1968
the year that transformed the nation
1968 was a year filled with conflict and transformation. The Kerner Commission report shattered dreams of a unified society. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were silenced by assassins. Young white students protested the Vietnam War while frustrated black people protested racism and poverty at home. Political power saw shifts from Cleveland’s election of its first black mayor Carl Stokes, a contrast to Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s “Southern Strategy” that paved the way for Richard Nixon.
Still, pop culture connected people in ways that politics couldn’t. Sly and the Family Stone gave us integrated soul. Star Trek showed us a multicultural TV cast, McDonald’s got us to eat Big Macs and the Apollo 8 space mission opened our minds for bigger dreams.
