Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part article.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR — Since The Star Spangled Banner became the national anthem, “The Land of the Free,” has been the claim of America. However, fifty years ago, that claim was a work in progress. And, there was plenty of work to do. The late 1950’s, the 1960’s and the early 1970’s marked the years of the major Civil Rights battles in the United States. Protest marches and other acts of civil disobedience prevailed in many cities across the land. In Washington D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed his dream as he stood before 250,000 people; Americans braced for a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union over missiles in Cuba. Racists in the American South bombed churches and shot young people who dared to register African-Americans to vote; signs, marked “colored” or “whites only,” expressed the division in the country. President Kennedy was shot down in Dallas, Texas, in 1963; Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were both murdered in 1968.
Another public official who was a governor of a Southern state, George Wallace, was shot down as he campaigned to become president of the United States. As a result of this attack, he was left crippled and unable to walk.
Viet Nam War protesters were killed by National Guard soldiers at Kent State University. Civil Rights leaders were jailed, martyred, and beaten; militants shouted for “Revolution.” Flower children sang for “Peace.” The United States put a man on the moon; psychedelic drugs distorted minds and Woodstock music festival in New York became the epitome of peace and brotherhood.
It should be noted that a little earlier during this time period Elvis Presley was crowned the “King” of a fast growing music phenomenon—Rock and Roll. On the other end of the musical pendulum, another Icon was acknowledging that he didn’t know much about history, and he didn’t know much about algebra, but Sam was cooking. Young people were dancing at “Sock Hops.” Muhammad Ali proclaimed himself as “The Greatest;” baseball dominated the sports scene. Music encompassed the changing times; it was “groovy and soulful” with the four J’s: Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, and James Brown, and Otis Redding was “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.” America’s “melting pot” boiled over with conflict and confusion, and during this era of change and challenge, the United States government launched the most far-reaching civil rights’ legislation this country has ever seen. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches pushed through the most comprehensive human/civil rights bills in the history of this country. President Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation, and although the war was not over, many battles had been won on the civil rights’ front. America began to live up to its creed of “liberty and justice for all.” (To be continued.)
