Draft:Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice

In September 1974 the U.S. war in Vietnam was nearing an end after having dominated the programs of U.S. peace groups for more than a decade. A new focus was in order, so the WRL set up a task force during that fall to explore several anti-militarism/disarmament project ideas.^[3][4]

In January 1975 the task force decided on a project it initially called The Continental Walk, to be composed of consecutive walks from community to community resulting in one long walk across the United States. The political focus of this Walk was on disarmament and a redistribution of tax money to underfunded social programs. The next month WRL's Executive Committee endorsed the Walk and began the process of reaching out to other organizations to co-sponsor. More than twenty national organizations signed on as well as a half dozen international organizations increasing participation and helping to finalize the text of the outreach flyer.

The Walk was inspired, in part, by the 1961 San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace 15 years earlier,^[5][6] although planners for the 1976 walk expected it to be made up of coordinated relays across the country rather than one set of walkers crossing the entire country. The walk got some publicity even before it began when a statement from Rep. Larry McDonald (D-GA) was printed in the December 1975 Congressional Record , "The call for the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice — the word 'social' was recently added lest the public mistakenly conclude that these activists were concerned with equal justice under law rather than with Marx's plan for 'social justice' in a 'classless' Communist society — initiated with the War Resisters League" (p. 38047).^[7] However, this was followed a few months later by Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK), who said "I am pleased to add my own name as a supporter of the Continental Walk" and entered the entire call for The Walk into the Congressional Record. (p. 7134).^[8]

Interest in joining the walk grew over the months of planning, and in December 1975 the Japan Buddha Sangha (Nipponzan-Myōhōji-Daisanga) offered to send peace monks from Japan for each of the three main routes^[9][10] On January 23, 1976, one hundred people in the small northern California town of Ukiah took the first steps of the Continental Walk headed 120 miles south to San Francisco and the official walk sendoff.^[11]

San Francisco to Washington DC. Several days of promotional activities in the Bay Area preceded the sendoff, including a concert with folksinger Malvina Reynolds; an Evening of Women's Culture, including Holly Near and attended by 400; and a January 29th rally in Berkeley's Sproul Plaza, which attracted 800 people. Following that rally about 300 people marched along Telegraph Avenue towards San Francisco. The next day 50 walkers crossed the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco.^[12] On January 31, 1976, the official sendoff rally featured Daniel Ellsberg, Ralph Abernathy, Dick Gregory, among other speakers, followed by 1,000 people walking most of the nine miles to Daly City on the first leg of the 9-month 3,700-mile journey to Washington, DC.^[13]

New Orleans to Washington DC. In December 1975 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference agreed to organize a major branch of The Continental Walk through the Deep South emphasizing issues of day-to-day survival, decent housing, full employment, adequate health care, stopping police brutality, among many other social issues.

That route began at Dillard University in New Orleans on April 5th, the day after the eighth anniversary observances of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination and passed through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia before reaching Washington, DC, seven months later.

The relays of mostly Black walkers on the southern route came from local schools and communities, but were often subjected to racist taunts by white citizens, jailings by the police^[14] who objected to protest walks through "their" downtowns, and physical violence. However, they remained unintimidated and also received a lot of support not only in Black communities but also areas not dominated by the KKK.^{[15][16][17][18]}

Boston to Washington DC. The third main route of The Continental Walk left Boston on August 7th following a sendoff the night before attended by 200 people at Faneuil Hall that featured Daniel Ellsberg, Cambridge City Councilor Saundra Graham, and Charlie King (folk singer). One hundred walkers started from Boston with six walking the entire 500 miles to DC. They were joined by many others on six feeder walks as they passed through the largest population centers in the country. They also made stops to protest and leaflet at nuclear power plants, military bases and recruitment centers, and the United Nations as the walk passed through New York City. At public places such as shopping centers, parks, libraries, and schools they stopped to talk with citizens, pass out flyers, and collect signatures on petitions for the particular disarmament and social justice issues local groups were dealing with.^[19][20][21]

‘’’Feeder Routes.’’’ Nineteen other routes fed into the three main routes (most walking, a few driving): Canada/U.S. border to Ukiah CA; Spokane WA to Portland OR; Ukiah CA to San Francisco; Concord CA to San Francisco; Mexico/U.S. border to San Diego; San Diego to Riverside; Boulder/Denver to Los Alamos NM; Santa Fe to Albuquerque; Lincoln NB to Bloomington IL; Stillwater/Minneapolis MN to Chicago; Muncie IN to Ft. Wayne IN; Syracuse NY to Niagara NY; Canada/Niagara NY border to Cleveland; Oak Ridge TN to Fredericksburg VA; Worcester MA to Boston; Brattleboro VT to New Haven CT; Saratoga NY to New York City; Stony Brook NY to New York City; Bethlehem PA to Philadelphia; and Harrisburg PA to Baltimore. Also, there were three unconnected routes: Glen Rose to Dallas in Texas, Evansville to Bloomington in Indiana, and Pearl Harbor to Waikele in Hawaii.^[2]

On October 16, 1976, hundreds of people — accompanied by signs, banners, puppets, flags, musical instruments — crossed the Washington, DC, border from three directions to converge on the Lincoln Memorial. Walkers from the Southern route carried the "Trident Monster" — 408 black streamers, one for each nuclear warhead carried by every Trident submarine, and held aloft by bamboo poles. The Powder Horn Puppet Theater’s herd of "bison," puppet of the Mississippi River, and bird man on 6-foot stilts joined the San Francisco route as it passed by the White House.^[22] Boston walkers included the Bread and Puppet Theater with specters of death representing the military and a soft music band, a herd of "horses," flower banners, sun, stars, flowing white birds held aloft on 25-foot poles representing a peaceful world.

The Japan Buddha Sanga monks continued their solemn beating of drums and were joined by more representatives of the Japanese peace movement, who traveled to DC for the final three days of walk events.

For the final convergence on October 16 walkers and supporters gathered at the Sylvan Theater on the National Mall for a rally with speakers, including Dick Gregory, Grace Paley, Ralph Abernathy, Daniel Ellsberg, Sidney Lens, Barbara Ehrenreich, David Dellinger, David McReynolds, Sam Lovejoy, and entertainers, including Rev. Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick and Charlie King (folk singer).^{[23][24][25][26]}

Activities the next day gave walkers time to slow down and rest. There was a political film festival, an ecumenical service, a day-long a peace and justice fair, and a final planning session for the march and Pentagon action the next day.^[27]

The Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice culminated on October 18, 1976 with a march from the Lincoln Memorial, across the Memorial Bridge, past Arlington Cemetery, and to the Pentagon. About 700 marchers filed onto the grassy ceremonial area at the River Entrance of the Pentagon for a few speeches, and then about 100 people headed toward the steps of the Pentagon carrying mock coffins, a full-scale model of "Little Boy," the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, and the Declaration of Nonviolence as Charlie King sang "Gonna Lay Down My Coffins and Bombs, Down by the Pentagon." Quickly about 30 police in riot gear with yard-long night sticks ran to block the entrance to the Pentagon and arrested 54 people, including Daniel Ellsberg, on the charges of "blocking an entrance or roadway" and "not following official directions."^[28][29][30]

The remaining marchers headed back to DC unfurling banners and releasing balloons announcing a renewed procession of life. They continued to call for redirecting spending priorities and stopped by the Department of Health Education and Welfare, Housing and Urban Development, and the White House where delegations met with officials at each location.

President Gerald Ford took exception to this message the next day and denounced those calling for the slashing of military spending to meet domestic needs.^[31]

Addendum: In November 1976 those arrested at the Pentagon went on trial in Arlington, Virginia, which provided another opportunity to repeat the original demands of the walk. Months later they learned they had been convicted, given suspended fines and unsupervised probation for six months.^[32]

Ralph Abernathy, Bella Abzug, Robert Alperin, Michael Anania, Joan Baez, Richard Barnet, Norma Becker, Harry Belafonte, Anne Bennett, Dan Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Albert Bigelow, Robert Bly, Julian Bond, Kay Boyle, Harry Boyte, Anne Braden, Millen Brand, David Brower, Robert McAfee Brown, Stephen Cary, Joseph Chaikin, Cesar Chavez, Noam Chomsky, William Sloan Coffin, Dorothy Day, Karen DeCrow, Dave Dellinger, Ron Dellums, James W. Douglass, Shelley Douglass, Martin Duberman, Daniel Ellsberg, Barbara Ehrenreich, Don Edwards, Richard Falk, Sissy Farenthold, Mimi Farina, Jules Feiffer, Wilbur Hugh Ferry, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jim Forest, Howard Frazier, Larry Gara, Nicola Geiger, Freda Gibbons, Allen Ginsberg, Sen. Mike Gravel, Dick Gregory, Ed Guinan, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Mike Harrington, David Harris, James Haughton (activist), Tom Hayden, Dorothy Healey, Nat Hentoff, Donald Kalish, Ying Lee Kelley, Fay Honey Knopp, Maggie Kuhn, Douglas LaFollette, Corliss Lamont, Bernard Lee, Shirley Lens, Sidney Lens, Walter Lowenfels, Bradford Lyttle, Dwight Macdonald, Paul Mayer, Elizabeth McAlister, David McReynolds, Stewart Meacham, Seymour Melman, Eve Merriam, Joe Miller, Parren Mitchell, Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., Holly Near, Grace Paley, Rosa Parks, James Peck, Sidney Peck, Charles Rangel, Marcus Raskin, Brewster Rhoads, Muriel Rukeyser, Ed Sanders, Martin Sostre, Benjamin Spock, Archbishop Robert Sanchez, Dorothy Steffens, Gloria Steinem, I.F. Stone, Paul Sweezey, John Swomley, Ethel Taylor, Studs Terkel, Ruth MacLennan Uphaus, Willard Uphaus, Rt. Rev. Richard M. Trelease Jr., Reis Lopez Tijerina, Pete Seeger, Jean-Claude van Itallie, George Wald, Arthur Waskow, Cora Weiss, Beverly Woodward, Margaret Wright (American politician), Peter Yarrow, Andrew Young, Ronald N. Young, Frank Zeidler, Carl Zietlow, Irma Zigas