The local protests for “No Kings Day” on June 14 might go down in Arlington history as one of the biggest one-day demonstrations within Arlington’s borders, if not the biggest. At the very least, the 5.2-mile human chain down Langston Boulevard could possibly claim the honor of the best-organized. 

It is of course too early to judge the effectiveness of “No Kings Day,” but the recent public demonstrations call to mind the local history of “carrying signs” of protest. What were the topics of protest? Where were demonstrations held? Who were the organizers?  

We certainly have had many citizens crossing the Potomac River to take part in protests, dating back at least as far as the suffragist fight for voting rights over 100 years ago. One of our most remarkable citizens was Mary Morris Hall Lockwood, who was arrested for picketing the White House in 1917. She became the founding organizer of the Arlington Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1920. 

Gertrude Crocker, who was also arrested in 1917, sent a letter to her mother from jail, calling herself “a rat in a trap…merely for holding a banner in front of the White House.” Crocker went on to operate a successful business known as the Little Tea House in Arlington. 

In trying to uncover public protests that took place within Arlington, I would highlight the work of civil rights activists in the early 1960s. Local Black activist Dorothy Hamm led the picketing of a movie theater that refused to integrate. There is a terrific photo of her holding a sign with this statement: “A Ticket at the Price of Your Conscience.” The picketing was effective, and the theater owners finally relented. In 1960 there were sit-ins at some drug store counters on what was then Lee Highway (renamed Langston Boulevard in 2021). The protestors achieved their goal of integration within weeks. Those sit-ins also provided perhaps the first Arlington example of counter-protestors with their own signs. Members of the local chapter of the American Nazi Party (including its leader George Lincoln Rockwell) walked into the drugstores to intimidate the protestors at the lunch counter. Rockwell’s men carried signs with ugly racist slogans. 

There are many other instances of public protest, including the picketing of Arlington Hospital in the 1960s for its refusal to admit Black women to the maternity ward. And of recent memory, the protests for Black Lives Matter in 2020 were significant in number. 

But getting back to current protests, the “No Kings Day” demonstration in Arlington stands out as something unique, with much credit going to a group known as We of Action Virginia (with the acronym of WofA). 

WofA was founded in Arlington by a public-school teacher, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. It is part of a decentralized movement known as “Indivisible,” which has local groups now operating in all 50 states, committed to advocating for a just government, and for upholding civil rights and liberties. WofA in Arlington now numbers more than 1,800 members, with goals that include strengthening the values of civic engagement, and empowering positive actions on key issues.

WofA had only two weeks to organize a coordinated effort for June 14, but they quickly went to work, with plans to recruit people to gather at twenty highway overpasses leading into Washington. However, it soon became apparent that they had too many people pledging to show up, so they pivoted to an ambitious plan: to create a five-mile human protest chain on Langston Boulevard, from Key Bridge to the Falls Church line. WofA  had 3,200 people sign up to participate in specific sections. Word of mouth spread, and the total number of people waving signs alongside the road on June 14 was estimated to be 5,000 people. 

It is difficult to draw comparisons to past protests, but it is interesting to note that the moral tension inherent in Dorothy Hamm’s sign in 1960 is also present in one sign seen on June 14: “When Cruelty Becomes Normal, Compassion Becomes Radical”.