Demonstrations as Narrative
Images of demonstrations
All we have of the huge Gulf War demonstrations of 1991 are our happy memories.
In San Francisco there were two which were enormous. January 19, 1991 brought out
about 150,000. One week later, January 26, had been building for three months, with
church congregations from Montana arriving in busloads. The official count was
250,000, but all the hyperbolic cliches seemed inadequate: seas of people, oceans
of humanity. We filled Market Street from sidewalk to sidewalk, maybe 50 abreast,
from Justin Herman Plaza to the Civic Center. The Civic Center was full, Market
Street was full, and there were still buses unloading. None of us brought our cameras.
This time we're marching with compact digital still cameras that fit in our pockets.
We're snapping images that appeal to us: the size of the crowd, the spirit of the
event, friends, clever signs or banners. This is entirely subjective: just a sense
of what caught our eyes. If nothing else, it's proof there's a vibrant and growing
antiwar movement.
Click the image to display more shots from each event.
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2/15/03, Atlanta, GA.
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1/18/03, Civic Center, San Francisco.
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10/26/02, Civic Center, San Francisco.
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10/6/02, Union Square, San Francisco.
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4/20/02, March and Rally, San Francisco.
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10/20/01, Civic Center, San Francisco.
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9/29/01, Dolores Park, San Francisco.
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More Information
- Ted's blog
- The Crowd in History: A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730-1848, Rudé
- Out Now! A Participant's Account of the Movement in the U.S. Against the Vietnam War, Halstead
- The Spitting Image, Lembcke
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