Protest songs in the United States Tom Paxton ("Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation" - about the escalation of the war in Vietnam, "Jimmy Newman" – the story of a dying soldier, and "My Son John" – about a soldier who returns from war unable to describe what he's been through), among others. The first protest song to reach number one in the United States was P.F. Sloan's "Eve Of Destruction", performed by Barry McGuire in 1965. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s often used Negro spirituals as a source of protest, changing the religious lyrics to suit the political mood of the time.
March Against the Vietnam War speeches and music the crowd started to move toward the Capitol, down the National Mall from the Washington Monument. Joan Baez and some others intercepted the impromptu march. March Against the Vietnam War The March Against the Vietnam War was held in Washington, D.C. on 17 April 1965. The student activist group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held its first anti-Vietnam War protest rally in Washington, DC. It was co-sponsored by Women's Strike for Peace. 25,000 attended, including Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Phil Ochs. The host was I. F. Stone. He began by proclaiming: "Welcome to Washington." One