Teargas and Totalitarianism -- The 1968 Democratic Convention

"Twilight in the Afternoon" devotes an entire chapter to Black issues on campus, focusing upon the activities leading up to the 1968 Olympics, where Tommie Smith and Juan Carlos raised their hands in traditional Black Power salutes to protest, as your thesis says on page 14, "to protest Black poverty in racist America..." after receiving their gold and silver medals, respectively. You trace the roots of that gesture of protest through a labyrinthe of tragedies that came in 1968, namely:

The Chicago Democratic Convention. On page 14 of your thesis, you say, "[The] same week [as the Olympics] middle class youths took to the streets of Chicago to protest the ascendancy of Hubert Humphrey to the Democratic nomination. Shattered by war, these young Americans struggled on the streets of Chicago whith Mayor Richard Daley's TAC squads and tear gas, while the convention steamrolled Johnson's handpicked successor to lead the party in November."

The assassination of Martin Luther King, which "dealt a perilous wound to the American soul." Vengeance was in the air like a thick smoke. American cities burst into flames, and Black leaders such as Stokely Charmichael said, "when White America killed Dr. King, she declared war on us... we have to retaliate for the deaths of our leaders."

The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. As Arthur Schlesinger said before his untimely death, "no political leader of of our time [has] so deeply and vigorously concerned himself with the fate of the vulnerable and powerless as Kennedy."

In other words, the two last, best hopes for alleviating the Blacks' misfortunes had been removed by assassins' bullets. The Democratic Convention met and nominated Lyndon Johnson's hand-picked successor instead of _really_ searching for a solution to America's ills. Middle class youths took to the streets in Chicago to protest the madness, and their protests were answered by a "police riot." Therefore, the situation was hopeless. Unless radical measures were taken, nothing was likely to change. The Olympic athletes' gesture of protest was a way to call America's attention to its national madness. Their gesture of protest, harmless though it was, got them banned from further participation in the Olympics. The small gesture of protest and its severe response are a perfect metaphor of what went on in our culture during the year of 1968 -- some of us tried to call our leaders' attention to the madness that was drowning our society, but our warnings were silenced by the force of the authorites who were supposed to protect us -- our police and National Guard. Is this a reasonable summation of the of your thesis which deals with the Chicago Convention?

Your sumisal and summation is basically correct.

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