Editing Welsh Language Society (section)

=== 1960s ===
[[File:Protest gyntaf Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg ar Bont Trefechan, Aberystwyth (24825457959).jpg|thumb|250px|The first protest at Pont Trefechan in [[Aberystwyth]], 1963]]
The Society was established in name on 4 August 1962 at [[Pontarddulais]] in [[South Wales]], but did not have a constitution until 18 May 1963. The formation was at least partly inspired by the annual [[BBC Wales]] Radio Lecture given on 13 February 1962 by [[Saunders Lewis]] and entitled ''[[Tynged yr iaith]]'' (The fate of the language).<ref>Davies, ''A History of Wales'', Penguin, 1994, {{ISBN|0-14-014581-8}}, p 649: "the catalyst (for its formation) was the radio lecture given by Saunders Lewis on 13/2/62"</ref> Historian [[John Davies (historian)|John Davies]] has said that the lecture was "the catalyst" for the formation of the Welsh Language Society,  and the start of a period of direct-action agitation to enhance the status of the Welsh language.<ref>Davies, John, ''A History of Wales'', Penguin, 1994, {{ISBN|0-14-014581-8}}, p 649</ref> Its direct effect on the formation of the Society is described in a history of that society.<ref>Phillips, D, ''The History of the Welsh Language Society'' in Jenkins, Geraint. H., and Williams, Mari A., (eds) ''Let's do our best for the ancient tongue'', UoW Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-7083-1658-1}}, p 467</ref>

The Society's first public protest took place in February 1963 in [[Aberystwyth]] town centre, where members pasted posters on the post office in an attempt to be arrested and go to trial.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/oct/30/dr-tedi-millward-welsh-language-protest-aberystwyth | title=Dr Tedi Millward, at the first Welsh language protest, Aberystwyth, 2 February 1963| newspaper=The Guardian| date=2015-10-30| last1=Booth| first1=Hannah}}</ref> When it became apparent that they would not be arrested for the posters, they then moved to Pont Trefechan in Aberystwyth, where around seventy members and supporters held a [[sit-in]] blocking road traffic for half an hour.<ref>Dylan Philps. "history of the welsh language society" in The Welsh Language in the Twentieth Century. Ed. by G.H. Jenkins and M.W. Williams. Page 471</ref>

The first campaigns were for official status for the language, with a call for Welsh-language tax returns, schools, electoral forms, post office signs, birth certificates and so on. This was done through the formation of 'cells', the first operating in [[Bangor, Gwynedd|Bangor]] in April 1963 by [[Owain Owain]] who also founded and edited the Society's only publication, ''[[Tafod y Ddraig]]'' ('The Dragon's Tongue') and designed the logo.

In 1968 a sit-in was held at the news and television studio and the newsroom department of the [[BBC]] at Broadway, [[Cardiff]], by members of the Society. The sit-in was calling for the BBC to use more Welsh.<ref>https🖉{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/30/welsh-bbc-studios-protest-sit-in-language-1968|title=Sit-in at BBC Welsh studios – archive, 30 November 1968|author=Guardian Staff|date=November 30, 2016|website=the Guardian}}</ref>