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Kagiso, Max
Camden 28 revisit court where they were tried for ’71 break-in
to protest Vietnam War
December
6, 2018
Monsignor
Michael Doyle talks about his role with the Camden 28, a group of activists who
in 1971 broke into a draft board office to destroy the records of draft
registrants in protest of the Vietnam War. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
Nearly 50 years after breaking into the Camden draft board and
destroying records to protest the war in Vietnam, members of the Camden 28 took
to the stand in the federal courtroom where they were tried. This time, it was
to tell their story for future generations.
Joan Reilly read the names of those who didn’t live long enough
to return to the courtroom that was packed Thursday with high school and Camden
County College students.
A lifelong Catholic, Reilly said her faith led her and her
sister Rosemary to oppose the Vietnam war, and move from Long Island to join
the resistance in Camden.
“It was ordinary people who said ‘not in our name, not on our
watch.’ We took great risk and worked in collective action, and I very much
believe that’s what helped to end this war,” said Reilly, who was in her early
20s at the time.
“My parents have both died, and they kept the letters I sent to
them. Now I can see the fire that burned within me about the injustices I saw
happening,” she said.
In the weeks before the 1971 raid, rioting was regular in Camden.
Keith Forsyth, who moved from Ohio to be a part of the anti-war
movement, said demonstrators knew the risks. “It was like the Boy Scout motto,
‘Always be prepared.’ We were ready to go to jail,” he said.
In Camden, they met the Rev. Michael Doyle, one of four priests
and one Presbyterian pastor charged with felonies related to the raid. Now
Monsignor Doyle and pastor of Sacred Heart Church in South Camden, he said he
wouldn’t change a thing, though at the time his politics meant few churches
would employ him to celebrate Sunday Mass.
“No congressman’s son died in Vietnam because they never got
sent to the front. But the poor kids of Camden, they were sent to the front,”
said Doyle. “It’s outrageous. And then you say, ‘There’s no point in writing a
letter to those [politicians],’” he continued.
As casualties mounted, several draft board raids occurred
throughout the country. But the Camden 28 case was the only one where all
defendants were acquitted.
Despite evidence that the FBI aided the raid through a paid
informant, attorney David Kairys didn’t try to prove entrapment. Instead, the
28 defendants represented themselves as co-counsel, giving each a chance to
address the jury directly.
Eugene Dixon said the idea was to appeal to the people, not the
law.
“I was just an ordinary working stiff, but, of course, the
politics of the war were always in front. And the idea of massive violence
being perpetrated on people was one that struck home with me,” said Dixon.
“I loved being on trial,” said Doyle to laughter from the room.
“We talked a lot and Judge Fisher, he had a great sense of humor. I was a
felon, but he was so nice to me. And to be able to cross-examine FBI agents —
imagine that! I was a peasant from Ireland doing that, and I loved it.”
Complementing the event was a screening of a documentary by
Anthony Giacchino, which is available online. Giacchino grew up attending
church at Sacred Heart and his parents are active in the parish.
About
Kyrie Greenberg
© WHYY
2018
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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