Marchers did not look like stereotypical hippies, no more than most of the people a few years later at Woodstock. Because of underground newspapers, enough people got the message to grab daisies and carnations on their way to Washington. After a few failed attempts, he and Jerry Rubin announced an October March on Washington and urged marchers to arm themselves with flowers. That was conveyed to New York organizers like Abbie Hoffman, who tried to inspire somewhat wary New Yorkers that they could toss around flowers and slogans like “Love one another” and “Peace, brother” and things would get better. Instead, let’s look at two iconic photos of a march in October 1967: The impetus was the San Francisco instruction to confront soldiers and guns with toys, flowers and song. So let’s skip Picasso’s bouquet, which probably hung on dorm room walls during the 1960s, and is taught today in nursery schools as an excellent way to encourage children to try their hands in art. The peace implied might be a bit disingenuous, since the meeting was of the World Peace Congress, which condemned only “warmongering” by the United States (and not Russia’s invasion of Hungary two years previous) and was understood to be a Communist front. Picasso did a watercolor called “Bouquet of Peace” in 1958 to commemorate a peace congress in Stockholm, Sweden.

Up until then, flowers were placed on graves and showered on victors. But you can disarm a population with a photograph.Ī 1967 photograph marks the first time a flower was used symbolically to stop violence.

Putting a flower in a gun barrel is a bizarre act.

Cover photo gun violence