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A SELECTIVE LIST OF Historic Civil Disobedience Actions here have been 1917 U.S. countless acts of civil WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE Tdisobedience through- Inspired by similar actions in Britain, out history in virtually every Alice Paul and 217 others (including country by people opposed to Dorothy Day) are arrested for picketing oppressive laws, governments, the White House, considered by some to be the first nonviolent civil disobedience corporations, institutions, and campaign in U.S. history; many go on cultures. Below is a listing of hunger strikes while in prison and are just a few notable — because brutally force-fed sheer size or subsequent impact Gandhi during the “Salt March,” at the start of the massive civil disobedience campaign in — and disparate examples India, 1930. Photo via Wikipedia. (mostly in the United States) since Thoreau’s “Civil Disobe- 1936-1937 U.S. dience” essay. In bold are LABOR names of just a few of the Autoworkers (CIO) organized 900 sit- down strikes — including 44-day sit- organizers or participants, down in Flint, MI — to establish the right each of whom could merit a to unionize (UAW), seeking better pay separate study by students. and working conditions Suggragist pickets arrested at the White House, 1917. Photo: Harris & Ewing 1940-1944 India 1846 U.S. INDEPENDENCE / WORLD WAR II WAR / SLAVERY The Quit India campaign led by Gandhi 1918-1919 U.S. Henry David Thoreau refuses to pay defied the British ban on antiwar WORLD WAR I taxes that support the Mexican-American propaganda and sought to fill the jails War and slavery Draft resisters and conscientious objectors (over 60,000 jailed) imprisoned for agitating against the war 1850s-1860s U.S. (Eugene Debs, Evan Thomas, Julius 1940-1945 U.S. SLAVERY Eichel, Ammon Hennacy, Max Sandin) WORLD WAR II Underground railroad leads thousands of Pacifists oppose the war by not 1930-1931 India slaves to freedom; the one run by registering for the draft, refusing INDEPENDENCE Harriet Tubman frees 300 slaves induction, or walking out of camps set Gandhi’s Salt March to the sea initiates a up for COs (Dave Dellinger, Igal 1906-1914 South Africa year-long campaign promoting nonpay- Roodenko, George Houser, Larry HUMAN RIGHTS ment of taxes, sedition, and nonviolent South African campaign for Indian rights overthrow of the government (over 100,000 arrested in what is probably the TOP PHOTO: CNVA protest (Dennis Weeks, organized by Mohandas Gandhi (5,000 Charlotte Keyes pictured) at armory missile display, arrested during the campaign) largest civil disobedience in history) Dec. 1961 (photo by Troy Mayr via Gene Keyes) Gara, Jim Peck, Ralph DiGia, Walter 1958-1962 Pacific Ocean Gormly, Bayard Rustin, Corbett NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING Bishop, Julius Eichel, Evan Sailing of Golden Rule, Phoenix, Thomas, A.J. Muste, Max Sandin) Everyman I, II, III into nuclear test zones (Albert Bigelow, Jim Peck, 1942 Norway Earle Reynolds, Barbara OPPRESSION / WORLD WAR II Reynolds, George Willoughby) About 75 percent of the country’s teachers refuse Quisling’s orders to 1955-1961 U.S. join the Nazi teachers’ union (1,000 NUCLEAR WAR are jailed) Hundreds arrested for refusal to take Police dogs used to against demonstrators in shelter during the annual compulsory Birmingham, AL, 1963. Photo: Bill Hudson/AP. 1943 U.S. air raid drills in NYC and other places SEGREGATION across the U.S. (Dorothy Day, Jim Peck, downtown Birmingham, AL, by filling Imprisoned conscientious objectors A.J. Muste, Ralph DiGia, Bayard the jails resulted in 3,500 arrests during strike to protest segregated dining halls Rustin, Ammon Hennacy, David the 2-month campaign, as well as at Danbury Prison (Ralph DiGia, Jim McReynolds, Eileen Egan) beatings, attacks by police dogs, and fire Peck) hoses (M.L. King, Fred Shuttlesworth) 1957ff U.S. 1947 U.S. NUCLEAR WAR 1964 U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS Trespassing onto military bases (e.g., CIVIL RIGHTS Journey of Reconciliation “freedom ride” Omaha, NE, Cheyenne, WY, Nevada test Organized by the NAACP, sit-ins at auto through the upper South (Jim Peck, site), boarding of Polaris nuclear dealerships in San Francisco to protest Wally Nelson, Igal Roodenko, Bayard submarines, engaging in long distance discrimination led to hundreds of arrests Rustin, Ernest Bromley, George marches organized by Committee for over a two-month period including 226 Houser) Nonviolent Action among other groups in one day (4/11/64) (A.J. Muste, Bradford Lyttle, Marj 1940s-1950s U.S. Swann, Erica Enzer, Karl Meyer) 1964 U.S. WAR FREE SPEECH Refusal to pay for World War II, Korean 1960 U.S. Free Speech Movement occupation of War, and subsequent military spending CIVIL RIGHTS administration building at UC Berkeley, (A.J. Muste, Wally Nelson, Juanita Lunch counter sit-ins beginning in where almost 800 were arrested, at the Nelson, James Otsuka, Maurice Greensboro, NC, spread throughout the time the largest single-day mass civil McCrackin, Ernest Bromley, Marion South, and led to the formation of disobedience in U.S. history (Mario Bromley, Eroseanna Robinson, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Savio) Walter Gormly, Marj Swann, Ammon Committee (3,600 arrests across the Hennacy) country) 1964ff U.S. VIETNAM WAR 1955-1956 U.S. 1961 Britain Draft card burnings (David Miller, Tom CIVIL RIGHTS NUCLEAR WEAPONS Cornell, David McReynolds); first Rosa Parks arrest for refusal to move Direct action against nuclear weapons done in 1947 to protest peace-time draft from the white section of a bus touches was spearheaded by the Committee of off the year-long Montgomery bus 100; 17,000 participated in a sit-down in 1965 U.S. boycott Trafalgar Square, where 1,300 were CIVIL RIGHTS arrested (Bertrand Russell) Selma to Montgomery marches for voting rights result in arrests and 1961 U.S. beatings (M.L. King, James Bevel, CIVIL RIGHTS Hosea Williams) Freedom Rides to desegregate interstate bus travel throughout the South 1960s-70s U.S. resulting in beatings and the arrests of VIETNAM WAR hundreds (Jim Peck, Albert Bigelow, Widespread draft resistance as well as John Lewis) counseling violation of draft laws; estimates of draft resistance range from a 1963 U.S. 500,000 to two million men, 3,000 of CIVIL RIGHTS whom were ultimately jailed (David Southern Christian Leadership Harris, Randy Kehler, Benjamin Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after her 1955 Conference campaign to desegregate Spock, William Sloan Coffin) arrest in Montgomery, AL. Photo: Wide World 2 • HISTORIC CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ACTIONS 1971 U.S. in Colorado (Daniel Ellsberg, Allen VIETNAM WAR Ginsberg) May Day actions were designed to shut down in Washington, DC, by blocking 1979 U.S. traffic and key facilities throughout the NUCLEAR WEAPONS / POWER city (13,500 arrested in the largest civil Wall Street Action during which activists disobedience in U.S. history, including block the streets to the NY Stock Benjamin Spock, Barbara Deming, Exchange (1,045 arrested) Grace Paley, David Dellinger, Ralph DiGia, David McReynolds, Jim Peck) 1980 U.S. WAR / MILITARISM Burning of draft cards in NYC to protest The Pentagon is blockaded by activists Vietnam War, 1965. Photo: Neil Haworth. after a march of 1,500 organized by the Coalition for a Non-Nuclear World (600 1967 U.S. arrested, including Dan Ellsberg, Grace VIETNAM WAR Paley, Jim Peck, Dave Dellinger, Ben Spock, David McReynolds) Stop the Draft Week actions held across the country, with 123 arrests in Oakland, 1980 to present U.S. CA, and 264 in New York (Joan Baez, WAR / MILITARISM Benjamin Spock, Jim Peck, Kay Boyle, David Harris, Randy Kehler, David “Plowshares actions” committed by small groups of mostly Christian activists who McReynolds, Igal Roodenko) Part of 1971 May Day actions in Washington, enter military (and other) installations to DC. Photo: Ed Hedemann. 1967 U.S. damage military hardware, then await VIETNAM WAR arrest; more than 100 such actions 1971 U.S. worldwide (Daniel Berrigan, Phillip Confront the Warmakers action at the VIETNAM WAR Berrigan) Pentagon (683 arrested, including David Release of the “Pentagon Papers” to press Dellinger, Jim Peck) by Daniel Ellsberg 1980 and 1981 U.S. WAR / MILITARISM 1967-1972 U.S. 1976-circa 1982 U.S. VIETNAM WAR Approximately 2,000 women in 1980 and NUCLEAR POWER 3,500 in 1981 surround, blockade, and Destruction of draft board files as well as Nuclear power stations across the stretch yarn across the entrances to the property of war corporations (Phillip country are occupied by demonstrators Pentagon as part of the Women’s Berrigan, Daniel Berrigan) (1,415 arrested at Seabrook, NH, 1977, Pentagon Action (145 and 65 arrested, 1968 U.S. and 1,953 arrested at Diablo Canyon, CA, including Grace Paley) VIETNAM WAR 1981), inspired by similar actions in Europe (Sam Lovejoy) 1981ff Europe / U.S. The Presidio 27 — military prisoners in NUCLEAR WEAPONS San Francisco stockade — protest 1977 South Africa Beginning with Greenham Common in inhuman conditions (charged with REPRESSION Britain, peace encampments — many mutiny and given 2-year sentences) Protests opposing apartheid and the women-only — were established outside Stephen Biko 1968 Czechoslovakia murder of spread from all Euromissile bases as well as in the U.S. REPRESSION Univ. of Fort Hare (more than 1,200 with the intent to disrupt military arrested) exercises and war games Lightening Warsaw Pact invasion undermined by eight months of 1978 U.S. 1982 U.S. spontaneous nonviolent noncooperation NUCLEAR WEAPONS / POWER NUCLEAR WEAPONS and resistance by students and others Sit-in for Survival blockade of the U.S. Blockade the Bombmakers human 1960s-70s U.S. Mission during the first UN Special obstructions at five nuclear missions to VIETNAM WAR Session on Disarmament in NYC (400 the UN during the second Special Session arrests) on Disarmament (1,691 arrested — A half million people participate in largest single-day CD action in NYC telephone and/or income tax refusal to 1978-1979 U.S.
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