MONTPELIER — Protests, on campuses and off, about Russia’s war against Ukraine, Israel’s war on Gaza and the Hamas massacre of Israelis sparked media attention this past year. The wars brought political debate from the halls of Congress to the Presidential race and beyond.

The wars continue as do the protests, bringing forth echoes of the reactions over 50 years ago to the Vietnam War.

A collection of photographs documenting civic protests in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s offers a bridge of history from then to today. The images are now on display at the T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier.

Titled, “PROTEST, Washington, D.C. — 1967, 1968, 1969,” the work is by Vermonter Ross Connelly, the co-publisher and editor of The Hardwick Gazette from 1986 to 2017.

The current exhibit is the third display of the photographs. The images were first shown during summer 2022 at the White Water Gallery in East Hardwick. The Julian Scott Memorial Gallery at the Vermont State University, Johnson, hosted the show during the winter semester 2023. The T.W. Wood exhibit runs through November.

The images, which Connelly took while in college and afterward, are of the October 1967 Pentagon March, the Howard University student rebellion of March 1968, troops that occupied the city after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968, and of the Vietnam Moratorium March of November 1969.

Connelly believes the protests of the 1960s remain significant, even if controversial to some. They are, he says, rays of sun over clouds casting shadows on an uneasy current landscape.

He hopes this group of photographs will open, or reopen, a window to that time period and be a reminder people still need to engage, stand up and speak out.

An opening reception for both the PROTEST exhibit and a simultaneous exhibit of the Vermont Pastel Society was held Oct. 4.

The T.W. Wood Gallery is located at 46 Barre St., Montpelier. Hours are from noon-4 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays. For additional information, call 802-262-6035.