The National Mall: Protest & Rally Central

The National Mall in Washington DC is the Nation’s protest and event venue.  Over the years, besides Presidential inaugurations, July 4th celebrations, and cultural festivals and events, veterans, anti-war protesters, pro-life/pro-choice, clergy, civil rights activists and people with a cause have all used the Mall as a place to express their points of view in an attempt to sway their government.

The Mall was again mobbed with people this past Saturday, with many wearing American flag clothing, and waving American flags at the Glen Beck “Restoring Honor” rally.  Nearby, the Rev. Al Sharpton “Reclaim the Dream” rally was held on the site of the new Martin Luther King Memorial near the Tidal Basin.

For just a permit fee of $50.00, any organization can host a public gathering, rally or protest, as long as it meets the National Park Service requirements.

The first recorded protest on the National Mall was Coxey’s Army, a group of unemployed workers who marched for  jobs during a US  depression in 1894.   The next major protest was the womens suffragette  movement in 1913 drawing 5,000 women demanding the right to vote.

But not all protests were peaceful.  In 1932, 40,000 World War I veterans and families, as part of the “Bonus Army,” marched on the US Capitol seeking advance payment of bonuses that the military had promised them, but was not due to be paid until 1945.   When their demands were not met,  they then set up a tent city on Anacostia Flats (now Anacostia Park.)  After 10 days, President Hoover order the Army to clear out the vets.   Led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur and General George Patton, combined infantry and cavalry troops, supported by 6 tanks attacked the veteran’s encampment in a now famous drawn-sword cavalry charge while federal employees watched in horror.  By the time the protest ended, 2 protestors and several children were dead.

In 1925, the Ku Klux Klan held a march and rally drawing roughly 35,000 white-robed men, women and children that featured a march down Pennsylvania Avenue.

In 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom drew a quarter of a million people. Led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it’s the rally where he gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech form the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

The period between 1965 and 1973 drew tens or hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters for each of the dozen or more major anti-Vietnam War protests.

Since then, the Equal Rights Amendment, nuclear disarmament, civil rights, gay rights, immigrant rights, pro-choice/pro-life, and other causes have been the theme of major protests on the National Mall.

Images : Beck rally – personal collection – ©2010 – Jon Rochetti, KKK rally - National Archives, 1963 March on Washington – Wikipedia