May Day 1971 Was a Day Against War
Fifty years ago today, on May Day 1971, thousands of antiwar protesters descended on Washington, DC, to protest the Vietnam War. The ensuing three days of disruptive actions directly confronted the Nixon administration — and resulted in the largest civil disobedience–related detentions in US history.
Antiwar protestors congregate on the steps of the US Capitol on May Day, 1971. (Stuart Lutz / Gado / Getty Images)
Fifty years ago this month, I watched 1,200 of my fellow antiwar demonstrators get carted off to jail for simply sitting on the back steps of the Capitol and listening to speeches from two House members.
That bust was the last gasp of three days of mass protest activity in Washington, DC, against the Vietnam War. Kicking off on May 1, the May Day actions resulted in the largest number of civil disobedience–related detentions in US history — 12,000 in all, including a record-breaking single-day total of 7,000 on May 3, 1971.
Organizers of the May 1971 antiwar actions had publicly announced their intention to shut down the nation’s capital by blocking its streets, bridges, and buildings. But that plan was thwarted by nearly twenty thousand local, state, and federal police officers, National Guard members, US Marines, paratroopers from the army’s 82nd Airborne Division, and the 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort Meade in Maryland.
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