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The year 1963 was something only in the history books for Foothill High School students until Oakland-based author, columnist and pastor Byron Williams spent an hour talking about the pivotal events that occurred that year.
Williams, drawing from his upcoming book, “1963: The Year of Hope and Hostility,” talked about the year as one filled with events that continue to echo in politics today.
“So many things happened in 1963 that affected us later,” Williams told the group of about 50 students recently.
In that year, the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, Martin Luther King Jr. led a march on Washington D.C., delivering the speech popularly known as “I have a Dream.”
It was the year that saw President John F. Kennedy give a speech in Berlin declaring himself a jelly donut; changes in how Kennedy approached civil rights and his view of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev; and the first stirrings of what would later become America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
Williams said Kennedy was initially hesitant to back King’s movement and was perceived as “wishy-washy” in dealing with Khrushchev but later changed his views on both.
“People evolve,” Williams said. “Kennedy evolved.”
It was the year that included the assassination of both Kennedy and Medgar Evers, and saw the rise of George Wallace, who, as governor, tried to block access to two black men entering the University of Alabama.
Students at the talk seemed aware of the events of the year, but Williams gave them context and perspective that came from researching his upcoming book.
Foothill student Sonia Jensen said she came away with new insights about 1963.
“Much of the historic information I had learned previously in my history class, however he presented it with much more detail and with an interesting perspective on it,” Jensen said. “He was very well educated of that particular year and the decade of momentous change surrounding it.”
Jensen was among those who asked questions.
She seemed to strike a nerve when she asked about gun control in the aftermath of the Newtown school shootings, a topic that’s been a part of several of Williams’ columns in local newspapers.
Williams has been advocating making gun registration mandatory, with a 20-year federal sentence for anyone caught with an unregistered weapon.
“If we have to register a car every year, are you telling me it’s impossible to register a gun?” Williams asked the students.
In a recent column, Williams pointed out that the total fatalities of the shooting deaths in Newtown, Columbine, Aurora, Colo., Fort Hood and Tucson, Ariz., come to less than half the deaths in Oakland last year.
“Newtown is not the face of gun violence in America. Urban America is the face of gun violence,” he told the students.
Jensen said she’d never thought about the issue the way Williams presented it.
“Many youngsters are dying every day in urban cities and there is no one speaking out for them,” she said. “He was most certainly not disparaging the tragedy of Newton, Conn., but highlighting the point that it seems the media only makes a big deal out of shooting when it occurs in quiet towns rather than places like Oakland.”
The book will be available this year, the 50th anniversary of the events that, in Williams’ view, changed the future.
It’s great that students are learning about the events and ramifications that created the modern world and the freedoms they enjoy. Williams will hopefully get more opportunities to speak to students and civic groups. It’s unfortunate that Williams included a moot, or at least insignificant dialectic mistranslation that reads as an attempt to depreciate Kennedy’s speech. It was not worth Wohltmann’s effort to cite a barely humorous minutiae.
1963 was right about the time the United States started its decline. JFK heralded in the start of the left-wing loon era that has so devistated our country, and LBJ really got the welfare state rolling. JFK’s inexperience almost got us into a nuclear war and did get us into the Vietnam quagmire. Of course, LBJ went on to lead us to defeat in Vietnam, largely because of his focus on nation building rather than defeating the enemy. By the time Jimmy Carter left office, the country was in total malaise. So, except for the Reagan years, its pretty much been downhill since 1963. Now Mr. Hope and Change has us in a power dive.
Ah, 1963 and the years before. When women were kept out of most workplaces and kept in the home, making kids, where they belonged. A time before the nanny state forced black voting rights upon real Americans. When education was racially segregated the way it was supposed to be. Where great Americans like George Wallace sought to protect Americans from the black scourge that has since plagued our nation and now has put one of their own in the White House. When gays were hidden behind closeted doors the way they should be, and occasionally getting busted for their licentious behavior. Yes, when the namby-pamby Kennedy announced a planned withdrawal from Vietnam, which we didn’t recover from until Nixon, with his famous ‘secret plan’, led us to glorious triumph over the gooks in Vietnam. It’s truly a shame we’ve plummeted so far downhill since Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, and Obama have gotten their way because of the entitlement vote, that 47% that will never vote any other way but Democrat. We need another George Wallace who will sit on the White House porch with shotgun in lap, assuring all Americans that helicopters will not swoop into their neighborhoods and take the people’s militias’ guns away from them. And more God in the classroom. And maybe a Goldwateresque nuclear bomb, just to show the world we’re not as weak as his holiness Obummer wants us to appear. Maybe Santorum or Trump or Cain or Palin or Bachmann this next time around. We can’t lose. Because our positions are so sound. Really. Deficits for aircraft carriers? A-OK! Deficits for poor black kids? No WAY!
1963 was a year when many men with their own low self-esteem issues wore white sheets to hide their hateful, fearful faces. Today, there are still some older, hateful people that use anonymous postings on the internet to display their sad, pathetic ignorance and hate.
Resident, cite the ‘ignorance and hate’ in any posts above. Is your world view so narrow that you can’t see anything good from 1963, but only bad things that impacted your people? Or are you one of those hand wringing bleeding hearts that deals only in lost causes?
Yeah, c’mon Resident, tell us how anything written by “Liberalism is a Disease” is a manifestation of “ignorance and hate.” I mean I dare ya. I mean I double dare ya. I mean, other than the name he uses, which indicates, um, ignorance and hate. Well, maybe there are a few hooded sheets among us, such as “Liberalism is a Disease” and the multiple other names he uses(e.g., “Silence the libs”). But not everyone is a coward like he is.
I remember Johnson had us tangled deeply in Vietman. Well documanted how desperate he was feeling as 1,ooos more of our men were killed.
What a cowardly liar he was though, to run the ‘daisy’ ad against Goldwater, trying to scare people that Goldwater would use a bomb against North Vietnam. So the gullible and stupid voted for more of Johnsons’ war losses…and boy did he slaughter more American men. IF Goldwater had been elected, he would have bombed NORTH Viet cong killers, and SAVED many thousands of AMERICAN men !!!…sounds like a winner plan to me. Johnson’s second term was 4 more years of slaughter. Then Nixon was elected. I don’t understand media always talking about Nixon, when talking of Vietnam, since Nixon had to play cleanup & tried to stop the Johnson slaughter, and end the war.
Johnson killed masses of Americans, and started to grand slam welfare giveaways, that are breaking us today. He certainly changed America.
Yes, 1963, you’re absolutely correct. Nixon’s secret plan to end the war — “cleanup” as one intellectually challenged poster refers to it — amounted to a mere 21,000+ American deaths. That’s why everyone like Nixon so much. Because his secret plan worked so well and led to North Vietnam falling to its knees in surrender.
Of course the Nixon death toll wasn’t limited to Americans in Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese died as a result of his bombing campaigns over Hanoi and other population centers. And he ordered the bombing and invasion of Cambodia, and also a secret war in Laos. Cambodian civilian deaths from the B-52 bombing probably total 100,000 to 150,000, and Cambodian wartime deaths from all causes in the Nixon years (1970-75—pre-genocide) probably total 300,000 to 500,000, according to Ben Kiernan of the Yale Cambodian Genocide Program. If we take the lower figure, that brings Nixon’s total to 800,000. And that does not include Laos, where the U.S. fought a secret war for many years.
Yep, 1963 on account of the country’s resistance to racial integration back then; and the Nixon “cleanup” years. Those were the good ol’ days for any self-loathing klansman.
Repub forever, you couldn’t be a republican….you sound more like the race hucksters like Sharpton and that cheater, Jesse sr.
Not sure what you stand to gain by playing the race card constantly, but its apparent you can’t string together more than few words without reverting back to dem talking points. Pretty weak….public school product? Inner city?
To “Conservative right”,
This thread was about the 1963. Racism was a huge problem in 1963. Many states still had laws on the books banning mixed race marriage, for example.
And most school remained segregated. Only someone completely ignorant or pro racism can look back at 1963 without acknowledging racial domination and hatred.
You know, it just occurred to me. This entire thread has to be a spoof. No one — even Lib is Disease, 1963, Silence the libs, Conserv right (all these one person) — could be that woefully stupid. Ah, but then again….
Forever’s partisan and hypocritical focus on Nam deaths attributed to Nixon without acknowledging Johnson had SO ESCALATED and botched the war DURING HIS, Johnson terms, resulting in massive deaths. Goldwater would have ended the insanity and continued slaughter of American soldiers, but passivists wanted to go the gradual, continuous slaughter of Americans ..bad choice. With Goldwater ending the insanity, we would not have had all of Johnson’s murders, nor would Nixon had been elected. (However, it was good Nixon opened the door to communication).
Soory Forever happens to be too blind to see, and less than honest.
Still spoofing? Goldwater wanted to bomb N. Vietnam to smithereens. Nixon bombed N. Vietnam to smithereens, then decided to do the same in Cambodia and Laos. Where did it get us? (1963’s stupidity is beyond belief.)
Still, there appears to be some honesty in 1963’s endorsement of the warmonger, Barry Goldwater. Now, wondering whether he’ll honestly fess up to his support for KKK policy back then and now.
Kevin, have you had enough hand wringing since 1963 and are you ready to move on? Or does this grinding of a half century old history make you feel like you are somehow above it all? Your imagined morale superiority is only in what’s left of your mind, after what must have been a very much drug induced decade of the sixties for you. Just say no, to keep what’s left of your mind……..peace, out.
How about that? Just because none of us right wingers refuse to deny our heartfelt support of the KKK doesn’t mean that we’re formally enrolled in the organization. (One can, for example, be a sympathizer from afar.)
Sorry “Republican Forever,” your hero George Wallace was a Democrat. A KKK Grand Dragon, Senator Robert Byrd, you guessed it, A Democrat. Johnson drove us deaper into Vietnam, and with the new idea of “limited war,” determined that the best way to fight a war was no to overwhelm an enemy, but to provide just enough force to keep us in a war forever.
Naive liberals think that by limiting troops and warfighting, we can limit casualties. As with any naive liberal plan, there are unintended consequences. Unless by “limiting,” you mean pulling out completely, limited war makes the war drag out, increasing overall casualties, hardening the enemy and develops the idea that you can be defeated.
By the way, George Bush used this naive strategy in Iraq, so please don’t even try to say our Conservative Bushy did this too. He wasn’t Conservative, he was a moderate Republican (naive liberal). As was Nixon if anyone cares anymore.
All the white supremacists fled the Democratic Party in the 1960s and were welcomed into the Republican tent with open arms, and boy am I glad happened. Because now all us racist birds of a feather can comingle within the same Republican Party. (See Red States and their political composition.) Today, well over 90% of African Americans vote Democratic Party in national elections (roughly the same percent whether Dukakis, Clinton, Kerry or Obama).
Still waiting for any of us Republicans to denounce the KKK? Don’t hold your breath.
You’re simply lying, Republican Forever.
Why would racists flock to the party that passed the Civil Rights Act over the objections of the Democrats?
Why would racists flock to the party that championed the Equal Rights Amendment?
90% of African Americans vote Democrat because they’re smart. They know who is championing out-dated laws that promote quotas based on race. Because many African Americans continue to be poverty-striken, they also vote for those that champion the welfare state because they have become convinced that they need a hand out not a hand up.
The Democrats do everything they can to remind us why we’re all different. Conservatives just want us to be color blind.
… and once again, no denunciation of the KKK from any of us righties.
Steve’s above post provides ample illustration of the distorted world view of the KKK.
I’ll not provide a history of how Dems were ensconced in the South until the Democratic Party moved to the left in the late 50s and into the 60s, and the Repubs now dominate the racist white South. And who constitutes membership of the Tea Party if not the Klan and old John Birchers? See any Democrats out there with Confederate and Don’t Tread of Me flags? Didn’t think so. Upshot: get a load of Steve’s ignorance and hate. The Klan lives on, even in Pleasanton (assuming Steve and the other names he uses is from Pleasanton). Join the GOP, as you’ll find many, many more just like him: white, old, male, uneducated, ignorant, hateful, and afraid of their own shadows.
A KKK Grand Dragon, Senator Robert Byrd.
Is the KKK still a viable hate group after the Republicans killed it off via the FBI?
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Joes’ Wife, your post is so right on the money. Those of us that grew up during that period of history recall vividly the changes and decisions made that started our downhill slide. Reagan still gets criticized by ignorant young leftists for his deficit spending, when he dared to take on the responsibility for rebuilding our defenses and ending the Cold War. It’s obvious that lack of a history lessons in school and revisionist history curriculum has left our current crop of young voters uninformed about the lessons they should have learned from past mistakes made by leaders like JFK, Johnson and Carter. The current situation we’re in ia sad indicator as to where we’re headed and makes you nostalgic for 1963.