1968

The Most Revolutionary Year of

the Twentieth Century Part 3

This is the finale of the 1968 historical series. During this time, we witnessed a crescendo of
transformative occurrences. After the evil assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, divisions existed among
the Democratic Party's pro-war and anti-war wings. The Vietnam War resulted in the loss of tons of
human lives unnecessarily. The reactionary movement soon unified under the anti-Communist and
race-baiter Richard Nixon. Ideological battles spread among the Left and the Right in the Democratic
National convention, the 1968 Olympics, and the election of 1968 in general. Hubert Humphrey waited
later in his campaign to split from LBJ regarding his Vietnam War policy. The victory of Nixon, as a
result of the 1968 election, represented the right-wing backlash against progressive progress reaching into
new heights. Likewise, heroes continued to fight against injustices from holding protests and working in
organizations. The end of the year saw space travel accelerated with American astronauts orbiting the
Moon for the first time. 1968 ended as one of the revolutionary time periods in human history.
 Contents
*An Uncertain Future in America
*Richard Nixon and the Rise of
Counterrevolution
*The Democratic National Convention in
Chicago
*The End of the 1968 Presidential Election
and Social Movements
*An Inspirational Protest (in Mexico City) and
the End of 1968
*Appendix A: The Music of that Era

This demonstration was held on Aug. 10, 1968 in Chicago

as the city prepared to host the Democratic National
Convention. (David Wilson / Flickr)
 An Uncertain Future in America
The cause for human justice continued after the deaths of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. and Robert Francis Kennedy. Activists marched and protested while
having anxiety about the future of American society. Cultural changes and an
unjust war persisted.

New Left leader Tom Hayden support among the party’s

E arly June of 1968 saw the
passing away of the charismatic
political leader Robert F.
Kennedy. Many people, especially
the youth, felt disillusioned
afterward. A war was waging
onward, people were confused
about which direction to go, and
the right-wing movement persisted
relentlessly against civil rights
(plus the other social changes the
legitimately transpired during the
decade of the 1960’s). If Robert
Kennedy had lived, he might have
won the Democratic nomination
and the Presidency. The socialist
Michael Harrington once said that
Robert Kennedy was “the man
who actually could have change
the course of American history.”
Two different political figures of
Chicago mayor Richard Daley and
saw Kennedy’s coffin in St.
Patrick Cathedral in New York
City. Hayden said the following
words about RFK’s coffin that
was: “…all that remained of last
night’s hopes for the poor.
Nothing left of that hope now,
gone in a coffin while crews
hammered away and police
awaited the crowd. I started to cry
hard.”
At the location, Edward Kennedy
gave a very eloquent eulogy that
talked about the dreams of Robert
Kennedy to end suffering among
those who suffered and to end the
Vietnam War in general. After the
Robert Kennedy assassination,
Eugene McCarthy’s campaign
faltered. McCarthy continued to
fight onward, but he did not have
establishment. He won the New
York primary on June 18, 1968.
He was gaining ground in
competition against Humphrey.
Long before late August,
Humphrey gained enough votes to
win the Democratic nomination.
The progressive movement was
divided. Many people did not
want to vote. Some in the New
Left started to leave mainstream
politics altogether to be part of a
third-party movement or
independent political circles.
Others lived in communes as the
hippies did, and some followed
the path of guerrilla resistance
against the American government
(which would be the origins of the
later Weatherman Underground
movement). Nonwhite minorities
questioned society itself when
American leaders were shot down
and murdered unjustly. McCarthy
wanted his supporters to continue
to fight into Chicago which was
where the Democratic National
Convention would exist by August
5-8, 1968.
The Poor People's Campaign of
1968 ended on the date of June
24, 1968. The police in
Washington, D.C. used force to
stop the Resurrection City
settlement. Resurrection City had
about 3,000 people in the capital
of America. It had food, other
amenities, a daycare center, city
hall, a mess hall, and a barbershop.
Architect John Wiebenson
designed the city’s shanty
buildings to be sturdy but non-
complex so the many unskilled
volunteers could quickly make
homes for thousands. The most
significant event in the campaign
around Resurrection City came on
June 19, when 150,000 people
gathered to rally in support of
Poor People’s Campaign and hear
speeches from the movement’s
leaders. The city sat on the iconic
lawn of the Washington mall
where it served as a “counter
capital.” When Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. conceived of the project,
he envisioned Resurrection City as
headquarters from which the Poor
People’s Campaign could lobby
Congress to pass an Economic Bill
of Rights.
Hubert Humphrey gave kind
words on the project by saying,
that the Poor People’s campaign
was, “going to produce results”
and that “I think we can learn a
lot here.” Ralph Abernathy was a
leader of the campaign after Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. passed
away. President Johnson was
hostile, as was the bulk of
Congress. One Democratic
senator from Arkansas, John
McClellan, went as far as to say
the city was “a premeditated act
of contempt for and rebellion
against the sovereignty of
government.” The population of
the city fell to about 500 as the
June 24 expiration date for the
protest’s permit approached.
Abernathy, however, remained
committed to the project and said
Resurrection City would stay
regardless of a permit.
When June 24 arrived, the local
authorities in the District of
Columbia deployed 1,000 police
to tear down Resurrection City.
Using tear gas and wearing masks
and body armor, police arrested
288 people, including Abernathy.
Later that night, the mayor
declared a curfew and deployed
This shelter had the lyrics from the two
songs of “You Can’t Keep Us Down” and
“In Resurrection City. “ It is no secret that
the FBI wanted to disrupt this movement
via Operation POCAM, which was
disgracefully executed by the FBI. The
FOIA found that the FBI wanted to also
split the Poor People’s Campaign and a
group of Quakers. The FBI had informants
in their GIP plan or the Ghetto Informant
Program. Head Start, free or reduced
lunches for children, and other programs
came as a result of this movement.
Marian Wright Edelman inspired the Poor
People’s Campaign too.
the National Guard to enforce
martial law. The Poor Peoples
Campaign wanted to use people
from across racial lines in ending
poverty, racism, and economic
inequality. Today, after 50 years,
we are still fighting the same fight.
 Richard Nixon and the Rise of Counterrevolution
Ambition drove Nixon to be a man who went from experiencing numerous political
defeats to winning the Presidency by 1968. Conservatives and other opponents of the
counterculture wanted America to embrace a far right conservative ethos in
opposition to the progressives’ goals.

Act of 1964 on federalism grounds. Richard Nixon

I t is important
to note that
back then,
many liberal
and moderate
Republicans
were still influential (today, it is a different story with
more than 90% of the Republican establishment
being conservative). By this time, Nixon made a huge
political comeback. John F. Kennedy defeated him
during the 1960 election. He lost the run for
California’s governor in 1962 to the progressive
leader Pat Brown. He supported Barry Goldwater
when Goldwater refused to support the Civil Rights
later remade himself to appeal to conservatives in the
North and the South to run for President again by
1968. Nixon stumped for Republican candidates
back in 1966 to cause the Republican resurgence in
Congress of that year. That was the first
Congressional expression of the white backlash after
the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In the 1968
Presidential campaign, he defeated Nelson
Rockefeller. Nixon competed against Michigan
governor and former American Motors President
George Romney. George Romney was a moderate
politician, but his son Mitt Romney is a more
conservative political leader. George Romney did the
brave thing of saying that diplomats and military
officers, who briefed him, brainwashed on the
Vietnam War. That was very taboo to speak like that
back in the 1960's, especially as he was running for
the GOP candidacy of President. Therefore, George
Romney’s campaign ended very quickly. As the
convention existed in Miami, Florida, Nixon faced
off against Nelson Rockefeller and the conservative
Ronald Reagan.
Southern Strategy for him to win. Nixon deceived
many northern and southern white Americans in
believing that more rights for black people (and
people of color) would mean fewer human rights for
them. Even some urban northern whites were
manipulated by Nixon and his cronies to believe in
racial scapegoating instead of the capitalist elites
causing their problems in the first place. Former
Alabama Governor Wallace also used the same
southern strategy rhetoric to gain votes in the South,
the Midwest, and parts of the North. On June 26,
1968, the Bonin Islands were returned to Japan after
23 years of occupation by the United States Navy.

Ronald Reagan was the man who was once liberal

and then he even opposed Medicare once upon a
time (which is highly extremist). Nixon was slick and
used the rhetoric of “law and order” to gain the
delegates to win the nomination. The problem with
the “law and order” rhetoric is that it ignored the
By July 1, 1968, the Central Intelligence Agency’s
rights of minorities to be free from police oppression
Phoenix Program developed. This program came
and law and order was used by the oligarchy to
after the Tet Offensive. Operation Phoenix was
suppress human civil liberties instead of protecting
brutal, and it was an explicit CIA assassination
them. This Nixon was not the new Nixon. This same
program. The U.S. Army and the CIA worked
Nixon used concepts of traditional values to gain
together in enacting the evil Phoenix Program too. It
votes. He or Richard Nixon hated the Black Panthers
led to the deaths of at least 26,000 people with some
and the anti-war activists too. Nixon blamed the
estimates exceeding 40,000. The mission of the
Johnson-Humphrey administration for problems in
Phoenix Program, according to the CIA, was “a set
America. He attacked Great Society programs and
of programs that sought to attack and destroy the
abhorred federal government social programs in the
political infrastructure of the Viet Cong.” However,
billions of dollars (that can help minorities and the
in reality, it was a systematic policy of terrorism
poor). Nixon believed in the token black capitalism
carried out against the civilian population of South
model in that funds for black businesses alone would
Vietnam. South Vietnamese soldiers did most of the
eliminate poverty in the black community. That is
dirty work, but CIA and Army officials oversaw and
ludicrous since poverty must end by an active federal
participated in various forms of torture and
government involvement along with independent
assassinations. The main purpose of the program was
economic endeavors. Nixon wanted to end mandated
to collect intelligence on suspected members of the
school busing. Nixon divided Americans by talking
Viet Cong then “neutralize” them, which could mean
about the forgotten Americans and using the
imprisonment and torture, or assassination, or both.
People were forced to put a bag on their head with
the holes cut out to point at suspected
"Communists." According to the account of
Lieutenant Vincent Okamoto, after a house was
selected, “that night Phoenix would come back,
knock on the door, and say, ‘April Fool,
motherf____r.’ Whoever answered the door would
get wasted. As far as they were concerned whoever
answered was a Communist, including family
members. Sometimes they’d come back to camp with
ears to prove that they killed people.” Many of the
victims were dragged off for them to experience
torture. Many Vietnamese people suffered beatings,
rape, electrocution, dog attacks, and in some cases
were thrown alive out of helicopters. The methods of
the US government under the Phoenix Program
rivaled the methods of the Nazi Gestapo and Stalin’s
KGB. To this very day, very few Americans know
about the evils actions of Operation Phoenix.
The semiconductor company Intel was formed on
July 18. From July 23-28, 1968, the black
nationalists led by Fred Evans engaged in a fierce
gunfight with the police in the Glenville shootout of
Cleveland, Ohio. The Republican National
Convention took place in Miami Beach, Florida. The
RNC nominated Richard Nixon for U.S. President
and Spiro Agnew for Vice President. On August 21,
1968, the Medal of Honor was posthumously
awarded to James Anderson, Jr. He is the first black
U.S. Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
 (Michael
Boyer /
Associated
Press)

The Democratic National Convention in Chicago

A police riot caused innocent people, including bystanders,
bystanders, to be assaulted by
the Chicago police and the whole world watching the expressions of cruelty and
brutality. Social activists wanted the Democrats to pays an anti-
anti-war resolution
for their platform, but the DNC refused to do so. These events shape our w world
orld
even in late 2018.

F rom August 22-30, 1968, the
police clashed with anti-war
protesters in Chicago, Illinois,
outside the 1968 Democratic
National Convention, which
nominates Hubert Humphrey for
U.S. President, and Edmund
Muskie for Vice President. It had
a long history. The Yippies
heavily organized the march. The
Youth International Party was
part of the protest movement too.
Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and
other of their friends (like Nancy
Krassner Paul Krassner, and Anita
Hoffman) talked in Hoffman’s
apartment. This event took place
on New Year’s Eve in 1967. They
talked about the Summer of Love
and the Pentagon demonstration
in 1967. They wanted a musical
festival in Chicago in 1968 (called
the Festival of Life). The Yippies
wanted a politicized hippie
ideological view to spread. They
wanted to use street theater, and
other actions to criticize United
States culture plus have change.
Another major group involved in
the protests at the DNC was the
National Mobilization Committee
to End the War in Vietnam (or
MOBE). The MOBE group was
made up of many groups that
opposed the American
participation in the Vietnam War.
MOBE was run by a small
executive board that set up a
general framework for mass
demonstrations. They sent out
invitations to the over 500 groups
on its mailing lists, and they
coordinated activities between the
groups. MOBE recognized and
supported various tactics from
marching to civil disobedience.
MOBE's main aim was to get the
largest turnouts at its functions.
David Dellinger, MOBE
chairman, believed that "The
tendency to intensify militancy
without organizing wide political
support [was] self-defeating. But
so [was] the tendency to draw
away from militancy into milder
and more conventional forms of
protest." On January 2, 1968,
African American civil rights
activist and comedian Dick
Gregory said that he would
organize protests and marches in
Chicago before and during the
Democratic National Convention.
He wanted Chicago to pass a
stronger fair housing ordinance
and use other actions to deal with
civil rights issues in Chicago.
Gregory chose not to lead
demonstrations by April 15,
1968.

On April 27, 1968, an anti-war
march in Chicago had about
8,000 people. When the march
ended, the Chicago police ordered
the crowd to disperse. Later, the
cops assaulted people with clubs.
The unofficial Sparling report
criticized the police and the Daley
administration. For Chicago,
MOBE originally planned for two
large-scale marches and an end of
convention rally at Soldier Field.
The goal has initially been a
massive show of force outside the
International Amphitheater.
MOBE also planned to have
workshops and movement centers
distributed in 10 parks
throughout the city, many in
predominantly black areas, to
allow demonstrators and
participating groups to follow
their particular focuses. Then
Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley
wanted so-called “law and order”
to be maintained during the
demonstrations. The Yippies
applied for a permit to protest on
July 15, 1968. The MOBE group
applied for permits (on July 29,
1968) to march around the
International Amphitheater at the
DNC. All permits are denied,
except one allowing the use of the
Grant Park bandshell for a rally
[In 1968 the bandshell was
located at the far south end of
Grant Park, near the Field
Museum].
Convention week came. By August
22, 1968, on Thursday, Dean
Johnson was shot and killed by
the police. The police said that he
pulled a gun. Johnson was a 17-
year-old teenage Sioux Native
American from South Dakota. He
wanted to go to Chicago for the
Festival of Life. A memorial,
which was organized by the
Yippie, existed in the form of a
march later in the day. There was
once an all-white Georgia
delegation. On that day, the
Democratic Party made a
compromise to split the delegate
votes between a group of delegates
headed by Gov. Lester Maddox
(who was a known segregationist)
and another group headed by
State Representative Julian Bond.
On August 23, 1968, the Yippies
nominated their presidential
contender of Pigasus, the pig. 7
Yippies and the pig experienced
arrest. They were at the Civic
Center Plaza at the Loop or Daley
Center. Illinois National
Guardsmen and individual
Chicago platoons practiced riot
control drills.
McCarthy volunteers and other
anti-war activists decided to go
into Chicago to oppose
Humphrey. They believed that
since the Republicans were never
going to create an anti-war
platform, they wanted the
Democrats to hear their antiwar
demands. Some of the protesters
opposed the two-party system as
undemocratic and representative
of imperialism plus war. The
Chicago protest had many factions
united by the National
Mobilization Committee to End
the War in Vietnam (or MOBE).
New Left people led the
movement like Tom Hayden,
Rennie Davis, and veteran pacifist
Dave Dellinger. The Yippies
joined them too. The Yippies
were part of the hippie movement
led by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry
Rubin. They opposed the
Democrats. They wanted to
promote a “Festival of Life” while
they accused the Democrats of
advancing the “Festival of Death.”
The Yippies joked about sending
LSD into the Chicago water
system. They were satirical and
used a pig to nominate as Pigasus
for President. Chicago Mayor
Richard Daley was an old-school
political boss. He did not like the
young protesters. Daley did not
want permits for the
demonstrators to sleep in city
parks. He wanted Chicago police
officers to work 12-hour shifts.
He had 6,000 Army troops, 5,000
National Guardsmen, and
thousands of state and county
police. Hundreds of FBI and
Secret Service agents were there in
Chicago to work undercover.
By August 25, 1968, Daley
unleashed his brutal cops to
assault the protesters. Law
enforcement beat up bystanders
and journalists too. The cops used
tear gas, mace, and clubs. Many
demonstrators were arrested and
bleeding from the violence.
Camera operators suffered assault
too. Cops yelled out “Kill!”
“Commie!” and “Pu__y!” at the
protesters. One priest had a
fractured skull. Terroristic cops
beat Hayden, Davis, Rubin, and
Hoffman. Hugh Hefner was
clubbed. French writer Jean Genet
suffered teargas. He called the
cops “mad dogs.” The police also
ran into the 15th floor of the
Hilton Hotel where the McCarthy
headquarters stationed. They
subsequently clubbed the
volunteers of the campaign there.
On the convention for, Daley’s
guards punched CBS reporter Dan
Rather. Another CBS
correspondent Walter Cronkite
called the assaulters thugs. The
Senator from Connecticut
Abraham Ribicoff said from the
podium to criticize Daley for his
Gestapo tactics. Daley was shown
by the camera being angry. People
believed that Daley said in
response to Ribicoff the following
words, “F__ you, you Jew, son of
a b___! you lousy mother-f___,
go home.” The crowd of
protesters yelled Peace Now, and
the Whole World is Watching.
People around the world saw the
brutality of the police. Later,
Hubert Humphrey accepted his
nomination in the midst of the
Democratic Party being divided
and self-destructing before folks’
eyes. The events in Chicago
motivated the anti-war protesters
to continue, but ironically it
stirred up the conservatives to
fight against the progressive
policies that the liberals
established. Many conservative
Americans saw the protesters in a
negative light, and they flocked to
Richard Nixon.

The Leaders of the New Left

The New Left was a
progressive movement
that rejected
Stalinism, it wanted
decentralization, it
opposed the Vietnam
War, and it believed in
civil rights. They
loved student
activism. They had
strengths and
weaknesses plus
Herbert Marcuse Mario Savio (1942- Bettina Aptheker
remained a key part of
world history. (1898-1979) 1996) (1944- present)

Tom Hayden (1939- Carl Oglesby (1935- Kim Moody (1940- C. Wright Mills (1916-
2016) 2011) present) 1962)
 (Photo by Lisl Steiner/Getty Images)
Eugene McCarthy started his
1968 Presidential campaign in
1967 on an anti-Vietnam
platform.
The End of the 1968 Presidential Election and
Social Movements
Delegates speak their minds during the
1968 Democratic National Convention.
A fter the 1968 Democratic National Convention
in Chicago, the world changed. The Presidential
campaigns of Nixon/Agnew and Humphrey/Muskie
would continue. Hubert Humphrey had burdens of
being seen as the war candidate despite having a
progressive record on domestic issues. Nixon wanted
to project a new image of himself, but he was still the
same reactionary against the social activism of the
progressives. By September 6, 1968, Swaziland
became independent. Swaziland is in Africa. On
Hubert Humphrey spent his life Richard Nixon won the 1968
to advocate for social justice. election and saw both the end
of the 1960’s including the
beginning of a new era during
the 1970’s.
Hubert Humphrey and his Vice
Presidential candidate Muskie run in
opposition to Nixon’s Southern Strategy.
Ball of Confusion, 1968
September 7, 1968, about 150 women (members of
the New York Radical Women organization) arrived
in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They came to protest
against the Miss America Pageant. They view it as
exploitative against women. Activist and author
Robin Morgan led it. This protest was one of the
first massive demonstrations of Second Wave
Feminism. First Wave Feminism was from the Susan
B. Anthony days until the early 1960’s. Second Wave
Feminism is from the early-1960’s (with NOW and
Betty Friedan writing her famous book entitled, “The
Feminine Mystique”) until the 1980’s. Third Wave
Feminism is from the 1980’s to 2012. Fourth wave
feminism is from 2012 to the present. The media
covered the Second Wave Feminism and this protest.
By September 7, 1968, the Banana Splits Adventure
Hour begins airing on NBC. It would go on to 2
seasons, ending on December 13 a Year Later in the
middle of season 2. Army Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware,
World War II Medal of Honor recipient, was killed
when his helicopter was shot down in Vietnam on
September 13, 1968. He received the Distinguished
Service Cross posthumously. On the same day,
Albania officially withdraws from the Warsaw Pact
upon the Soviet Union-led Warsaw Pact invasion of
Czechoslovakia, had already ceased to participate
actively in Pact activity since 1962. On September
20, 1968, Hawaii Five-O debuts on CBS, and
eventually becomes the longest-running crime show
in television history, until Law & Order
overtook it in 2003. The Tet Offensive ended on
September 23, 1968. 60 Minutes debuted on CBS
on September 24, 1968.
On October 2, 1968, there was the Tlatelolco
massacre: A student demonstration ends in a
bloodbath at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas in
Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico, ten days before the
inauguration of the 1968 Summer Olympics. About
300-400 people experienced murder. By October 5,
1968, Police baton civil rights demonstrators in
Derry, Northern Ireland, marking the beginning of
The Troubles (which took place in Northern Ireland
and the fight to either make Northern Ireland be in
By September 30, 1968, Hubert Humphrey had a
speech and announced that he would, “stop the
bombing of North Vietnam as an acceptable risk for
peace.” This placed distance between him and LBJ.
His poll numbers started to increase. McCarthy soon
supported him as most Americans by late 1968
opposed the Vietnam War. Labor leaders supported
Humphrey too. Even the Supremes gave a speech in
favor of Hubert Humphrey as he was a liberal on
civil rights and other domestic issues. Wallace and
his running mate Curtis Le May (who committed
war crimes in WWII involving firebombing Tokyo
and promoting using a bombing campaign in North
Vietnam) lost ground. Operation Sealords occurred
on October 8, 1968, in dealing with the Vietnam
War. The United States and South Vietnamese
forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
This operation caused a massive break up of North
Vietnamese communication and supply systems. The
Detroit Tigers won the 1968 World Series on
October 11, 1968. They defeated the St. Louis
Cardinals 4 games to 3.
the UK or be part of the larger area of Ireland in
independence. More than 3,500 people suffered
murder in the conflict, of which 52% were civilians,
32% were members of the British security forces, and
16% were members of paramilitary groups). On
October 7, 1968, at the height of protests against the
Vietnam War, José Feliciano performed "The Star-
Spangled Banner" at Tiger Stadium in Detroit during
Game 5 pre-game ceremonies of the 1968 World
Series between the Tigers and the St. Louis
Cardinals. His personalized, slow, Latin jazz
performance was innovative. He opened the door for
later interpretations of the national anthem. As part
of the Apollo program, NASA launched Apollo 7 on
October 11. It was the first human-crewed Apollo
mission (the astronauts involved were Wally Schirra,
Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham). Mission
goals include the first live television broadcast from
orbit and testing the lunar module docking
maneuver. October 12 was the time when Equatorial
Guinea received its independence from Spain. By
October 14, 1968, the United States Department of
Defense announced that the United States Army and
United States Marines would send about 24,000
troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
 An Inspirational Protest (in Mexico
O n October 16, 1968,
City) and the End of 1968
something inspirational
happened. It was when in
Mexico City, track athletes
(THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE
Tommie Smith and John
PHOTO)
Carlos (who are two black
Americans competing in
the Olympic 200-meter
run) raised their arms in a
black power salute after
winning the race with
respectively the gold and
bronze medals for the first
and third place. Ironically,
the 2nd place was an
Australian athlete named
Peter Norman who agreed
with the salute. On the
morning of October 16,
1968, US athlete Tommie
Smith had a world-record
time of 19.83 seconds.
Australia's Peter Norman
finished with a time of
20.06 seconds, and the
US's John Carlos had a
time of 20.10 seconds. One of the greatest athletes of The victors in this image of the 100m
The two US athletes all time is the very great, (during the 1968 Summer Olympics) are
received their medals beautiful Sister Wyomia Tyus. Wyomia Tyus winning gold from America,
She won gold medals in the Barbara Ann Ferrell-Edmonson winning
shoeless but wearing black 100m and the 4 X 100 m relay silver from America, and Irena Szewinska
socks, to represent black race of the 1968 Summer winning bronze from Poland. 1968 saw
poverty. Smith wore a Olympics. She was was a atheltic excellence in a great way.
founding member of the
black scarf around his Women's Sports Foundation.
neck to represent black
pride, Carlos had his tracksuit top thrown off the side of the boats in OPHR, had urged black athletes
unzipped to show solidarity with the Middle Passage." All three to boycott the games; reportedly,
all blue-collar workers in the US athletes wore Olympic Project for the actions of Smith and Carlos
and wore a necklace of beads Human Rights (OPHR) badges on October 16, 1968, were
which he described "were for after Norman, a critic of inspired by Edwards's arguments.
those individuals that were Australia's former White Australia When The Star-Spangled Banner
lynched, or killed and that no-one Policy, expressed empathy with played, Smith and Carlos delivered
said a prayer for, that were hung their ideals. Sociologist Harry the salute with heads bowed, a
and tarred." It was for those Edwards, the founder of the gesture which became front-page
news around the world. As they
left the podium, the crowd booed
them.
Smith later said, "If I win, I am
American, not a black American.
However, if I did something bad,
then they would say I am a Negro.
We are black, and we are proud of
being black. Black America will
understand what we did
tonight."Tommie Smith stated in
later years that "We were
concerned about the lack of black
assistant coaches. About how
Muhammad Ali got stripped of
his title. About the lack of access
to good housing and our kids not
being able to attend the top
colleges." International Olympic
Committee (IOC) president Avery
Brundage deemed it to be a
national political statement unfit
for the apolitical, international
forum the Olympic Games were
intended to be. In response to
their actions, he suspended Smith
and Carlos from the US team and
banned from the Olympic Village.
When the US Olympic
Committee refused, Brundage
threatened to ban the entire US
track team. This threat led to the
expulsion of the two athletes from
the Games. Brundage
hypocritically supported racist
Nazi salutes during the 1936
Olympics. In contrast, Tommie
Smith and John Carlos wanted to
advance freedom and justice.
Both Tommie Smith and John
Carlos were praised by the black
community and progressive
communities worldwide. Back
home, both Smith and Carlos
were subject to abuse, and they
and their families received death
threats. The athletes experienced
hatred by the far right and
suffered unjust punishments until
recently for their heroic act of
opposing racial oppression. When
Norman died in 2006, Smith and
Carlos were pallbearers at his
funeral. Smith and Carlos received
an Arthur Ashe Courage Award at
the 2008 ESPY Awards honoring
their action. Former U.S. First
Lady Jacqueline Kennedy married
Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle
Onassis on the Greek island of
Skorpios on October 20, 1968.
The Gun Control Act of 1968
transpired on October 22, 1968.
By October 25, The Jimi Hendrix
Experience released Electric
Ladyland. Jimi Hendrix was a
great guitar player who was ahead
of his time regarding his musical
expression. Citing progress in the
Paris peace talks, U.S. President
Lyndon B. Johnson announced to
the nation that he has ordered a
complete cessation of "all air,
naval, and artillery bombardment
of North Vietnam" effective
November 1. Hubert Humphrey
publicly calls for an ending of the
bombing. His polls increase, and
he almost defeated Richard
Nixon. On November 5, 1968,
Republican challenger Richard M.
Nixon defeated the Democratic
candidate Hubert Humphrey.
Nixon had 43.4 percent of the
vote while Humphrey had 42.7
percent of the vote. Also,
American Independent Party
candidate George C. Wallace lost
the election too with 14 percent
of the vote and winning five states
of the Deep South. Nixon did not
win a significant large city. Nixon
won well in the upper South,
Midwest, and West. Humphrey
won in Texas, Washington State,
Washington, D.C., and
throughout most of the
Northeast.
The aftermath of the 1968
election caused the growth of
conservativism in America. It
shifted many from embracing
New Deal-style liberalism into a
more right-wing agenda. Tons of
voters, who supported Nixon,
expressed a backlash against civil
rights, the counterculture, the anti-
war movement, and progressive
social programs. Liberalism had to
fight back. Conservatives
slandered the Great Society, but it
continued forth as we the
beneficiaries of it today in 2018.
Numerous voters left the
Democratic Party and became
Republicans overnight.
Progressives would not be utterly
defeated, but they continuously
plus heroically fought for equality
and social justice afterward as
well.
On that day, Luis A. Ferre was
elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
On November 11, 1968, The
Vietnam War had Operation
Commando Hunt. It was initiated
to interdict men and supplies on
the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through
Laos into South Vietnam. By the
end of the operation, 3 million
tons of bombs are dropped on
Laos, slowing but not severely
disrupting trail operations. Yale
University first admitted women
on November 14, 1968.
On November 17, 1968, there
was the Heidi game. This time
was when NBC cuts off the final
1:05 minutes of the Oakland
Raiders–New York Jets football
game to broadcast the pre-
scheduled Heidi. Fans are unable
to see Oakland (which had been
trailing 32–29) score two late
touchdowns to win 43–32; as a
result, thousands of outraged
football fans flooded the NBC
switchboards to protest. The
Farmington Mine Disaster of
Farmington, West Virginia killed
78 men on November 20, 1968.
The Beatles release their self-titled
album popularly known as the
White Album on November 22,
1968. By November 24, four men
hijack Pan Am Flight 281 from
JFK International Airport, New
York to Havana, Cuba. On
November 26, 1968, United
States Air Force First Lieutenant
and Bell UH-1F helicopter pilot
James P. Fleming rescues an Army
Special Forces unit pinned down
by Viet Cong fire, earning a
Medal of Honor for his bravery.
Elvis Presley returned to the
concert atmosphere via the NBC
special, "If I Can Dream" on
December 3, 1968. During an
airing of Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer, NBC Renews the
Banana Splits Adventure Hour for
a second season on December 6.
By December 9, 1968, Douglas
Engelbart publicly demonstrates
his pioneering hypertext system,
NLS, in San Francisco. The film
Oliver!, based on the hit London
and Broadway musical, opens in
the U.S. after being released first
in England. It goes on to win the
Academy Award for Best Picture.
The Rolling Stones Rock and
Roll Circus existed on this date,
but not released until 1996. This
event occurred on December 11.
On December 20, 1968, the
Zodiac Killer was believed to have
shot Betty Lou Jensen and David
Faraday on Lake Herman Road,
Benicia, San Francisco Bay,
California. David Eisenhower
married Julie Nixon, the daughter
of U.S. President-elect Richard
Nixon on December 22. The
release of the USS Pueblo crew
existed on December 23, 1968,
after spending 11 months in
captivity by the North Koreans.
By December 24, 1968,
something historic happens. U.S.
spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit
around the Moon. Astronauts
Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and
William A. Anders become the
first humans to see the far side of
the Moon and planet Earth as a
whole. The crew also reads from
Genesis. The end of 1968 caused
many monumental changes in
human history as 1968 was one of
the most revolutionary years in
world history.
 Appendix A: The Music of that Era
On September 7, 1968, Led Zeppelin performed for the first time, billed as The New Yardbirds (the
Yardbirds had disbanded two months earlier, and guitarist Jimmy Page subsequently formed this new group).
Diana Ross & the Supremes replace The Beatles' hugely successful "Hey Jude" at number-one in the U.S.
with "Love Child"; this would be the last of five turnovers at number-one between the two most successful
music acts in America during the 1960s. The Supremes’ Love Child song talked about the experiences of
single mothers and their children in a positive way. The song shined a light on an important part of the black
experience. On November 22, 1968, The Beatles released "The White Album." Also released is The Kinks
Are the Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks. By November 26, 1968, Cream plays their farewell
concert at the Royal Albert Hall. It will be the last time Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker play
together until their 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On December 9, 1968, TCB aired
on NBC starring Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations, becoming the first variety special in
America to feature an exclusively African American cast. TCB is a 1968 television special produced by
Motown Productions and George Schlatter–Ed Friendly Productions of Laugh-In fame.

By Timothy