About this series

It was a year of conflict and unease, from the Tet Offensive in Vietnam to the disheartening Kerner Commission report to the dual silencing by assassin of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Outraged young whites took to the streets to protest the Vietnam War; frustrated young blacks took to the streets to protest what they saw as a war on poor people at home.

But 1968 also was a year of transformation. Feminists crowned a sheep at the Miss America pageant to signal that male-dominated culture had to change. Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes and Gary, Ind., Mayor Richard Hatcher ushered in a new era of black political power mere months before Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s “Southern strategy” gave rise to the age of Nixon. A new civil rights act promised fair housing and a fairer shot at the American Dream for everyone, changing the faces of neighborhood nationwide.

In a year-long project, the USA TODAY NETWORK will capture in monthly installments the moments that made 1968 one of the most fascinating, chaotic and deeply disruptive years on record. For more on this series, visit 1968.usatoday.com.