Photographs: A Year of Disobedience — Story Arts Media

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A Year of Disobedience

Four days after the demonstration 35 diehards are still on the tracks, huddled in makeshift tents debating their future actions, and braving a spring storm. They erect a symbolic mailbox with their new name - perhaps a sign of their long-term intent

The protest has attracted several celebrities, including political activist Daniel Ellsberg (center) who shares a meal with other protesters in the main tent on the tracks, and seeks shelter from the worsening weather.

Two doves, released as a symbol of peace during the previous demonstration, remain with the group throughout their encampment on the tracks.

May 5, 1978: The freezing rain turns to snow and the beginning of a severe spring snowstorm. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department has had enough. They tear down the Truth Force encampment and arrest all the protesters.

May 7, 1978: The group is back, after marching several miles through a deep accumulation of spring snow, to set up a new camp site on a ridge overlooking the nuclear weapons facility.

The next day Truth Force members form a human blockade on the rail spur to block a train delivering bomb-making material. In an eerie reenactment of Butch Cassidy sheriff's officers emerge from the train in their own "Super Posse" and arrests follow

On Mother's Day strong fellowship accents a peaceful gathering on the tracks at Rocky Flats. By this point over 100 arrests have been made, but the rail occupation continues.

June 16, 1978: Poets Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, along with four women, block a train leaving Rocky Flats. Already that morning seven people had been arrested, blocking the same train as it entered the plant.

Over the summer, the Truth Force tipi becomes a familiar site to motorists traveling on Highway 93, west of Rocky Flats. Honking horns and waves of encouragement are interspersed with occasional threats and obscene gestures from the passing cars.

August 9, 1978: A large group gathers on the tracks to commemorate the bombing of Nagasaki. Demonstrators drop to the pavement in mock death at the exact moment – 11:02 a.m. – the bomb dropped on Japan 33 years earlier.

In a dramatic fashion that unnerves some officials, many of the protesters continue the mock death throughout their arrest.

The occupation at Rocky Flats continues only sporadically during the winter months of 1978 and early 1979, but Truth Force members plan a major protest on April 28, 1979, which draws over 15,000 people and results in 286 arrests.

A message of support from a family that chose not to attend the demonstration.

Another woman, from Kansas, proclaimed her own personal patriotism, but wondered what was wrong with the federal government.

One of the last to be arrested that day was original Truth Force member, Patrick Malone. Seemingly blissful in his sixth arrest, Malone was to encounter serious legal problems for his continued involvement in the action against Rocky Flats.

The tent on the tracks at Rocky Flats becomes an icon for civil disobedience and peaceful actions against nuclear weapons worldwide.

The photographs in this gallery are from a book of 56 images entitled, A Year of Disobedience: A Photo-Documentary of the Demonstrations, Civil Disobedience, Arrests and Trials of Thousands of People Against the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant.

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