“We Don’t (Usually) Burn Our Draft Cards Down on Main Street”

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One of the big answers to the “counter-culture” of the late 1960s was Merle Haggard’s hit “Okie From Muskogee.” It’s so iconic it was referenced in a movie (“I don’t want some ‘Okie From Muskogee,’ I can get that here!” in An Officer and a Gentleman). And everybody knows that opening line: “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee.” That line started as a joke between Haggard and his drummer, Roy Edward Burris, seeing a sign for Muskogee while on tour. They started trading “traditionalist” one-liners between each other, partly as a joke but also out of frustration of the rising draft card burning going on in the country. That prompted the line, “We don’t burn our draft cards down on Main Street.” Hang on there, Hag. They actually DID burn their draft cards once upon a time in Muskogee, Oklahoma, U.S.A. On August 2, 1917 the Socialist Party of America, probably feeling empowered by the revolution in Russia (where the tsar was overthrown in February 1917), decided they were going to march right into the heartland of America — rural Oklahoma — and instigate an uprising against the government and their “Selective Service Draft Act.” President Wilson had run on a platform that included keeping America out of World War I, and the enactment of a draft law seemed to indicate that the U.S. was going to get involved. The socialists gathered “rebels” to start an insurrection. Two lawmen were ambushed (both survived their wounds) and the communications lines cut. The plan was for the millions to march to Washington, overthrow the government, and repeal the draft law. In reality, there were maybe 1,000 people. And they didn’t even get out of Oklahoma before the “rebellion” was squashed. One of the members of the rebellion turned informant, and the rebels were met by a posse who quickly put an end to their plans. The incident later became known as the “Green Corn Rebellion,” named because of the plans to march to DC while surviving on green corn they plucked and ate along the way. So maybe ol’ Hag was right after all. The Okies didn’t like the others who did try to burn their draft cards. Here’s the Haggard classic, recorded in Muskogee: