Summer ’68: The Turning Begins

Abstract

The decade of the sixties was filled with violence toward civil rights protesters, Viet Cong guerrillas, and Vietnamese civilians, and with Black Panthers and ghetto riots and assassinations; yet the summer of ‘68 marked the first time violence targeted the privileged, white youth of the student movement, and the Democratic convention in Chicago proved to be the watershed. Protesters remembered changing attitudes reflected in national SDS meetings, where some advocated violence, others rebelled at the thought, and the makings of a rupture appeared. Many activists lacked clear direction, even the Beatles seemed confused, and the movement began to flounder.