Opposition to the war in Vietnam defined Madison in a way that remains unmatched by any other protest or series of demonstrations in the city and at the Capitol.
The protests lasted for years, at times became violent and helped launch a lifelong career in public service for Madison’s longtime Mayor Paul Soglin.
The UW-Madison campus was home to many of the demonstrations, including the infamous 1967 riot that exploded between students and police over student protests of job recruiting on campus by Dow Chemical, which manufactured napalm — a flammable substance used by American soldiers in combat that severely burned the skin of its victims.
The episode, which resulted in dozens being sent to the hospital, solidified Madison on the national map as a bastion of activism, which at many times during the conflict spilled into the Capitol’s halls and on its lawn.
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In October 1965, hundreds of protesters participating in the International Days of Protest convened on the Capitol Square to listen to speakers and then marched to Truax Field to “arrest” the military base’s commander. Many were arrested, according to historian Michael Edmonds in his 2017 book “The Wisconsin Capitol.”
War supporters grew angry with the anti-war sentiment and at one point that fall pelted the protesters at the Capitol with eggs, according to Edmonds. At times, local veterans gathered in greater numbers than the antiwar protesters.
Longtime state Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, said that at the height of the Vietnam War protests, the Capitol police secured the building to make it difficult for protesters to get in and out.
“Some actually had tents out there and they would camp on the Capitol grounds,” Risser said. “I remember that the police used to turn on the hoses and let the water run down so it would interrupt and interfere with people who were sleeping on the grounds.”
While Risser said he remembers the protests being mostly peaceful, in 1970 about 8,000 protesters gathered for a peaceful demonstration were interrupted by about 500 violent protesters voicing support for the Viet Cong, according to Edmonds. The conflict ended with store windows being smashed on State Street, vandalism to Downtown property and overturned cars.
Police fired smoke bombs and charged the crowds with nightsticks. The violence resulted in more than $100,000 in damages and 35 buildings had windows smashed during the riot, according to a Wisconsin State Journal story on April 20, 1970. Nineteen youth were arrested and more than a dozen people and police were injured.
State Journal reporter Barbara Greenwood wrote the morning after the riot that the buildings on State Street and in the nearby Bassett Street area looked “as though they had survived an air raid.”
Capital Times reporter Jim Hougan in his story on the same day characterized the riot as “some of the most vicious street fighting to occur in this city.”
“The police used to turn on the hoses and let the water run down so it would interrupt and interfere with people who were sleeping on the grounds.” Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison
