Humanists are Marching banner

In June 1960, a letter from humanist campaigner Barbara Smoker appeared in The Humanist (now the New Humanist), noting that although a survey of Aldermaston marchers had revealed that many of them were humanists, as far as she had seen ‘there was not one humanist banner on the march.’ This, Smoker suggested, was a missed opportunity to boost awareness of humanism ‘in the eyes of many thousands of people, mostly young and all of the thinking, caring type’. She announced her intention to create a humanist banner for future marches, and called on others to do the same. Two years later, in June 1962, a photograph of one such banner adorned the front cover of The Humanist, helping to visualise the many hundreds of humanists who have marched for so many causes across so many years.