Sunday, June 5 - Sunday, June 26, 1966: March Against Fear

Thursday, June 1: New York

     James Meredith, whose admittance to the University of Mississippi touched off riots in 1962, will set out on a 220-mile "voter registration march" into Jackson, Miss., Sunday as an example to fear-ridden fellow Negroes. -- United Press International: @

▲ Sunday, June 5: Memphis, Tennessee

     Declaring war on fear, James Meredith strolled boldly toward Mississippi on a civil rights march Sunday and placed his faith with "a million Negroes." Meredith, the man who cracked segregation barriers at the University of Mississippi, left downtown Memphis with two hiking companions and plans to reach the Mississippi state capitol in Jackson in about two weeks. "There are two purposes for this," Meredith said, "first, we want to tear down the fear that grips Negroes in Mississippi, and we want to encourage the 450,000 Negroes remaining unregistered (as voters) in Mississippi." -- Associated Press: @. Photo by Bill Hudson.
* "James Meredith Starts His March to Jackson" (AP): @

* "Meredith Begins Mississippi Walk to Combat Fear" (New York Times): @

▲ Monday, June 6: South of Hernando, Mississippi

     Negro James Meredith was shot and wounded by a forest sniper Monday as he trudged down a lonely highway on the second day of his march through Mississippi. Doctors said Meredith would survive the shotgun ambush. Authorities said James Norvell, a short, pudgy white man from Memphis, admitted bushwhacking Meredith and was charged with assault and battery with intent to murder. -- United Press International: @. Photos by Jack Thornell.

* "Meredith Is Shot In Back On Walk Into Mississippi" (New York Times): @

* Life magazine (June 17): @

* Jet magazine (June 23): @
* "Capturing history: Shooting of James Meredith" (Chuck Cook, 2016): @

* "Jack Thornell: 'I was thinking my career is over. I will resign. Or be fired' " (The Independent, 2013): @

Note: The Associated Press initially reported that Meredith was killed. "The Meredith Story, June 6, 1966" (UPI): @

Note: Aubrey James Norvell later pleaded guilty and would serve a year and a half in prison.

Tuesday, June 7: Hernando

      Three major civil rights figures, shoved into single file by Mississippi highway patrolmen, resumed James H. Meredith's "march against fear" Tuesday. The march, picking up new members as it straggled along U.S. 51, started at the spot where shotgun blasts felled Meredith, 33, who cracked the racial barrier at the University of Mississippi in 1962. The leaders were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Floyd McKissick, director of the Congress of Racial Equality; and Stokely Carmichael, new chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. -- Associated Press: @.

* "Negroes Pledge Massive March" (AP): @
* "Leaders Join for Miss. March" (The Southern Courier, June 11-12): @

▲ Thursday, June 9: Near Como

     A little boy tootles "Dixie" on a clarinet and a girl beside him waves a Confederate flag as marchers led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. approach along the shoulder of U.S. 51 near Como, Mississippi. -- Photo and caption by Associated Press.

▲ Saturday, June 11: Batesville

     El Fondren, resident of Batesville, Miss., who claims to be 106 years old, is hoisted to the shoulders of a crowd of Negroes and whites in Batesville today after he registered to vote for the first time. He registered as about 300 marchers in the Memphis-to-Jackson trek stopped for a brief demonstration before going on. -- Photo by Bob Fitch. Caption by Associated Press.

* "Marchers 'Against Fear' Stage Registration Rally" (AP): @

* "Picturing Freedom" (Aram Goudsouzian, 2016): @

* News footage: @

▲ Tuesday, June 14-Wednesday, June 15: Grenada

     The Mississippi marchers jubilantly moved toward the lush cotton country Wednesday, leaving hundreds of newly registered Negro voters behind and courthouse restrooms that no longer differentiate between white and Negro. They also may have picked up some poison ivy. -- Associated Press: @. Photo of the Rev. Martin Luther King speaking at Grenada's Jefferson Davis memorial by Charmian Reading.

* "Rain Falls to Dampen Ardor of Civil Righters" (AP): @

* "Marchers Spend Night At Grenada" (AP): @

* "March Doubles Voter Registration Along Route Through Mississippi" (The Southern Courier, June 18-19): @ 
Note: The march led to a months-long civil rights campaign in Grenada that eventually included the desegregation of city schools.

* "Grenada Mississippi, 1966: Chronology of a Movement" (Bruce Hartford, Civil Rights Movement Veterans): @

* "The Civil Rights Documentation Project: The Grenada Movement" (University of Southern Mississippi): @

* "Making a stand in Grenada" (Alan Bean, Friends of Justice): @

* "Return to Grenada" (Pete Eikenberry, Federal Bar Council Quarterly): @

▲  Thursday, June 16: Greenwood

     "We want black power! We want black power!" the 1,000 Negroes chanted it again and again. On the back of a truck, facing them on a lighted baseball field Thursday night, stood Stokely Carmichael, head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He and two others in the Mississippi march had just come from seven hours in jail. "Everybody owns our neighborhood except us," Carmichael roared. "We outnumber the whites in this county; we want black power. That's what we want. Black power!" Carmichael's speech climaxed the most troubled day of the march since James H. Meredith, the first Negro known to have graduated from the University of Mississippi, was shot and wounded June 6. -- Associated Press: @. Photos of Carmichael's arrest (his back is to camera) and speech by Bob Fitch.

* Carmichael on CBS' "Face the Nation" (June 19, 1966): @

* " 'Guns, Bullets Can't Stop Us,' King Tells Miss. Negroes" (Jet magazine, June 30): @ 

* "March's Leaders Argue, Non-Violence or Arms?" (The Southern Courier, June 25-26): @

* "Black Power - White Backlash" (CBS, September 27, 1966): @
* "The First 'Black Power' flyer?" (Eric Etheridge, Breach of Peace): @

* Interview with David Dawley (Washington University, 1989): @
* "The Basis of Black Power" (SNCC, 1966): @ 
* Carmichael's October 29 speech at U.C. Berkeley (American Rhetoric): @

* "Stokely Carmichael, 'Black Power' " (Kalen M.A. Churcher, Niagara University): @

* "Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)": (Stokely Carmichael and Michael Thelwell, 2003): @

* "Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America" (Peniel E. Joseph, 2007): @
* "Stokely Carmichael, Black Power and the Age of Political Repression: Why Did America's Ruling Elites Declare War on the Black Movement?" (Abayomi Azikiwe, Centre for Research on Globalization, 2016): @ 

▲  Tuesday, June 21: Philadelphia

     A civil rights leader said Tuesday night his group traded a volley of bullets with unknown assailants outside their headquarters in a gun battle he called a "siege." Earlier, a memorial march led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in honor of three slain civil rights workers erupted in a stone throwing, fist swinging battle. -- Milwaukee Sentinel: @. 

-- Photo by Associated Press. Caption reads: Dr. Martin Luther King, left, confronts Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price at the County Jail in Philadelphia, Mississippi on June 21, 1966 as Dr. King and other African American leaders arrived to post bond for jailed Rev. Clint Collier, who was arrested on trafic charges. The encounter came after a violence-marked memorial march in Philadelphia which Dr. King led in memory of three slain civil rights workers.

* "Neighborhood Sealed Off in Mississippi" (AP): @

Note: In October 1967, Price would be convicted for his role in the 1964 deaths of Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. He would serve four years in federal prison.

▲ Thursday, June 23: Canton

     Guns at the ready, Mississippi state troopers move in Thursday on freedom marchers, already scrambling away from tear gas fumes in a schoolyard in Canton, Miss. The troopers tossed the tear gas canisters among the 2,000 marchers as they set up a sleeping tent in the schoolyard in defiance of an order by town authorities forbidding them to use the grounds. -- Photo by Charles Kelly. Caption by United Press International.

* "Marchers Gassed" (AP): @
* "Tear Gas Routs Dixie Marchers" (Milwaukee Journal): @

Friday-Saturday, June 24-25: Tougaloo and Canton

     Chilled by dissension and James H. Meredith's coolness, the Mississippi march to promote Negro voter registration stood at the last lap today. Meredith arrived in Tougaloo on Friday night after ignoring a rally in Canton, 16 miles to the north, where he was to receive a hero's ovation. ... Disappointed when he found that the march had proceeded from Canton to Tougaloo before his arrival, Meredith said he tentatively planned to march the 16 miles on his own today. -- Associated Press: @

▲ Sunday, June 26: Jackson

     The long and turbulent Mississippi march has ended with James H. Meredith -- who started it as a "journey against fear" -- saying the "governor and every other person is going to pay attention to the Negro. The system of white supremacy will reign no longer," Meredith told a heavily guarded rally behind the imposing State Capitol Building Sunday. Some 16,000 persons, most of them Negroes, flowed through Jackson streets to jam into a portion of the Capitol grounds and adjacent areas. -- Associated Press: @. Photos of James Meredith and crowd by Bob Fitch.

* "Mississippi March Ends With Massive Rally in Jackson" (St. Petersburg Times): @

* News footage of Meredith speaking: @

* "Civil Rights Groups to Push Work in Areas March Passed Through" (The Southern Courier, July 2-3): @

* "Divided On Tactics, Leaders Agree March A Success" (Jet magazine, July 14): @

* jamesmeredith1962.blogspot.com: @

Resources

-- Summaries

* PBS: @

* University of North Carolina: @

* Jo Freeman: @

* Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation (see "March Against Fear" section): @

-- Books
* "Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference" (David J. Garrow, 1986): @ 
* "Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi" (John Dittmer, 1994): @
* "Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI" (1998): @

* "Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama's Black Belt" (Hasan Kwame Jeffries, 2010): @
* "James Meredith: Warrior and the America That Created Him" (Meredith Coleman McGee, 2013): @
* "Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear" (Aram Goudsouzian, 2014): @

* "At the Crossroads of Fear and Freedom: The Fight for Social and Educational Justice" (Robert L. Green, 2015): @

-- Photos

* Bob Fitch: @

* Jim Lucas: @

* Jim Peppler: @

* John F. Phillips: @

* Flip Schulke: @

* Getty Images: @

* Walter P. Reuther Library: @

-- Other

* March map (Facts on File): @

* The Southern Courier archives: @ 

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Monday, May 16, 1966: 'Pet Sounds'

Departing from the Beach Boys' surf-music roots, "Pet Sounds" was an emotive and carefully planned recording that attempted to present an album as a unified work and not merely a collection of singles. The album is notable for Brian Wilson's lead vocals* and the harmonizing support from the other band members. Equally compelling are the melodies and the arrangements, the latter featuring, among other instruments, horns, strings, theremin, accordion and a glockenspiel. The album has proven to be the most complete statement of Wilson's musical and lyrical aesthetic.

-- From National Recording Registry, Library of Congress

-- * Other group members also sang lead vocals, most notably Carl Wilson on "God Only Knows"

* Listen to the album (archive.org): @

* Album review (AllMusic): @

* Album reviews (Rolling Stone): @ and @

* "Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll: 'Pet Sounds' " (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame): @

* "The Making (and Remaking) of the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds,' Arguably the Greatest Rock Album of All Time" (Open Culture): @

* "The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band, On Stage and in the Studio" (Keith Badman, 2004): @

* "The Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds' " (Jim Fusilli, 2005): @ 

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1966: Cultural Revolution in China

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a decade-long period of political and social chaos caused by Mao Zedong's bid to use the Chinese masses to reassert his control over the country's Communist Party. (From "The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China's political convulsion," linked below.)

     Daily summaries are from "Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution" and "The New Cambridge History of Contemporary China" (linked below) unless otherwise noted.

     Texts from www.marxists.org and www.bannedthought.net unless otherwise noted.

February 12

The Chinese Communist Party Central Committee (CCPCC) issues the Outline Report within the party nationwide as a guiding document.

April 18: "Hold High the Great Red Banner of Mao Tse-Tung's Thought and Actively Participate in the Great Socialist Cultural Revolution"

* Text: @
* Image: "Hold high the great red banner of Mao Zedong to wage the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to the end -- Revolution is no crime, to rebel is justified" (Image from chineseposters.net)

May 7 directive
* Summary (from en.people.cn): @
* Text (from "Turbulent Decade," linked below): @

May 16: "Circular of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, May 16, 1966: A Great Historic Document"
The Politburo announces its decision to set up the Cultural Revolution Group, and calls for attacks on "all representatives of the bourgeoisie who have infiltrated the Party, government, army and cultural world."
* Text: @

May 25: Dazibao
Dazibao, big character posters, were an object of political struggle that proliferated during the Cultural Revolution. They usually contained quotations of Mao, the name of the person being discussed in the poster, tangential evidence of him or her being counter-revolutionary, a call for action against the person, and more praises of Mao. ... The posters were usually pasted on walls or boards for the public to see and to discuss. ... On May 25, 1966, a big character poster written by Nie Yuanzi targeting the chancellor and officials of Peking University rekindled the flame of poster. Nie's was lauded by Mao as "China's first Marxist-Leninist big character poster." ... Big character posters soon spread beyond the campus. (from "The Cultural Revolution and Overacting: Dynamics between Politics and Performance," Tuo Wang, 2014: @)
* chineseposters.net: @
* "Chinese Posters: Art from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" (Lincoln Cushing and Ann Tompkins, 2007): @

May 29: Red Guards
A group of students at Tsinghua University Middle School -- mostly children of ranking officials -- forms in secrecy a paramilitary organization named “Red Guards” to help carry out Mao's campaign against the bourgeoisie.

June 1: "Sweeping away all the monsters and demons"
* Summary (from "Rhetoric of the Chinese Revolution," linked below): @

July 16: Yangtze River
Mao swims in the Yangzi River, demonstrating his good health and determination to carry out the Cultural Revolution. 
* "The Great Helmsman Goes Swimming" (www.historytoday.com): @

* From "100 Days in Photographs: Pivotal Events That Changed the World" (Nick Yapp, 2007): @

August 8: "Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" (aka the Sixteen Points)

The Eleventh Plenum of the Eighth CCPCC adopts its Sixteen Points, a decision in favor of the Cultural Revolution.
* Text: @

August 18: Tiananmen Square

In army uniform and wearing a Red Guard armband, Mao receives a million students (many of them Red Guards and teachers) at Tiananmen Square.
* "Song Binbin's Cultural Revolution apology sparks national remorse call" (South China Morning Post, 2016): @

1981: "Resolution on CPC History"
* Text: @

Other resources

* "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China" (www.bannedthought.net): @
* "Chinese Communism" (www.marxists.org): @
* Timeline (www.asianews.it): @
* Photos: @
* Photos: @
* "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" (www.islandnet.com; archived): @
* "Morning Sun: A film and website about Cultural Revolution": @
* Coverage from South China Morning Post: @
* "The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China's political convulsion" (The Guardian, 2016): @
* "China's Cultural Revolution, Explained" (New York Times, 2016): @
* "Readings in the Chinese Communist Cultural Revolution: A Manual for Students of the Chinese Language" (Wen Shun-Chi, 1971): @

* "Historic Lessons of China's Cultural Revolution" (Cynthia Lai, 1981-82): @

* "China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party" (Michael Schoenhauls, 1996): @
* "Turbulent Decade: A History of the Cultural Revolution" (Jiaqi Yan and Gao Gao, 1996): @
* "China: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary" (Michael Dillon, 1998): @

* "China During the Cultural Revolution: A Selected Bibliography of English Language Works" (Tony H. Chang, 1999): @
* "The New Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China" (Colin McKerras, 2001): @
* "China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: Master Narratives and Post-Mao Narratives" (Woei Lien Chong, 2002): @
* "Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: The Impact on Chinese Thought, Culture, and Communication" (Xing Lu, 2004): @
* "Mao's Last Revolution" (Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals, 2009): @

* "The Cultural Revolution: A Very Short Introduction" (Richard Curt Kraus, 2012): @

* "Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution" (Guo Jian, Yongyi Song and Yuan Zhou, 2015): @

---

Monday, April 25, 1966: 'Pop!'

    Peter Benchley's cover story on pop culture begins: "It's a fad, it's a trend, it's a way of life. It's pop." and goes on to say that "In short, pop is what's happening ... it's anything that is imaginative, nonserious, rebellious, new, or nostalgic: anything, basically, fun." (Full story, from Lichtenstein Foundation via Internet Archive: @)

     Roy Lichtenstein's cover illustration was similar to the comic-book-style words that appeared on screen during fight scenes in TV's "Batman." 

Resources
*"The Continuing Influence of Popular Culture on Contemporary Art" (Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia, 2003): @

* "American Pop Frankenstein? Andy Warhol, Iconic Experience and the Advent of the Pop Society" (Steve Sherwood, UCLA): @

* Entry from blogs.artinfo.com: @

* Peter Benchley website: @

* Roy Lichtenstein website: @

Related posts
* "Batman" (January 12, 1966): @
* "Notes on 'Camp' " (September 1964): @

* Pop art at the Guggenheim (March 14, 1963): @

* "Pop Goes the Easel" (March 25, 1962): @
* Andy Warhol's soup cans (July 9, 1962): @

* Roy Lichtenstein (1961): @ 

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Monday, April 18, 1966: AstroTurf

The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled veteran Robin Roberts with a barrage of singles Monday night and defeated the Houston Astros, 6-3, in the first official game played on the Astrodome's infield of synthetic grass. ... Neither club gave indication of concern about the pool table green infield made of tough nylon strips zippered together. There were three errors, but none could be blamed on the carpet-like material that Astro officials plan to extend into the outfield by mid-June.

     -- Story by Associated Press: @

     -- Image by Associated Press from July 1966, showing the installation of Astroturf in the Astrodome outfield.

* www.astroturf.com: @

* "Astroturf Applauded by Dodger" (Associated Press, April 19, 1966; from www.newspapers.com, subscription only): @
* "The Cool Bubble" (Roger Angell, 1966): @

* "The Rise and Fall of Artificial Turf" (Mark Armour, Baseball Analysts, 2006): @

* "MLB's turf wars are just about over" (Associated Press, September 2009): @

* "Materiality and Meaning: Synthetic Grass, Sport, and the Limits of Modern Progress" (Benjamin D. Lisle, 2012): @

* "Turf Wars" (Jennifer Weeks, Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2013): @

* "Movies, Bullfights, and Baseball, Too: Astrodome Built for Spectacle First and Sports Second" (Eric Robinson, Society for American Baseball Research, 2014): @

* "Monofilament Ribbon Pile Product" (Patent, 1967): @
* Earlier post on the Astrodome (April 1965): @

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Monday, April 11, 1966: LSD in the United States

Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, the nation's only licensed distributor of LSD, has ceased distribution of the hallucinatory drug in this country. LSD, or lysergic acid diethylamide, is produced by the company's parent concern, Sandoz Ltd., in Switzerland. ... The company had informed the federal food and drug administration in Washington that it was withdrawing its investigational drug application because of "unforeseen public reaction." Authorities said the drug produced extreme sensations of color, sight and taste, breaking down the sense of reality.

     -- From Associated Press: @

     -- Image from Life magazine, March 25, 1966: @

* LSD information (National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health): @

* LSD information (www.erowid.org): @

* "How LSD was popularized" (Schaeffer Library of Drug Policy): @

* "Legend of a Mind: Timothy Leary & LSD" (The Pop History Dig): @

* www.lysergia.com: @
* The Albert Hofmann Foundation: @
* "History of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals" (The Herb Museum): @

* "Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, The Sixties, and Beyond" (Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain, 1985): @

* "Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream" (Jay Stevens, 1987): @ 

* "Drugged: The Science and Culture Behind Psychotropic Drugs" (Richard J. Miller, 2014): @ 

* "Acid Hype: America News Media and the LSD Experience" (Steven Siff, 2015): @

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Friday, April 8, 1966: End of poll tax

Mississippi's $2-a-year poll tax was ruled unconstitutional by a special three-judge federal court which forbade the state to apply it as a requirement to vote.

     The judges ruled in favor of a Justice Department suit, brought under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, that contended Mississippi had used the 76-year-old tax to keep Negroes from voting.

     The suit also charged the tax discriminated economically against the poor of any color, and made a negligible contribution to public education revenues -- for which it was earmarked -- of only 0.43 percent.

     The decision forbids application of poll tax payment as a voting requirement in any "municipal, county or state or national election hereafter held within the state of Mississippi."

     The panel, Judge Walter P. Gewin of Tuscaloosa, Ala., of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and District Judges Harold Cox of Southern Mississippi and Claude F. Clayton of Northern Mississippi, noted the decision followed the Supreme Court's March 24 decision against the Virginia state board of elections in a poll tax case.

     Similar federal panels earlier ruled the poll tax unconstitutional in Alabama and Texas.

     -- Story by Associated Press: @

     -- Image taken from nameplate of The Delta Democrat Times (Greenville, Mississippi), January 15, 1964

Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (March 24, 1966)
* "Supreme Court Strikes Down Virginia Poll Tax" (United Press International, March 24): @

* "Mississippi Last State of Poll Tax" (UPI, March 25): @

* "Supreme Court Says Poll Tax Violates Economic Equality" (AP, March 28): @
* Decision and opinions (from FindLaw): @
* Oral arguments (from www.oyez.org): @

* Biography of Evelyn Thomas Butts (Encyclopedia of Virginia): @

Other resources
* "A Review of the Activities of the Department of Justice in Civil Rights, 1966" (Department of Justice, January 1967): @

* "Recalling an Era When the Color of Your Skin Meant You Paid to Vote" (Smithsonian magazine, March 2016): @

* Earlier post on 24th Amendment (January 23, 1964): @ 

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Friday, April 8, 1966: 'Is God Dead?'

Time magazine publishes a provocative article (with a controversial cover) by religion editor John T. Elson. It begins:

TOWARD A HIDDEN GOD

     Is God dead? It is a question that tantalizes both believers, who perhaps secretly fear that he is, and atheists, who possibly suspect that the answer is no. 

     Is God dead? The three words represent a summons to reflect on the meaning of existence. No longer is the question the taunting jest of skeptics for whom unbelief is the test of wisdom and for whom Nietzsche is the prophet who gave the right answer a century ago. Even within Christianity, now confidently renewing itself in spirit as well as form, a small band of radical theologians has seriously argued that the churches must accept the fact of God's death, and get along without him. How does the issue differ from the age-old assertion that God does not and never did exist? Nietzsche's thesis was that striving, self-centered man had killed God, and that settled that. The current death-of-God group believes that God is indeed absolutely dead, but proposes to carry on and write an theology without theos, without God. Less radical Christian thinkers hold that at the very least God in the image of man, God sitting in heaven, is dead, and -- in the central task of religion today -- they seek to imagine and define a God who can touch men's emotions and engage men's minds. 

     If nothing else, the Christian atheists are waking the churches to the brutal reality that the basic premise of faith -- the existence of a personal God, who created the world and sustains it with his love -- is now subject to profound attack.

* Complete text: @

* "Is God Dead?" (the Rev. G.H. Ashworth, for The Bryan, Ohio, Democrat, May 25, 1905): @
* "The God Is Dead Movement" (Time, October 22, 1965; subscription only): @
* John T. Elson obituary (New York Times, 2009): @
* "Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists" (Sean McDowell and Jonathan Morrow, editors, 2010): @

* "Methodist Heretic: Thomas Altizer and the Death of God at Emory University" (Christopher Demuth Rodkey, 2010): @
* "American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Ideas" (Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, 2012): @
* " 'God Is Dead' Controversy" (New Georgia Encyclopedia, 2013): @

* "Thomas J.J. Alitzer: On the Death of God Theology" (Jose L. Gutierrez, 2014): @

Time, December 26, 1969

The magazine publishes a three-year-later look at the subject with "The New Ministry: Bringing God Back to Life."
* Text (subscription only): @

motive magazine, February 1966
The official magazine of the Methodist Student Movement publishes a satirical obituary, written in the style of The New York Times, titled "God is Dead in Georgia."
* Complete text: @
* Note: Anthony Towne, who wrote the obituary, followed it up in 1968 with the book "Excerpts from the Diaries of the Late God." Short summary (from "Religion in America Since 1945: A History," Patrick Allitt, 2003): @
* motive magazine archives (Boston University School of Theology): @ and @

Sojourner Truth, 1852
During an anti-slavery meeting in Salem, Ohio, the abolitionist and social reformer replies to Frederick Douglass' speech on how to rid the country of slavery with the plaintive question (by some accounts), "Is God gone?" The phrase is more remembered as "Is God dead?", which is also inscribed -- without the question mark -- on her tombstone in Battle Creek, Michigan.
* Excerpt from "Sojourner Truth: Slave, Prophet, Legend" (Carleton Mabee and Susan Mabee Newhouse, 1995): @
* Exceprt from "Sojourner Truth as Orator: Wit, Story and Song" (Suzanne Pullon Fitch and Roseann M. Mandzuik, 1997): @

* Excerpt from "Sojourner Truth's America" (Margaret Washington, 2009): @ 

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April 1966: 'Frank Sinatra Has A Cold'

Gay Talese's profile of Frank Sinatra is published in the April 1966 issue of Esquire magazine. It stands as one of the high achievements of "New Journalism," in which writers use all manner of literary techniques to tell a nonfiction story. The profile is also noteworthy in that Talese did not interview Sinatra, talking instead to the people in the entertainer's circle.

-- Subhed reads: "And some of the most important people in some of the most important places in New York, New Jersey, Southern California and Las Vegas are suddenly developing postnasal drop"
-- Cover illustration by Edward Sorel

* Full story (www.esquire.com): @
* Annotated version, 2013 (niemanstoryboard.org): @

* Oral interview with Talese, 2015 (soundcloud.com): @

* "The Birth of 'The New Journalism' " (Tom Wolfe, New York magazine, February 14, 1972): @

* Complete issue of New York magazine (February 14, 1972): @
* Short summary of "New Journalism" (from "Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices," edited by Roger Chapman, 2010): @
* "The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote and the New Journalism Revolution" (Marc Weingarten, 2010): @
* "Literary Journalism in the Twentieth Century" (edited by Norman Sims, 2008): @
* "The Esquire Decade" (Frank Digiacoma, Vanity Fair magazine, January 2007): @
* "It Wasn't Pretty, Folks, But Didn't We Have Fun? Surviving the '60s with Esquire's Harold Hayes" (Carol Posgrove, 2001): @

* Talese biography (www.newjournalism.com): @

* Talese's website (via Random House): @

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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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