Student Mobilization Committee Broadside Calling for Troop Withdrawal and Mass Protest After Kent and Jackson State Killings

1969. Student Mobilization Committee (issuer), antiwar broadside, 1970, documenting student-led protest organizing against the Vietnam War and domestic state violence. The broadside advocates grassroots political mobilization, revealing how activist networks coordinated mass demonstrations through printed messaging, and providing primary-source evidence for the study of antiwar movements and student activism during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The broadside explicitly links U.S. military actions in Southeast Asia with violence against student protesters at home, demonstrating how organizers framed war, policing, and state authority as interconnected systems.
Student Mobilization Committee. "Vietnam, Cambodia, Kent, Augusta, Jackson... U.S. TROOPS out of S.E. Asia... off the campuses!" New York: SMC, [1970]. Broadside announcing a mass demonstration scheduled for May 30 (Memorial Day), beginning on Fifth Avenue and concluding in Central Park's Sheep Meadow. The design is typographically driven, presenting bold, declarative text emphasizing locations of conflict and protest, including references to Kent State and Jackson State. The text calls for the "immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from S.E. Asia" and urges student participation in coordinated protest action. Layout prioritizes legibility and urgency, with stacked place names and slogans functioning as both informational and rhetorical elements.

Issued in the immediate aftermath of the Kent State and Jackson State killings in May 1970, the broadside reflects a period of intensified student protest and national unrest. The inclusion of both Southeast Asian and domestic sites situates the document within a broader activist framework that connected foreign policy with civil liberties and state violence in the United States. As a piece of protest ephemera, it demonstrates how organizations mobilized large-scale participation through print distribution and public demonstration planning. Light wear consistent with handling; overall very good condition. A concise and direct example of antiwar protest communication during a pivotal moment in U.S. political activism.