DYNAMICS OF DISSENT

The United States is founded on the promise and power of dissent. In Dissent: The History of an American Idea, Ralph Young shows us its history. This is a look at the rebels, dissidents, and revolutionaries —good and bad— who've shaped a nation.

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Ginsberg recalled that when he and Kerouac were young men they were constantly lectured to about morality and ethics . . . . that marriage was good, but pre-marital or homosexual sex was bad, that conformity and middle-class values were good, but holding radical views and doing drugs was bad. “And it occurred to us,” he said, “that the generation that was responsible for the Holocaust and Hiroshima had no right to tell us what was moral.” 

from Dissent: The History of an American Idea by Ralph Young

Image: Great American writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg reading a book

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Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness.

Allen Ginsberg: American poet and gay rights activist

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“America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.”

- Allen Ginsberg, American poet and early champion for gay rights

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Allen Ginsberg was an American poet known for tirelessly criticizing conformity, militarism, materialism, and sexual repression. He is best known for his 1956 poem, “Howl,” which was seized by the San Francisco police for depicting heterosexual and homosexual sex. Ginsberg was an active leader in the Beat Generation of the 1950s, a group of artists who fought against conformity following World War II, as well as the counterculture era of the 1960s. He was an early champion for gay rights, a political activist, and a writer whose irreverent, explicit style was both controversial and inspiring. 

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In September 1863 the Massachusetts 54th . . . . led the attack on Fort Wagner in South Carolina. Although the regiment lost nearly half its men . . . . the soldiers’ heroism and courage made headlines around the country and did much to convince skeptical whites that the sons of Africa were indeed as brave and courageous as any white soldiers. 

from Dissent: The History of an American Idea by Ralph Young 

Image: “The Storming of Ft. Wagner,” lithograph by Kurz and Allison (1890)

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“If we are good enough to fill up white men’s places and fight, we should be treated then, in all respects, the same as the white man.”

- Anonymous soldier in the 54th Massachusetts regiment, an African American unit fighting for the Union in the Civil War

quoted in Dissent: The History of an American Idea by Ralph Young

Image: The 54th Massachusetts regiment

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The Massachusetts 54th regiment was one of the first official African American units that fought on the Union side in the Civil War. They are best known for leading an attack on Fort Wagner in South Carolina. The 54th regiment suffered severe casualties and did not conquer the fort, but they proved to skeptical whites that African Americans could be just as brave as white soldiers. The 54th regiment is also known for protesting wage discrimination and unequal treatment in the military. They eventually succeeded in pushing the government to grant equal pay to all African American soldiers. 

Image: The Massachusetts 54th regiment, one of the first African American units fighting for Union side in Civil War

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Three thousand workers took over the town and surrounded the plant in order to shut out the strikebreakers. When 300 Pinkertons arrived on a barge on the Monogahela River (which bordered the plant) the steelworkers would not let them disembark. Shots rang out...

from Dissent: The History of an American Idea by Ralph Young

Image: Burning of Pinkerton army boats at Homestead Steel Strike by E. Benjamin Andrews, 1892

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The Homestead Strike was one of the most violent and significant conflicts between labor and management ever to occur in U.S. history. When Homestead plant manager Henry Clay Frick attempted to cut wages and dissolve the steel union, 3,000 workers voted to strike. The four-month strike culminated in a bloody battle between the workers and Pinkerton strike-breakers hired by Frick. Although the steel union was eventually banned from Carnegie’s factories, the Homestead Strike remains a pivotal moment in labor history, and inspired generations of laborers afterwards.

Image: The Homestead Riot, depicted in Harper's Weekly, v. 36, no. 1856, p. 673.

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Women are the equals of men before the law, and are equal in all their rights.

Victoria Woodhull, early woman’s suffrage activist

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I shall not change my course because those who assume to be better than I desire it.

Victoria Woodhull, women’s rights activist and first female candidate for American Presidency

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“There is no escaping the fact,” Victoria Claflin Woodhull proclaimed in an 1871 speech, “that the principle by which the male citizens of these United States assume to rule the female citizens is not that of self-government, but that of despotism. 

from Dissent: The History of an American Idea by Ralph Young

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I have an inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or as short a period as I can; to change that love every day if I please.

Victoria Woodhull, American women’s rights activist on a woman’s right to divorce 

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Victoria Woodhull was an early women’s rights activist and the first female candidate for United States President. She advocated for a woman’s right to divorce if the marriage was unbearable, and was an outspoken leader in the woman’s suffrage movement alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She became the first female stockbroker in American history, and founded a feminist newspaper with her sister. Woodhull’s Presidential campaign was highly publicized, as she was a woman and running under the newly formed Equal Rights Party. She was arrested and tried for attempting to run for the Presidency. 

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Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.

Walt Whitman, American poet 

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Romantics sought to know themselves through nature, through spirituality, and through tapping in to their creative instincts . . . . The poet Walt Whitman focused on the positive achievements of democracy and the way American elevated the common man. 

from Dissent: The History of an American Idea by Ralph Young

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“I exist as I am, and that is enough.”

- Walt Whitman, American poet