Previous Reenactments
Port Huron Project 1: Until the Last Gun Is Silent The first reenactment took place on September 16, 2006 and was based on a speech given by Coretta Scott King at a peace march in Central Park on April 27, 1968, approximately three weeks after her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. The speech, which was based on notes found in Dr. King's pockets, addresses the war in Vietnam, domestic poverty, and the power of women to effect social change. Gina Brown, a New York-based actor and former welfare mother, delivered the speech.
Port Huron Project 2: The Problem Is Civil Obedience
The second event in the series took place on July 14, 2007. It was based on a speech originally delivered by author and activist Howard Zinn at a peace march on Boston Common on May 5, 1971. In this speech, Zinn defended the use of civil disobedience to protest the war in Vietnam and called on Congress to impeach the president and vice president of the United States for the "high crime" of "making war on the peasants of Southeast Asia."
Port Huron Project 3: We Must Name the System
The third reenactment was staged near the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C on July 26, 2007. The original speech was given at the April 17, 1965 March on Washington To End the War in Vietnam by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) President Paul Potter. Potter offered an insightful critique of our government’s use of the rhetoric of freedom to justify war, and calls for citizens of the United States to create a massive social movement to build a “democratic and humane society in which Vietnams are unthinkable.”
Selection criteria for the Port Huron Project include identifying New Left protest speeches, finding transcripts and/or recordings, and determining the locations in which specific speeches were given. Attention is given to speeches that were delivered at protests or demonstrations in public spaces and address issues of peace and social justice.
Read more about this topic: Port Huron Project
Famous quotes containing the word previous:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)