What made 1968 a pivotal year in American history and politics?

Answer 1

The year 1968 is often remembered as the year America came apart. This pivotal year witnessed a confluence of independent yet related phenomena:

(i) the culmination of years of racial unrest,
(ii) the peak of student protests against what they deemed to be an unjust society at home and an unjust war abroad, and
(iii) the reaction of many white Americans against what they saw as a sweeping challenge to cherished values and social stability.

In the critical year 1968, as the atmosphere of threats, distrust, and violence poisoned the nation's politics and public life, the two leaders who might have been able to make a difference died at the hands of assassins. On 4 April 1968, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was slain in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had gone to lend his support to striking garbage-workers. Two months later, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was murdered just as he won the California primary for the Democratic presidential nomination. Controversial and polarizing in life, both men, as martyrs, became the focus of nearly universal mourning. The blows their murders dealt to the national psyche were catastrophic, and were only exacerbated by the urban violence that accompanied both major parties' political conventions that August.

Answer 2

1968.the year where the people finally stood up and asked
for answers to their questions.
.it marked the end of LBJ's social agenda.. the Country was at War ..campuses where alive with dissent over all kinds of social injustice. The culture was morphing and getting younger. Styles and indulgences were taking on a revolutionary status..drugs, music, clothing..sexual liberties..
women were burning bras..going back to school..divorce was on the rise..there wasn't a single institution that wasn't subject to review by the youth.

It was a golden age for music..artistic expression..and political thesis. There were troubling dynamics between
the generations..and tragedy with every night's death count submitted from SE Asia by Walter Cronkite..the year was marked by the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King..King's assassination in April spawned destructive riots by Blacks in many municipalities..the summer saw unrest in Chicago at the Democratic Convention

and then came Nixon..and his close victory that November over Vice President Humphrey..who became the Democratic Candidate because LBJ had declined to run for re-election and seemingly bowed out of politics totally bewildered by the turbulence before his term even ended.

Answer 3

There was the Democratic National Convention in which Chicago cops went wild had used nearly deadly force against protestors who had no weapons. Quite an embarrassment for the Dems. It led to the term "The whole world is watching" which increased awareness of how powerful the mass media are to set the agenda for people's consciousnesses. You can find photos of the event at

http://www.chitown.com/http/art/abchicago-gal/p-sequeira.html