What do Joan Baez, Dorothy Day and A.J. Muste Have in Common?

Air raid drill protest

They all resisted the propaganda campaign waged by the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) to prepare for a nuclear attack by participating in compulsory air raid drills. These drills had school children hiding under desks when teachers gave the command, had people building bomb shelters in their backyards, and in general created a climate of hysterical unreality with regard to what would happen should nuclear weapons be used.

In 1958, while at Palo Alto High School Joan Baez refused to leave her high school during a drill. She told the Palo Alto Times that: "I don't see any sense in having an air raid drill.  I don't think it's a method of defense.  Our only defense is peace."

In June of 1955, Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker and A.J. Muste (Fellowship of Reconciliation) refused to take shelter in New York City during the first nuclear-age air raid drill. Instead, they (and others) sat on park benches with signs objecting to war and nuclear weapons. Their statement said, in part:  "The kind of public and highly publicized drills...are essentially a part of war preparation.  They accustom people to the idea of war, to acceptance of war as probably inevitable and somehow right if waged in 'defense and retaliation'"...

These actions of refusal to comply with air raid drills were held over a six-year period eventually involving thousands of people. City-wide air raid drills ended in New York City after a protest that resulted in 52 arrests and a picket that surrounded the criminal courts building until 6 pm and was widely covered by the press and television.

Thanks for some information from:  The Power of the People: Active Nonviolence in the United States, New Society Publishers, 1987.