1971 May Day Protests - Aftermath

Aftermath

Conspiracy charges against May Day tribe leaders were dismissed. Out of the 12,000 demonstrators arrested most were released without charges and 79 were eventually convicted. The ACLU pursued a class action suit brought by thousands of detained protesters and ultimately the US Congress, recognizing the illegal nature of the arrests, agreed to pay a settlement to those arrested, making them some of the only citizens in US history to receive financial compensation for violation of the constitutional right of free assembly.

Richard Helms, who was Central Intelligence Agency director at the time, said "It was obviously viewed by everybody in the administration, particularly with all the arrests and the howling about civil rights and human rights and all the rest of it...as a very damaging kind of event. I don't think there was any doubt about that."