Sunday, Sep 17, 2017
As a college student in 1967, “fifty
years ago” meant 1917 and World War I, a time and event far from any direct connection
with me. To young people today, 1967 must seem as distant and largely
irrelevant.
Yet both years were profoundly
important turning points in the life of this nation. 1917 marked the entry of
the United States into World War I — perhaps the bloodiest, most pointless war
in human history — and into a far more significant, militaristic global role.
While 1968 gets more attention from
historians, 1967 saw important shifts in the nation’s politics that have shaped
the world we live in today.
As the purveyors of public history,
mass media reflections on 1967 typically emphasize popular culture and
celebrities: Muhammed Ali stripped of his heavyweight title, the release of the
Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper,” the first rock festival at Monterey, the Summer of
Love, the release of “The Graduate, etc.” These brief glimpses fail to
convey the historical context that produced events like these.
Yet two new films, Ken Burns’ “The
Vietnam War” and Kathryn Bigelow’s “Detroit,” remind us that there are still
conversations we need to have and lessons we need to learn from this past. Both
films remind us of the roots of today’s Black Lives Matter movement and the
never-ending American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
1967 marked the fourth consecutive
“long, hot summer” of urban uprisings, epitomized by the decade’s two most
destructive riots, in Newark and Detroit. While the national media had ignored
inner-city life prior to the riots, the nation watched in horror as saturation
coverage provided staggering footage of the cities burning, residents gleefully
looting, and federal troops and National Guard crushing these urban rebellions.
