwar peace movement was arguably the largest mass movement of the 1920s and 1930s, a mobilization often overlooked in the wake of the broad popular consensus that ultimately supported the U.S. involvement in World War II. The destruction [...]
A Student Organizer Recalls an Antiwar Protest
Todd Gitlin was a founding member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which by the late 1960s was the largest radical student organization in the country. Originally concerned with the problem of poverty and racism in the United States, [...]