''Flower Power'' is the title of a photograph taken by American photographer Bernie Boston for the now-defunct newspaper '' The Washington Evening Star''. Taken on October 21, 1967, during the

March on the Pentagon The March on the Pentagon was a massive demonstration against the Vietnam War on October 21, 1967. The protest involved more than 100,000 attendees at a rally by the Lincoln Memorial. Later about 50,000 people marched across the city to The Penta ...

by the

National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam The Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which became the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, was a coalition of American antiwar activists formed in November 1966 to organize large demonstrations in o ...

, the photo shows protester George Harris placing a

carnation ''Dianthus caryophyllus'' (), commonly known as the carnation or clove pink, is a species of ''Dianthus''. It is likely native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years.Med ...

into the barrel of an

M14 rifle The M14 rifle, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber 7.62 mm, M14, is an American selective fire battle rifle chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO (.308 in) cartridge. It became the standard-issue rifle for the U.S. military in 1959, r ...

held by a soldier of the 503rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne). The photograph was nominated for the 1967 Pulitzer Prize.

Events

The

took place on October 21, 1967. When the antiwar demonstrators approached

The Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a meton ...

, they were confronted by a squad of soldiers from the 503rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne). The soldiers pointed their rifles, marched into the crowd and formed a semicircle around the demonstrators to prevent them from climbing the Pentagon steps. Bernie Boston, newspaper photographer for '' The Washington Evening Star'' (shortened to ''The Washington Star'' in later years), had been assigned by his editor to cover the demonstration. Boston was sitting on a wall at the Mall Entrance which allowed him to see the events unfold. In a 2005 interview he said, "When I saw the sea of demonstrators, I knew something had to happen. I saw the troops march down into the sea of people and I was ready for it." A young man emerged from the crowd of demonstrators and started placing

s into the barrels of their rifles. Boston captured the moment in what would become an iconic image and his signature photograph. When Boston showed the photograph to his editor at the ''Star'', "the editor didn't see the importance" and the picture was run on a page deep inside the newspaper. It did not gain recognition until after Boston entered it into photography competitions, which it won.

Legacy

Identity of the demonstrator

The young man in the photo is most commonly identified as George Edgerly Harris III, an 18-year-old actor from New York who had moved to San Francisco in 1967. In 2005, Brown talked in an interview about the effort it took to learn that the protester was Harris. Harris, who performed under the stage name Hibiscus and co-founded

The Cockettes The Cockettes were an avant garde psychedelic hippie theater group founded by Hibiscus (George Edgerly Harris III) in the fall of 1969. The troupe was formed out of a group of hippie artists, men and women, who were living in Kaliflower, one of ...

, a "flamboyant, psychedelic gay-themed drag troupe", died in the early 1980s during the beginning of the

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

epidemic.

Paul Krassner Paul Krassner (April 9, 1932 – July 21, 2019) was an American author, journalist, and comedian. He was the founder, editor, and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine ''The Realist'', first published in 1958. Krassner became a key ...

, in a 2008 blogger's article written for the '' Huffington Post'' a week after Bernie Boston died, said the young man in the photo was Joel Tornabene, a fellow counter-culture leader of the

Youth International Party The Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were commonly called Yippies, was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded o ...

(the Yippies) who lived in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

in the 1960s. Tornabene, like Harris and Boston, died before Krassner posted this statement.

Symbolic significance

The

Flower power Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsbe ...

movement began in

as a means of symbolic protest against the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

. Beat Generation writer

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

, in his November 1965 essay ''How to Make a March/Spectacle'', promoted the use of "masses of flowers" to hand to policemen, press, politicians and spectators to fight violence with peace. They intended the use of

nonviolent Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

objects such as toys, flags, candy and music to show that the peace movement was not associated with anger or violence. Members of the movement tried to offset the rallies of the

Hells Angels The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporati ...

motorcycle club, who supported the war.

Cultural significance

''Flower Power'' was nominated for the 1967 Pulitzer Prize. It had an influential effect on both the antiwar movement of the sixties, and as a visual representation of how photojournalism can help with a movement. Specific exhibits and discussions have been curated solely around the photograph to display the political, cultural and social aspects of the Flower Power movement. The exhibit ''From Kennedy to Kent State: Images of a Generation,'' was shown at

Worcester Art Museum The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and ranks among th ...

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

, which displayed Boston's image as a large

gelatin silver The gelatin silver process is the most commonly used chemical process in black-and-white photography, and is the fundamental chemical process for modern analog color photography. As such, films and printing papers available for analog photography ...

print. The image was included as a representation of the antiwar movement. In 1993, for his body of workincluding ''Flower Power'' and his Pulitzer-nominated 1987 photograph of

Coretta Scott King Coretta Scott King ( Scott; April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader who was married to Martin Luther King Jr. from 1953 until his death. As an advocate for African-American equality, she ...

unveiling a bust of her late husband,

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

, in the U.S. CapitolBoston received the Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award from the

National Press Photographers Association The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) is an American professional association made up of still photographers, television videographers, editors, and students in the journalism field. Founded in 1946, the organization is based in at ...

, their highest honor. ''Flower Power'' continues to be used as an iconic image of the 1960s.

References