1968 - A Year of Global Student Turmoil
In the U.S., 1967 was called the Summer of Love. Just 12 months later, 1968 was considered the Year of Discontent.
Riots broke out in cities across the country, including the now famous in Washington, DC riots in the U Street corridor, after Martin Luther King was assassinated.
Demonstrations and riots erupted at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Bobbie Kennedy was shot and killed in Los Angeles. In Vietnam, the Tet Offensive was launched, which changed the course of the war and in part, caused President Johnson to not run for re-election.
Also in 1968, the Olympics in Mexico City witnessed the famous Black Power salute by a pair of American athletes and the Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská who quietly turned away from the flag raising during the playing of the Soviet national anthem, in protest of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia two moths earlier.
And around the globe, student movements were sparking, and some notable incidents occurred in Mexico City, Prague and Paris.
In Mexico City, The Night of Tlatelolco occurred just 10 days before the opening of the summer Olympics. Several hundred students were shot by the Mexican military and police during demonstrations on the campus of the National University.
In Prague, Soviet-led Warsaw Pact tanks invaded the city, after a short period of political freedom during Prague Spring. Students resisted and took to the streets.
In May 1968, Paris erupted with student protests and riots in the Latin Quarter, along with worker’s strikes that eventually collapsed the then-current De Gaulle government.
Two photo exhibits at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, DC -‘68 Memorial and 1968 - Mexico, Prague, Paris, present over 100 photos from these three cities from that violent period in 1968.
Some of the photos are from the Associated Press (AP), and all examine the student and people’s movements in those three cities at the same moment in time that permanently changed history.
‘68 Memorial and 1968 - Mexico • Prague • Paris
Mexican Cultural Institute
2829 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC (map it)
202-728-1647
Dates and Times - Mondays - Fridays, NOTE UNIQUE HOURS - 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., and 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. The Institute closes from 1-3. the exhibit is open through January 30, 2009.
Tickets - Admission is free.
Nearest Metro Subway Station - Columbia Heights - Green line, then a ½-mile walk.
Parking - limited metered street parking is available.
Image - Riot police - Wikimedia Commons
_________________________________________________
Tags: galeries, Photos, Washington-DC
0 opinions for 1968 - A Year of Global Student Turmoil
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: