Los Angeles Resistance collection
Finding aid created by Los Angeles Public Library staff using RecordEXPRESS
Los Angeles Public Library
2018
630 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, California 90071
(213) 228-7355
rarebook@lapl.org
http://www.lapl.org/
Title: Los Angeles Resistance collection
Dates: 1960-2015 (bulk 1967-1969)
Collection Number: LA MSS 0001
Creator/Collector:
Los Angeles Resistance
Extent: 3.336 cubic feet (8 boxes)
Repository:
Los Angeles Public Library
Los Angeles, California 90071
Abstract: The Los Angeles Resistance collection is comprised of papers, correspondence, writings, legal records, newsletters, news clippings,
datebooks, prints, photographs, digital still and moving images, audiotapes, and ephemera chronicling the non-violent anti-draft
activities of the Los Angeles chapter of the Resistance.
Language of Material: English
This collection is open for research on an appointment basis. Video and audio footage created by Neil Reichline, Norman Witty,
and Charles Domokos are restricted.
Los Angeles Resistance collection. Los Angeles Public Library
Biography/Administrative History
The Resistance was an organization dedicated to non-violent non-cooperation with the federal Selective Service System, the
federal government agency which administered the Vietnam War draft. The first Resistance chapter was founded in Palo Alto
by David Harris, a former Stanford University Student Body President, in 1967. The Los Angeles Resistance was founded in Westwood
in 1967 by Donald “Don” Kalish, the former Chair of the UCLA Philosophy Department. It was part of a national network of local
Resistance chapters which coordinated their efforts to stop the draft.
From 1967 to 1968, the L.A. Resistance regularly held peaceful protests outside of the downtown Los Angeles Selective Service
office, where busloads of young men were taken for induction into the armed services. Members of the L.A. Resistance worked
with the national Resistance network to organize four national draft card turn-in events. After many resisters were imprisoned
for refusing induction, various national Resistance groups worked together to form the Resistance Prison Project, in order
to aid and advocate for those imprisoned for non-compliance.
This collection chronicles the activities of L.A. Resistance and the anti-war organizations they collaborated with such as:
the Orange Grove Friends (Quaker) Sanctuary, (Quaker) Friends of the Resistance, Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam,
Peace Action Council of Southern California, San Francisco Resistance, Palo Alto Resistance, Alpha House Resistance Commune,
Westside Committee of Concern on Vietnam, the Quaker Action Group, Committee for Draft Resistance, and the War Resisters League
of Southern California.
Scope and Content of Collection
Consists of papers, correspondence, writings, legal records, newsletters, news clippings, datebooks, prints, photographs,
digital still and moving images, audiotapes, and ephemera chronicling the non-violent anti-draft activities of the Los Angeles
chapter of the Resistance. The collection includes documents related to the national Resistance movement, as well as other
local chapters. Also includes materials related to collaborations with other anti-war organizations. Materials date from the
founding of the L.A. Resistance in 1967 to the screening of L.A. resistance documentaries at the 2015 Monaco Charity Film
Festival. Most of the materials are concentrated between the years 1967-1969, when the group was most active.
Civil Disobedience--United States.
Conscientious objectors--California--Los Angeles.
Pacifism--United States.
Pacifists--California--Los Angeles.
Passive resistance--California--Los Angeles.
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements--California--Los Angeles.
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Conscientious objectors--United States.
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Draft resisters--United States.
Social movements--California--Los Angeles.
United States--Selective Service System.
Political Prisoners--United States.
Harris, David, 1946-
Kalish, Donald.
Maizlish, Joseph.
Reichline, Neil.
Los Angeles (Calif.)
Photographs.
Contact prints.
Motion pictures.
Negatives.
Leaflets.
Clippings.
Buttons (Information artifacts).
Political activists.