Fr. Nicholas Riddle being forced from St. John's Cathedral after he attempted to read a statement against the war in Vietnam at the church. He and 7 others were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, posting bail of $250 each
Fr. Nicholas Riddle being forced from St. John's Cathedral after he attempted to read a statement against the war in Vietnam at the church. He and 7 others were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, posting bail of $250 each
Description:
From a series of photographs of an act of civil disobedience against the war in Vietnam and the draft, led primarily by Catholic pacifists, in which over 10,000 draft files from the Selective Service Center in Milwaukee were burned with homemade napalm. The Selective Service System office in Milwaukee -- located on the second floor of the Brumder Building (now Germania Building) at the intersection of Wells, Plankinton, and North Second Streets -- held the records of nine local draft boards. In a carefully planned campaign, the Fourteen began with a diversionary move on Sunday Sept. 22, when a graduate student, Nicholas Riddell, led a mass take-over of St. John Cathedral during mass, eliciting a massive response that overwhelmed police resources. The raid on the Selective Service office on Sept. 24 took place without police being aware, and the records were hauled to a nearby square and burned near a war veterans' memorial.
