Top 10 American Protest Movements

Though antiwar demonstrations have been sprinkled throughout U.S. history, perhaps none were more vehement than the outcries against America's involvement in Vietnam. In the frigid fall of 1969, more than 500,000 people marched on Washington to protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. It remains the largest political rally in the nation's history. While President Richard Nixon was said to have spent the day watching college football inside the White House, to the rest of the world, the protests successfully proved that the antiwar movement comprised more than just politicized youth. The November rallies were part of a string of demonstrations that took place around the world in 1969, with groups from San Francisco and Boston to London petitioning for peace. Despite their cries, the war went on for six more years, ending with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

See photos of the history of the peace symbol.