AUSTIN, Texas — The year 1968 was one of great social upheaval in America.
Just like today, America saw massive street protests as violence broke out between police and demonstrators. We were a deeply divided country.
The year began with marches against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Across America, barricaded streets, closed campuses and troops were familiar sights on the nightly news.
On the University of Texas campus, small protests began that year that would blossom into rallies against the war on the streets of Austin just a few years later.
So, here we are in 2020, some people who remember 1968 say this year may be a combination of many of the troubling years in our past.
Take the flu pandemic of 1918. Then add the economic depression of the 1930s, when so many people couldn’t find a job. And then take the protests of 1968. Added together, you might get a 2020 with its calls for justice from an engaged and enraged population as we fight an almost-invisible virus during an economic calamity.
But somehow we made it through all those difficult years that came before. Now, the question is: Can we do it again?
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING:
- Downtown Austin protests enter fifth straight day
- List: Black-owned Austin-area businesses you can support
- Texas unemployment benefits extended another 13 weeks
- Officials seeking suspects in burglary of Red's Indoor Range, 32 guns stolen
- APD chief addresses police shootings of bystanders with less-lethal rounds; one in critical condition