Early anti-war marches gained media attention only through police violence

Evidence

Save for Jonas Mekas, who documented several General Strike marches as well as leafleteers in Times Square (the marquee for Judgement at Nuremberg in the background), and the young painter Ben Morea, politicized by participating as an associate of the Living Theatre, the marches attracted little attention. However, a Saturday, March 3 demonstration organized by the Women’s Strike for Peace protesting Kennedy’s decision to resume atmospheric nuclear testing became front-page news when a man collapsed midway through a half-hour silent vigil. As the Tactical Police dragged him off, a dozen marchers staged a sit-in, prompting additional police activity. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 367

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A single viral image of police brutality converted ordinary citizens into protesters — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 335; Protest movement leaders simultaneously shielded attacked police and blamed the state for violence. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 377; Journalists being caught in police violence shapes how protest history gets written — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 38