1960s

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/11/2021
  

  American Democracy Is Only 55 Years Old—And Hanging by a Thread

  Atlantic Editor Vann Newkirk examines the recent and imperiled history of American democracy since the Voting Rights Act, including by interviewing Charles Hamilton, co-author of the keystone book "Black Power." 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/3/2021
  

  Rennie Davis, ‘Chicago Seven’ Antiwar Activist, Dies at 80

  Mr. Davis was most famous as an organizer of the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago which led to his trial for conspiracy and inciting riot. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  2/1/2021
  

  The Plan to Build a Capital for Black Capitalism

  Thomas Healy's book "Soul City" looks at a short-lived experiment to create a capital city for Black capitalism in America, part of a long series of political debates about whether the pursuit of economic power by Black Americans would overcome racism. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  1/26/2021
  

  Rewinding Jimi Hendrix’s National Anthem

  "Jimi’s Woodstock anthem was both an expression of protest at the obscene violence of a wholly unnecessary war and an affirmation of aspects of the American experiment entirely worth fighting for."

• 
• SOURCE: WBUR
  11/11/2020
  

  New Memoir Tells Tale Of 1967 Beer Run To Vietnam

  John "Chick" Donohue was in a bar in Inwood in upper Manhattan in 1967 when the bartender suggested the neighborhood's contingent of troops in Vietnam would appreciate a beer. He made the delivery. His new book explains how. 

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  10/28/2020
  

  The Long Shadow of Racial Fascism

  by Alberto Toscano

  Black thinkers have long argued that racial slavery created its own unique form of American fascism.

• 
• SOURCE: Current Affairs
  10/22/2020
  

  The Real Abbie Hoffman

  by Nathan J. Robinson

  While The Trial of the Chicago 7 is sympathetic to Hoffman, it also softens him in a way that ultimately amounts to historical fabrication.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/17/2020
  

  Joe Biden's Non-Radical 1960s

  As a young adult in troubled times, Joe Biden steered a moderate course toward public life. For supporters and critics alike, it seems Joe has always been Joe. 

• 
• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  10/13/2020
  

  A Scholar of American Doom Doesn’t See How Capitalism Can Fix This Crisis

  "There are probably a billion and a half people, maybe more, maybe 2 billion, in the informal working class who have simply been triaged already in advance. So the fate of a very large minority of humanity has been determined now."

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  10/7//2020
  

  Getting to Freedom City (Review)

  by Robin D.G. Kelley

  Historian Robin Kelley reviews Mike Davis and Jon Weiner's "Set the Night on Fire," which chronicles the growth of resistance to inequality and miltarized policing in 1960s Los Angeles.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  9/18/2020
  

  How Jimi Hendrix’s London Years Changed Music

  A new book, at the 50th anniversary of the guitar master's death, takes Jimi Hendrix's leap from chitlin circuit sideman to London sensation as a turning point for rock music. 

• 
• SOURCE: Salon
  9/7/2020
  

  Counterculture Memoirist Sharon Dukett on what We Learned (and Forgot) from the Hippies

  A new memoir by Sharon Dukett recounts the down side of the 1960s counterculture: poverty, police harassment, and rampant sexism. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  8/11/2020
  

  Understanding Today’s Uprisings Requires Understanding What Came Before Them

  by Jeanne Theoharis

  The history of social unrest like the 1965 Watts Rebellion must acknowledge that public authorities had ignored peaceful demands for inclusion and opportunity from communities of color for years before the unrest.

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  8/3/2020
  

  She Played a Key Role in the Police Response to the Watts Riots. The Memory Still Haunts Her—But Black History Is Full of Haunting Memories

  by Morgan Jerkins

  Regina was a Black woman working as an LAPD dispatcher in the 77th Street Division of South Los Angeles. She sent officers to respond to another's call for aid on August 11, 1965, warning them not to escalate any situation. Today she still asks “why didn’t they listen to me?”

• 
• SOURCE: Times of Israel
  7/31/2020
  

  The Teen Promoter, the Janitor, and a Stunning Rediscovered Thelonious Monk Gig

  “As soon as T.S. Monk listened to the recording, he knew right away that his father was feeling really good that day and wasn’t just going through the motions,” Danny Scher said.

• 
• 7/26/2020
  

  One of the Chicago 7 Reflects on Dissident Politics Then and Now

  by Lee Weiner

  A veteran of dissident politics in the 1960s warns that while today's broad coalition of activists for a more just and democratic America are on the right track, they must learn from the mistakes of an older generation and find ways to keep united despite difference. 

• 
• 7/19/2020
  

  The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Black Action Movement and the Way Forward

  by Martin Halpern

  Activists in today’s struggles against institutionalized racism and for black lives can benefit from studying a local victory of fifty years ago. In the spring of 1970, the Black Action Movement (BAM) at the University of Michigan led a thirteen-day strike that won a commitment to change by the university administration.

• 
• SOURCE: CommonWealth
  6/7/2020
  

  Protesting the George Floyd Killing: A Moment or a Movement?

  Certain moments “hit a collective nerve,” said historian Heather Ann Thompson.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  6/2/2020
  

  George Floyd’s Death Is a Failure of Generations of Leadership

  by Elizabeth Hinton

  To begin to dismantle the socioeconomic conditions that led to Mr. Floyd’s premature death, we can look to the principles of community representation and grass-roots empowerment that steered the early development of Johnson’s domestic program.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  6/1/2020
  

  What Would Martin Luther King Jr. Say About The Current Civil Unrest?

  by Peniel Joseph

  Many commentators who now invoke Martin Luther King Jr. to condemn angry protesters fail to grasp that King insisted peace and order could not be achieved without addressing deep racial and economic inequality in American society.