Opposition to War

The organized resistance to the Vietnam War in the 1960s grew directly out of the civil rights movement of the 1950s. Up until the 1950s, America was still a segregated country, in spite of the fact slavery had formally ended in 1865. Southern states had laws, informally referred to as "Jim Crow" laws, that refused blacks equal access to the same public services that whites used, including transportation, housing, and schools. In 1957 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization of black churches and ministers, was formed under the leadership of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to organize protests against racism. The organization welcomed the participation of northern whites, usually college-aged students who volunteered to fight injustice, risking their lives by attending marches and voter registration drives with southern blacks.

Starting in 1965, the SCLC changed its focus to fighting poverty in the North. White participants, including...