"The cry of 'Flower Power' echoes through the land. We shall not wilt. Let a thousand flowers bloom." — Abbie Hoffman, N. Y. Workshop in Nonviolence, May 1967.

This pin was issued and sold circa 1967 by the N. Y. Workshop in Nonviolence (noted on the curl of the pin, see image of back) to raise funds and support for ending the U.S. war in Viet Nam.  Yippie Abbie Hoffman was a leader of the group.  It has great graphics of a rifle firing flowers and reads FLOWER POWER.

Flower Power originated as a symbolic action of protest against the Vietnam War.  The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 in Berkeley, California as a means to transform war protests into peaceful affirmative spectacles.

In his essay titled How to Make a March/Spectacle, Ginsberg advocated that protesters should be provided with "masses of flowers" to hand out to policemen, press, politicians and spectators. The use of props like flowers, toys, flags, candy and music were meant to turn anti-war rallies into a form of street theater thereby reducing the fear, anger and threat that is inherent within protests.  Using Ginsberg's methods, the protest received positive attention and the use of "flower power" became an integral symbol in the counterculture movement.

Workshop in Nonviolence (WIN), a magazine published by the New York Workshop in Nonviolence, Abbie Hoffman, a member, encouraged the use of Flower Power in protests against the war in Vietnam.

In May 1967, Abbie Hoffman organized the Flower Brigade as an official contingent of a New York City parade honoring the soldiers in Vietnam. News coverage captured Flower Brigade participants, who carried flowers, flags and pink posters imprinted with LOVE, being attacked and beaten by bystanders. On the following Sunday, NY WIN activists declared the Armed Forces Day as "Flower Power Day" and held a rally in Central Park to counter the traditional parade.

In October 1967, Hoffman and Jerry Rubin helped organize the March on the Pentagon using Flower Power concepts to create a theatrical spectacle. The idea included a call for marchers to attempt to levitate the Pentagon. When the marchers faced off against more than 2500 Army national guard troops forming a human barricade in front of the Pentagon, demonstrators held flowers and some placed flowers in the soldier's rifle barrels.

Hippies embraced the symbolism by dressing in clothing with embroidered flowers and vibrant colors, wearing flowers in their hair, and distributing flowers to the public, becoming known as flower children. The term later became generalized as a modern reference to the hippie movement and the so-called counterculture of drugs, psychedelic music, psychedelic art and social permissiveness.