Where have all the buttons gone....
In 1963, news photos of the March on Washington had led me to believe that a great many Americans were willing to make public their feelings on social reform. Only a year later, when I graduated from high school, did I begin to notice that there were not very many buttons in the "real world." People kept their views to themselves.
I also realized that I had left behind the realm of restrained debate. In school, I had not fully appreciated the risk of publicly divulging one's positions on issues. Now, the headlines of the day were increasing that appreciation, one news item at a time.
March on Washington, August 1963
Wikipedia.org
Typical news from the summer of 1964
Daily News and Newsday
Again and again, the news taught me more about the world I had once thought I knew. In an age in which the color of one's skin mattered so much, it should not have surprised me that so many people's beliefs, character, and integrity proved to be only skin deep.
The first Baby Boomers now were reaching adulthood, and many of them wanted to translate their idealism into social progress. But there was a long-standing reason that such progress was overdue: there always were, and always would be, people who opposed it zealously. Confrontations would be inevitable.
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