Fifty Years Ago - Draft Cards - Protest & Free Speech

Fifty years ago on Nov. 6, 1965, five men stood on a platform and burned their draft cards in front of a crowd of about 1500 people at Union Square in NYC. Peace activists A.J. Muste and Dorothy Day both spoke at the event. Counter demonstrators yelled that the men should burn themselves and not their draft cards. In the first attempt, someone in the crowd shot a fire extinguisher at the flames from the protestor's lighters. The men and others thought it may have been gasoline and stepped back briefly. Regrouping, they relit the pieces of paper that symbolized hundreds of thousands of young men being called upon to fight a war that many questioned.

There were three aspects to the draft card burning at Union Square. One was to protest the war in Vietnam that was becoming increasingly unpopular. The second was to protest the draft itself and the selective service system that was choosing who would fight in that and other wars. The third aspect was to speak up for the First Amendment and protect the right to free speech and protest. Earlier in the year, Congress had passed a law that specifically made it illegal to destroy a draft card. This legislation was a direct result of more and more people speaking out against the war and public demonstrations that included draft card burning. The legislation was meant to stop the protests and intimidate the protestors. In October of '65, David Miller became the first person to publicly challenge the new law and he was quickly arrested and charged. On Nov. 6th, these five men publicly burned their cards in solidarity and in support of Miller. Three received sentences of six months in prison. One wasn't charged due to his age. The last received 2 years probation but was then inducted, refused induction and served two years of a three year sentence in Federal Prison.

There are many today who don't know what draft cards were or what they symbolized. There are those who have no memory of the Selective Service System of that time, the lottery or the draft. Ultimately the draft ended, in no small part because of demonstrations and sacrifices made by many during this period of unrest and protest.

There is much more to the story of these five men and others but I'll leave that for another day.

Tom Cornell, Marc Edelman, Roy Lisker, Dave McReynolds, Jim Wilson, Nov. 6, 1965 at Union Square, NYC