How the Great Lakes region inspired the first Earth Day

April 22, 2025 Lisa John Rogers, Great Lakes Now

By Lisa John Rogers, Great Lakes Now

April 22, 2025

On the heels of the anti-war protests that were taking 1960s college campuses by storm, Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson was inspired to use that same momentum to create a protest so large that it would create an environmental movement.

An estimated 20 million Americans gathered on what would become known as Earth Day, with thousands of college campuses and high schools across the country engaged in the action. It would become known as the largest single-day protest in American history.

According to Jack Lewis in a reflective piece for the 1990 edition of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Journal: “In the waning months of the 1960s, environmental problems were proliferating like a many-headed hydra, a monster no one could understand let alone tame or slay.” He goes on to write about the health impacts of air pollution from cars and factories, and of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring for putting the dangers of pesticides into public awareness.

“In addition, huge fish kills were reported on the Great Lakes, and the media carried the news that Lake Erie, one of America’s largest bodies of freshwater, was in its death throes,” wrote Lewis. “Ohio had another jolt when Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River, an artery inundated with oil and toxic chemicals, burst into flames by spontaneous combustion.”

Students at the University of Michigan planned a teach-in. (Photo courtesy of the University of Michigan)

Prior to the organization of Earth Day, students at the University of Michigan formed a group called ENACT (Environmental Action for Survival, Inc). They had also been planning a teach-in. When the student organizers saw press about Nelson’s desire to organize a similar event, they decided to try and join forces. While in D.C. for a student conference, ENACT’s treasurer stopped by Nelson’s office and showed him a memo about their planned teach-in. This eventually became the template for organizing the event across the country.

This led to ENACT’s co-chair Doug Scott, a graduate student in Forest Recreation in the School of Natural Resources, to be hired by Nelson for his planning committee, according to reporting by journalist and historian James Tobin.

In a telegram sent to ENACT, Nelson wrote:

“I AM GREATLY ENCOURAGED BY THE INITIATIVE YOU AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HAVE TAKEN IN THE PROGRAM. WE LOOK TO YOUR EFFORT WITH THE FIRST SUCH TEACH-IN TO PROVIDE A PATTERN…WHICH CAN INSPIRE AND GUIDE OTHER TEACH-INS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY.”

The University of Michigan notably had about 50,000 people in attendance at their teach-in. Its size and actions drew tons of media attention, especially their actions that were critical of nearby Detroit’s automotive industry. Ralph Nader was one the speakers, who published his book Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile in 1965. There was also an old car that students smashed in protest, and a public trial that was held for the automobile.

Ralph Nader spoke at the University of Michigan teach-in. (Photo courtesy of the University of Michigan)

Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, played a vital role in funding and organizing this first Earth Day. He was also in attendance at the University of Michigan teach-in along with Barry Commoner, the ecologist who had just been on the cover of TIME Magazine at the time. David Brower of The Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth was also there, along with microbiologist and environmentalist philosopher Rene DuBos, Pulitzer Prize-winning economist Kenneth Boulding and musician Gordon Lightfoot.

Not only was the UAW the largest financial contributor, they also printed and mailed materials promoting the protest. Even materials that were critical of their very own industry. For more on autoworkers’ long history of protecting our environment, check out the latest Great Lakes Moment.

University of Michigan students smashed an old car in protest. (Photo courtesy of the University of Michigan)

According to Dennis Hayes in an interview with Grist: “Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely flopped!” Hayes was a graduate student at Harvard University’s Kennedy School in 1969, and previously led one of the most prolific anti-Vietnam War movements while the Student Body President at Stanford University. After snagging a 10-minute meeting with Nelson in D.C., 25-year-old Hayes left graduate school to become the principal organizer for what would become Earth Day.

Who was Senator Gaylord Nelson?

Nelson grew up in Clear Lake, Wisconsin surrounded by the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest. The largest state forest in Wisconsin, it covers 236,000 acres and spans three counties with over 900 inland lakes.

Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress)

After serving in WWII, Nelson practiced law in Madison, Wisconsin. His political career would start in 1948 as a state senator, then moving on to serve two terms as governor of Wisconsin from 1959-1962. While working as governor, Nelson allocated funds to purchase 1 million acres of land for parks in the state by creating the Outdoor Recreation Acquisition Program.

Once his term limit was up, Nelson became a U.S. Senator in 1963 and stayed in this role for 18 years. During this time he helped pass the Wilderness Act, the National Trails Act, the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the National Environmental Education Act. According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nelson also introduced “the first federal legislation to mandate fuel-efficiency standards in automobiles, control strip mining, and ban the use of phosphates in detergents as well as use of the pesticide DDT and the defoliant 2,4,5-T.”

After seeing a lot of hesitancy around passing environmental laws, Nelson thought, if he could get more public awareness and excitement around environmental issues, then there would be more pressure on Congress to pass legislation for environmental protection.

During Nelson’s speech at the University of Indiana-Bloomington, on April 22, 1970, he said:

“We’ve destroyed Lake Erie. We see the beginning of the destruction of Lake Michigan. And we see the tiny beginnings of pollution of Lake Superior, which I hope soon will be stopped.”

While Nelson is most well-known for creating Earth Day, the impact of his advocacy had a domino effect on Capitol Hill. Later that year, after further championing from Nelson, the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior were designated a National Lakeshore by President Nixon. The EPA was also established in 1970 on the tails of the event, and the Clean Air Act was updated to include stronger federal enforcement. Then, the landmark Clean Water Act passed just two years later.

The first Earth Day continued to give momentum to environmental issues and helped pass Superfund (formerly known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act), the Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Toxics Substances Control Act. By 1980, after a decade of impact, April 22 was officially declared “Earth Day” by Pres. Jimmy Carter.

After Nelson left the Senate in 1981, he served on the board of The Wilderness Society. Through public speaking and his work in the private sector, he continued to advocate for the protection of the country’s national forests and parks.