26 april 1968 & dcps students rally and march against vietnam
#OTD 26 April 1968 DCPS students participated in a rally and march against the Vietnam War, organized by the local chapter of the National Black Anti-War Anti-Draft Union. The rally began at 10am at Banneker Field (Georgia Ave & Euclid St, NW) and included numerous speakers, including Jan Bailey (25), local Union head, and Joe Miles (19), local Union vice-chair. Represented schools included Eliot JHS, Rabaut JHS, Coolidge HS and Roosevelt HS. Some of the rally posters stated:
"Black Is What's Happening"
"Revolution is the Solution"
"My Body is Not a War Production Machine"
Apparently, the Department of Recreation refused to grant the Union a permit, which clearly did not stop the rally. Police were ever present throughout the day.
After the rally, participants marched down 7th Street, turned right to get on to 9th Street and marched south to reach the Selective Service headquarters (916 G St, NW) in order to speak to the local draft board. The lead poster stated, "Bring Our Black Brothers Home Now. America Is Our Battlefield." There was a return march back to Banneker.
The National Black Anti-War Anti-Draft Union, founded by Gwen Patton in February, also held demonstrations in New York City.
Photo source: Courtesy Jan Bailey. Collection of Marya McQuirter.
"Peace Group Plans Antidraft Strike," Washington Post 20 April 1968.
Paul W. Valentine, "150 Demonstrators March on District Draft Offices," Washington Post 27 April 1968. Includes photos of Bailey and march.
Ashley Farmer, "'Heed the Call!': Black Women, Anti-Imperialism, and Black Anti-War Activism,"
Black Perspectives 3 August 2016.
Simon Hall, author of Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights and Antiwar Movement in the 1960s, quotes from Gerald Gill's dissertation, "Afro-American Opposition to the U.S. Wars: Dissent, Discontent & Disinterest," Howard University, PhD dissertation, 1985, who writes that the NWABADU and 1,000 students marched from a high school to Howard University. I will go to Howard to read the dissertation and report back what I find.
