Bruce Dancis

Bruce Dancis became the first student at Cornell to defy the draft by tearing up his draft card and soon became a leader of the draft resistance movement in the 1960s.

Bruce Dancis became the first student at Cornell to defy the draft by tearing up his draft card and soon became a leader of the draft resistance movement in the 1960s. He was the principal organizer of the first mass draft card burning during the Vietnam War. Dancis spent 19 months in federal prison in Ashland, Kentucky, for his actions against the draft. Dancis gives us an insider's account of the antiwar and student protest movements of the 1960s and at the prison experiences of Vietnam-era draft resisters. He writes about it in Register: A Story of Protest and Prison During the Vietnam War.