Washington, DC and protest

Being the National Capital, Washington, DC is a symbol of the nation, and the National Mall is frequently a place of celebration; such as events held during the Presidential Inauguration; festival, such as the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival or National Book Festival; and protest, ranging from the Bonus Army marchers in the 1920s, the Anti-War protests in the 1960s and 1970s, and of course, many marches on Washington for peace, justice, and civil rights, including the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which is being celebrated this weekend, its 50th anniversary ("50 years later, thousands retrace March on Washington," USA Today).

I collect postcards about Washington, images of either the Federal City as well as the local city (restaurants, landmarks located within neighborhoods, church buildings, etc.), and I am especially interested in the messages that visitors write on the postcards which tells about their impressions of the city.

One of the great things about DC ephemera (and sadly, with the migration of such materials to the Internet they cease to be able to be collected) is that back when people sent postcards and such, they sent them home to friends and relatives, so you can find good stuff all around the country.

I picked up some postcards in Seattle.  Going through them at the shop I set interesting ones  aside for further review.

Suzanne commented on this one, it seemingly being a particularly average "Greetings from Washington" postcard.  She wondered why I wanted to spend money on such a boring card.

But I wasn't interested in the cover image.  It was the message.

The person visiting the city came during a big Anti-War protest, the "Moratorium," and the message comments on how the protest made getting around difficult, that streets were closed, and also full of people.

Some of the other elements I look for in postcards are the postmarks--most are generic "Washington" postmarks, but I've picked up postcards with Takoma Park, Brookland, Terminal Station (Union Station), and Mount Vernon on the Potomac (Mount Vernon, Virginia) postmarks--and the cancellation message, which on occasion may be interesting.

This particular postcard was sent by a health care professional to someone that she worked with, addressed to a specific medical ward at the hospital.  She had come to DC for a conference.

Maybe this is some of what she saw. 

Caption: With the U.S. Capitol in the background, demonstrators march along Pennsylvania Avenue in an anti-Vietnam War protest in Washington, on Moratorium Day, November 15, 1969.  From: an AP file photo reprinted in a North Jersey Herald history feature on events in the year 1969.