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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, APR 30-MAY 6, 2025  
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_ Deadly and Dangerous, Imperialism Is, Indeed, a Paper Tiger (1975),
Turning Ugly Concrete Pillars Into Things of Beauty (1970), When the
War Came Home, Students Paid the Price (1970), An Anti-Racist
Newspaper Celebrates Its 120th Birthday (1905) _

People's Revolutionary Government tanks outside the headquarters of
the Saigon regime on April 30, 1975,

 

_DEADLY AND DANGEROUS, IMPERIALISM IS, INDEED, A PAPER TIGER_

APRIL 30 IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY of the peoples’ 1975 victory over
the U.S. attempt to subjugate Vietnam. Of all the vicious and
prolonged bloodlettings the U.S. for which the U.S. government has
been responsible, surely the war against Vietnam is one of the worst.

Over 20 long years, in defiance of international law, the U.S. had
been responsible for the death of many hundreds of thousands of
Vietnamese patriots, some killed by starvation, some by air-dropped
high explosives, some by the troops of the U.S. and its allies. At the
same time, hundreds of thousands more were left permanently disabled
by the premeditated U.S. attacks. 

But finally, the government of the world’s richest and most powerful
country had been defeated by the Vietnamese people’s brave
determination to be free.   

The last U.S. helicopter’s departure was like the belated answer to
a 1964 prayer of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “This madness must cease.
. . . I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of
Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes
are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the
poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at
home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the
world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have
taken.”  Visit the link to read all of MLK’s sermon, “A Time to
Break the Silence”
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_TURNING UGLY CONCRETE PILLARS INTO THINGS OF BEAUTY_

MAY 1 IS THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY of the end of a massive, militant and
peaceful sit-in to prevent the construction of a large California
Highway Patrol facility in the middle of Barrio Logan in San Diego,
California. 

The largely Chicano/Chicana neighborhood had already lost the use of
the disputed land for housing when the California Department of
Transportation had taken it over as the location of a massive highway
intersection held up by tall concrete pillars. 

Barrio Logan residents wanted to use the area that surrounded the
pillars for recreational use, not a police station. After hundreds of
people occupied the space continually for more than a week in 1970,
city and state officials agreed that it would be devoted to
recreational use controlled by the community. 

The resulting 8-acre space, which is named Chicano Park, is now home
to the largest collection of outdoor murals in the U.S., plus many
sculptures. The murals cover many thousands of square feet of what was
originally the bare concrete of the highway pillars. To view 93 of the
murals and five sculptures, visit
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_WHEN THE WAR CAME HOME, STUDENTS PAID THE PRICE_

MAY 4 IS THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY of the Kent State University massacre,
during which four unarmed students were killed and nine wounded when
an Ohio National Guard platoon shot them, firing some 67 rounds in 13
seconds. All of the dead were students, either 19 or 20 years old. One
of the wounded was left permanently paralyzed. Two of the dead were
among some 300 students protesting the recent U.S. invasion of
Cambodia; the other two were standing nearby, watching the
demonstration.

Students and critics of the widening U.S. war against Southeast Asia
were galvanized by the Kent State shootings. On the next day the
student body of Brown University went on strike and six thousand
University of Washington students in Seattle occupied the city’s
6-lane Interstate highway, shutting it down. A day after that more
than 80 colleges all over the country, including all 28 campuses of
the University of California and California State College were shut
down for what then-Gov. Ronald Reagan called “a cooling-off
period.” By week’s end more than 450 U.S. colleges had shut down.

Five days later, some hundred thousand people demonstrated against the
war in Washington, D.C., in a protest that had been planned beforehand
but was undoubtedly bigger and more militant than expected as a result
of the shootings.  

One campus that was not shut down after the Kent State shootings was
the historically Black Jackson State University in Jackson,
Mississippi, where, on May 14, two demonstrating students were killed
and 12 wounded when fired on by police.

After both the deadly attacks on campus protests, the President's
Commission on Campus Unrest was established. The Commission concluded
that the wantonness of what it called "the indiscriminate firing of
rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were
unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable" and that “the Kent State
tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded
rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators.”
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_AN ANTI-RACIST NEWSPAPER CELEBRATES ITS 120TH BIRTHDAY_

MAY 5 IS THE 120TH ANNIVERSARY of the founding of the Chicago
Defender, one of the most important and influential anti-racist
newspapers in the U.S. The Defender was published weekly from 1905
until it became a daily in 1956. It returned to weekly publication in
2008, and switched to online-only in 2019. For much more information
about the Defender’s history and influence, visit
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For more People's History, visit
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* Vietnam War
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* People's Art
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* Kent State
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* Chicago Defender
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