Days of Protest–Days of Rage
Author
Nina Zurier
Decade
1970s
Tags
Activism Antiwar
Clothing
Photography Vietnam
On the roof terrace above the photography studios at SFAI, three students—Josie Grant, Jennifer Mack, and Lee Chapman—posed for Gene Kenney wearing naught but masks of President Richard Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew, and California governor Ronald Reagan. A similar set of masks and the photograph have been preserved in the SFAI archive. The photo session was part of a campuswide protest of the Vietnam War and the draft. Professor Wally Hedrick had canceled his classes at SFAI, telling students to go out and protest the war. Posters in the hallways declared: “Days of Protest.”
In the spring of 1970 Josie Grant was finishing her last year of undergraduate studies in painting, and working evenings as a seamstress and dresser for the San Francisco production of Hair at the Curran Theater. On May 4, four Kent State University students were killed and nine were injured when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam War. In response, student-led strikes forced the temporary closure of colleges and universities across the country, including SFAI. The Hair “tribe” performed at a rally at Stanford.
NZ
Josie Grant's mural website
NZ
Links
Josie Grant's mural website
Secondary Connections
