So you may ask yourself…how did I get here?

David Byrne and the Talking Heads are a great way to start this journey into 1968, and the huge impact it had on what would follow. Well, how did I get here?

History rarely, if ever, takes a linear path. In fact history is quite serpentine. Complicated and convoluted twists and turns lead us to the present day. However, while many factors influence where we end up, and many events can be pointed to as the impetus for this or that, hardly can a consensus be reached regarding a particular point in history where everything changed. Nonetheless, 1968 can be considered one of the most turbulent years in the 20th century, and everything did change. Whether for the good or the bad, well, that’s up to you. I tend to agree with Hunter S. Thompson: 1968 is when a certain momentum hit its crest, and then came crashing back down. Don’t listen to me though, listen to Mr. Gonzo himself (or in this case, Johnny Depp playing Hunter S. Thompson:)

So, let’s start our journey into 1968 with well, the start of 1968. The war in Vietnam reached a significant crest too. The Tet offensive kicked off 1968. This was a surprise attack by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese during the Vietnamese New Year of 1968; this sharply turned American public opinion against the war in Vietnam. President Johnson (LBJ) was forced to increase troops in the region, and it soon became clear (technically, it had been clear for quite some time) that there was no good exit strategy for Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson, had many successful pieces of legislation (Civil Rights should definitely receive praise here) and by many accounts truly did attempt to fulfill the the unfinished legacy of John F. Kennedy. However, he would and continues to be defined by the war in Vietnam. This in no small measure led to the first domino to fall in the lasting effect of 1968:

So, this created a political vacuum. But, more on that later.

Throughout the 1960s there was a righteous voice in a sea of hate, and a leader that was able to inspire ideas to coalesce. The use of the non-violent direct action form of protest, and the utilization of young people proved to be not only significant but a game changer in the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. became the leader that the movement needed, and even though there were different ideologies (see Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, The Black Panthers, etc.) there can be no doubt of the importance of Dr. King as a voice for the voiceless. A man who was able to bring hope to the hopeless. This bright light of the Civil Rights Movement was extinguished on April 4, 1968. King was in Memphis to fight for the rights of garbage workers. That’s right. The man lost his life defending garbage workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Below is his last speech prior to his death, and it was if by some divine force he knew what was to come.

With LBJ officially out of the race for the White House a new (well, not really new, because he had been there all along) leader began to emerge. This was solidified with this speech shortly after King’s assassination:

Bobby Kennedy now appeared to be the heir apparent, but fate dealt a cruel blow. Kennedy was running strong in his campaign for the presidency, but on June 5th at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California right after the California primary Bobby Kennedy was shot by the assassin Sirhan Sirhan and died the next day. Two Kennedy brothers had now died by assassins bullets. The vacuum that was created by LBJ not seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for President now became even more substantial.

The Democratic Party was divided, and while the mainstream party turned to Hubert Humphrey (LBJ’s Vice President, but to the more detailed student of history he should also be remembered as the man who gave the speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention that helped to cause the “Dixiecrat” revolt. Another story for another time) another character began to appear on the national stage. He will likely be familiar to those in my home state of Alabama.

So now you have Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace making noise on the Democratic side of things in 1968, and this led up to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Humphrey would be the nominee, but protests and violence occurred outside the International Amphitheater. Throw in Eugene McCarthy who had gained traction as an anti-war candidate and George McGovern garnering some of Kennedy’s support and it was quite a party.

An interesting side note to the 1968 Democratic National Convention was the delegation from Alabama. For the first time, the Alabama delegation was integrated. This was accomplished mainly by Robert Vance and Chriss Doss. I know a little something about that, because I had the great pleasure of working with Mr. Doss on a project for an article entitled “The Progressive Insurgency.” I won’t give it all away, because it was quite a story and I will likely post the article in its entirety on the blog soon. However, one of the more comical moments occurred when Bull Connor (yep, dogs and fire hoses Bull who was now with the delegation in Chicago) wanted to cast his vote for none other than Coach Paul William “Bear” Bryant for president of the United States. It went something like this according to Chriss Doss:

I’d go back to Connor and say, “Mr. Connor, now a vote’s coming up. We got to vote. What do you want to do?” He said, “Chrissy boy, vote me any way you please. You got my vote, just vote.” I learned later that he was enjoying his cup of coffee, which wasn’t coffee. So, when I go back the third time, he said, “Wait just a damn minute!” He said, “Let’s make an agreement. You got my vote. You vote me any way you want to. But I want a promise out of you. When it comes time to vote for the nominee, you promise old Bull that he can cast his vote. Old Bull wants to cast his vote for Bear Bryant for President. Can you deliver that?” I said, “Yeah, I think I can deliver that, if you talk fast.” He said, “You set it up.”

Connor did cast his vote for Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant of the University of Alabama in an uproarious display. The record showed that Bryant not only received Connor’s vote, but he reportedly received 1.5 votes for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.

In addition to Connor’s Bear Bryant vote, possibly the most fascinating and uncomfortable event occurred when, at the behest of Walter Cronkite of CBS, Doss was asked, “Mr. Doss, we noticed Mr. Shores (the first African American delegate) and Mr. Connor down here on the floor together talking some, and we would like to interview them live tomorrow evening during the convention. Can we do that?” Doss explained that the two men would have to agree, but as fate would have it, both did. What followed had to be one of the most unusual interviews in the history of politics. In his book about Bull Connor, William A. Nunnelley wrote, “Before the interview, Connor began fortifying himself with a liquid he drank from a coffee cup, but which fellow delegates suspected was stronger than Maxwell House. By the time CBS appeared, Connor was fast asleep in his wheelchair, impervious to the convention floor bedlam. A relative who had accompanied Connor to Chicago cut short the interview attempt.” According to Nunnelley, Connor did face denunciation from the Birmingham News for casting his vote for Bear Bryant: “the seeming disregard for the seriousness of the moment probably embarrassed even Coach Bryant.” After the introduction of Earl Goodwin as Connor’s successor, Connor reportedly told the Democratic National Committee, “I’m going on vacation.”

So, if you know history you see where this is going. The war in Vietnam, LBJ decides not to run, Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated, Bobby Kennedy is assassinated, riots at the Democratic National Convention spark outrage, George Wallace’s brand of populist politics is making its impact, Hubert Humphrey with his running mate Edmund Muskie (I have a great story about Muskie in 1972. Stay tuned) receive the nomination from the Democrats, and all the while a guy who hasn’t won an election in a decade or more is having a bit of a resurgence. Say hello to Dick.

Tricky Dick to be exact: Richard Nixon the 37th President of the United States

Nixon changed the game. Regardless of how you feel about Nixon we end up with escalation of the war in Vietnam, Henry Kissinger (for good or bad,) Watergate, etc., etc. So, the question could be asked, “What if?” What if Bobby Kennedy had lived? What if LBJ decided to run for another term? Would it have been different? I think that question is best answered if we look at the context of the time. You have the counter culture, the Civil Rights Movement, and a progressive movement that had not been seen in the United States on this level before. Richard Nixon may not have been the most efficient person to deal with these groups. Nixon was conservative as the day is long, and did not necessarily understand this new generation of Americans very well. He was Eisenhower’s Vice President of the 1950s. The 1950s and the late 60s are miles apart in ideology.

Also, one could easily make the argument that with the death of Martin Luther King Jr. another void was created. This void in leadership of the Civil Rights Movement could begin the road to enhanced identity politics and eventually all the way to Black Lives Matter. In fact, if one studies African American History (and I mention this in my African American History class frequently) you can connect the dots from before the Atlantic Crossing, through the Atlantic Slave Trade, Slavery in the United States, Emancipation, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, Reconstruction, the Election of 1876, Jim Crow, the domestic terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan, Segregation, Convict Leasing, the Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and Black Lives Matter…and I left a few dots out. History is the truth.

Bottom line. 1968 was a SOB.

However, it wasn’t all bad, and I will leave you with this. A broadcast from Apollo 8 on December 24, 1968.