Creating Mayhem

"The aim of Mayday actions is to raise the social cost of the war to a level unacceptable to America's rulers," recorded the Mayday Tribe in their tactical manual. This would take some organizing… (below: protest poster)

Mayday Tribe To Do List:
· Coordinate with the National Peace Action Coalition and agree to sponsor acts of civil disobedience from April 24th, 1971 through the first week of May
· Establish plans to block entry points in to the heart of Washington, DC thereby preventing federal employees from getting to work. Shut down the government!
· Form “affinity groups,” of 6-7 people to act together and create mayhem on May 3, 1971
The anti-war protesters were organized, and they should have been. Protests against the Vietnam War occurred annually since 1963. The call to descend on the District in April was largely successful; over 200,000 showed up. There were performances with John Denver and Pete Seger. In May, a smaller group remained in DC. This group was different; the Mayday Tribe was a more militant faction willing to create chaos by force, but this time the Police and National Guard were ready. They too, had had nearly a decade of riot experience.

Law Enforcement To Do list:
· Infiltrate groups with undercover police agents to learn of protest plans
· Go to the courts to determine what minimum requirements are needed to make mass arrests. Establish how many people an officer can arrest in one day and still remember the details
· Create fill-in-the-blank arrest forms
· Supply paddywagons with Polaroid cameras to help officers recall arrestees and events
· Use new kind of handcuff, called a “flexicuff,” pre-marked with the arresting officer’s badge number
· On day before protest, evacuate 30,000 protesters camped in West Potomac Park, citing raging drug use. Use tear gas if necessary.

Madness ensued on May 3rd. 20,000 thousand protestors, many decked out in army fatigues, took the streets early, blocking key intersections from Dupont Circle to the Tidal Basin Bridge. At the Memorial Bridge they blocked entry using bike racks and other barricades. In Georgetown, one affinity group commandeered a pickup truck, by releasing the parking brake and riding it down hill on M Street eventually parking it in the middle of an intersection. 1,400 members of the DC National Guard mobilized, reinforces with 4,000 army soldiers. Using helicopters to monitor the protests, law enforcement tracked the movement of the mobs. By the end of the day over 7,000 individuals had been arrested. Police began ignoring the arrest forms and simply sticking anyone who looked like a protester into vans. When local precinct jails filled to capacity, the police held arrestees at RFK stadium. Despite the chaos, the federal government did not shut down.

Fall-out from the event is interesting. The Mayday Protest marked the last major anti-war protest as well as the largest mass arrest in DC History. Beginning that year, the Nixon administration began the first withdraw of troops. The public attitude toward the protest was mixed. Many condemned its violence as anti-American, while others saw the arrests a breach of first amendment rights. The mass arrests triggered several court cases regarding false arrest and infringement of free speech and assembly. The last case was settled ten years later, and resulted in the government paying protesters between $750 to $2500 for false arrest and violations of the first amendment.

Sources: Lucy G. Barber, Marching on Washington.

Jeff Leen, “The Vietnam Protests: When Worlds Collided,” The Washington Post (September 27, 1999), Page A1.

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He was a young artist on the rise; Dying Hercules and Judgment of Jupiter were already considered masterpieces by the British public. His paintings embodied Americanism—the rise of common man over the aristocracy. He was an admirer and friend of James Fenimore Cooper, whose The Last of the Mohicans proved to the world the value of American culture. If he could be a success in London, he could certainly reach equally great heights in America. Deciding in 1815 that he had studied in Britain long enough, he returned home to the United States. His talents brought him to Washington, DC to paint the official portrait of President James Monroe. John Quincy Adams and the Marquis de Lafayette also sat for him.

And now, Congress was expanding the Capitol. Murals would be needed to cover the halls and rotunda. Congress was calling on artists to submit designs depicting the young nation and democracy. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, and he desperately needed this accolade. Economic recession had slowed his commissions. When he submitted his design, Samuel F.B. Morse was confident that the commission would be his. To prepare for the Capitol project, Morse sailed to Europe in 1829 to improve his skill.

In 1832, Morse learnt that he had lost the Capitol commission. Dreams shattered, he gave up on a career as an artist. Broke, he returned to America to take up a position as a professor at New York University. But fortune smiled upon him, for it was on the boat home that he met Dr. Charles T. Jackson, who introduced him Michael Faraday’s theories of electrical current. Always intrigued by science and invention (he was an early fan of photography), Morse studied electromagnetism and designed his first telegraph machine.

His new machine needed funding. In New York he found the financial backing of entrepreneur Alfred Vail, who assisted Morse in improving the telegraph design so that it was smaller, sleeker, and had a button for typing dots and dashes. It was this version that received a patent in 1840. In 1842 it was time to test the range of the electrical current. Morse and Vail set up a wire from Governor’s Island and Manhattan (a two mile range), but the test failed when a boat sailed in to the wire, snapping it.

Persistent, Morse returned to Washington, DC submitting a bill requesting $30,000 to run a telegraph line from the Supreme Court Chamber in Washington to the B & O Rail Station in Baltimore. Congress stalled on the bill for over a year. Just as a once again defeated Morse was about to leave town, he heard news that the bill had passed! The 38 mile experimental line was completed in 1844. On May 24, 1844 (as of today that’s 164 years and 11 months ago) Morse officially opened the line for communication. Sitting in the old Supreme Court Chamber, Morse typed out his famous first message, “What Hath God Wrought!” The message was received in the B& O Rail Station, but no one paid much attention. In fact, Samuel Morse had to write his own newspaper article proclaiming its success, “The Electric Telegraph Triumphant.”

It wasn’t until three days later when Morse sent news of James K. Polk’s presidential nomination from a deadlocked Democratic Convention in Baltimore across the wire to the Capitol that the nation finally took notice. The journalists and public were astounded! The ability to transfer information within minutes had just rendered the postal service obsolete! Ok, well maybe that last part is an exaggeration as we still continued to use snail mail, but the telegraph had changed the speed at which Americans lived their lives. “3 cheers have been given here for Polk and 3 for the Telegraph!” was the message of the day, and the rest is history!

Note: Morse asked a US Patent Commissioner’s daughter Annie Ellsworth to compose the first message. To find out the source of “What Hath God Wrought!” translate the blog title. Or, cheat and look it up on Wikipedia.

Source: Kenneth Silverman, Lightning Man.
Thomas Streissguth, Communications: Sending the Message.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUMUEL MORSE! April 27, 1791! You don't look a day older!