Tuesday, April 4, 1967: 'Beyond Vietnam'

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his most public and comprehensive statement against the Vietnam War. Addressing a crowd of 3,000 people in New York City’s Riverside Church, King delivers a speech entitled “Beyond Vietnam.” King points out that the war effort is “taking the young black men who have been crippled by our society and sending them 13,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.” Although some activists and newspapers supported King’s statement, most responded with criticism. King’s civil rights colleagues began to disassociate themselves from his radical stance, and the NAACP issued a statement against merging the civil rights movement and peace movement. 

     -- From "A Time To Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King Jr. for Students" (The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University): @

* Text and audio (American Rhetoric): @

* Text and audio (King Research and Education Institute): @

* Summary (King Research and Education Institute): @

* "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (et al.) speak on the war in Vietnam" (booklet, 1967): @

* "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam" (King speech, April 30, 1967; typed speech from The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Atlanta, Georgia): @

* "King's FBI File -- Riverside Church Speech on Vietnam" (American RadioWorks): @ 
* "When Martin Luther King Came Out Against Vietnam" (The New York Times, 2017): @

* "Martin Luther King's Searing Antiwar Speech, Fifty Years Later" (The New Yorker, 2017): @

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Friday, March 31, 1967: Jimi Hendrix sets guitar on fire

During a show at London's Finsbury Park Astoria, Jimi Hendrix puts a match to his lighter-fluid-soaked guitar, a stunt that would be more famously repeated (and photographed) at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival in June.

     -- Image, news account from Associated Press

* Summary from www.jimihendrix.com: @
* Excerpt from "Jimi Hendrix Gear: The Guitars, Amps & Effects That Revolutionized Rock 'n' Roll" (Michael Heatley, 2009): @
* Excerpt from "The Words and Music of Jimi Hendrix" (David Moscowitz, 2010): @

* "Jimi Hendrix's PR Reveals Truth About First Guitar Burning" (Uncut, 2008): @

* "The Day Jimi Hendrix Set His Guitar on Fire for the First Time" (Ultimate Classic Rock, 2015): @

* Tour program (recordmecca.com): @ 

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Thursday, March 30, 1967: Photo shoot for 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'

The image on the album cover is composed of a collage of celebrities. There are 88 figures, including the band members themselves. Pop artist Peter Blake and his wife Jann Haworth conceived and constructed the set, including all the life-size cutouts of historical figures. The set was photographed, with the Beatles standing in the centre, by Michael Cooper. Copyright was a problem as Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager, had to locate each person in order to get permission to use their image in this context.

-- From Victoria and Albert Museum, London: @

* "Making The Cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (www.thebeatles.com): @

* "Cover shoot for Sgt. Pepper" (The Beatles Bible): @

* "Sgt. Pepper Cover" (The Beatles Website): @

* "Behind the Cover of Sgt. Pepper" (Entertainment Weekly): @
* "The Sgt. Pepper's Album Cover: Faces in the Crowd" (Performing Songwriter): @

* Summary from albumlinernotes.com: @

* More about Peter Blake ("The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four," Kenneth Womack, 2014: @ 

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Saturday, March 19, 1966: Texas Western 72, Kentucky 65

With a starting lineup of five black players, Texas Western College beats the University of Kentucky (which did not have a single black player on its roster) for the NCAA men's basketball championship. Many accounts of the game -- including those from the Associated Press, United Press International, The New York Times and Sports Illustrated, all linked below -- did not mention the game's social significance. Shown here are two exceptions -- a column by sportswriter Harvey Yavener of The Trentonian (N.J.) newspaper, published March 21; and a story by Time magazine, published March 25). Texas Western is now known as the University of Texas at El Paso.

* Associated Press game story: @

* United Press International: @

* New York Times (from www.bigbluehistory.net): @

* Sports Illustrated (from www.UTEPathletics.com): @

* The Road to Glory (UTEP website): @

* "Significance of Texas Western's 1966 NCAA title not realized at first" (Jon Solomon, CBS Sports, 2016): @

* "Basketball's Game-Changer" (John Feinstein, Washington Post, 2008): @
* "A Win for Texas Western, A Triumph for Equality" (Michael Wilbon, Washington Post, 2006): @

* "Texas Western's 1966 title left lasting legacy" (Frank Fitzpatrick, ESPN Classic, 2003): @

* "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (Curry Kirkpatrick, Sports Illustrated, 1991): @

* "The Game: A Study in Black & White, 1966" (Bryan Woolley, Nova magazine, 1991): @
* "In An Alien World" (Jack Olsen, Sports Illustrated, 1968): @

* "All-America First: All-Negro 1st Team Topped by Alcindor" (Associated Press, 1967): @
* "And The Wheels Turned" (UTEP student-produced documentary): @

* "And The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Basketball Game That Changed American Sports" (Frank Fitzpatrick, 2000): @

* "Basketball's Biggest Upset: Texas Western Changed The Sport With A Win Over Kentucky in 1966" (Ray Sanchez, 2005): @

* "Benching Jim Crow: The Rise and Fall of the Color Line in Southern College Sports, 1890-1980" (Charles H. Martin, 2010): @ 

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Friday, March 11, 1966: Ronald Reagan's tree quote

SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -- Ronald Reagan called upon private industry Friday to battle the "infinite danger" of growing federal government. "The might of the government is awesome," said the Republican gubernatorial candidate. "We have got to act fast. We're running out of time." Reagan made the remarks in a speech to about 500 persons attending the annual meeting of the Western Wood Productions Association. He urged the group to join with other private industries, such as privately operated utility firms, in combating federal power. "The time has come," he said, "for more control of the government by the people instead of more control of the people by the government."

     ... Regarding proposed federal plans for a Redwood National Park in Northern California, Reagan said he hadn't fully studied new bills now before Congress, but that he favored a "common sense limit" on the program. He explained that both the natural beauty of the area and the economic needs of the lumber industry should be considered. He added, "a tree's a tree -- how many more do you need to look at?"

-- "Reagan Flays Federal Grip on Private Industry," Long Beach Independent, March 12, 1966

-- Editorial cartoon from Fresno Bee, March 15

-- NOTE: Many online resources (and books, for that matter) state that Reagan spoke on March 12. However, newspaper accounts of the time -- both before and after the event -- show that it actually took place on Friday, March 11.

* "If You've Seen One Tree ..." (snopes.com): @

* "The Wrong Side of History" (Center for Western Priorities): @

* Excerpt from "Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power" (Lou Cannon, 2003): @ 

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Friday, March 4, 1966: 'We're more popular than Jesus now'

In a story written by Maureen Cleave and published in the London Evening Standard, John Lennon of The Beatles says:

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first -- rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it ruins it for me.

Lennon's comments attracted little attention until they were reprinted in the September edition of Datebook magazine. (The cover and inside headline used the phrase "I don't know which will go first -- rocknroll or Christianity.") 

The backlash in the United States was swift, beginning with radio station WAQY in Birmingham, Alabama, which in August encouraged listeners to throw away or burn the band's records. Other stations followed suit and stopped playing Beatles songs, while the group was condemned by politicians and religious figures.

-- Jackson, Mississippi, August 1966; photo by Corbis Images

* March 4 summary from The Beatles Bible: @

* July 29 summary from The Beatles Bible: @
* Summary from The Beatles Ultimate Experience: @

* "John Lennon and Jesus, 4 March 1966" (Gordon Thompson, author of "Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out"): @

* " 'Christianity will go' comment stirs up fans" (Ottawa Citizen, August 3, 1966): @

* "John's Gospel" (David Frost, The Spectator, August 12): @
* "Beatle Lennon Apologizes" (The Nashua, N.H., Telegraph, August 12): @
* "Stations No, No Beatles Disks" (Billboard, August 13): @
* "Beatles Running Strong -- With Powerhouse Stations' Blessings" (Billboard, August 20): @
* "Warm Welcome for Beatles in 'Bible Belt' " (Sydney Morning Herald, August 21): @
* "Vatican 'forgives' John Lennon" (Reuters, November 22, 2008): @
* Film clips of controversy: @ 

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Tuesday, May 18, 1965: James Karales' civil rights photo

James Karales' photo of the Selma-to-Montgomery march appears across two pages in Look magazine, with the words TURNING POINT FOR THE CHURCH printed across the top edge. (It was part of a story titled "Our churches' sin against the Negro.") The accompanying text reads:

There have been marches before, but never marchers like these -- a weaponless, potluck army, moving in conquest through hostile territory under the unwilling protection of the enemy. So did a Georgia preacher lead of pilgrimage of enfranchised Alabama Negroes 54 miles this spring to the steps of their state capitol. The concept was biblical. The execution was 1965 American. The Army and FBI guaranteed White House support. Patrol cars, helicopters, truck-borne latrines and first-aid vans bracketed the column; the marchers ate from paper plates with throwaway plastic spoons and slept under floodlit tents. Sustained by rationed peanuts-butter sandwiches, they never faltered in their pace and bitter humor. "I've been called 'nigger,' " said somebody up front. "Well, from now on, it's got to be 'Mister nigger.' " Across the Black Belt farmland rolled the pickup words of their new battle hymn: "Oh, Wallace, you know you can't jail us all; Oh, Wallace, segregation's bound to fail." In it, the white ministers, priests, rabbis and nuns, who had jetted vast distances to reinforce the march, found a new statement of faith.

Karales' son, Andreas, recounted how the photo came to be: " ... he described trying to find an image that would symbolize the meaning and feeling of the march. He struggled over the course of the five-day march, making countless attempts to produce something that he felt worthy of his goal. On the last day a storm swept in and he knew that this was his moment. He rushed to get to the right spot to frame both events as they happened. He was fortunate to get the shot as the storm moved on quickly. ... The menacing clouds and synchronized stride of the marchers happened in one short moment and is what makes this photograph so special. It was one of my father's greatest catches and was the result of his great patience." -- From "Andreas Karales' Memories of his Father, James" (via Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina): @

* Karales' obituary (Los Angeles Times, 2002): @

* Earlier post on Selma-to-Montgomery photographers: @ 

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Wednesday-Thursday, March 24-25, 1965: Teach-in, University of Michigan

The first teach-in was almost an afterthought. The original plan, formulated by thirteen Michigan professors opposed to United States policy in Vietnam, was to cancel classes on March 24 as a protest measure. Their idea was roundly denounced by the University administration, Governor George Romney, and the state senate, which expressed its displeasure in a resolution. As the date of the scheduled "work moratorium" approached, moderates on the faculty proposed a compromise and the teach-in was born. Some 200 members of the Michigan faculty supported it, and 2,000 students attended night-long rallies in four campus auditoriums. Encouraged by the response, Michigan professors called colleagues at other institutions, and the movement was under way.

     -- From "Revolt of the Professors" (Erwin Knoll, The Saturday Review, June 19, 1965): @

     -- Photo from "Teach Your Children Well: 50th Anniversary of U-M Teach-In" (Alumni Association of the University of Michigan): @

* Summary ("Encyclopedia of the Sixties," 2012): @

* Summary ("The Spirit of the Sixties: The Making of Postwar Radicalism," James J. Farrell, 1997): @
* Summary (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan): @

* Summary (The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto): @
* "Origins of the Teach-In" (College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan): @
* "40 Years Ago, the First Teach-In" (Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center, March 2005): @
* "Reflections on Protest" (Kenneth E. Boulding, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, October 1965): @

* "Students in a Ferment Chew Out the Nation" (Life magazine, April 30, 1965): @ 

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Thursday, March 18, 1965: First spacewalk

A Soviet cosmonaut squeezed out of history's highest orbiting manned satellite today and took man's first slowly somersaulting, free-floating swim in outer space. Then he returned to the cabin of his two-man spacecraft, the Voskhod 2, as the Soviet Union took another giant stride in the race for the moon. ... It was the second Soviet team flight in one space capsule, following a three-man, 16-orbit trip last October. It came only five days before America's first planned attempt to orbit a spacecraft with more than one man aboard. ... Alexei Leonov, 30, a chunky lieutenant colonel and a gifted artist, became the first man in history to step into outer space. 

     -- Associated Press: @

     -- Photo from www.spacephys.ru

* "Learning to Spacewalk" (Leonov, for Air & Space magazine, January 2005): @
* " 'Our Walk in Space': The Russian Cosmonauts' Story of their bold first step" (Life magazine, May 14): @
* "Alexei Leonov: The artistic spaceman" (European Space Agency): @

* Short biography (International Space Hall of Fame): @
* Russian news report: @
* Black-and-white footage (French audio): @
* Black-and-white footage (no sound; from www.britishpathe.com): @
* Color footage: @

* Universal Newsreel (from www.criticalpast.com): @ 

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Monday, March 15, 1965: LBJ and MLK speeches

WASHINGTON -- President Johnson took the rallying cry of American Negroes into Congress and millions of American homes tonight by pledging that "we shall overcome" what he called "a crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice." In his slow Southern accent, Mr. Johnson demanded immediate action on legislation designed to remove every barrier of discrimination against citizens trying to register and vote.

     -- Story by The New York Times: @

     -- Photo by Cecil Stoughton

* Video and transcript (from LBJ Library): @

At Brown Chapel AME in Selma, Alabama, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at an interfaith service for the Rev. James Reeb, who died March 11 from a beating two days earlier.
     -- Photo by Flip Schulke

* Audio (from www.uuworld.org): @

* Transcript (www.beaconbroadside.com): @ 

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March 1965: Vietnam

Tuesday, March 2: Rolling Thunder

     Operation Rolling Thunder was a 44-month-long aerial bombardment campaign carried out against North Vietnam by the U.S. Air Force and Navy and the South Vietnamese air force. The operation was initiated by President Johnson on 2 March 1965 as a continuation of Operation Flaming Dart. The principal aims, the relative significance of which shifted over time, were to improve the morale of the South Vietnamese, persuade North Vietnam to end its aid to the Viet Cong, destroy North Vietnam's industry and transportation, and cut off the flow of men and supplies from North to South.

     -- From "Historical Dictionary of U.S. Diplomacy during the Cold War" (Martin Folly, 2014): @

* The Air War in North Vietnam: Rolling Thunder Begins, February-June 1965" (The Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, 1971): @

* "The Air War Against North Vietnam" (U.S. Air Force, 1984): @

* "Rolling Thunder 1965: Anatomy of a Failure" (Col Dennis M. Drew, Air University, 1986): @

* "An Uncommon War: The U.S. Air Force in Southeast Asia" (Bernard C. Nalty, Air Force Historical Studies Office, 2015): @

Monday, March 8: Combat troops

     DA NANG, South Viet Nam, Monday -- Two combat-trained battalions of U.S. Marines began moving ashore today to defend vital U.S. jet air bases at this strategic seaport 80 miles from Communist North Viet Nam. The force of 3,500 Marines began debarking from ships lying off the coast under strict security measures to discourage any Viet Cong interference. They came ashore through pounding surf 10 miles north of Da Nang. ... The landing operation began at 9 a.m. (8 p.m. EST) after a delay of about an hour because of rough seas offshore. The air was hot and humid. ... The Marines are the first American ground troops to be ordered into potential direct combat positions against Viet Cong guerrillas and troops infiltrating from North Viet Nam.

     -- From United Press International: @

     -- Photo from "U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Landing and the Buildup" (History and Museums Division, U.S. Marine Corps, 1978): @

* "Marines Land in Vietnam" (The Age; Melbourne, Australia): @
* "American Troops Enter the Ground War, March-July 1965" (The Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, 1971): @

* "The Third Division in Vietnam" (Third Marine Division Association): @
* "50 Years Ago: Boots on the Ground in Vietnam" (The Saturday Evening Post, 2015): @

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March 1965: Portraits of Selma and Montgomery

Links to the work of some of the photographers who chronicled the events of March 1965 in Alabama.

Note: The above photo comes from the website of the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute in Selma. I'm trying to find out who took it. Any information would be appreciated.

Update (April 2016): The photo at left was taken by the Alabama Department of Public Safety (link to story: @). The vantage point is similar to that of the above photo, and two of the protesters lying on the ground look to be the same. The department's Photographic Services Unit said the photo above was probably from their files.


Photographers

* Bob Adelman: @

* Archie E. Allen: @

* James Barker: @
* Morton Broffman: @
* Dan Budnik: @ 
* Frank Dandridge (search Getty Images for his name): @
* Bruce Davidson: @ 
* Bob Fletcher: @
* Matt Herron: @ and @ and @ (www.takestockphotos.com) 
* Dennis Hopper: @
* James Karales: @
* John Kouns: @ and @ (Syndic Literary Journal) and @ (Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement)
* Spider Martin: @
* Ivan Massar: @
* Charles Moore: @ (Kodak) and @ (The Red List)
* Glen Pearcy: @ and @
* John F. Phillips: @

* Steve Schapiro: @ (The New Yorker) and @ (Monroe Gallery) and @ (Schapiro's website)

* Flip Schulke: @
* Charles Shaw: @
* Robert Abbott Sengstacke: @

* Stephen Somerstein: @

* Allen Zak: @
-------------------
* Alabama Department of Archives and History: @
* Al.com: @
* Houston Chronicle (slideshow): @
* Getty Images (search for "Selma to Montgomery March" or similar terms): @
* Library of Congress: @ 

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March 1965: 'The Negro Family: The Case for National Action'

Few pieces of social science research have stirred as much controversy or had as great an impact as 1965's "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action." The U.S. Department of Labor report, more commonly referred to as the Moynihan report after its author, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, focused on the deep roots of black poverty in the United States. Moynihan argued that the decline of the black nuclear family would significantly impede blacks' progress toward economic and social equality. Over the ensuing decades, the report has been hailed by some as prophetic and derided by others as a classic example of blaming the victim.

     -- "The Moynihan Report Revisited" (Urban Institute, June 2013): @

* Full text of report (U.S. Department of Labor): @

* PDF (Stanford University): @

* "Moynihan Report: The Negro Family Revisited" (project website): @

* "Moynihan of the Moynihan Report" (Thomas Meehan, New York Times, July 1966): @
* "A Troubled National Turns to Pat Moynihan: Idea Broker in the Race Crisis" (Life magazine, November 3, 1967, page 72): @
* "Freedom Is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America's Struggle over Black Family Life, from LBJ to Obama" (James T. Patterson, 2010): @
* "What the Left and Right Both Get Wrong About the Moynihan Report" (Peter-Christian Angier, The Atlantic magazine, 2014): @ 
* "Revisiting the Moynihan Report On Its 50th Anniversary" (EducationNext; 2015): @
* Beyond Civil Rights: The Moynihan Report and Its Legacy" (Daniel Geary, 2015): @

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Monday, March 30, 1964: 'Jeopardy!'

Premiering in 1964 in a daytime slot on NBC, "Jeopardy!" was one of the first quiz shows to reintroduce factual knowledge, including knowledge of sports and entertainment trivia as well as the arts, literature, and science, as the main source of questions. Seemingly reversing the logic of the big money quiz shows of the 1950s (e.g., "The 64,000 Question," "Twenty-One"), producer Merv Griffin introduced a format in which the answers for questions are revealed and the contestants must phrase their response in the form of a question.

-- From "Encyclopedia of Television" (2013; link: @)

* "Fleming Hosts Show; Rewards For Questions That Fit Answers" (March 27, 1964): @

* "How Merv Griffin Came Up With That Weird Question/Answer Format For 'Jeopardy!' (Smithsonian magazine, March 2014): @

* "Rules of the Game: Quiz Shows and American Culture" (Olaf Hoerschelmann, 2006): @

* " 'Jeopardy!' and Philosophy: What is Knowledge in the Form of a Question?" (Shaun P. Young, 2012): @ 

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Friday, March 27, 1964: Alaska earthquake

A devastating earthquake spread death and destruction through half a dozen Alaska cities Friday night. The shock set up tidal waves which swept down the west coast of the continent, doing heavy damage and taking more lives. The death toll could reach into the hundreds. There was no way to assess the number of dead and injured immediately.

-- Associated Press (link to Vancouver Sun, March 28: @)

-- Photo from U.S. Army. Caption: "Collapse of Fourth Avenue near C Street in Anchorage due to a landslide caused by the earthquake. Before the shock, the sidewalk on the left, which is in the graben, was at street level on the right. The graben subsided 11 feet in response to 14 feet of horizontal movement."

Note: The earthquake, which measured 9.2 on the Richter scale, killed 131 people -- 116 in Alaska and 15 in Oregon and California (according to the Alaska Earthquake Information Center, linked below).

* Vancouver Sun, March 30: @

* "Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964" (University of Alaska Anchorage): @

* "The Great Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami of March 27, 1964" (U.S. Geological Survey): @

* "Historic Reports Reissued for Great Alaska Quake 50th Anniversary" (USGS): @

* "50th Anniversary of the 1964 Earthquake" (Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs): @

* "The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964" (Alaska Earthquake Information Center): @

* "Great Alaskan Earthquake and Tsunami: Alaska, March 1964" (Popular Mechanics, 2007): @

* "Benchmarks -- March 27, 1964: The Good Friday Alaska Earthquake and Tsunamis" (EARTH magazine, 2014): @

* Anchorage Museum exhibit: @

* Photos, USGS: @

* Photos, Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs: @

* Footage (Alaska Film Archives): @

* Video (USGS): @ 

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