Ed Tant

“Better active than radioactive!”:

‘70s Dixie demos say no to nukes

Musician Graham Nash played for the no-nukes protesters in Barnwell, SC in 1979, then donned overalls to join the march down the dusty rural roads winding past the atomic weapons and power facilities at that nuclear nexus in the Palmetto State. He waved to my camera in the photo at right.

Demonstrations against nuclear power and atomic weapons took place across America in the late 1970s. In Athens, GA in 1978 (above left), activist Gary Appelson led a march through downtown Athens.  In 1979,  nuclear weapons plants and waste facilities were the target of nonviolent civil disobedience protests in Barnwell, SC. Police arrested 180 of the protesters (above right).

In 1979 in Barnwell, SC (above left) flag-waving marchers passed radioactive waste dumps, a nuclear fuel reprocessing factory and the Savannah River Plant atomic weapons facility that locals call “the bomb factory.”  Awaiting arrrest at the end of the march (above right) Ed Tant, Marigene Banks, Tom Clements and Chuck Moody were part of a contingent of protesters from Athens, GA.