Where were you, 4 April 1968? (This is a similar question asked of even older members of our society when asked, “Where were you on 22 November 1963?”) The majority of Americans were not even born yet, but I know exactly. I was teaching a folk dance to about 40 dancers at our usual Thursday evenings in Levering Hall at The Johns Hopkins University. I was teaching a dance, when, strangely, someone walked directly up to me in the center of the circle of dancers. In a shell-shocked voice, he said, “Martin Luther King has been assassinated.” The jarring contrast between joyful dancing of the group to the incomprehensibly horrible news sent an electric shock through my body. When I delivered the news to the folk dance group, there was a collective groan, followed by profound silence. I immediately dismissed the group, amid flowing tears of grief and sorrow. Little did we appreciate that this was only one of a set of horrific assassinations and social chaos 1968. We STILL are fighting for the same justice for which Dr. King gave his life. We still see resistance from the political right who continue to fight to preserve their privileged economic and social positions in our flawed society. CHRONOLOGY OF 1968 SOCIAL VIOLENCE: 1 February 1968; Nguyễn Văn Lém, a member of the Viet Cong, was executed on camera when he was shot in the head in Saigon. It was widely seen on American TV. This seemed to set a tone. 16 March 1968 would be one of the low points of the Vietnam War when between 374-504 unarmed civilians were slaughtered at My Lai by United States troops. Many supporters of the Viet Nam War denied that it ever happened. They were wrong. 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated as he lent support to garbage workers as they struck for a decent working wage, in Memphis TN. 5 June 1968 Senator Robert Kennedy is assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Nixon won the election that followed. 28 August 28 1968: “Police Riot” when Mayor Daily’s Chicago police attacked, severely beat and arrested hundreds of protesters outside of the Democratic Convention.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 13:04:12 +0000