MONTPELIER — Photographs by Ross Connelly, titled, “PROTEST, Washington, D.C. — 1967, 1968, 1969,” are now on display at the T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier through November. Connelly was the co-publisher and editor of The Hardwick Gazette from 1986 until 2017.
photo by Ross Connelly ©2024
A Howard University student makes a point during the takeover of the campus in March 1968 as students and reporters look on. The protest, which shut down the campus for five days, challenged administrative constraints concerning curriculum, required ROTC, faculty and other issues. An opening reception for the exhibit, “PROTEST Washington, D.C. 1967, 1968, 1969,”is at the T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier is 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 4. The exhibit is on display until late November.
The images, which Connelly took while in college and afterward, are of the October 1967 Pentagon March, the Howard University student rebellion of March 1968, troops that occupied the city after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968 and of the Vietnam Moratorium March of November 1969.
Protests, on campuses and off, about Russia’s war against Ukraine, Israel’s war on Gaza and the Hamas massacre of Israelis sparked media attention this past year. The wars brought political debate from the halls of Congress to the presidential race and beyond.
The wars continue as do the protests, bringing forth echoes of the reactions over 50 years ago to the Vietnam War.
The collection of photographs documenting civic protests in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s offers a bridge of history from then to today.
Connelly believes the protests of the 1960s remain significant, even if controversial to some. They are, he says, rays of sun over clouds casting shadows on an uneasy current landscape.
He hopes this group of photographs will open, or reopen, a window to that time period and be a reminder people still need to engage, stand up and speak out.
An opening reception for both the “PROTEST” exhibit and a simultaneous exhibit of the Vermont Pastel Society will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 4.
The T.W. Wood Gallery is located at 46 Barre St. Hours are from noon to 4 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday. For additional information, call (802) 262-6035.
