#onthisday 50 years ago, singer Joan Baez was arrested as part of Stop the Draft Week

Stop the Draft Week, October 1967

Jerry Palmer, VDC

On October 16, 1967, singer Joan Baez was arrested on the first day of Stop the Draft Week protests in Oakland. Baez was among thousands who protested throughout the week against the Vietnam War in Oakland and elsewhere. The protests, organized in part by a group calling itself "The Resistance,"  were among the most significant protests against the war to date and represented a turn in war protests into active resistance, including the burning of draft cards. 

The focus of the Stop the Draft Week in Oakland was the Oakland Army Induction Center and protesters tried to block the entrance of the building via a sit-in. Baez was among those arrested on the first day of protests, which continued throughout the week in Oakland and throughout the country. The efforts culminated in a massive march on the Pentagon on October 21, 1967. 

In Oakland, some of the protests included chaotic and violent interactions with the police, and seven people were arrested.  Video from Baez's arrest can be seen below:

This Wednesday, October 18th, the California Historical Society in partnership with Shaping San Francisco and the Oakland Public Library will look back at the historic Stop the Draft Protests in Oakland and what they meant for the overall anti-war effort. Read more about that event and the speakers HERE.

Read more about the Stop the Draft protests below:

http://48hills.org/2017/09/26/lessons-from-stop-the-draft-week-50-years-ago/

https://hrmediaarchive.estuarypress.com/stop-the-draft-october-1967/

http://www.a3mreunion.org/archive/1967-1968/67-68_anti-draft/stdw/67-68_stdw.html

https://freedomarchives.org/oakland-induction-center/

This Day in History August 29: National Chicano Moratorium

Willie Herron and Gronk, Moratorium—The Black and White Mural, 1973

Courtesy of Nancy Tovar Murals of East Los Angeles Slide Collection

Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles

Forty-six years ago today, a rally to protest the Vietnam War turned deadly. Sponsored by the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, an antiwar activist group, the Chicano Moratorium march in Los Angeles drew up to 30,000 people eager to give their voice to the war’s injustices. Community members, families, artists, and students marched through East Los Angeles from Belvedere Park to what was then called Laguna Park.

During the rally, stores burned, over 100 people were arrested, many were injured, and four people were killed, including the prominent Chicano Los Angeles Times columnist Ruben Salazar.

The moratorium has been considered the largest anti-Vietnam War demonstration by a minority group and the largest demonstration of the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. And while the moratorium resulted in loss of life, it also gave birth to continued expression of Latino political power, including a murals movement that still resonates today.

Below we look at images of the Chicano Moratorium and examples of Chicano murals that were created in its wake.

Sal Castro (Photographer), Chicano Moratorium March, 1970

Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library, Security Pacific National Bank Collection

Sal Castro (Photographer), National Chicano Moratorium, 1970

Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library, Security Pacific National Bank Collection

Rioting Following Chicano Moratorium Committee Antiwar Protest, 1970

Courtesy of Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, Department of Special Collections,

Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA

Guy Goodenow (Photographer), Harbor College Mural, 1973

Courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library, Herald-Examiner Collection

 David Botello’s Dreams of Flight at Estrada Courts, East Los Angeles, 1973–78

Courtesy of UCLA Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o Studies http://publicartla.blogspot.com/2014/07/week-4-estrada-courts_6248.html

El Congresso de Artists Cosmicos de las Americas de San Diego’s We Are Not a Minority at Estrada Courts, East Los Angeles, 1978

Courtesy of Los Angeles Conservancy; photo by Adrian Scott Fine

Shelly Kale

Publications and Strategic Initiatives Manager

skale@calhist.org

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Together with LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in Los Angeles, the California Historical Society is developing an exhibition and related publication about contested Chicano Murals, part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA project sponsored by the Getty and Bank of America.

September 4, 2017 - January 29, 2018

¡Murales Rebeldes!: Contested Chicana/o Public Art

LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
501 North Main Street
Los Angeles, California

Looking to 1968 to understand tragedy in 2016

Robert Kennedy campaigning in Los Angeles, courtesy of the Austin American-Statesman.

Like many people and organizations around the country, we at CHS have been grappling with heartbreak  and complex emotions resulting from last week’s tragic deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana, Philando Castile in Minnesota, and police officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael Smith, Brent Thompson, and Patrick Zamarripa in Texas. Our headquarters is located in San Francisco, where issues related to race and policing continue to divide our community.

In these challenging times, when current events are so vivid and tense, we seek out historians, writers, and thinkers to help us understand the connection between past and current events. Here are some recent articles and exhibitions that have helped us understand the historic antecedents to last week’s horrific events. See, as we do, some glimpse of how leaders from yesteryear have healed some wounds, made some measures of progress, and lived the change they wished to see in America:

•  Jeff Gua, “In an era of Black Lives Matter protests, history offers a powerful lesson,” Washington Post, July 10, 2016
• Larry Tye, “Will America listen now like it did in 1968?”, Austin American-Statesman, July 12, 2016
• 1968, the Exhibition
• Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism From The Bay Area
• Maurice Isserman, “Commentary: Believe it or not, 1968 was worse,” Reuters, July 12, 2016
• Libby Nelson, “’We’ve progressed and I don’t see it stopping’: why 1968 was still much worse than 2016:, Vox, July 10, 2016
• David Graham, “The Second Amendment's Second-Class Citizens”, the Atlantic, July 7, 2016
• Amy Goodman and Gerald Horn "Historian: 'You Can't Disconnect History of the 2nd Amendment From the History of White Supremacy' via Democracy Now!, July 12, 2016.

One common thread in recent writing is a reference to 1968, a year—like 2016—marked by political turmoil, civil protest, war, and fatal high-profile shootings. In 1968 we saw the Tet Offensive stoke the Vietnam War, students killed at Civil Rights demonstrations in South Carolina, the rise of Afrocentrism and of Black Power movements in California and across the country, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis and Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles, massive protests at the Democratic Party Convection in Chicago, the passage of sweeping gun control legislation, and the election of Californian Richard Nixon to the presidency.

It is not surprising that California is one of the major sites of these movements and events, and home to many of the people who carry them out. The history of our state is replete with stories of tragedy, harm, but also perseverance, and innovation,

Months ago, when we learned of Larry Tye’s new book “Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon” we invited him out to San Francisco for a talk and Q&A with our members. RFK was killed in Los Angeles, cutting short his life and his promising President campaign. At the time, we had no idea how relevant Tye’s work would be to current events.   The event is planned for August 12. We’ll be there, looking to learn more about 1968, and trying to better understand the events of 2016. We hope you’ll join us.