Green Feather Movement
Encyclopedia
The Green Feather Movement was a brief-lived college protest fad directed against McCarthyism
. It began on March 1, 1954 with five college students at Indiana University
who clandestinely tacked a green feather to every bulletin board on campus. The gesture was inspired by Mrs. Thomas White, a member of the Indiana school textbook commission who had expressed her desire to see Robin Hood
banned from the grade school curriculum because of his supposed Communist connotations. Blas Davila, later a psychology professor at the University of Indianapolis, was one of the five undergraduate students who came up with the plan. They called themselves Robin Hood's Merry Men and circulated an anonymous protest against McCarthyism, owning up to the deed in a letter to the student paper. They explained that they wore a green feather in sympathy with Robin Hood, whose Merry Men
wore (according to them) a green feather in their caps. Students at other colleges learned of their activities and contacted them to order literature, protest buttons and feathers, and in the course of a few weeks the protest mushroomed into a nationwide campus movement, starting with chapters in Wisconsin and Michigan and spreading around the country. By May 21 the Harvard Crimson was reporting that a Green Feather club had formed at Harvard and was seeking recognition in order to distribute Green Feather buttons in the dining halls. The movement lasted through two semesters and came to an end after Sen. McCarthy was censured by the US Senate in December, 1954 for his extreme anti-communist activism.
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
. It began on March 1, 1954 with five college students at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
who clandestinely tacked a green feather to every bulletin board on campus. The gesture was inspired by Mrs. Thomas White, a member of the Indiana school textbook commission who had expressed her desire to see Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
banned from the grade school curriculum because of his supposed Communist connotations. Blas Davila, later a psychology professor at the University of Indianapolis, was one of the five undergraduate students who came up with the plan. They called themselves Robin Hood's Merry Men and circulated an anonymous protest against McCarthyism, owning up to the deed in a letter to the student paper. They explained that they wore a green feather in sympathy with Robin Hood, whose Merry Men
Merry Men
The Merry Men are the group of outlaws who followed Robin Hood, according to English folklore. An early use of the phrase "merry men" occurs in the oldest known Robin Hood ballad, "Robin Hood and the Monk", which survives in a manuscript completed around 1450. The word "merry" in this and other...
wore (according to them) a green feather in their caps. Students at other colleges learned of their activities and contacted them to order literature, protest buttons and feathers, and in the course of a few weeks the protest mushroomed into a nationwide campus movement, starting with chapters in Wisconsin and Michigan and spreading around the country. By May 21 the Harvard Crimson was reporting that a Green Feather club had formed at Harvard and was seeking recognition in order to distribute Green Feather buttons in the dining halls. The movement lasted through two semesters and came to an end after Sen. McCarthy was censured by the US Senate in December, 1954 for his extreme anti-communist activism.