How Americans celebrated Independence day in 1968

By | July 1, 2021

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Washington D.C. after riots which followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Source: (Wikipedia).

In 1968, America was in turmoil. Between the situation in Vietnam, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and the riots, including the Holy Week Uprising, which was spreading across the country, it was a time that the typical patriotic celebrations of July 4 seemed a bit out of place. Americans were skeptical of the government, and some people consider the period the greatest time of unrest since the Civil War. With the Holy Week Uprising, there were more than 100 cases of unrest in cities across the country following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Americans were also upset by the situation in Vietnam, as the My Lai massacre had occurred on March 16, 1968, and the country was in the midst of the Tet Offensive, which began on January 31, 1968.

A Gallup poll at the beginning of the summer found that 36 percent of Americans thought the country had a “sick society,” and earlier in the spring, Gallup indicated that Americans were divided on the issue of Vietnam. That number indicated a deeper division by the end of the summer when 53 percent did not agree with the war, and only 35 percent believed the war was justified. 

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Governor Ronald Reagan. Photo courtesy Orange County Archives. Source: (Wikipedia).

Flower Children And Ronald Reagan In California

Across the country and around the world, the divisions were reflected in the ways that people observed the holiday. In Berkeley, California, crowds filled Telegraph Ave. They ate ice cream, distributed flowers, and the children played with firecrackers. Meanwhile, the Young Socialist Alliance held a peaceful rally to speak about the Vietnam War and the new government in France. Also in California, then-governor Ronald Reagan spoke to a crowd in Columbia, stating that "they have lost faith in government’s ability to protect them.’’