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Tuesday, March 24, 2015

TEACH IN AT ANN ARBOR

FIRST VIETNAM WAR TEACH-IN PROTEST HELD 50 YEARS AGO

Ann Arbor, Michigan (JFK+50) The first Teach-In protest of the Vietnam War was held a half-century ago this evening, March 24, 1965, at the University of Michigan here in Ann Arbor.  

The Teach-In, attended by 3500 students and 200 faculty members with the support of the university administration, was sponsored by Students for a Democratic Society and included lectures, debates and music.  It was the largest demonstration ever held at the University of Michigan.

The main speakers were Robert S. Browne* of Farleigh Dickinson University (NJ), John Donahue of Michigan State University, and Arthur Waskow of the Institute for Policy Studies.

In his address, Dr. Waskow said:

"We have not yet learned that the political freedom of the Vietnamese people cannot be advanced by a military policy that relies on burning villages with napalm and torturing the villagers for information."

*Robert S. Browne (1925-2004) was born in Chicago and earned his MBA at the University of Chicago, studied at the London School of Economics and earned his PhD at City University of New York.

A strong voice in both Vietnam War protest and the civil rights movement, Dr. Browne founded the Black Economic Research Center in 1969 & served as director until 1980.  RSB retired in 1993.

**Arthur Waskow, born in Baltimore, MD in 1933, became an American author, political activist and rabbi.  He graduated from Johns Hopkins University and earned a PhD in American History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

AW was a legislative assistant and Senior Fellow at the Peace Research Institute from 1961 to 1963.



Reb Arthur Waskow
Upload by Magnus Manske
July 7, 2007
CC BY 2.0




ELVIS INDUCTED INTO THE ARMY

Memphis, Tennessee (JFK+50) Elvis Presley, along with his parents, left Graceland 57 years ago today, March 24, 1958, to report to the United States Army Induction Center here in downtown Memphis.

Mrs. Presley later would be diagnosed with hepatitis and hospitalized.  She died on August 16, 1958 just 4 weeks after Elvis left for Germany.