#1968 riots

[elijones94]

✝️ Remembering Martin Luther King (This is from a picture I took at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, in March of 2017.)

[oupacademic]

50th anniversary of May 1968 France riots

50 years on, the revolt of May '68 in France continues to reverberate in art as well as politics. While the events in Paris are often remembered for the student barricades and the now famous slogans - 'under the cobblestones, the beach' or 'kill the cop in your head' - the upheaval produced the largest general strike in history. Paris provided an inspiration for a political and cultural transformation, but it would be wrong to isolate the French upheaval from wider international currents. The Prague Spring and disgust at the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia fuelled a rejection of Stalinism; the Vietnam War produced international opposition; and the inspiration of anti-colonial movements around the globe from China to Cuba and Africa served to radicalise students and young workers. The rise of dictatorships in Latin America and elsewhere and the Neoliberal backlash against progressive ideas and practices were a response to this rising tide. This cycle of unrest gave rise to the New Left, whether Maoist or Trotskyist in inspiration, and a wave of theoretical initiatives linked to unorthodox Marxisms. Alongside this growth of leftwing parties, new political projects developed: the Black Panther movement in the USA; the Women’s Liberation Movement; the Gay Liberation Front; and movements of indigenous people. In many ways, the 'event' of  '68 initiated a political cycle that we are still living through.

Artists who were not intent on ‘sleeping through the deluge that threatens them’, as Adorno put it, could not help but be touched by this wave of unrest. Those that were awake often participated in the struggles of the time as political subjects and as artists. Of course, artists did not just respond to this new mood, they were also some of its progenitors. The Situationist International and the films of Goddard fed into the radical upswing and the posters appearing on the streets of Paris represent a significant feature of the period. Nevertheless, '68 opened a criticism of prevalent conservative attitudes in art as elsewhere. The American artist Dan Graham put it like this: ‘[t]he art world stinks; it is made up of people who collectively dig the shit; now seems to be the time to get the collective shit out of the system.’ As artists and critics broke with formalism, a gamut of radical initiatives developed too extensive to catalogue here, but we might mention Supports/Surfaces group in France; the Art Workers' Coalition in the US; Tucuman Arde and Cildo Meireles in South America; the new cinema cultures of France, Germany, Brazil and Senegal; and the politicisation of Conceptual Art in San Diego and London, which had such significant implications for photography and gender. New ways of thinking from Tel Quel to the Social History of Art are rooted in this moment; as is the impetus to recover the many significant artists who had been marginalised by the dominant story, whether as women, artists of colour and those working under colonialism, politicos or those who simply didn't fit.

Find out more about the significance of art during this time period.

Image credit: 31.05.1968. Manif Gaulliste. (1968) by André Cros. CC-BY-SA-4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

[chicagotribune]

50 years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis.

His death set off more than 100 riots across the country, including the most devastating civil disturbance in Chicago’s history.

Today, a difficult question remains: Why are pockets of Chicago’s West Side still decimated?

[robinlynnemabin]

MLK Land Transfer Day vs Black Wall Street: 619-768-2945

[streetsofwashington]

Cohen's Men's Wear (1968) by StreetsofWashington Via Flickr: Aftermath of the 1968 riots. This is Max Cohen's store on the northwest corner of 7th and L Streets NW. The Convention Center is now on this site.

[oupacademic]

In March of 1968, multiple riots broke out across the country, protesting the Vietnam War. The election of 1968 was deeply influenced by the chaos of the D.C. riots, ushering in a starkly divided political climate that persists today.

Image Credit: “Soldiers stand guard near U.S. Capitol, during 1968 riots” by Warren K. Leffler, Library of Congress. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

[beyondthecusp]

Baltimore Mother Who Showed She Cared

Baltimore Mother Who Showed She Cared

  One Baltimore Mother, Toya Graham, upon seeing her sixteen-year-old son on the television coverage throwing rocks at police instead of in school took her parenting skills up a notch and intervened getting him out of the streets during the rioting. Where her technique might be debated, her love leading her to act was shown to the world. Toya Graham is being lauded and has been interviewed…

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[retrobaltimore]

Remembering Baltimore’s 1968 riots

North Avenue and Chester Street. (Weyman Swagger, Baltimore Sun files, 1968)

The Baltimore riot of April 1968 was a long Palm Sunday weekend of contrasts from Saturday through Tuesday, and it wiped out much of the downtown business district.

-To see the FULL gallery of 1968 Baltimore riot pictures, click here.

People went to church and people looted. People were curious or scared to death. They went outside looking for adventure or to calm things down.

The skies were a sunny blue in one direction and black with smoke in another. Hundreds of city and state police officers were deployed to limit destruction in East and West Baltimore. Many merchants decried the lack of police protection for businesses. The sky was blackened with the smoke of 800 fires in 72 hours.

Riots along Gay Street. (WIlliam Hotz, Baltimore Sun files, 1968)

The toll was steep: six people were killed, 700 were injured, 1,000 small businesses were looted or burned out and 5,800 people were arrested. Nearly 3,500 cases were tried in city courts.

Tulips had replaced the daffodils in back yards and federal troops patrolled streets with bayonets on their guns.

Residents affected by the disorders line up at food depot in the 1900 block of North Bond street. (William H. Mortimer, Baltimore Sun files, 1968)

The mayor said the riot was well-planned and others thought there was no evidence of that. Many agreed the trouble started in East Baltimore.

On the streets were Martin Luther King Jr. remembrance signs, an all-out curfew, no traffic, no liquor sales and no more mom-and-pop stores on corner lots.

Reporting from The Sun archives

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-To see the FULL gallery of 1968 Baltimore riot pictures, click here.

-For pictures and coverage of the 2015 Baltimore protests and riots, click here.

-Click here for live updates on the 2015 Baltimore riots and Freddie Gray case.