This Day in History

June 15, 1955: Protest of Nuclear Attack Drills

Time Periods: 1945
Themes: Environment, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
Print

On June 15, 1955, when the Civil Defense Administration attempted to hold a drill simulating a nuclear attack, 27 activists in New York refused to take cover. They handed out pamphlets reading:

We will not obey this order to pretend, to evacuate, to hide. In view of the certain knowledge the administration of this country has that there is no defense in atomic warfare, we know this drill to be a military act in a cold war to instill fear, to prepare the collective mind for war. We refuse to cooperate.

. . . we call this a free country and boast of our free education while dismissing those teachers who will not inform on their fellows.

protesters_nuclear_attack_simulation

Dorothy Day (far right, sitting on bench), Deane Mowrer (to her right), Ammon Hennacy (fourth from left), and others seated on a park bench at Washington Square Park, New York City, on July 20, 1956, in protest of the mandatory “Operation Alert” civil defense drill. Police subsequently arrested them. By Robert Lax. Source: Marquette Digital Archives

leaflet_drill_protests

Click to read the entire leaflet.

The activists, including Catholic Worker Dorothy Day were arrested, and started a wave of protests against Operation Alert that culminated in the end of the drills in 1962.

Read more at “Civil Defense Drill Protests: Dorothy Day and Friends Sit In for Peace” from the Marquette University Archives.

Read the Civil Defense Protest leaflet at the Marquette University Archives.

Find related teaching resources below.

Related Resources
Articles

Disguising Imperialism: How Textbooks Get the Cold War Wrong and Dupe Students

Article. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. If We Knew Our History series.
Too often, when it comes to U.S. Cold War interventions, the official curriculum is sanitized and disjointed, leaving students ill-equipped to make sense out of their nation’s global bullying.

 

Articles

More than McCarthyism: The Attack on Activism Students Don’t Learn About from Their Textbooks

Article. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. 2021. If We Knew Our History series.

The history of McCarthyism we teach students should restore the powerful and inspiring stories of the activists and organizations who were its victims.

Coretta Scott King (R) with Women Strike for Peace founder Dagmar Wilson, 1963 | Zinn Education Project
If We Knew Our History

W. E. B. Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb

Article. By Vincent Intondi. If We Knew Our History Series.
Intondi states: “African American leaders have long been concerned with broad issues of peace and justice — and have especially opposed nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, this activism is left out of mainstream corporate-produced history textbooks.”

McCarthy State Dep't | Zinn Education Project
This Day in History

Feb. 9, 1950: Sen. Joseph McCarthy Announces “Enemies Within”

Senator Joseph McCarthy delivered a speech at the McLure Hotel during which he claimed to hold a list of known communists in the U.S. State Department.

This Day in History

Nov. 13, 1953: Call to Ban Robin Hood in Indiana Schools

Mrs. White of the Indiana Textbook Commission called for a ban of Robin Hood in all school books for promoting communism.

This Day in History

Jan. 2, 1962: NBC Bans Weavers for Refusal to Sign Loyalty Oath

The Weavers had their scheduled appearance on the NBC Jack Paar Show cancelled when they refused to sign an oath of political loyalty.

Linus Pauling
This Day in History

April 29, 1962: Paulings Protest Nuclear Testing

Nobel Prize-winner Linus Pauling and Ava Helen Pauling joined a march in front of the White House to protest the resumption of U.S. atmospheric nuclear testing.

This Day in History

Feb. 22, 1974: Sam Lovejoy Topples Nuclear Plant Tower

Sam Lovejoy slipped onto the Montague Plains and sabotaged the 500-foot weather tower Northeast Utilities had erected to test wind direction at the site.