Cultural Conflict & 1968 Presidential Election

AP Images

November 06, 1968

Taken by an anonymous photographer in NYC

– Nixon strikes his famous pose as he becomes the 37th President of the United States. Election itself was the epitome of conflict because of extremely small margin of victory by Nixon and a very strong showing by a third-party candidate. The president’s campaign promised to restore law and order in the times of public unrest, hence the double peace signs.

AP Images

August 07, 1968

Taken by an anonymous photographer in Miami

– The Chicago riot of 1968 Democratic Convention has taken away the attention from another riot that happened the same year. Interestingly enough, the Miami race riot happened during the Republican Convention(to attract more attention, no doubt). So why do we hear so little about it compared to the infamous Chicago riot? Perhaps the answer lies in the cause of each of the riots. In Chicago, people(mostly Caucasian) were protesting war, a popular topic at that time. In Miami, people(much fewer, and mostly African -American) were protesting poverty and racism.

AP Images

June 07, 1968

Taken by an anonymous photographer in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, NYC

– This picture, as good and as bad as it gets, gives us a sense of the tumultuous time period. A widow, Coretta Scott King, over the coffin of senator Robert F. Kennedy; same way he once stood over her husband’s coffin. The lost lives of two prominent civil rights activists, a presidential candidate and an iconic clergyman, will forever remain as the great sacrifices in the struggle for true freedom and equality.