Editor's note

Fifty years ago, on Oct. 16 1968, medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a Black Power salute at the Olympic Games in Mexico City – and were promptly forced out of the games. Less than three weeks later, Richard Nixon was elected president of the United States, ushering in two decades of nearly unbroken Republican power in the White House.

To say that 1968 was a pivotal year is no exaggeration – which is why we at The Conversation wanted to make a podcast series about some of the key but lesser known stories from that year and how they continue to affect us today. So wherever you are, get those headphones out and let our host Phillip Martin take you back to the heat and light of 1968 in the company of people who’ve devoted their careers to studying the year that changed America.

Jonathan Gang

Editorial Researcher
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Heat and Light articles
Black power militant H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael (right) appeared at a sit-in protest at Columbia University in New York City on April 26, 1968. AP

1968 protests at Columbia University called attention to ‘Gym Crow’ and got worldwide attention

Stefan M. Bradley, Loyola Marymount University

The 1968 protests at Columbia University led the institution to abandon a gym project that residents considered racist and cut off its defense work – and generated worldwide attention in the process.
The poor treatment of Vietnam War veterans, many of whom had PTSD, angered Natasha Zaretsky’s Midwestern students. REUTERS/Mike Theiler

Red-state politics in and out of the college classroom

Natasha Zaretsky, Southern Illinois University

A scholar raised by leftist San Francisco parents in the 1970s ends up teaching in the heartland, where her students represent a very different kind of politics. What she learns from them is profound.
Nervous about how southern television viewers would react, NBC executives closely monitored the filming of the kiss between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner. U.S. Air Force

TV’s first interracial kiss launched a lifelong career in activism

Matthew Delmont, Arizona State University

The career arc of Nichelle Nichols – the first black woman to have a continuing co-starring role on TV – shows how diverse casting can have as much of an impact off the screen as it does on it.
Shooting victims are removed from the Algiers Motel in Detroit, July 26, 1967. AP Photo

Police killings of 3 black men left a mark on Detroit’s history more than 50 years ago

Jeffrey Horner, Wayne State University

Efforts to keep the city segregated led to one of the largest civil rights rebellions of the 1960s, and interactions between citizens and police turned deadly.
A scene from Doug Engelbart’s groundbreaking 1968 computer demo. Doug Engelbart Institute

In 1968, computers got personal: How the ‘mother of all demos’ changed the world

Margaret O'Mara, University of Washington

A 90-minute presentation in 1968 showed off the earliest desktop computer system. In the process it introduced the idea that technology could make individuals better – if government funded research.
Richard Nixon, Republican candidate for president, is seen in August 1968. AP Photo

Politicians have long used the ‘forgotten man’ to win elections

Donald Critchlow, Arizona State University

From Thomas Jefferson to Donald Trump, the idea of the little guy ignored by politicians has loomed large in American political rhetoric.
Even 17 years beyond 2001, spacesuits are bulkier than this. Matthew J. Cotter/Flickr

50 years old, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ still offers insight about the future

Daniel N. Rockmore, Dartmouth College

People are still wrestling with what artificial intelligence could and should do, half a century after the debut of the Kubrick-Clarke classic.

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