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Parent Article: Anti-War Float in July 4th Parade |
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Hidden with code "Duplicate post" |
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When the Fourth was not a time for political viewpoints |
by Mink!
mink (nospam) tcp.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
03 Jul 2005
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35 years ago this weekend, Champaign-Urbana was getting ready to
celebrate Independence Day in style.
Saturday, the Fourth of July,
would be marked by the 21st annual Freedom Celebration Parade,
as well as a fireworks display at Memorial Stadium attended by 35,000
area residents.
The day would also be marked with fistfights in the streets and
police intervention.
The theme of the 1970 parade, sponsored as usual by the "Fourth of July
Freedom Celebration, Inc.," was "America - the possible dream."
74 units were scheduled to be in the parade - the traditional "Spirit
of '76" group (thanks to a piccolo player being found at the last hour),
nine units from Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, and 65 other units,
including 21 floats.
Two applications, however, were rejected.
Mrs. Jocelyn Werry and Pam Schmidt, both of Urbana, received letters
from Dale Thuney, committee chairman of the Freedom Celebration,
informing them that their units had been rejected because, in the
20-year history of the parade, "We have not permitted it to be the
vehicle for espousing a particular political view or personality...
The celebratin was founded to sponsor, promote and direct a community-wide
observance and celebration of the anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence on July 4, 1776, in a manner that will emphasize the basic
ideals and principles upon which the United States was founded."
According to Thuney, none of the entries in the parade would be expressing
"any individual's or organization's viewpoint on specific issues."
The "issues" in question were clear. Werry and Schmidt, independently
of each other, had submitted applications on behalf of "Patriots for Peace"
and "Concerned Youth," respectively. "Patriots for Peace" was made up of
members of the "Women's International League for Peace and Freedom."
They planned to have a small group of marchers accompany a float.
Concerned Youth was formed of local high school and college-age people,
and planned to integrate a small anti-war and peace march into the
parade, as a way to show youth that they might have a voice, in an
orderly fashion, in the public discourse.
In response to her rejection, Mrs. Werry said, "It's really sad. People who
say this type of thing really don't know what they're celebrating on July
4th. The Declaration of Independence was not conservative. If we squash
that, we will squash what this country is all about."
Miss Schmidt, meanwhile, remarked that "this is pretty ridiculous when
you think about the bombers and missiles there, and the Air Force people.
That's a demonstration of American power. It's a pro-war thing, really."
Following the article in which their responses ran, the Courier printed
a list of the draft lottery results for 1971 - first to be called would
be men born July 9th, 1951.
Come the afternoon of July 4th, the parade started as planned at the corner
of Green and Coler in Urbana, at 1:05 PM. "Patriots for Peace" and
"Concerned Youth," while forbidden to march as part of the official
Freedom Celebration, had obtained permits to march in front of or
behind the parade, or
stand on the curbs. The groups met "under the nose of an Air Force
Bomarc missile," at the parade staging grounds, where they were informed
that they would be under city, and not Freedom Celebration, authority.
He did however add that from 1PM on, the parade was his, and he "would
not tolerate any interference."
The parade was to follow its usual route - from Green and Coler, west
on Green, south on First, the right on Peabody to the end, with performances
including Chief Illiniwek to follow. The peace marchers chose to have
their own parade in advance of the main Freedom Celebration parade.
It was made clear that the real parade only started with the "Spirit
of '76" musical troupe following.
Thus the peace marchers started out along the route to an audience
of 15,000 people. They carried signs with slogans such as "Isn't
peace appropriate for July 4?" and "End the war and military oppression."
Many of them had brought their children along for the march.
Near Lincoln Avenue the peace contingent was attacked by a group of "well
built, muscular individuals," according to Champaign mayor Virgil Wikoff, who
felt they were attempting to break up the peace marchers. The attackers
left with several headbands and signs that they had stolen from the
marchers. Some observers cheered the marchers while others jeered. The
march continued.
However, at Fourth and Green, the peace marchers were routed north on
Fourth, away from the parade, by a mixture of state and Champaign police.
The crowd cheered. Some of the marchers, however, merely melted into
the crowds lining Green and continued to proceed west, followed
by some angry townspeople.
When this group of peace marchers reached Third Street, some of the angry
observers that had been following the peace marchers challenged them to
a fistfight. Without waiting for the peace contingent to answer, the
hacklers waded in with fists flying as the peace marchers proclaimed their
right to follow the parade.
The protesters stopped at Fourth, meanwhile, asked the police why they had
been shunted off, only to be told by Champaign police Sergeant Bates that
they had no permit, which was in fact incorrect. The police did, however,
protect the peace marchers from the surrounding maddened crowd, for
which they were appreciated.
The peace marchers were finally stopped at First, again by police, where
again they were told that they had no parade permit and no time to get one.
Many children in the peace march, brought by their parents, were wondering
at the policemen's riot gear.
The peace marchers did, however, have a permit to parade in the street -
what they did NOT have was a permit to officially join the Freedom
Celebration parade. Because it got confusing as the route went on,
the police had put squad cars between the peace march and the official
parade. The rules had said, after all, that they can't have political
messages in the Champaign County Freedom Celebration Parade.
(Happily, this rule has been changed, particularly given that
in future years it was made clear that there will be only ONE
Fourth of July parade.)
Meanwhile, a favorite float in the parade (featuring girls in bikinis)
was sponsored by the Champaign County Young Republicans, the missiles
were shown, and quite a few local Democrats managed to ride in the parade
in cars with their names and offices emblazoned on the side. By far
the largest contingent in the parade was from Chanute Air Force Base,
including 600 marching airmen and an actual F-104 jet.
Questioned about the matter, chairman Thuney said, "I regret that we
had problems, but I think the people of this community realize now why I
denied certain groups the right to march in the parade."
Mrs. Werry's answer to that? "I wonder if it will occur to him that the
trouble was caused, not by the peace marchers, but by the townspeople?"
(the above largely paraphrased from the Courier of late June/early July, 1970) |
