Sixties 2017

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UNPRECEDENTED EVENTS

The events of the 1960s were much more explosive than our recent times have been. For as much as 2016 felt like the country was coming apart at the seams on some level, it paled in comparison to 1968, for example, with all its riots, multiple assassinations and a war in the streets of Chicago at the DNC. Earlier, you had the JFK assassination, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the horrors of Montgomery and Selma, and the long hot summers of riots beginning in 1964.

WE ARE NO LONGER SAFE

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CHART-TOPPERS The top 20 songs of the decade, according to Billboard.

SIGNS OF THE SIXTIES Literal icons of the decade and what they meant.

The U.S. in ‘60s was marked by the assassinations of two Kennedys and a King, the first of what would be far too many campus shootings, riots, and the threat of nuclear war. This was the decade that made us no longer feel safe in our own skin.

‘60S ICONS STILL IN THE NEWS Cher, Paul and Ringo, Mick and Keith — they’re all still doing what they love.

THAT’S 50?!

The stuff we loved when it came out and could register for its own AARP card now.

TIMELINE Important events in every year of the decade.

MUSIC AND MUSCLE CARS Although civil rights unrest and the Vietnam War split many of us apart, it was the music and muscle cars that banded us together.

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American Buzz Aldrin during the first moon walk in 1969. NASA

SPACE Our progress toward “one giant leap for mankind,” in photos.

KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR COLUMN On being a Muslim from the ‘60s to today.

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REVOLUTION was televised

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Today’s polarization nothing like the shocking events of the ’60s

By Brian Rosenwald, Ph.D. Resident senior fellow, Robert A. Fox Leadership Program, University of Pennsylvania Special to More Content Now

I

t’s easy to lament the current state of American society.

The public remains bitterly divided, our political system is dysfunctional, we just survived a presidential campaign that innovated every time it appeared to reach rock-bottom, and the new president has record-low approval ratings for this early in a term. The opioid epidemic is destroying communities, the economic recovery missed millions, terrorism remains a threat, and many Americans find their values under siege.

Yet, as bad as that sounds, the 2010s have nothing on the most tumultuous and traumatic decade in recent American history — the 1960s. The ’60s featured some of the same fractures, cultural upheaval and venues of conflict that we see today.

But the sheer magnitude of the decade’s tragedies, conflicts and challenges to longstanding cultural norms dwarfed what we’ve experienced in recent years.

The ’60s were like going 12 rounds with the decade’s most prominent athletic titan, world champion Muhammed Ali — who, fittingly for the 1960s, was also deeply polarizing. As soon as Americans absorbed and

The ’60s were like going 12 rounds with the decade’s most prominent athletic titan, world boxing champion Muhammed Ali — who, fittingly for the 1960s, was also deeply polarizing.

Poster for “Judgment at Nuremberg.”

President John F. Kennedy lies in repose in the White House East Room.

recovered from the latest blow, another one rained down. Looming over it all was a Cold War that threatened nuclear annihilation. *** In October 1962, 13 of the most tense days in post-Civil War American history highlighted the precarious state of the world.

Americans feared that the Cuban Missile Crisis might end in nuclear holocaust. Only the cautious, measured action of President John F. Kennedy prevented catastrophe.

Kennedy resisted more bellicose courses of action, and instead successfully defused the situation.

Alas, 13 months later, he’d be dead, struck down by Lee Harvey Oswald and a $12.78 rifle. The gutted nation ground to a halt for four days of mourning. Banding together in sorrow, a million Americans from every demographic group

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.) was an American professional boxer and activist.

PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA

Adlai Stevenson shows aerial photos of Cuban missiles to the United Nations on Oct. 25, 1962.

flocked to Washington to witness the fallen president’s final journey to Arlington National Cemetery.

Virtually every American mourned “together,” thanks to unprecedented continuous commercialfree television coverage. NBC broadcast 71 hours of programming, CBS 69 hours and ABC 60. More than 90 percent of American households watched coverage, and, on average, they tuned in for more than 31.6 hours. Those Americans glued to NBC saw Jack Ruby gun down Oswald live. Kennedy’s somber funeral proceedings, which concluded the four-day period, drew viewers in 81 percent of households.

The most memorable images from these tragic days remain permanently etched in the national consciousness — among them, CBS newsman Walter Cronkite fighting his emotions as he removed his spectacles and notified the nation of Kennedy’s death, Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office with a stricken Jackie Kennedy alongside him in a blood-stained suit, and little John Kennedy Jr.

saluting his father’s casket on his third birthday.

With Kennedy’s loss, some of the promise and innocence of the 1960s vanished. Dealing with tragedy, violence and assassinations would become commonplace. *** In the first half of the decade, the awful images that invaded television screens most often involved Southern brutality against peaceful civil rights protestors. On March 7, 1965, 48 million Americans settled in to watch “Judgement at Nuremberg,” a film about the trials of Nazi war criminals. Roughly 90 minutes in, however, ABC interrupted the movie to show 15 minutes of news footage so horrifying that it might have come from the film itself.

The audience heard Alabama Sheriff Jim Clark bellowing a racial slur as state troopers and deputies descended upon peaceful black marchers. The viewers witnessed officers wailing away on the marchers with billy clubs, bullwhips and cattle

prods, while liberally dispensing tear gas. “Bloody Sunday” spawned such outrage that it propelled the Voting Rights Act to passage.

The Watts riots in Los Angeles ignited a mere five days after President Johnson signed the act into law, setting the tone for the second half of the decade.

The disturbing images on television screens shifted to looters, burning buildings and other telltale signs of the decade’s 646 riots (from 1964 through 1969) that lasted a collective 1,594 days and claimed 210 lives as smoldering anger over racist institutions and hideous conditions in urban ghettos bubbled over.

At times, American cities resembled war zones, with troops patrolling the streets.

Chaos, and sometimes violence, also erupted on college campuses during the late 1960s. Similar to today, newfound activism and challenges to the existing order fueled this disharmony. Yet, the disturbances today, spurred by

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debate over whether to prioritize free speech or “safe spaces,” have paled in comparison to the tumult on campuses in the late 1960s.

Angry over everything from university rules to encroachment upon surrounding neighborhoods and perceived aid to the Vietnam War effort through ROTC programs and government-funded or -connected research, students seized buildings, in some cases expelling administrators or holding them captive.

One Harvard dean found himself slung over a student’s shoulder and deposited outside. At Columbia in 1968, student invaders helped themselves to the university president’s cigars while riffling through his files. Students also routinely struck, simply refusing to attend classes until administrators and faculty addressed their grievances. *** The tensions of the decade climaxed (though they hardly abated) in its stormiest year, 1968. On Jan. 30, the stunning Tet Offensive temporarily knocked American troops in Vietnam back on their heels. Tet also fostered the development of a “credibility gap” in which Americans lost faith in their government’s honesty. On Feb. 27, maybe the most trusted man in America — Walter Cronkite — questioned the rosy picture of U.S. involvement in Vietnam painted by government and military officials, asserting, “For it seems now more certain than ever, that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.

To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past.”

Body type RR: A month later, on March 31, dogged by chants of “Hey, Hey, LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today” and stung by a surprisingly weak showing in the New Hampshire primary, President Johnson stunned a national television audience by declaring, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”

Combat operations at Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, November 1965. Major Bruce P. Crandall’s UH-1D helicopter climbs skyward after discharging a load of infantrymen on a search-and-destroy mission.

Burning buildings during Watts Riots in Los Angeles, August 1965.

Four days later, an assassin’s bullet felled the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That night, in Indianapolis, New York Sen. Robert Kennedy (whose safety city officials warned they could not guarantee) bared his soul, recalling that he knew the pain and hatred sparked by assassination all too well. Yet, he pleaded for love, wisdom, compassion and a feeling of justice toward Americans of all races instead of division, hatred, violence and lawlessness.

Kennedy’s stirring remarks received credit for preventing Indianapolis from burning on a night when many other cities viscerally absorbed the fury and sorrow provoked by King’s assassination. A mere two months President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

many other cities viscerally absorbed the fury and sorrow provoked by King’s assassination. A mere two months later, however, it was Kennedy who lay dead at the hands of an assassin.

In late August, blood ran through the streets of Chicago, and Democratic dignitaries choked from the tear gas employed by police in what was, depending on one’s perspective, either a brutal police riot or the hippies and the protestors finally receiving a richly deserved beating.

The media judged it to be the former.

Horrified anchormen shared video of clubs swinging away, expecting the public to share their revulsion. CBS’ Eric Sevareid dubbed the worst night of clashes “the most disgraceful night in political history.”

Yet, exposing the deep gulf in

American society, polls showed that a majority of Americans actually cheered the police on. The telegrams and letters inundating the networks condemned the media’s coverage; letters to CBS ran 11 to 1 in favor of the police. One letter writer to the Chicago Tribune dismissed Walter Cronkite as gullible. *** In truth, rage was the one thing binding most Americans together in the 1960s. Conservatives resented the spoiled, unpatriotic brats protesting on campuses and burning draft cards.

They demanded that the government restore law and order. In the decade’s smoldering cities, they saw lawlessness and crime, not spontaneous combustion prompted by longstanding inequality and squalor. They fumed over the decisions of the liberal

Supreme Court that favored criminals and pornographers, took prayer out of schools and required bussing of their children to achieve racially balanced schools. Conservatives also saw the nascent women’s and gay rights movements as an affront to their Godordained values.

Liberals seethed as well — but their fury stemmed from cultural norms that were racist, misogynistic and otherwise bigoted. What conservatives regarded as bedrock principles that fueled America’s greatness, racial minorities, women, LGBTQ people, atheists and many young Americans considered stifling and wrong. Whereas to conservatives, patriotism and the dangers of communism dictated support for the Vietnam War, many liberals decried an immoral war that had strayed from American principles and senselessly ended lives.

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In the time-honored tradition of the decade, liberals took to the streets to demand the end of the war and changes to the structures and norms animating American society.

Today, we can trace many of the fissures roiling society and politics to the 1960s. Many of the problems exposed during the ’60s still fester. Racial minorities, women and LGBTQ Americans still struggle for equal rights and treatment. Conversely, conservatives persist in demanding a return to the values that they believe fuel American greatness. Americans have once again taken to the streets to protest developments that they consider unacceptable.

Whereas the 1960s witnessed the growing credibility gap that eroded trust in government and faith that it could be an engine for good, today, the blurring of truth and fiction hampers the very functionality of our political system. “Fake news” and echo chambers — in which people only consume content that supports their views — have left Americans living in parallel universes and demonizing each other.

Yet, in spite of this turbulence, we have avoided the worst devastation, physical and emotional, inflicted during the 1960s. Americans don’t wake up each morning fearing that the world might end, pictures of burning cities and pitched battles in the streets aren’t commonplace, and we haven’t seen our leaders struck down by assassins’ bullets. Our society faces challenges, but one look at the 1960s demonstrates how much worse things could be.

Brian Rosenwald conducts the research for the Slate podcast Whistlestop and a book companion to the podcast. His doctoral dissertation, “Mount Rushmore: The Rise of Talk Radio and Its Impact on Politics and Public Policy,” will be a book for Harvard University Press. He has also written for CNN.com, Politico, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Baltimore Sun, The Daily Beast and Time Magazine’s history blog.

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By Melissa Erickson More Content Now

T

HOPE FEAR FROM

TO

The 1960s started comfortably.

Then we realized no one was safe

Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the Aug. 28, 1963, March on Washington.

here’s little doubt that the 1960s was a decade that changed the nation. What started out as an age of hopeful innocence grew into a time of rage and violence.

“At the start of the 1960s, people felt great confidence and expectations. The country was riding a wave of prosperity of the like that had never been seen before,” said Michael Flamm, professor of history, Ohio Wesleyan University, and author of “In the Heat of the Summer: The New York Riots of 1964 and the War on Crime.”

“A hallmark (of the ‘60s) was that the prosperity was shared” across society “like never before,” said Michael Kazin, professor of history, Georgetown University, and editor of Dissent magazine.

America may have been the richest country ever, but by the mid-’60s our sense of security was breaking down, first in urban areas but then spreading to the suburbs and rural areas, Flamm said.

Then as now, our impression of America was created by what we saw in popular culture, highlighted by the idyllic representations depicted on 1950s television shows like “Leave It To Beaver,” said Joel Rhodes, professor in the history department of Southeast Missouri State University. The happy families on TV did not accurately show the division that was already segmenting America in the ‘50s, said Rhodes, who believes “the Vietnam era” is a more appropriate term when discussing Americans’ growing loss of security during the decade.

While “the ‘60s are often remembered as a time of

radicalism, it’s important to remember that on Jan. 1, 1960, the world didn’t wake up radical. The early 1960s looked more like what we collectively associate with the ‘50s than that ‘60s countercultural image,” said Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a historian of contemporary American politics and culture and cohost of the Past Present podcast.

No. 1 threat The end of World War II saw a brief period of euphoria, but we soon became a fearful nation, Rhodes said. People contemplated, “what if Pearl Harbor had been a nuclear attack?”

“Ever since the end of World War II, America never gets out of the shadow of war. We’re either preparing for war or fighting a war,” Rhodes said.

The government tried to build confidence through civildefense measures, but the idea that a nuclear attack would be

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas.

survivable by building a bunker or hiding under a school desk terrified people, Rhodes said.

“If you think of fear as layers of an onion peel, the No. 1 fear is nuclear war,” Rhodes said. The 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 brought home the fact that our nation was vulnerable to nuclear disaster, he added.

Assassinations In the White House, the Kennedys were America’s glamorous first couple, not only representing hope for the future

“At the start of the 1960s, people felt great confidence and expectations. The country was riding a wave of prosperity of the like that had never been seen before.”

Michael Flamm, professor of history, Ohio Wesleyan University

PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA

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Black Panther Party founders Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton.

by a culture that seemed to have transformed innocent students into ‘campus radicals,’ giving rise to a call for ‘law and order.’ ”

The Congress of Racial Equality march in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 22, 1963, was held in memory of the children killed in the Birmingham bombings.

but fighting for it, too.

“The assassination of JFK led to uncertainty. What’s going to happen to our country?” Rhodes said.

The assassination was the first major national event played out on television, and as the images flashed over and over again, people thought, “If the president was vulnerable to attack, aren’t we all?”

Two more high-profile

assassinations followed. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed by a sniper’s bullet April 4, 1968, and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, brother of President Kennedy, was fatally shot June 5, 1968, after winning the California presidential primary.

“Losing JFK, and then later RFK and MLK, were individually tragic events, but I think that with each of them, it is important to see that

the violence of these tragic acts chipped away at what might have felt like a shared sense of purpose or faith in ‘working within the system’ to redress inequality,” Mehlman Petrzela said. “If each of these figures, most notably the president, could be so brazenly and violently silenced, what was the point of playing by the rules? It definitely shook people’s sense of faith in those rules as worth following (or)

a guarantee of their own safety and civic and bodily well-being.”

The events of this era, “for different reasons, made those on both the right and the left question their safety,” Mehlman Petrzela said. “Liberals saw their reformist heroes assassinated — even someone like MLK whose platform had been explicitly nonviolence — and a violent war unfolding in Vietnam, whereas conservatives were repelled

“Losing JFK, and then later RFK and MLK, were individually tragic events, but I think that with each of them, it is important to see that the violence of these tragic acts chipped away at what might have felt like a shared sense of purpose or faith in ‘working within the system’ to redress inequality.”

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, historian of contemporary American politics and culture

Protest, rage and social change The non-violent protests of the Civil Rights movement in the South set the stage for the student movement of the 1960s, Rhodes said. For middle-class Americans it seemed as if revolution was at hand. Young people fought for their free speech, protested Vietnam, and took over and even burned campus buildings.

“The common working-class American just didn’t understand.

Why are these kids who have the privilege to go to college and come from good homes disrespecting authority? Why are they burning their draft cards? It was inexplicable” to many people, Rhodes said. “What’s happening to the values and traditions we hold dear? It made parents concerned what would happen to their younger children, too.”

The baby boomers represented a huge demographic.

“Over half of the U.S.

population was under 30 by the mid ‘60s. Even if a small number of them were rebelling, it seemed that society as a whole was rebelling,” Flamm said.

It wasn’t just on college campuses. Everywhere men started wearing their hair long and younger people began to dress differently. The drug culture and the women’s movement were going mainstream, too, Flamm said.

While people have always found comfort and security in marriage, during the ‘60s divorce skyrocketed, Rhodes said. Single families and blended families increased. Women demanded equality, and mothers joined the workforce in greater numbers.

“Yes, groups like the Black Panthers were scary to some people, but heck, women, women in the suburbs were getting jobs and not staying at home and that was scary,” Rhodes said.

“Every time there is change — and there’s radical change in the ‘60s — there’s fearful reaction,” he said.

A flood of violence The 1950s are often seen as a

Demonstrators in the Poor People’s March in Washington, D.C., in June 1968.

golden age with stable families, a plentiful economy and low crime rates. The mid-1960s ushered in a wave of violence, crime and urban riots.

America didn’t only feel more dangerous, it was more dangerous. The violent crime rate increased by 126 percent between 1960 and 1970, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. An American’s chances of being murdered was relatively low in the ‘50s and early ‘60s but doubled between 1964 and 1974.

“Beginning in 1964-1965, every summer the nation’s ghettos erupt in violence. There are over 300 riots in the late ‘60s,” Rhodes said.

“Every major city experiences a riot or rebellion,” Flamm agreed.

“This mixes seamlessly with the campus riots, the rise of radical militant groups like the Black Panthers. There’s a sense that the nation is at war with itself,” Rhodes said.

Economic insecurity Insecurity really hits home when it hits your wallet. By the 1960s Americans had embraced

“Yes, groups like the Black Panthers were scary to some people, but heck, women, women in the suburbs were getting jobs and not staying at home and that was scary.”

Joel Rhodes, professor, Southeast Missouri State University

economic security and the ability to buy a home and go on a yearly vacation.

“The ‘60s were a prosperous time in general, but we start to see a decline first in the macro towns and then in other areas like the Rust Belt,” Kazin said. “There was a fear of economic decline. Manufacturing was doing well, but the heyday was over.”

Industrially, countries like Japan and Germany were on the rise.

“The thing about insecurity is that when you start to feel insecure in one part of your life it tends to spread to other parts,” Kazin said.

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’60s icons today

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The more things change ...

By John Sucich

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t’s not unusual for someone to spend 50 years doing what they love.

Here’s a look at some of the people who began making their mark in the Sixties, and are still doing the work that made them famous.

Paul and Ringo Beatlemania lost steam after the Sixties, but the members of the band kept going strong. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are the two surviving members of The Beatles, and they’re still playing music. Ringo tours with his All Starr Band, and Paul released “Flowers in the Dirt” earlier this year, playing concerts around the world to support the album.

Gloria Steinem Steinem began her work as a women’s rights activist in the late 1960s as a writer.

She’s still front and center in the battle for equality, most recently delivering a keynote speech at the Women’s March on Washington in January.

Buzz Aldrin Part of the Apollo 11 crew — the first to make a lunar landing in 1969 — Aldrin was the second man to walk on the moon, after Neil Armstrong.

Aldrin has written multiple books and received numerous awards over the years, and continues to make occasional appearances on television and at Comic Cons. The 87-year-old became the oldest man to fly with the U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds in April.

Ann-Margret Ann-Margret became a star in the 1960s in movies like “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Viva Las Vegas” and “The Cincinnati Kid.” She’s continued to perform on stage and on the big screen in every decade since, including most recently in “Going In Style.”

Aretha Franklin In 1967 she was dubbed “The Queen of Soul,” and though she announced that she would be retiring from touring after this year, Franklin is still performing in 2017 at the age of 75. She also doesn’t plan to stop recording music ... meaning she’ll continue to earn plenty of “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”

PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA | ANN-MARGRET..COM | WWW.GLORIASTEINEM.COM

Stevie Wonder Little Stevie Wonder is no longer little, but he’s still putting out music.

Wonder was 10 years old in 1960, and throughout the Sixties he was a touring musician, finding great success in the succeeding decades. Now 67, he is still making music, including most recently a collaboration with none other than Aretha Franklin.

Cher She rose to prominence as part of Sonny and Cher in the midSixties with “I Got You Babe,” and is still at it as a solo act more than 50 years later.

In between Cher had success on television as well as in the movies — winning an Oscar for “Moonstruck” — and of course as a Grammyaward winning singer.

Bob Dylan More than 50 years before he won a Nobel Prize, Dylan was making a name for himself as one of the most influential singer-songwriters in the world. His music tackled the social issues of the time and, despite a near-fatal motorcycle accident in 1966, Dylan has remained an influence until today. He accepted his Nobel in literature in April.

Mick and Keith In the 1960s, led by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones were a rock ‘n’ roll band touring the world. Some of the band members have changed over the years, but in 2017, the Rolling Stones are still a rock ‘n’ roll band touring the world. Their latest album, “Blue & Lonesome,” released in December, peaked at No. 1 on the UK charts and No. 4 in the U.S., and has been certified platinum in England, Germany and France.

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That’s 50?!

‘Star Trek’ Debuting on Sept. 8, 1966, “Star Trek” began as an NBC series created

by Gene Roddenberry.

The show, now known as The Original Series, spawned a franchise that continued on television and in the movies — not to mention through millions of collectibles. Live long and prosper, indeed.

Things we love that could get their own AARP card now

By John Sucich More Content Now

If it seems like there are a lot of 50th-anniversary celebrations in this decade, that’s because a lot of noteworthy items from the 1960s have had some serious staying power. Here’s a look at some of what was brand-new during the Sixties that is still going strong:

PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA / SESAMESTREET.COM

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Ford Mustang Henry Ford II unveiled the Ford Mustang on April 17, 1964, at the New York City World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows. The Mustang was an instant hit and is still popular. Not only is the car still in production more than 50 years later, but the company has sold millions of Mustangs since the 1960s.

The pill On May 9, 1960, the FDA approved the world’s first commercially produced oral contraceptive. Enovid would become popularly known as “the pill,” and within five years it became the most popular form of birth control in the United States. Margaret Sanger advocated for “birth control” — a term she coined — starting in the 1910s and commissioned research on the pill in the 1950s. She died a year after birth control became legal for married couples in 1965.

Spider-Man Introduced in the August 1962 issue of the anthology comic book “Amazing Fantasy,” SpiderMan quickly became one of Marvel’s most popular characters and got his own comic, “The Amazing Spider-Man,” in early 1963. Spider-Man has remained popular in the years since, proving that with great power not only comes great responsibility ... but also great success.

‘Rolling Stone’ Nov. 9, 1967, marked the first issue of “Rolling Stone.” The popular magazine has covered a variety of topics over the years but made its mark in the early years with its musical and political coverage.

Hundreds upon hundreds of issues later, the magazine is still churning out pop culture news. The first cover photo? John Lennon, who would be involved in three of the biweekly’s first 10 covers.

‘Sesame Street’

Easy-Bake Oven The classic Easy-Bake Oven was introduced by Kenner in 1963.

Kenner was eventually taken over by Hasbro, but the Easy-Bake Oven never stopped production. More than 20 million ovens have been sold over the years, and the Easy-Bake Oven was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2006.

‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ Released on June 1, 1967, The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was the best-selling album of the decade worldwide.

Featuring time-honored classics like “With A Little Help From My Friends,” “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and “When I’m SixtyFour,” among others, the album also features arguably the most iconic cover of all time.

On Nov. 10, 1969, “Sesame Street” premiered. The educational children’s television show has evolved over the years: There have been new characters introduced, the look of the Muppets has changed, and the format is different today. But the central mission of the show — educating generations of children — remains the same as it did in 1969.

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April 12 Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbits Earth as the first person in outer space. Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space on May 5, 1961.

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From classic moments in pop culture to political tension to tragedy – the 1960s was a decade that seemed like something newsworthy was happening at all times.

Here’s a look at some of the most notable events in each year.

June

February 19

February 7

March

Rachel Carson's “Silent Spring” begins serialization in The New Yorker; it is released as a book on Sept. 27 in the U.S., giving rise to the modern environmentalist movement.

“The Feminine Mystique” comes out.

Betty Friedan’s book dispells the myth that all women were happy serving in traditional roles inside the home.

The Beatles arrive in the United States ahead of their appearance on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and concerts in Washington, D.C. and New York City.

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Texas Western defeats Kentucky in the Christian Leadership Council lead a NCAA championship game. It is the first protest march from Selma, Alabama, to basketball championship to feature a the state capital of Montgomery. The team with five black starters. march, designed to draw attention to voting discrimination, is met by protest.

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January 14

March 16

June 28

The Human Be-In takes place in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, setting the stage for the Summer of Love. The summer’s unofficial soundtrack, The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” is released June 1.

American troops kill hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre. The story becomes public in November 1969 and will help undermine public support for the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.

The first of the Stonewall Riots takes place in New York City. The riots lead to the formation of groups across the United States that support gay rights.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion takes place.

A group of Cuban exiles trained by the United States unsuccessfully tries to invade Cuba to overthrow Fidel Castro.

May 9 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the world’s first commercially manufactured oral contraceptive pill.

May 4

October 1

Freedom Riders begin interstate bus rides to protest segregation.

On May 14 a bus is firebombed near Anniston, Alabama, and Freedom Riders are beaten

by Ku Klux Klan members.

1960

1961

August 28

October 16-28

The first Mustang rolls off the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.

1963

1962

September 15

The Cuban Missile Crisis takes place over 13 days after the Soviet Union puts nuclear missiles in Cuba. The United States agrees not to invade Cuba and the Soviet Union removes the missiles.

September 26

March 9

James Meredith enrolls as the first AfriThe Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. can-American student at the University delivers his “I Have A Dream” speech in of Mississippi. There were riots that Washington, D.C. The speech was given forced the government to send troops to at the Lincoln Memorial during the the campus. Meredith graduates March on Washington for Jobs a year later. and Freedom.

1964 July 2

The bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, kills four children and injures 22 others.

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, which was introduced

by President Kennedy. The act ends segregation in public places and bans discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

March 8

June 30

January 15

April 4

July 20

Some 3,500 U.S. Marines arrive in Da Nang, South Vietnam, becoming the first American ground combat troops in Vietnam.

The National Organization for Women is founded.

The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in the first football championship game between the winners of the NFL and AFL. The game would come to be known as the Super Bowl.

Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. He was there to support a sanitation workers’ strike.

Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to step foot on the moon after Apollo 11 successfully lands there.

1965

1966

August 6

September 8

The Voting Rights Act is passed. An extension of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it bans discriminatory voting practices.

“Star Trek” debuts on NBC.

August 13

1967 July 23-31

1968 June 5

In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African-American inner city: 43 are killed, hundreds injured and thousands of buildings burned. Race riots in Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., soon follow.

Robert Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary.

1969 August 15-18 The Woodstock Music Festival is held in Bethel, New York, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to see legendary performances.

East Germany begins building the Berlin Wall separating East and West Berlin.

The wall would stand for almost 30 years before Germany reunited in 1990.

The first televised presidential debate takes place between Vice President Richard Nixon and U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy. Kennedy would go on to win the 1960 presidential election, in part due to his strong showing on the The Soviet Union detonates a 50-megavisual medium. tons yield hydrogen bomb in a test.

It remains the largest ever man-made explosion.

October 30

November 22 President John F. Kennedy is shot and killed as his motorcade drives through Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Two days later, suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is shot in Dallas by Jack Ruby on live television.

August 7 The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is passed, allowing for increased American military action in Vietnam.

November 8 Former actor and future president Ronald Reagan wins the election to become governor of California.

August 30 Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. Marshall, appointed by President Johnson, is the first African-American Supreme Court nominee and justice.

August 22-30 Police clash with anti-war protesters in Chicago outside the Democratic National Convention. The riots and subsequent trials were an essential part of the activism of the Youth International Party.

December 1 The first military draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.

ZAK DENNIS/GATEHOUSE MEDIA

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“Fun, Fun, Fun,” The Beach Boys, 1964 “She got her daddy’s car and she cruised to the hamburger stand now.” Seems “the library” was just a front to get the keys, and this little miss had a great time with daddy’s T-Bird until dad got wise. Enter the song’s hero, who gets the “carless” girl and they continue having fun cruising around in his ride. “Fun, Fun, Fun” was released on the “Shut Down, Volume 2” album.

10 car songs of the fabulous ’60s

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“Dead Man’s Curve,” Jan and Dean, 1963 Another hit from this talented duo, things went bad when the Jaguar XKE hit the curb entering dead man’s curve in a race against a Corvette. As the lingo went, “you won’t come back from Dead Man’s Curve.” Notable is that there are three versions of this song, with some minor lyric changes as the single 45 hit version was released in 1964 with help from The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson and sounds of horns and the XKE crashing.

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“G.T.O.,” Ronny and the Daytonas, 1964 Ronny & The Daytonas, another “surf sound” group, hit the big time with their debut single “G.T.O.” With “three deuces and a four-speed, and a 389,” the “little G.T.O.” really “whined.”

This song hit No. 4 on the Billboard list and was the biggest hit the group ever had.

By Greg Zyla

More Content Now

As most baby boomers recall, car enthusiasts grew up with their own brand of music in the 1960s. Several car-themed songs hit the top 10 charts, so let’s visit my personal all-time top-10 car songs of the 1960s, in order of preference.

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“Hey Little Cobra,” The Rip Chords, 1963 Ford fans had much to cheer about when the Rip Chords released this hit that also went to No. 4 on the Billboard Top 100 list. The lyrics “Hey little Cobra don’t you know you’re gonna shut ‘em down” chronicles a successful day at the races for a Ford Cobra, which is towed into the raceway pit area “hitched to the back of my Cadillac.” The Cobra defeats a Corvette on way to victory, which was also happening in real life.

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“Don’t Worry Baby,” The Beach Boys, 1964 What? Is this a car song? Yes it is. If you listen closely, you’ll find out the reason for all the “worry” is the guy in the song was “bragging up his car” once too often. His rival challenges him to a drag race, and now he’s got to back up his words. His girl tells him that when “he races today … don’t worry, baby, everything will turn out all right.” It’s about love and a drag race, and perhaps the best melody of the top-10 bunch originally released on the “Shut Down” album.

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“409,” The Beach Boys, 1962 When released, Beach Boys song writer extraordinaire Brian Wilson was disappointed that “She’s real fine my 409” didn’t do better on the hit lists. However, The Beach Boys ended up with double-sided success when flip side “Surfin’ Safari” took off and eventually made the Top 10 chart. As for “409,” it was an influential car song and surely pushed sales of all those 409s that dotted our boulevards in 1962 and 1963.

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PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA/PIXABAY

“Little Old Lady from Pasadena,” Jan and Dean, 1964 There wasn’t really a little old lady from Pasadena, but this song about granny and her bright red Super Stock Dodge is a close second on my favorites list. Released on the “Drag City” album, it offers a great beat and lasting rhythm. Go granny, go granny, go granny go!

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“Shut Down,” The Beach Boys, 1963 “It happened on the strip where the road is wide” preludes a great contest between a factory Super Stock 413 Dodge Ramcharger and a fuel-injected Corvette, released on The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA” album. The ’Vette finally overtakes the Dodge at the finish, but in real life, I’d have put my money on the 413 Dodge. This is a great song for those who love drag races and the muscle car high-performance street scene.

4

“Little Deuce Coupe,” The Beach Boys, 1963 This is the hit single and similarly titled album that put The Beach Boys on top with car lovers. The Deuce Coupe “purred like a kitten until her lake pipes roared ... and got rubber in all four gears.” So popular was the song it reached No. 4 on the Top 100 hit list.

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“Tell Laura I Love Her,” Ray Peterson, 1960 Sad song about a young man who needs money to help him get married to Laura. He sees a sign for a stock car race, enters his car and is fatally injured. His last words? “Tell Laura I Love Her.” I agree it’s a corny song, but it sure receives lots of airtime.

Honorable mention goes to Dick Dale, the West Coast guitar king who started the whole surf sound with his group The Deltones in the 1950s. Two Dale albums, “Checkered Flag” (1963) and “Mr. Eliminator” (1964), are noteworthy.

Greg Zyla is an auto columnist for More Content Now and GateHouse Media publications. He welcomes reader comments and would like to hear from you about a hit or two that you feel should have make his list at greg@gregzyla.com or 303 Roosevelt St., Sayre, PA 18840.

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Muscle cars, music brought us together in the 1960s

By Greg Zyla

More Content Now

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ew decades can compare to the 1960s, when muscle cars, music and milestones all made huge and lasting impressions on people.

From sad times like the 1963 Kennedy assassination to uplifting times like the moon landing in 1969, living in the 1960s was special.

Although civil rights unrest and the Vietnam War split many of us apart, it was the music and muscle cars that banded us together — so much so that even today’s youths are fans of the music and cars from the 1960s.

Be it Motown, the surf sound, rock ‘n’ roll, country, ballads or instrumentals, no other time period can match the diversity of hit music the 1960s afforded people of all ages. Cruising in your car needed tunes from The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, The Ronettes, Shangri-Las and other groups jamming from the AM radio. This sound also spurred millions of vinyl record sales in both single “45” and full album form.

The successful bands and musicians also enjoyed a major income move-up thanks to a new invention called the 8-track tape player, which debuted in the mid-1960s and became the No. 1 car and truck audio addition. Once installed, you could purchase the 8-track tapes of your favorite groups that would allow instant musical gratification thanks to The Four Seasons, Spanky & Our Gang, The Rascals and the Temptations, all bellowing sweet sounds from your 8-track’s quad speaker setup.

This brings us to the cars of the Sixties in all their glory. No one disputes it was the Detroit-built, 400-plus-horsepower muscle cars that took center stage on the nation’s boulevards. Owners would

Dodge Challenger R/T 440

Plymouth Roadrunner 383/Hemi

AMC SC/ Rambler 390

Ford Mustang Boss 429

Plymouth GTX 440/Hemi

AMC Hornet 360

PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA / MECUM AUCTIONS

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deliver your food on roller skates.

If you didn’t stop by the local hangout with your car, you were missing a grand time.

The highly polished muscle cars back then were usually equipped with Cragar S/S, Keystone or “chrome reverse” wheels, all of which shined with brilliance against the evening illumination. The tires were raised white letter “Polyglass” editions, until the rear tires were removed in favor of a set of M&H slicks for the after-midnight gatherings.

Performance additions included exhaust headers, usually painted in flat white heat paint be it fender well exit or under-carriage type.

Further, if you were really part of the performance in-crowd back then, chatter included words like Isky, Holley, Crane, Edelbrock, Weiand, Mallory and Hedman, which were dead giveaways that a car owner could back up his highperformance talk.

Although there are those who point to the full-size performance cars of the day like a 1962 Chevy 409, 1963 Dodge 426 or 1964 Ford 427 as the harbinger of the muscle car, few will dispute that Detroit was unprepared for what was to come in 1964. Specifically, thanks to a Pontiac advertising executive and drag racer by the name of Jim Wangers and the blessing of John DeLorean, then the top guy at Pontiac, the duo produced the very first mid-size muscle car that made its appearance as the 1964 Pontiac GTO. Noting a boom in muscle cars sales, Detroit hurriedly adapted and over the next eight years served up the Chevelle SS396, Boss 302 / 429 Mustang, Plymouth GTX 440/Hemi, Roadrunner 383/Hemi, Mustang/Cougar 428 Cobra Jet, Dodge R/T 440 and Super Bee 383 / 426, and even wilder creations like a 440 Six Pack Super Bee or

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Buick Gran Sport

Hurst W30 442 Oldsmobile

HOT 100 HITS OF THE 1960S Billboard’s top singles of the ’60s show the diversity of the decade and its changing tastes, from early dance and instrumental tunes to the rock and soul hits nearer to the 1970s.

How many do you remember the words to?

Chevelle SS 396

Corvette L88

1. “The Twist,” Chubby Checker Peak date: Sept. 24, 1960

2. “Hey Jude,” The Beatles Peak date: Sep. 28, 1968

3. Theme from “A Summer Place,” Percy Faith and His Orchestra Peak date: Feb. 27, 1960

4. “Tossin’ and Turnin,’” Bobby Lewis Peak date: July 15, 1961

5. “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” The Beatles Peak date: Feb. 1, 1964 426 Plymouth Hemi Cuda

Roadrunner. Also noteworthy are the Buick Gran Sport, AMC Scrambler 390, Javelin/ AMX 390, AMC Hornet 360, Hurst W30 442 Oldsmobile, Camaro Z28 and ultimate muscle creations Corvette L88, Mustang Shelby GT 350 / 500 and 426 Plymouth Hemi Cuda and Dodge Hemi Challenger, the latter two built at the end of 1969 as 1970 models.

*** The best of the best in muscle cars and music not only banded a generation together regardless of race or religion, it spawned multi-billion-dollar businesses like the automotive aftermarket, the collector car/muscle car trade and the oldies-butgoodies music industry, where the songs of the 1960s play daily on modern playback

6. “I’m A Believer,” The Monkees Peak date: Dec. 31, 1966

devices, radios and television.

It really was the best of times for muscle cars and music.

7. “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In,” The 5th Dimension

Greg Zyla writes weekly for More Content Now and other GateHouse media publications. He welcomes reader comments at greg@gregzyla.com or at 303 Roosevelt St., Sayre, PA 18840.

8. “Sugar, Sugar,” The Archies

Peak date: April 12, 1969

Peak date: Sept. 20, 1969

9. “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” Marvin Gaye Peak date: Dec. 14, 1968

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10. “Are You Lonesome To-night?” Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires Peak date: Dec. 3, 1960

11. “It’s Now Or Never,” Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires Peak date: Aug. 20, 1960

12. “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” Ray Charles Peak date: June 2, 1962

13. “I’m Sorry,” Brenda Lee Peak date: July 23, 1960

14. “Love Is Blue (L’amour Est Bleu),” Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra

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SIGN, SIGN, EVERYWHERE A SIGN

When you think of the ’60s, you no doubt think about these iconic images

Woodstock logo

Capturing another historic symbol for peace, the dove, artist Arnold Skolnick designed the iconic birdon-guitar-neck to promote 1969’s Woodstock Music & Art Fair.

Peak date: Feb. 10, 1968

15. “Hello, Dolly!” Louis Armstrong and The All Stars Peak date: May 9, 1964

16. “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” The Four Seasons Peak date: Nov. 17, 1962

17. “Sugar Shack,” Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs Peak date: Oct. 12, 1963

18. “Honky Tonk Women,” The Rolling Stones Peak date: Aug. 23, 1969

19. “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay,” Otis Redding Peak date: March 16, 1968

20. “Big Bad John,” Jimmy Dean Peak date: Nov. 11, 1961

This top Billboard Hot 100 songs of each decade is ranked based on each title’s performance on the Hot 100 through the chart dated Nov. 1, 2014. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits across multiple decades, time frames are weighted to account for fluctuating chart turnover rates due to different methodologies utilized.

PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA / ALLMUSIC.COM

Peace sign

The circular symbol that became ubiquitous in the 1960s and ’70s was originally the logo for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

The lines represent the semaphore, or flag symbols (think of the album cover for The Beatles’ “Help!”), for the letters N and D, for “nuclear disarmament.” In the early ’60s the symbols made their way from the UK to U.S. college campuses. The V sign — an upraised fist with index and middle finger extended and parted — also became a symbol for peace during the decade’s anti-war protests.

Fallout shelter sign

Introduced in the U.S. on Dec. 1, 1961, these steel or aluminium signs led the way to safety in case of a nuclear attack. It became synonymous with the Cold War and may still be seen on public buildings that predate the ’60s and ’70s.

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NEW WORLD

Andy Warhol’s pop art Big, bold and vibrant, the movement known as pop art started with such Warhol works as “Campbell’s Soup Cans” and “Marilyn Diptych,” both from 1962. His later work continued to focus on ’60s icons, including mushroom clouds, Coke bottles, celebrities and current events.

Audrey Hepburn’s LBD

Every decade has its style of little black dress, and the 1960s were iconized by Hepburn in 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat

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he space race was perhaps a microcosm of the 1960s. Our young, optimistic president set the challenge in 1961, and our best minds set to work.

Tensions were high as several countries rushed to settle this new frontier — for good or evil, we weren’t really sure — and amid the dangers we saw heroes die.

But the success was sweet. And televised. July 1969’s moon landing was so fantastic that many still believe it was staged — just one of many of the decade’s unprecedented and unbelievable events.

Here are some photos that capture things we had never seen until the ’60s.

— More Content Now

American Buzz Aldrin during the first moon walk in 1969. Aldrin was the second man to walk on the moon. NASA PHOTOS

The decade’s first first lady remains an icon of style and class, and perfectly represented in her pink Chanel suit and pillbox hat the decorum of the early ’60s.

The pillbox hat was a signature of hers that unsurprisingly declined in popularity after President Kennedy was killed.

PHOTOS: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

After arriving at the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex Skid Strip on Sept. 11, 1962, President John F. Kennedy is welcomed by a color guard and Center Director Kurt Debus (right).

The United States won the moon race when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface in July 1969.

Computer-generated image of the Friendship 7 capsule in orbit.

On February 20, 1962, NASA astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in his Mercury capsule Friendship 7.

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THE ONCE AND FUTURE

MUSLIM Being Muslim from the Sixties to today

Earthrise as seen from Apollo 8, Dec. 24, 1968.

By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Special to GateHouse Media

I On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 Commander Neil A. Armstrong leads astronauts Michael Collins and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. from the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building to the transfer van for the eight-mile trip to Pad 39A.

Rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7 in December 1965.

The lunar module flew in lunar orbit on Apollo 10, May 22–23, 1969.

An aerial view of the ticker tape parade for astronauts Virgil Grissom and John Young (seated in last car with Vice President Hubert Humphrey) in New York City in 1965. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/WORLD TELEGRAM & SUN PHOTO BY ROGER HIGGINS

The towering Saturn V rocket rolls out of the Vehicle Assembly Building and heads for Launch Pad 39A on Oct. 14, 1966. The rocket was created to support the U.S.’s Apollo program.

tired of waiting for white America to share the clean water.

Soul searching n the spring of 1966, while a freshIn the year before I man at UCLA, I arrived at UCLA, the read “The AutobiUnited States was ography of Malcolm X” burning up with racial and when I finished the tension. I had been last page I knew my life accidentally caught up was changed forever. in a Harlem riot, dodgOne passage particuing bullets and billy larly impressed me: clubs, that left one dead, “One day, I remember, 118 injured and a mila dirty glass of water lion dollars in damage. was on a counter and Later that year, Malcolm Mr. Muhammad put X was assassinated by a clean glass of water the Nation of Islam, beside it. ‘You want to the very group he had know how to spread written so passionately my teachings?’ he said, about in his book. Less and he pointed to the than two weeks after glass of water. ‘Don’t that, the Rev. Dr. Martin condemn if you see a Luther King Jr. led a person has a dirty glass voting rights march in of water,’ he said, ‘just Selma, Alabama, which show them the clean became famous as “Bloody glass of water that Sunday” after they were you have. When they attacked by the police with inspect it, you won’t tear gas, whips and clubs. have to say that yours And a couple weeks before is better.’”

I arrived at UCLA, the I was only 19 years Watts Riots in Los Angeles old, but I knew I’d been resulted in 34 deaths, 1,032 drinking from that arrests and $40 million in Abdul-Jabbar’s life was changed by reading Malcolm X. dirty glass most my damage.

PHOTO BY OZIER MUHAMMAD life.

I had spent the last few This was a time when years in high school trying to most black Americans were holding their glass figure out where I, a teenage kid known for playing of water up to the light and saying they were basketball, fit in to the civil rights movement.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NBA

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Wednesday, April 26, 2017 |

I knew where I didn’t fit in, and that was with the Catholic Church. I abandoned my Catholic upbringing the moment I left New York for UCLA, because I’d felt as if it had long ago abandoned me and all black Americans. It abandoned us when it found biblical justification for slavery. It abandoned us when it promoted a curriculum in its schools, which I grew up attending, that refused to acknowledge any historical accomplishments of people of color.

“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” opened me up to another possibility: Islam.

I knew that between 15 and 30 percent of African slaves had been Muslim, so exploring Islam was a way for me to connect with my African roots, which felt much more comfortable and authentic than Christianity, which had historically devalued my ancestors. After several years of studying Islam, I decided that continuing to use my given name, Alcindor, meant that every accomplishment I achieved somehow honored the slaveholder who had owned my ancestors. Consequently, I changed my name to Kareem AbdulJabbar (“noble servant of the mighty one”).

When I converted to Islam in 1968, there were only about a million Muslims in America.

There were so few in this country that most Americans — black and white — were either vaguely aware of its existence as some sort of exotic but primitive belief, or were openly hostile because of what they’d heard about the Nation of Islam. I, too, was approached by a prominent member of the Nation of Islam, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. He didn’t pressure me to join, but he did explain why he felt that they were desirable: Not only did they profess Islam, but they were an aggressive political entity fighting racism in America.

But I had already come to the same conclusion that Malcolm X had when he quit the Nation of Islam, that they were evolving into a thuggish cult more interested in power than the spirit. His pilgrimage to Mecca had changed his mind about the inevitability of racism in America. As he wrote in a letter

| Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Abdul-Jabbar dominated college basketball in the 1960s while at UCLA: He was a record three-time MVP of the NCAA Tournament. ROBERT ABBOTT SENGSTACKE

Abdul-Jabbar started his NBA career with the Milwaukee Bucks. PHOTO BY ROBERT TAI

home to his friends in Harlem: “You may be shocked by these words coming from me.

But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions … I could see … that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man — and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their ‘differences’ in color.” Like Malcolm, I chose to embrace the more traditional teachings of Islam meant to lead us to understanding our neighbors and living peaceful, moral lives.

Seeking understanding Because I was such a famous sports celebrity, my conversion to Islam threw a bright spotlight on the religion. My teammates at UCLA and

later the Milwaukee Bucks were mostly curious and supportive. The public was divided.

Some were like my teammates. Islam, huh?

What’s that all about? But others reacted as if I had just gut-punched America and everything it stood for. They wanted me to be the poster child for the Good Negro, a shining example of how America is living up to its promise of equal opportunity for all. The proof was how much glory and money America had heaped on me.

They were wrong. My conversion was about me finding my place in America by connecting with my cultural heritage. I was grateful that I lived in a county where I could do that.

Yes, I rejected that America was a place of equal opportunity — as hundreds of studies have shown — but I believed it deeply wanted to be a place of equal opportunity and that we were striving to become that place.

Yet, despite the outrage of a vocal few, many Americans supported my decision, or at least didn’t care.

Things are radically different today. Back in the 1960s, those million Muslims came from both immigrants and black Americans like myself who wanted to belong to a religion that reflected their cultural roots. Today, according to the Pew Research Center, there are about 3.3 million Muslims and by 2050, there will be 8.1 million. The numbers are growing, in part because it is a religion that tends to encourage having more children and in part because we have more Muslim immigrants.

Today’s climate Unfortunately, the increase in the Muslim population has brought with it an increase in fear from white non-Muslims in America.

When I was converting to Islam in the 1960s, news was spread through only a handful of television stations, radio and newspapers.

Today, with 24-hour news outlets online and on cable, every act of terrorist violence anywhere in the world becomes hammered at the public all day on phones, computers, TVs and even watches.

This magnifies the anxiety of the public way

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Abdul-Jabbar converted to Islam in 1968. His teammates at UCLA and in Milwaukee were largely supportive. COURTESY OF THE MILWAUKEE BUCKS

beyond the actual threat level. The media becomes a mirror in which objects appear much closer than they are. Five people killed by radical terrorists in Libya can seem like 50 killed in your own suburban neighborhood.

In that irrational national atmosphere, Muslim-Americans face much more scrutiny than they did when I converted.

It’s much harder for us to just live our lives, do our jobs, raise our children and be good neighbors, because so many fearful Americans, their paranoia fueled by a xenophobic President Trump, are studying us for any sign that we are secret terrorists just waiting to spring into some violent action.

Fortunately, there are so many more Americans who treasure the words of the U.S. Constitution that prohibit discrimination based on religious belief or ethnic origin.

These are the kinds of open-minded, patriotic people our Founding Fathers, immigrants and sons of immigrants, looked to as the hope of the future.

And these are the people that MuslimAmericans also look to in order to join together as one group: Americans.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s alltime leading scorer and a six-time NBA champion. He is also one of a handful of influential and respected black men in America who has a national platform as a regular contributing columnist for The Washington Post and Time Magazine, where he shares his thoughts on some of the most socially relevant and politically controversial topics facing our nation today. Visit his website, kareemabduljabbar.com.

Things are radically different today. Back in the 1960s, those million Muslims came from both immigrants and black Americans like myself who wanted to belong to a religion that reflected their cultural roots.

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