Civil Rights Movement

The protests against the war and the draft had programs with speeches, music and were often called teach-ins. They reached out to mobilize more people into the peace movement. These often lasted all day and were called moratoriums.

Early African American protests against the war in Vietnam became a major foundation of the peace movement. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became one of the most recognized opponents of the war.

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Edward R. Roybal, seen at left with Robert F. Kennedy. Circa 1965. © Roybal Foundation

By the mid-1960s progressive Congressmen Ed Royal and George Brown, who represented the largest community of Mexican Americans in the nation were strong opponents of the Vietnam War.

During the 1960s Mexican Americans were organizing major grassroots social justice struggles. They had high levels of poverty, lower levels of education, faced racial and cultural discrimination. They were the youngest population in the country and concentrated in urban inner cities.  Growing numbers of activists called themselves Chicanos.

Civil Rights Movement