Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

the crowd into affinity groups by means of large alphabetized letters posted around thereflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial (Herbers 58). There were activists from WSP,SDS, Veterans’ groups, religious organizations, and even self-identified hippie “flowerchildren.” Organized under the letter “F,” these young hippies picked flowers from thepublic gardens, slept during the speeches, and discussed the “uptight” people at thePentagon they would convert to peace by shouting “love” at the Pentagon windows(Wilson, “Pentagon” A1; Kenworthy 1).Although the mass of participants was larger than Mobe’s 1965 march, it was asmaller crowd than the recent 16 April, 1967, demonstration in New York City, and itwas also less diverse. The “outpouring of the New Left and a wide array of collegestudents” was fairly young and fairly white (Herbers 58; Loftus 58). It is likely that thethreats of civil disobedience kept many older activists away. And only about 35,000 ofthe original 55,000 stayed after the rally to march on the Pentagon (Franklin 1). Rubin’sidea of shutting down Pentagon activities, while appealing to the young and the mostradical, perhaps alienated the more moderate in the peace movement. Nevertheless, agenial “picnic” atmosphere prevailed (Loftus 58). Despite a brief skirmish when severaldozen members of the American Nazi Party tried to attack the lecterns and microphones,the rally progressed peacefully. 33 The demonstrators didn’t seem to mind too much thatthe speeches ran 45 minutes longer than anticipated, and that, due to the size of thecrowd, it took over three hours for the entire March to make it to the Pentagon parkinglot.33 They were quickly arrested and removed from the scene (Loftus 58).59