23 amateur photographs of the May 3, 1960 anti-nuclear demonstration at City Hall Park, New York City.
[CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE - ANTI-NUCLEAR DEMONSTRATIONS] Unidentified Photographer. 23 Amateur Photographs of the May 3, 1960 Anti-Nuclear Demonstration at City Hall Park, New York City.
[NY: 1960]: ... Twenty-three vintage photographic prints on Kodak "Velox" paper; each ca. 3-1/2" x 4 -1/4", images within narrow borders. In hand-lettered storage envelope, marked: "Prints of photos taken at Air Raid Protest Meeting May 3 1960. City Hall N.Y." Photographer and provenance unknown.
Rare amateur photo-documentation of one of the first large-scale anti-nuclear demonstrations in the United States, organized to protest "Operation Alert." a system of compulsory air-raid drills that had been initiated by the U.S. Civil Defense Agency in 1954. The demonstration was of particular significance in that it was organized by two previously non-political New York housewives, Janice Smith and Mary Sharmat. marking an early entry of independent women into the world of Sixties political radicalism. A lengthy and detailed chapter on the May 3rd demonstration is included in historian Dee Garrison's Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked (NY:2006).
These images, all candid snapshots, show a sizeable crowd of protesters assembled at City Hall Park, among them several identifiable figures: Ammon Hennacy. the anarchist and Catholic Worker stalwart, appears in several images, as does long-time socialist and peace activist AJ. Muste, two photographs appear to picture a young Nat Hentoff, who is known to have been at the rally, a young mother, whom we believe to be either Mary Sharmat or Janice Smith, appears in several photographs with her son. Dozens of other unidentified figures appear, suggesting a fruitful avenue for further research. A fortunate survival from a little-documented but significant event of cold-war civil disobedience.
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