Anti-War Rallies In U.S.

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31346, 17 April 1967, Page 13

Anti-War Rallies In U.S.

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, April 16.

The anti - Vietnam war movement was elated last night in the wake of massive peace rallies in New York and San Francisco which drew about 200,000 demonstrators.

Police estimated that 123,000 turned out for a fivehour march through the heart of New York climaxed by a rally opposite United Nations headquarters. But the organisers, the spring Mobilisation Committee to End the War in Vietnam, estimated that double that number tok part. People were still streaming info United Nations Plaza and the surrounding streets when the speakers, including the civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, had finished addressing the crowd. In San Francisco about 60,000 demonstrators jammed into Kezar Stadium after a five-mile parade. In both cities there were minor skirmishes between “Doves” and “Hawks.”

But there were no reports of serious injuries and the police, out in full force, quickly stepped in to restore order.

Only a handful of arrests were made.

The demonstrators ranged from bare-foot “hippies” and

beatniks, who spearheaded the San Francisco march, to well-dressed matrons and university professors. The marchers, and the banners they carried, had a strong civil rights flavour.

Such figures as Dr. King and the “black power” advocate, Mr Stokely Carmichael, headed the speakers’ list outside the United Nations, along with Dr. Benjamin Spock, the baby-care expert. In San Francisco, Dr. King’s wife was one of those who addressed the rally.

The demonstrators' placards carried such inscriptions as: “No Viet Cong Ever Called Me a Nigger,” “Children Are Not Born to Burn,” and “Stop the Bombing.” A group of 35 Sioux Indians from South Dakota took part in the New York march, and one of them held aloft a sign reading: “Paleface President speaks with forked tongue.” Along the line of the march some eggs, fireworks and a paint-filled milk carton were hurled into the parade, while in San Francisco a group of servicemen booed the parade and onlookers trampled some Viet Cong flags. Some 3000 police were on duty from the New York parade in the biggest security operation of its kind since then-Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Khrushchev, visited the United Nations in 1960.

Dr. King, a Nobel peace prize-winner, also headed a delegation which handed a peace petition to Dr. Ralph Bunche, another American Negro Nobel peace prize-win-

ner, and United Nations Under-Secretary for Special Political Affairs. One tense moment came when hundreds of Negro marchers left the scheduled

parade route and swarmed into Times Square. Some fist fights broke out between them and angry motorists were caught in a traffic jam. •