There would be no protests by Black Lives Matter, No Kings, Refuse Fascism or, even, Red Bike Guy, without the 1971 May Day demonstration that won First Amendment rights in Washington, DC.
These were huge protests against the Vietnam War that aimed to shut the capital down. “If the government won’t stop the war, we’ll stop the government.”
The story of this titanic struggle is recounted in Mayday 1971: A White House at War, a Revolt in the Streets, and the Untold History of America’s Biggest Mass Arrest – Nixon’s Response to Vietnam Protests and the Path to Watergate.
The May Day Protest wouldn’t just be a rally on the National Mall. Instead, on Monday, May 3, participants planned to break into small groups and block key intersections around the city to prevent government employees from getting to work (this was years before the Metro). Activists aimed for the bridges into the city as well as Dupont Circle, Scott Circle, K Street and elsewhere.
President Nixon panicked. Much like today, the executive branch interfered with the administration of the city. Police Chief Jerry V. Wilson was ordered by Nixon to crack down on the demonstrators and to use whatever tactics it took to prevent their peaceable assembly.
Demonstrators had a permit from the National Park Service for West Potomac Park. After the demonstrators arrived on Sunday, Wilson revoked the permit and arrested thousands of them.
The protesters were held, without charges, behind barbed wire in an open-air prison outside of RFK Stadium. After Nixon realized that a concentration camp in the nation’s capital was a bad look, they were moved to the Washington Colosseum (now home to REI).
This was an attempt to forestall the protests planned for Monday. Thousands had evaded arrest, however, and that morning, as commuters began to arrive in the city, protesters blocked key intersections. The riot squad again grabbed everyone they could, including reporters, members of the clergy and even tourists. The police also chased and teargassed protesters on college campuses, including Georgetown and George Washington University.
NPR’s All Things Considered covered the protest. It was the very first day of the program which would become a public radio flagship.
Following the police roundup, thousands of people were held incommunicado in the Colosseum, the DC Jail, the courthouse and lockups around the city in appalling conditions.
And with each day, the protests just got bigger, as the mass arrests radicalized people once content just to watch from the sidelines.
The court system was now literally sitting on a problem, as protesters languished in cells under the feet of judges.
Nixon wanted to keep them under arrest, these people who had been scooped up off the streets without charges or arrest information.
Judges saw things differently and, aided by arguments from the newly-formed District of Columbia Public Defender Service, rectified this perversion of justice, setting the prisoners free.
Lessons Learned
The Mayday Protests changed how policing was done in DC. No more could the police just arbitrarily scoop up everyone at a protest. Massive protests in subsequent years would not have been possible without the legal rights won in 1971. DC is a haven for First Amendment activities because of the May Day protests.
Prior to 1971, there were restrictions on the time and place of demonstrations in the nation’s capital. For example, groups were not allowed to gather on the Capitol grounds and there was a limit to the size of protests in Lafayette Park. Judges tossed out these restrictions as unconstitutional.
Nixon learned nothing. During the May Day Protests, he ordered his staff to disrupt the demonstrators, using means fair and foul. The group that did this become the White House Plumbers. Their break-in at the Watergate ultimately doomed his presidency.
The Vietnam War did not end in 1971. Thousands more would die until Nixon signed a peace treaty in 1973, essentially on the same terms demanded by the May Day demonstrators.
The May Day demonstrators could not shut down the government but they could keep the pressure on, to ensure that the war was not forgotten and, in doing so, won First Amendment protections that we enjoy today.
