July 4^th celebrations in Washington, D.C. have always been a big deal, but Bob Hope predicted that Independence Day in 1970 would be the “biggest celebration in American history.” Addressing the press at the Statler Hotel in early June, the comedian announced he would emcee a star-studded show on the National Mall featuring music performances, sermons, and guest speakers. The event, dubbed Honor America Day, was designed to be a pick-me-up for Americans “downtrodden by the rough news from Vietnam…and countless demonstrations against one aspect or another of American life.”1

On its face, the idea seemed noble enough – an opportunity for Americans to set their differences aside and celebrate the nation’s birthday. Hope and the event’s organizing committee – which included Rev. Billy Graham, J. Willard Marriott and a growing list of other luminaries – were quick to frame the celebration as non-partisan.

But was it really?

A few days after Hope’s announcement, an Evening Star editorial observed:

"The list of sponsors – starting with Hope's co-chairman, the Rev. Billy Graham – reads for the most part like a roster of President Nixon's personal friends and political supporters. This is perhaps inevitable and certainly acceptable for starters. But it would be a serious mistake to let it go at that. There should, in the remaining weeks, be a concerted effort to enlist the support and active participation of those in Congress and in private life who have expressed reasoned doubts about tomes aspects of the present national course."2

Indeed, the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States were characterized by a staunch political divide. Under President Nixon’s leadership, the controversial war in Vietnam raged on and the “New Left” political ideologists clashed against far-right conservatives. The divide between Americans was striking, and Honor America Day’s organizers pledged to bridge the gap.

Over the next several weeks, organizers moved at a breakneck pace nailing down details for the event. Headquartered at 1725 DeSales St NW, the Honor America Day committee consisted of members from both sides of the political aisle. There were the big names – Rev. Billy Graham, Hobart Lewis, and J. Willard Marriott; the political and public figures – former major general Charles O’Malley, Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, New York Mayor John Lindsay, and the chairmen of both Republican and Democratic committees; and the celebrities and athletes – Art Linkletter, golfer Billy Casper, astronaut Frank Borman, and baseball players Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.3 Former Democratic presidents Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as Mamie Eisenhower, signed on as honorary chairmen of the weekend.4 Co-sponsoring organizations included the Boy Scouts of America, the Washington Redskins, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.5

With a fully formed committee and numerous volunteers, the next step was booking entertainment – ideally a collection of acts that offered something for everyone. Along those lines, the committee arranged performances and appearances from popular entertainers including The Centurymen Choir, US Army Band, actress Connie Stevens, the Young Americans, B.J. Thomas, Gail Renshaw (Miss USA), Pat Boone, Louis Armstrong, and a long list of others.6 Meanwhile, the National Park Service got busy on a 60-by-60 foot stage “facing the Washington Monument near 17^th street NW, in line with the vista towards the Lincoln Memorial,”7 which would hold the main events for the weekend.

With excitement building, many out of town guests made plans to attend, and groups arranged for "four special trains, 500-car motorcade, and many chartered buses…to bring crowds to Washington’s Honor America Day programs.”8

But as the program began to take shape, so too did conflict.

Months earlier, on the heels of Woodstock, Yippies and other counterculture demonstrators had pledged to have a demonstration of their own on the National Mall over the July 4^th holiday: a pot smoke-in.9

A ‘Yippie’ was a member of YIP – the Youth International Party based out of New York City, a group of young, “angry” political activists with penchants for hippie lifestyles.10 They smoked marijuana and took LSD, embraced nudity and sexual freedom, and they believed young people were the answer to ushering in the new era of social change.

Yippies were terrifying to supporters and leaders of the anti-counterculture, traditional, and conservative movements. Richard Nixon notably held very anti-drug, anti-marijuana views throughout most of his presidency, especially because of drug’s role in the ‘youth revolt.’11 Indeed, much of YIP’s identity was in its opposition to the established power structure. According to the Yippie Manifesto: “Amerika is a death machine. It is run on and for money whose power determines a society based on war, racism, sexism, and the destruction of the planet. Our life-energy is the greatest threat to the machine.”12

The FBI had been monitoring Yippies for years. According to the FBI’s files on the group’s founder, Abbie Hoffman, he and others like him were a threat “by promising our youth that drugs and sexual freedom are the answer to life’s ills.”13

Like many young people in the country, Yippies had been mobilized by the events of recent years. In May of 1970, the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four students during an anti-Vietnam War protest at Kent State University. The Kent State shooting called students and young protestors to arms across the country to further their activism against the war and against Nixon’s administration. YIP was no exception.14

The potential for conflict between counterculture activists and Honor America Day guests was real. Two weeks before the event, Rennie C. Davis and other YIP leaders created what they called the “Emergency Committee to Prevent a July 4^th Fist Fight.”15 Showing up to Honor America Day planning headquarters, Davis and his committee offered a bold proposal: incorporate counterculture voices into the official Honor America Day program. “The whole spectrum of dissent has been blocked out,” he told The Evening Star while suggesting that adding beat poet Allen Ginsberg to the docket would prevent the event from becoming a “papier mâché phony, a kind of ritualistic flag-waving ceremony.”16

Perhaps predictably, the committee declined this offer, explaining that they had already done their part in creating a diverse and broad setlist. Organizers noted they would “discuss the program ‘with serious groups who wish to make responsible suggestions.’”17 The implication, of course, was that Davis represented neither.

It's worth noting that organizers did extend an invitation to comedian and social critic Dick Gregory. Gregory, however, declined to perform. As he wrote to Bob Hope, “If the celebration was strictly entertainment, completely free of social and political implications, I would be the first to join you. But a celebration in our nation’s capital on the Fourth of July cannot possibly be a politically neutral event.”18

Despite the publicity hailing the event as nonpartisan, those who showed up to celebrate Honor America Day were mostly part of Nixon’s ‘Silent Majority,’ holding pro-war, anti-counterculture beliefs.19 Carts circled the National Mall selling pro-war merchandise. A Washington Post reporter wrote “any professional politician knows that when the American public sees Billy Graham, Bob Hope and Lawrence Welk on the platform, the Nixon administration will be the only ones enjoying the fireworks.”20

The country’s political division would be readily apparent. As Nixon’s supporters, pro-Vietnam advocates, and other Honor America Day guests funneled through Washington, D.C., so did the so-called ‘Yippie youths’ and what ensued can only be summed up as a “culture clash.”

On July 3^rd, the night before Honor America Day festivities were set to begin, about 2,000 Friday night concertgoers were enjoying music from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival at Sylvan Theater. On-lookers described watching pot-smoking Yippies and young protesters emerge onto the Mall.21

“…not far away from the bustling and signing of the stage, over which draped an American eagle with a palm on its beak, the loose-knit band of young people, casually dressed, many with long hair, frolicked under the tall oak tree, shouting “Yiiipppppeeeeee” now and then toward the more formal sounds of the stage. They threw frisbies or tossed sparklers into the growing gloom. There was the scent of pot in the air.”22

At approximately 9:30pm, a group of protesters attempted to raise Yippie flags on the flagpoles of the nearby Washington Monument. When police intervened, some began throwing bottles and a cherry bomb exploded.23 Someone (though both police and Yippies denied responsibility) set off tear gas, which blew into the crowd of concert goers. The Folklife Festival cancelled their live music for the rest of the night.24

The chaotic scene was a precursor to what was to come.

The following day, on July 4^th, Honor America Day guests were welcomed to the Mall in the morning by Rev. Billy Graham’s religious and patriotic sermon, alongside a “ringing of the bells” and a parade from the Lincoln Memorial to the Ellipse. Kate Smith sang the National Anthem. The Smithsonian held another day of the Festival of American Folklife on the National Mall, followed by “An American Salute” and two hours of televised entertainment hosted by Bob Hope and Honor America Day’s arsenal of celebrity guests.25 The celebration would be closed out by fireworks over the Potomac River.

It wasn't long before a familiar chaos erupted on the National Mall. A reported 1,000 Yippies began to smoke marijuana openly, yelling anti-war chants, “smoke marijuana!” and “power to the people!” as they waved Yippie and Viet Cong flags.26 Some protestors overtook a pick-up truck and drove it into the Reflecting Pool. Both clothed and naked Yippies followed the truck, spending their smoke-in waist-deep in the water.27 Back on dry land, the day was marked with periodic clashes between protesters and police.28

Police eventually pushed crowds of Yippies back toward the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife across from the Department of Agriculture building. En route, some protestors overturned a vendor's truck, while others began throwing “solidly frozen Good Humor ice cream sticks” at police officers.29

For the second day in a row, tear gas blew over part of the Honor America Day crowd, causing as one reporter put it, “a mad stampede of weeping hippies and Middle Americans.”30 As he looked out onto the crowd and prepared to go on stage, Bob Hope reportedly remarked “It looks like Vietnam, doesn’t it?”31

The protesters’ actions did little to ingratiate the Yippies with Nixon’s Silent Majority. As Elias Gomes, a Baptist minister celebrating Honor America Day remarked, “I’m scared of young people…This kind of revolutionary movement doesn’t bring solutions to problems but chaos.”32 Another interviewee said, “I look at your young American people and I think they are doing no good.”33

One Yippie’s response to those comments was simple. To an Evening Star reporter, he said, “I suppose you’re all appalled by this…Well, I’m appalled by the war.”34

Adding to the chaos, the National Socialist White People’s Party held white-supremacist demonstrations throughout the weekend.35 The Nazi organization held rallies on July 3^rd at Lafeyette Park, July 4^th on the National Mall, and July 5^th at L’Enfant Square at 9^th and Constitution NW.36 On July 5^th, Robert A. Lloyd spoke to a group of about two dozen white supremacists saying, “At the root of our domestic crisis is the racial crisis caused by the presence of two dangerous alien races, Blacks and Jews.” Counter demonstrators taunted the Nazis with “jeers, epithets, obscenities, and occasionally rhythmic clapping.”37

The Honor America Day television special and fireworks went smoothly for viewers at home but when the day was over, 34 people had been arrested, 22 police officers injured, and 10 businesses had their windows smashed.38

In the days after the events, appraisals were – predictably – mixed. Supporters praised Nixon and Honor America Day organizers for their effort to bring the nation together. Meanwhile, others saw the chaos as a culmination of the tangible divide amongst the American people. As one New York Times reporter remarked, “’Honor America Day’ was doomed to failure before this 194^th Independence Day dawned.”39

While the legacy of Honor America Day is blurry, the success of the July 4^th smoke-in is clearer: It became an annual tradition for counterculture and pro-marijuana activists from across the country. Though marijuana use was illegal in the District, the annual smoke-in mostly skated by with few arrests and light police enforcement. The chaos seen in 1970 was, for the most part, not repeated.

One attendee of the 1977 smoke-in reflected that, “I suppose we should have been paranoid about lighting up in public, but our idealism overruled our good sense. And all of us felt empowered by this act of civil disobedience.”40 Another told The Washington Post in 1981, "Some people came here from as far away as Alaska. Can you imagine that? Over 4,000 miles to get stoned.”41

While D.C. legalized recreational marijuana in 2015, it’s still illegal to smoke marijuana in public spaces. And so, the tradition continues in hopes of rescheduling the drug. The upcoming 55^th annual smoke-in, (according to their Facebook event page) “has been coordinated with US Secret Service, National Parks, National Parks Police, and D.C. Police.” “Friday, July 4^th, 2025, will be a landmark day in our struggle to achieve an end to the Federal Government’s opposition to RESCHEDULE MARIJUANA!” The page has just under 5,000 followers.