http://www.munciefreepress.com/node/21452
by Tolu olorunda
09/30/2009
Seminal in tone and historic in proportion: M61 grenades, Molotov
cocktails, rifle butts, fiery hoses, howling canines, hostile
missions, army tanks, burning buildings, political scandals,
ascending rockets, sensational Rock-bands, senseless assassinations,
televised protests, racial unrest, rampant poverty, social death.
Explosion. Expression. Explosion.
The year was 1968.
Perhaps no other year, in the last century, has yielded more
historical consequencesof racial, national, social, and
international dimensionsthan 1968.
It was the year Martin Luther King, regarded by many the greatest
moral crusader of a generation, was gunned-down in Memphis, Alabama,
on the top balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
It was also the year President Lyndon Baines Johnson had to come to
terms with the unwinnable war he was waging in Vietnama war
inherited from his running-mate, who, three years prior, had fallen
victim to a sniper's bullet at the prime of his presidency.
It was the year the sure-to-be next Democratic President of the
country, Robert F. Kennedy's life was stopped short while on the
campaign trail.
The smoke of assassination, betrayal, and loss was thick in the air.
But it was also the year when the public sphere began taking
seriously its critical role, its civic duty, as watchdog and
legitimator of government. The functions of government, it was
beginning to find out, depended wholly on the compliance or
courageous opposition of the people"Everyday People," as Sly Stone
called them in his hit record released that year.
In defiance against what they considered grotesque misuse of
government privilege, protests became the tall order of the day.
Droves of citizens dashed into the streets, surrounded by signs and
placards in honor of whatever causes they supported. From the Vietnam
War abroad, to the Nigger War at home, those who chose to make noise
in the name of humanity did it unabashedly. Some even went further
down the corridor of extremism, blowing up and burning up buildings
to call attention to the many issues they felt the Johnson
administration had abandoned in its War efforts.
1968 is also a special year because italong with the years preceding
itproduced the finest work advocacy journalism had ever manifested.
While mainstream media networks were working overtimeas they always
arein sensationalizing the war, televising graphic battle scenes for
the amusement of a deceived public, remarkable voices like Malcolm X,
I.F. Stone, Martin Luther King, Jr., Utah Philips, Fannie Lou Hamer,
James Baldwin, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Grace Lee Boggs, Harry Belafonte,
Coretta Scott King, and even Sammy Davis Jr., rose up in pale
comparison; writing, broadcasting, singing, speaking, preaching, and
editorializing about a much different realityof a harmless Vietnam
population being blown out of existence; of a national, racial unrest
in need of as much attention as the international war was receiving.
The year was, indeed, seminal in tone and historic in proportion, and
with the help of Minnetrista Cultural Center & Oakhurst Gardens, we
can visitat least partiallysome of the wonders that made it so.
Minnetrista, located close to the downtown area of Muncie, is
featuring an exhibit, from now through January 7th, which strives to
bring back some of those memories, retell some of those tales, and
rekindle some of those spirits which made 1968 not only a memorable
but monumental year.
The exhibit isn't nearly as large as one might expectfor a project
bearing such magnitudebut it does well in capturing the essence of
the moment with sound recording samples from the period (The Rolling
Stones, "Jumping Jack Flash," The Beatles, "Revolution" & "Lady
Madonna," Diana Ross & The Supremes, "Love Child," Sly & The Family
Stone, "Everyday People," etc.), a TV set built with several
recordings to commemorate the social and political ramifications 1968
brought forth, pictures and magazine cover stories frozen-in-time 40
years ago, historical artifacts of various conditions, and cue
card-length posters to provide meaningful information about the era
that defined a whole generation. It also features great work of text
written in commemoration of '68. Taylor Branch's At Canaan's Edge:
America in the King Years, 1965-68 (a personal recommendation),
Benjamin Quarles' The Negro in the making of America, and Charles
Kaiser's 1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and
the Shaping of a Generation are noteworthy mentions.
The sections are divided to address specific issues of substance '68,
and the years that introduced it, brought forth. Included are The
Civil Rights demonstrations, the Vietnam War demonstrations, the
presidential campaigns, and the changing musical landscape (British
Invasion). In between are splattered mentions about the racial,
social, and political ramifications the assassinations of Martin
Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy accounted for.
One picture of great significance displayed was of two women, part of
a larger group, peacefully protesting against the Vietnam
occupationbut with signs that established the double-consciousness
of their struggle. One lady held up a sign that asked: "DOES NAPALM
TEACH DEMOCRACY?" while the other's was less ambivalent: "DEMOCRACY
at home PEACE abroad."
Another important feature was the discovery of a white posterboard
with large black letters inscribed on it: "Honor King: End Racism."
It was donated by a current university professor who had worn it,
shortly after the King assassination, in hopes of preserving the
legacy of moral vigilance King nurtured tirelessly for nearly two decades.
But perhaps the greatest highlight of this exhibit is the local focus
it keeps on the national and international events that fateful year yielded.
One poster detailed how much unscathed Muncie wasn't from the
nationwide racial tensions. "Trouble at Muncie Schools" is the
header. The background:
A fight between black and white students broke out at Southside High
School at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 30, 1968, apparently because
several white students shouted names at and traded insults with a
group of black students. Police were called in and used tear gas to
break up the brawl. Nine black and two white students were arrested,
and approximately 75 students left the school grounds. The direct
cause of the fight was uncertain, but school officials noted that
tension had been building for a while.
The principal, accepting no personal responsibility, blamed it all on
the evil deeds of "agitators from outside."
Another poster, in chronicling the human toll of the Vietnam War
(reportedly 58,168 dead and 153,303 wounded), lists Indiana's share
of that total: 1,500.
One other, more upbeat, discovery is a flyer for a March 27th, 1968,
concert which featured the late, unquestionably great guitarist, Jimi
Hendrix, on top bill. The event was "for all ages," though a Muncie
Star Press reporter wrote, in review, that Hendrix didn't disappoint
in smashing his guitar into the groundas he was known, and loved, for.
The year was 1968, and whether it was The Weather Underground, The
Chicago Seven, The Black Panther Party, The White Panther Party, The
Youth International Party, SNCC, CORE, or SCLC, activismdirect
agitationwas one of the only media through which accountability was
brought to bear on the powers that-be.
The exhibit organizers did a fine job putting together something
worth touring and exploringand like the Jimi Hendrix concert, it is
truly for all ages. More so the young. It's a collections of memories
that, although falls short on substance and purpose, although fails
to inspire anything beyond the obvious, although unable to
distinguish itself from any other exhibit of its kind, manages to
leave a discernible impact on anyone lucky enough to visit.
1968 is an inextricable part of American, Vietnamese, and World
history that cannot, should not, must not, be forgotten so
easilylest we make the same mistakes we spent the last 40 years
correcting and recovering from.
For more info, visit:
http://www.minnetrista.net/Visit/Calendar/Exhibitions/1968.html
http://www.divshare.com/slideshow/8705289-573
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