Milwaukee in 1968: A year of change, sorrow and hope
The year began with below-zero temperatures and ended with belowzero temperatures.
In between, Milwaukee in 1968 had fiery protests, massive civil rights marches, election surprises, sports triumphs, human tragedies — much like the rest of the world.
“It is tempting to curse, bid good riddance to 1968 and let it go at that,” The Milwaukee Journal wrote in an editorial on Dec. 31, 1968. “It was a dreadful year … “
You’re going to hear a lot about 1968 this year, with 50th anniversary looks back at the times, culture, politics and the world that year turn up online, in print and on TV.
Just on a national headline basis, it was a hell of a year.
The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. The escalation of the Vietnam War after the surprise Tet Offensive reminded the world that the “light at the end of the tunnel” was farther in the distance than the government had let on. The mayhem at — and in — the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Civil war in Biafra. Revolution and counterrevolution in Czechoslovakia and France.
Milwaukee felt the reverberations of those world-shifting events.
In some cities, riots erupted after King’s assassination; in Milwaukee, the city’s largest-ever civil rights rally filled Wisconsin Ave. with a peaceful memorial march. Sentiment against the Vietnam War crystallized in the seizing and burning of draft records by a group of clergy and activists who became known as the Milwaukee 14.
And as the tumultuous year concluded, a Milwaukee native read words of inspiration and peace to a weary world from more than 230,000 miles away.
But Milwaukee also followed its own path in 1968. That was the year of the first-ever Summerfest, the year the downtown train station came down and the Marquette Interchange opened up, and the year that activists concluded 200 days of marches calling for meaningful open-housing laws in the city. Milwaukee again had a majorleague baseball team (albeit a rental), and debuted its second NBA franchise, the Milwaukee Bucks.
Throughout 2018, the Green Sheet’s Our Back Pages will look back at 1968 in Milwaukee, sharing stories of the events that shaped and reflected a changing city as reported and photographed by the Journal Sentinel’s predecessor newspapers, The Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel.
A year with that much news in it gives us a lot to work with, but we’d love to hear your ideas, too. Tell us about the moments from 1968 you’d like us to relate, by emailing cforan@journalsentinel.com or writing Chris Foran, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Green Sheet, P.O. Box 371, Milwaukee, WI 53201.
Tune in next week for the first installment, a look at how Milwaukee won its second National Basketball Association team in 20 years in January 1968.