Pink text on a black background. The letter "o" in the word youth features a peace symbol.

This button represents the greater cause of youth activism, young people organizing as a community to affect social change in hopes of creating a better world. Back in the late 1950s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. engaged youth activists in helping to protest racist law enforcement practices. Youth activism gained ground as a larger social movement during the public protests, demonstrations, and anti-war advocacy of the 1960s and 1970s. The “flower-power” of young activists during this time period set a precedent for today’s modern youth activism.

Illustration of the symbol for female with a fist in the center on a red and yellow background

The red and yellow back ground of this button is symbolic of the internationally recognized nuclear warning symbol. The symbolism behind this button is two-fold in that it combines the anti-nuclear and feminists movements that started in the 1960s and gained increased popularity during the 1970s. Specifically, Women Against Nukes was a workgroup of the Valley Women’s Union (1973-1977), which was founded in Northampton, Massachusetts. Members of the VWU were required to agree to socialist/feminist political principles and to take part in political actions. The VWU had many workgroups which also included “Women in Prison” and “Women Against War”.

Illustration of tanks with a person standing in front of them with purple text on a white background

This button commemorates the events that took place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China on June 4, 1989. Protests were led by Chinese students in the spring of 1989 and exposed deep political splits within the government. China’s political leaders ordered the military to enforce martial law to put an end to the protests. On June 4, troops with assault weapons and tanks attacked unarmed civilians trying to keep the military from entering the square, which students and other protesters were occupying. The exact number of civilian casualties is unknown, but estimated to be between hundreds or even thousands. The illustration on this button specifically depicts the events of the morning after the massacre when an unidentified man, who came to be known as “Tank Man”, blocked the path of a group of tanks leaving Tiananmen Square. The incident was filmed and photographed and seen worldwide, becoming one of the most iconic images of the 20^th century.

Illustration of the character Pogo holding a shovel in front of a gravestone on a grey background

The original version of the quote on this button is “We have met the enemy, and they are ours” and was sent as a message in 1813 from U.S. Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to Army General William Henry Harrison after winning a battle during the War of 1812. The quote and illustration seen on this button is from the Walt Kelly comic strip “Pogo”, which ran from 1948 – 1975 and often illustrated political and social satire.  “We have met the enemy and he is us” is probably the most famous Pogo quote, used in the 1960s to refer to the chaos caused by the Vietnam War. Later, the quote was also used in 1970 on a poster for Earth Day and became a rallying cry to conservationists.

Illustration of nuclear arms and a character who is knitting a cover with black text to cover them on a white background

This button represents the movement for nuclear disarmament which started to gain widespread popularity in the 1960s. Disarmament refers to the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and the end state of a nuclear-weapon-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. There are many nuclear disarmament groups including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Greenpeace, Global Zero, and Mayors for Peace. There have been many large anti-nuclear demonstrations and protests over the years. On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City’s Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war arms race. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American History.