A deep dive into the year 1965 (in 27 parts) by Robert Nagle.
(This page contains only Parts 5-8. See also: The full list of essays or go to Part 9. ).
8. Children’s Books of 1965
Although it normally takes a while for a book to spread throughout the reading population, children’s books travel a lot faster. They are cheaper and easier to read and distribute. Kids are encouraged to read as much as possible, and in 1975-1976 (when I was 10 or 11), I had easy access to the school library, public library and Scholastic Book club (which sold these books at school).
So when I looked at the list of children’s books from 1964-1966, I already recognized a LOT of the titles. The big one was Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which was made into a 1971 movie). My 4th grade teacher regularly recited excerpts of this book in class, and we couldn’t get enough of it (and I eagerly checked it out of the library the next summer). But Charlie was 1964 (and so will not be discussed here).
The other “book” too obvious to mention is the Peanuts Comic Strip which ran every day in most newspapers when I was a kid. The comic strip had started in 1950, and by the 1960s had grown in popularity — Peanuts characters were on the cover of “Time Magazine” in April 1965, and the animated holiday special “Charlie Brown Christmas” premiered in December, 1965. Later, these daily comics were collected into cheap paperbacks which seemed to be everywhere. I’m pretty sure that by the time was 12, I had read every book which must have covered the Peanuts oeuvre from 1950-1970.
Since Mr. Schulz’s death, the author’s estate had compiled the daily comics into The Complete Peanuts, and this year I read Complete Peanuts 1965-1966. During the 1965 run, Snoopy goes ice skating with a pretty female beagle, Snoopy gets fat, Linus’ blanket starts attacking Lucy after she threatened to burn it, Charlie Brown’s friends decorate the pitching mound with dandelions, Snoopy goes to a family reunion at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, Charlie Brown goes to summer camp and makes a friend and Snoopy starts writing his novel, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Great stuff!
With delight I reread Beverly Cleary’s 1965 Mouse and the Motorcycle. The 10 year old me already knew the Cleary name from the Henry Huggins and Ramona series and would have gobbled up the Motorycle book without hesitating. The book is a charming tale about a young mouse who lives at a hotel and becomes smitten with a toy motorcycle owned by one of the boy guests. Eventually Ralph steals this toy motorcycle so he can ride it. But he can’t figure out how! After trying unsuccessfully to ride it, Ralph accidentally pushes himself and the motorcycle into a wastepaper basket. Trapped and convinced he will be tossed down the garbage chute to certain death, Ralph pleads with the boy to let him go. Miraculously, the boy hears his words and helps Ralph to escape. They talk, and when Ralph admits that he would love to ride the motorcycle but doesn’t know how to start it, the boy explains that “you have to make a noise….These cars don’t go unless you make a noise.”
Once Ralph learns this, he has all sorts of misadventures with the motorcycle, eventually getting into trouble. Ralph and his mouse family are already familiar with hotel protocol about keeping the hotel mouse-free and do their best to avoid the watchful eyes of guests and staff. Just finding one mouse would be enough to cause the hotel to set a lot of mousetraps and put out poison. In one scary scene, Ralph is riding his motorcycle somewhat recklessly and runs into a maid vacuuming, with this frightening illustration:
Ralph narrowly escapes death, and his new alliance with the boy entitles him to certain advantages. To the delight of Ralph’s mouse family, Ralph arranges for the boy to leave breakfast leftovers by the mouse hole. Eventually goodbyes are exchanged, and the novel ends on a happy note.
Two things strike me about this entertaining book. First, in a moment of crisis, Ralph is startled to discover that the boy can understand Ralph’s words. I imagine that all kids feel ignored at some point in their lives, and it is a wonderful moment when one realizes that sometimes bigger creatures can and do listen. Second, the boy’s revelation to Ralph that making noise was the only thing necessary to get the motorcycle moving was both funny and (by kids’ logic) obvious.
So often a young person can be completely in the dark about the logic of machines and adults. I remember a funny conversation I had with my 6 year old nephew about his father’s job as a restaurant manager. I asked him why his father worked at the restaurant. “Because he likes hamburgers!” he replied. “Are there any other reasons why your dad works at the restaurant?” “Because he likes milk shakes.” “Are there any other reasons?” I asked. “Because he likes the people.” “Are there any other reasons?” “Because he likes cooking things.” “Are there any other reasons?” I asked. My nephew stared at me uncomprehendingly. Finally, I said, “Because that’s how he earns money! He needs money to pay for food and the car and your toys and clothes. If he didn’t make money, he would have nothing to eat and no place to live — and neither would you!”
I still laugh about that conversation. (My nephew is now 25 and happily employed.) It reminds me that when you lack basic knowledge about something, the world can prove to be infuriating and incomprehensible. Of course the joke (which the reader knows) is that toy motorcycles don’t run on the noises that people make with their mouths. It probably is more complicated than that. And yet we all can remember a time in our lives when we couldn’t figure out the logic of the world and ended up believing crazy and irrational notions.
I was delighted to realize that The Black Cauldron (Book 2 of Lloyd Alexander‘s Prydain series) came out in 1965. It was nominated for a Newbery medal, and a few years later, The High King, (the last in the series) would win it in 1969.
I wrote about Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series a year ago. It’s a delightful adventure with grumpy dwarves, soulless soldiers and sidekicks who always seem to be available for adventures. This volume features a rude and self-centered prince who treats Taran and his friends with condescension and is driven to achieve glory at the expense of everybody else. Re-reading this story as an adult, I was struck by the great dialogue and characterization. There’s a great scene where the gang searches for three witches, but they turn out to be not evil or scary–just ordinary-looking and even pleasant–but who have a lot of power and hold the key to everything.
Rereading this novel as an adult, I was surprised at how it sustained my interest and how carefully the plot was organized over five books. As an author, I admired Alexander’s ease in depicting conversations between several people at once. The author did this so effortlessly because the first novel in the series had already introduced most of the characters, making it easier for successive ones to focus on plot and how characters respond. During the adventure, I noticed that characters were divided into two groups — the older seasoned warriors and the inexperienced adolescents seeking to shoulder adult responsibilities. Some of these sword & fantasy novels can become too serious and melodramatic, but this one has lots of comedy and sentimentality.
Lloyd Alexander was a Philadelphia native who worked in military intelligence in Paris during WW2 and later studied literature at University of Paris. He translated Paul Eluard and Jean-Paul Sartre (including Nausee a book I read in high school; it would have blown my mind if I had noticed Alexander’s name on the book). Later Alexander was stationed in Wales where he learned about Welsh mythology and landscapes which later found its way into the Prydain books.
Alexander and others played an important part in “Cricket” magazine (which published high quality short fiction for children). YouTube has lots of delightful videos of Alexander making speeches and doing interviews — here he is answering questions from elementary school students .
An entire documentary about Alexander’s life is on YouTube.
Initially Alexander wrote stories for adults, then switched to children’s fiction. In one interview, he explained that it permitted the author more freedom and even allowed him to express sentiments hard to express in fiction geared towards adults. A fantasy writer can create a world, populate its world with unusual characters and reveal the peculiar logic of this world. Even if it’s pure fantasy, a child reader can leap unreservedly into this world. A young reader never really demands that the rules of this fantasy world abide by those governing the world of adults.
Randall Jarrell (W) is better known for his poetry and criticism, but his light-hearted children’s book, Animal Family, was also nominated for a Newbery Award in 1965, the same year he died at the age of 51. This is more of an adult fairy tale; honestly if I had read it as a kid, I might have been bored. The story has no real plot; it’s just a series of incidents about a hunter who lives alone and befriends a mermaid. It’s about how the two get to know one another and how the mermaid learns the hunter’s language and the habits of people who live on land. In many ways it’s less of a fairy tale than a domestic satire.
The dialogue between the hunter and the mermaid as he tries to teach her English is realistic and entertaining. The result is usually linguistic confusion. When the hunter tries to explain ordinary words to the mermaid, he describes a table as “something you eat on.” She replies (logically) “Why do you get on it to eat?”
“Oh, no, you don’t get on it, you put what you’re going to eat on it.”
“Why?”
“Well, otherwise you’d have to hold it in your hands.”
“You don’t want to hold it in your hands?”
The hunter has similar difficulty in trying to explain what a house is. After he explains that the “house is a big wooden thing—see how big it is—that you stay inside at night or when it rains.”
“Why?”
“To keep from getting wet.”
“To keep from getting wet?” the mermaid said despairingly.
As time goes on, the hunter and the mermaid adopt a young bear, a young lynx and eventually a young boy. Somewhat miraculously, they live together as a kind of family with private games and jokes.
The short and sweet story feels like a child’s fairy tale. It doesn’t really explain why the hunter never has contact with the outside world, nor does it delve into the relationship between the hunter and the mermaid. The book portrays them as companions but not romantic or sexual partners; for young readers, this is sufficient even though by the book’s end it is clear that the household resembles a family of sorts. Certainly the hunter and mermaid are on familiar terms and accept the other’s idiosyncrasies; indeed it is a source of entertainment for characters (as well as readers).
The story takes a preposterous premise – a mermaid companion, a tamed bear and lynx – and imagines how these animals might actually behave around a house. It succeeds wonderfully in portraying the animals (and the mermaid) as unbound by human rules but still sharing an abode. Actually the mermaid is a perfect audience for the animal’s antics; everything seems new and surprising to her.
Many stories and paintings have depicted mermaids before, but Animal Family portrays her as an adventurer exploring a different world on land. After living with the Hunter for a few years, she realizes how things don’t easily wash away when you live on the land, that you have to confront the world as it is rather than continuously swimming away from danger towards the tranquility of the deep blue sea.
This is a tale for a child. Nothing bad really happens. Nobody suffers or experiences loss. Embedded in this simple child’s tale is a story about how a hunter tries to avoid society and finds that companionship with other creatures is unavoidable. It is also a tale about how people — and mermaids — adapt to circumstances –and how doing so changes their overall outlook. Finally, it is about how people find comfort and joy in the small surprises and shared adventures.
I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (W) is a strange book to win the Newbery Prize for children’s literature. It is a biographical novel about a 17th century Spanish slave who changes owners several times but eventually assists the Master (real life painter Diego Velasquez(W)). The story is interesting, but one wonders why a young reader (especially a young American reader) would find such a subject to be worth reading about. At some point though, these kinds of questions are irrelevant; the subject is just what it is, and it is up to the author to discover the parts which the reader might want to read about. Also, finding a subject far removed from the present is almost the whole point of writing a fictional biography. If anything, it presents a version of slavery entirely different from what most Americans have read about.
Instead of presenting a world which is idealized and pure fantasy, this novel presents a world of uncertainty and struggle, but lots of practical realities. Juan de Pareja was a dark-skinned slave whose mother died when he was five. He is taken care by a mistress who teaches him how to read. But then he is removed from there to live with a group of friars who treat him not as a slave, but a human being. But then, the “slave” has changed ownership to a magistrate, and then a gypsy until he ends up in the household of a famous painter (known simply throughout the book as “Master”).
From that point on, he is treated humanely and provided reasonable comforts while assisting the Master in his painting endeavors. Ultimately though, Juan is not allowed to be taught to paint (in Spain it is forbidden to teach slaves to paint). After watching his master practice his craft, Pareja has learned more than enough to become a painter and even to cultivate a distinctive painting style. As his master becomes more famous and receives commissions to paint portraits of kings and popes, Juan is eternally present as his assistant, able to witness everything and relish in his master’s successes. Velasquez treats Juan well for a slave and Juan benefits from the master’s knowledge.
It’s an interesting (and almost picaresque) journey for the protagonist, full of historical information about Spanish society, painting and art patronage. There’s some melodrama and romance, although I suspect the author was merely filling in gaps in the historical record. Near the end of the novel, After Velasquez is hired to paint a portrait of the pope, he does a practice portrait of Juan de Pareja which is so lifelife and beautiful that an excited de Pareja uses it to convince future patrons of his master’s talent.
Indeed, this painting, now famous, is part of New York’s Metropolitan art collection and eventually inspired an art exhibit about African-Spanish art and Pareja as a painter. (Jason Farago wrote a long profile about Pareja and Velasquez here).
Besides providing a reasonably accurate portrayal of Velasquez and de Pareja, the novel dramatizes the muted dreams of a Spanish slave and describes the unique way Velasquez makes his paintings. It also depicts the way slaves make their peace with their condition while searching for a way to be a good person and leave a mark on this world.
7. Beatles Live Performances
By 1965 Beatlemania had hit the world, and so there’s an awful lot of video footage of Beatles concerts from that year. They’re basically playing the same songs, as well as a few covers. Probably the most fun is the Blackpool Night Out Concert (below) which contains performances of “Yesterday” before release as well as a Ringo classic cover of “Act Naturally.” Also, there’s a great organ keyboard solo of Lennon during the “I’m Down” song (which I’d never heard before).
(They cobbled together top quality video footage with related audio). Also, there’s the Paris concert (with slightly inferior audio but a longer set and lots of fun audience reaction shots). Here’s a 18 minute performance on the Ed Sullivan show (YT). Here’s an audio-only version of the August 18, 1965 Atlanta Stadium concert (YT). Here is a fun commentary (YT) about the Shea Stadium 1965 concert and the attempt to make a record and TV concert. (It contains some video footage). Here is a 32 minute audio version of the Shea Concert (YT) Here’s a really great 20 minute video (YT) excerpt about the recording session of Rubber Soul (between October 12 to November 11, 1965, to be released December 3).
Other than “Wow,” there’s not much to say about the concerts. Two things were clear. First, all those German gigs had helped make these guys a well-oiled machine. No flaws or trip ups. Second, it’s clear that John Lennon really dominated the group when they played to the crowd in these appearances. Comparatively speaking, George and Paul were playing second fiddle. The funny thing is, as the group went from doing concerts to mainly doing studio stuff, Paul and George started to really shine.
6. “Shindig!” TV Show
Probably the most amazing thing about 1965 was a TV show called Shindig! It featured nonstop singing and dancing numbers for 30 or 60 minutes every week.
Background
In fact, TV shows had been featuring live music (or at least singers lipsyncing to their recorded songs) for a few years.
The most famous example was the Ed Sullivan Show (W) which ran from 1948 and 1971. That show was famous for introducing Elvis Presley, the Beatles and black musicians to American audiences. (Netflix has an excellent 2025 documentary called Sunday Best: Untold Story of Ed Sullivan, directed by Sacha Jenkins). This YouTube playlist of 1965 performers showcases the variety of acts (both musical and nonmusical) which this show featured for just one year.
Another show, American Bandstand (W) appeared on TV between 1952-1989. It featured teenagers dancing to popular songs, with host Dick Clark interviewing dozens of ordinary teenagers about which song ought to be the most popular. Occasionally they had musical guests, but the show mainly featured groups of teenagers dancing to popular hits. Here’s the Dec 18 1965 show (YT) which I found interesting less for the music than the wild fashions of the dancing teenagers.
Another show, Hootenanny (W) ran from 1963-1964. It taped live concerts at various college campuses and mainly featured folk and country singers like Johnny Cash, the Carter Family and the Journeymen. Actually, after the show “disinvited” folk singer Pete Seeger (W) and his group the Weavers (W) for their political stances, several prominent musicians like Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary and the Kingston Trio boycotted the show. Because of this and changing musical tastes, this show was eventually cancelled. Here’s a 1963 comedy sketch (YT) where Bob Hope, Barbra Streisand and Dean Martin parody the typical Hootenanny performance, revealing what people on either coast probably thought about a typical show.
Far more interesting and important was the 1964 T.A.M.I Show (W), a two hour live concert featuring notable singers from Motown, California and UK. The whole show roster was impressive — especially the final two acts, James Brown and the Rolling Stones.
This 17 minute performance of James Brown electrified the audience and is still amazing today. (Here’s a video commentary about Brown’s performance (YT) by Toni Basil, who was assistant choreographer for the T.A.M.I. show).
Introducing “Shindig!”
But the T.A.M.I Show was a one-time thing. After Hootenanny was cancelled, an L.A. DJ named Jimmy O’Neill and a British producer Jack Good pitched to ABC the idea of doing an energetic live musical performance show with the latest performers with elaborate staging and choreography. David Winters and Toni Basil who choreographed the elaborate dance numbers for the T.A.M.I .Show again were brought back into the same role for Shindig. Also from the T.A.M.I. Show were the Blossoms (W)(a girl group led by Darlene Love and Jean King (W)) to sing backup for the musical performances every week.
Shindig! ran from September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966. (Here’s a list of performers for each episode). Let me start with a classic song-dance of Jackie Wilson singing “Baby Workout.” I just love everything about this performance(except for the credits blocking the screen at the end!)
Episodes were filmed before a live audience. Some of the singers simply lip-synced their records, but most sang live — or maybe they prerecorded their songs specifically for the show. Actually, though, it seemed that about half of the show consisted of medleys which quickly switched songs (and often singers!) every minute or so. The multilevel stage allowed for elaborate staging of dance numbers during the performances.
Here’s a YouTube playlist of almost all the Shindig! episodes. All the episodes are worth watching, but below is a “Best of” compilation episode. Here also is a 1991 retrospective.special which contained clips plus commentary. In the early 1990s Rhino put out a dynamite 12 volume set of Shindig! videos, each with their own themes (like Groovy Gals , Soul, etc.)
These episodes are absolutely wild and unexpected. I have watched 20-25 episodes, and the show’s rapid pace (made possible by expert editing) always leaves me breathless. Most episodes were 25 minutes, but they also had several 50 minute episodes. All were recorded in front of a live audience, but who knows how much time they needed to prepare each number? One constant was the incessant screaming of girls in the audience throughout all the numbers — especially at the Next Male National Heartthrob.
The music was an odd combination of Bobbysoxer rock and roll, British invasion stuff, gospel, country/rockabilly, folk pop, Motown and even some pre-psychedelic stuff. Interestingly, a lot of singers did cover versions of well-known hits instead of singing their own songs. Some of the musicians (Bobby Sherman, Donna Lorren (W) the Righteous Brothers, Glen Campbell, Billy Preston, etc. ) played so often on the show that they were practically regulars. Some already famous performers (the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Who, the Supremes, Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Louis Armstrong) appeared on one or two special shows. Then, there were novelty acts, one hit wonders, imports from Canada, random guest stars (Jimmy Durante! etc.) and performers making their TV debut (the Mamas and the Poppas premiered as backup singers for Barry MacGuire (YT), and on the same show also happened to sing a little song called “California Dreamin’ ” (YT) which they released the following year). Wikipedia has a semi-complete listing of their musical guests.)
This show had three different sets of backup singers, including the Blossoms. And, oh, the dancers! They really made the show, and in fact, not only was the choreography and dancing top notch, they staged and filmed the performances in entirely unusual ways. For example, you absolutely must watch this duet performance of Jerry Lee Lewis and Neil Sedaka singing “Take Me out to the Ball Game.” If you are wondering where Neil Sedaka is, don’t worry, he’ll show up eventually — and boy will it be something!
Musical Versatility
The Shindig performances changed my impressions about two musicians in particular.
The Righteous Brothers were discovered by music producer Phil Spector in 1964, but they really came into the public eye on Shindig! in 1965. Probably their two most famous songs are the “Unchained Melody” and “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling,” but their Shindig! songs have some real barn-burning performances. Their amazing song “Justine” appears as the first song in the “Best of Shindig” video (linked to above, or here). In a Righteous Brothers/Shindig compilation, there are two amazing performances: “Little Latin Lupe Lu” (which starts at 7:38 minutes), which is quickly followed by the equally amazing “Night Time is the Right Time” (which starts at 9:40 minutes).
I already knew that Glen Campbell was not just as a 1970s traditional country star, but also a regular member of the “Wrecking Crew,” (an elite club of studio musicians who helped record practically half of all music from the 1960s). Campbell had played as a backup musician on the T.A.M.I show and also played with the Shindig musical crew. But in his solos he showed a lot of versatility: his Elvisy/rockabilly side (YT) and even some outlaw blues (YT).
Guide to the Dancing
Of course, dancing was a key part of the show. The Motown singers usually choreographed their own dance moves, but the Shindig dancers had to capture the song’s energy in a way that would complement (but not overshadow) the singers. One of the show’s dancers explained the standard dance moves of 1965: the mashed potato, the slop, the pony, the monkey, the jerk, the hitchhiker, the watusi. Toni Basil (who helped choreograph the dances on the T.A.M.I. show and Shindig!) explains the three levels of dancing they used: the jazz dancers, gogo dancers and the movements of the singers.
Having watched 20+ show videos, I admit that I have developed a “crush” on a blonde-haired dancer with dark horn-rimmed glasses. In fact, producer David Good reportedly asked the dancer Carole Shelyne to wear fake dark-rimmed glasses as a way to build rapport with the show’s target audience of teenage girls. She’s easy to pick out among the dancers, especially at the end of Jackie Wilson’s Baby Workout number, where she does a mean twirl that always gets to me. In another episode, she ended up singing a song about those horn-rimmed glasses (YT)
Winding Down the Show
The show was beloved by teens and musicians, and producer Jack Good was able to get top talent and use his British connections to book lots of musicians from the British invasion. Indeed, there is a 2 part “European episode” of Shindig (here and here) which features the Graham Bond Organization and the Who singing “My Generation” months before the song would actually be released.
But in fall, 1965, Jack Good seems to have left the show and ABC used various guest hosts (Boris Karloff, Hedy Lamarr, Zsa Zsa Gabor, etc) to attract better ratings. But after Good’s departure, the magic of the original show started to decline (as did the ratings). Shindig’s last show was January 8, 1966.
Of course, that was not the end of musical shows. Variety shows and talk shows continued to have musical guests. American Bandstand took on a second life and continued until the 1980s. Soul Train (led by Don Cornelius) offered a steady stream of dancers and live music targeting African-American viewers. Also in the 1970s Burt Sugarman produced the “Midnight Special” and “Don Kirschner’ Rock Concert” featured great live musical performances by the latest hot musicians (albeit without the dancers).
By the 1980s though, the 24 hour MTV cable channel became the rage. Instead of live performances, musicians focused on producing quality prerecorded vids in the hopes that a song would catch on.
For twenty five years, the Shindig! show was practically forgotten. Then in 1991, Rhino compiled the show’s best bits into a 12 part video series, and some of the original people involved in the show provided light commentary. On one talk show to promote the video series, Jimmy O’Neill told about how wonderful it was to work alongside the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Diana Ross, etc. But after the episodes ran and the series was cancelled, the show was never rerun, and the American public seemed to have forgotten about it. Years later, Jimmy O’Neill recalls in a TV interview (YT) how a kid’s’ cartoon (the Flintstones) wanted to do a takeoff on “Shindig” called “Shinrock.” So they asked Jimmy O’Neill to provide a voice for it. Years later O’Neill was watching TV with his five year old, and that particular episode of the Flintstones happened to come on. When his five year old son watched the episode, he certainly noticed that the m.c. character in the cartoon bore an uncanny resemblance to his own dad. The kid turned to him and said, “Daddy, do you really know Fred Flintstone?”
Other Reading:
“‘Shindig!’ Tapes Bring ‘60s Rock Back to Life” by David Wharton. L.A. Times, Dec 1, 1991,
“Remembering ‘Shindig!’” by Chris Wheatley, Next Avenue, Sept 13, 2024.
Dialling Back the Clock to SHINDIG (1964-1966), by Tim Lucas Video WatchBlog, May 10, 2021
6. Miscellaneous Song of the Day: Eve of Destruction
A folk singer named Barry McGuire recorded this controversial P.F. Sloan song in one take in July 1965. Within weeks it became the #1 song in USA (knocking “Help” by the Beatles from the top of the chart). The song alludes to the looming threat of nuclear war, the never-ending protests against the status quo and the approach of war with a foreign power:
Yeah, my blood’s so mad, feels like coagulatin’
I’m sittin’ here just contemplatin’
I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulation
Handful of senators don’t pass legislation
And marches alone can’t bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin’
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’
[Chorus]
And you tell me over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
5. 1965 and American Politics
Today I will sketch out two political issues that were in the headlines that year.
Civil Rights and the Johnson’s War on Poverty
1964 had been a huge victory for civil rights. JFK had introduced a Civil Rights bill in October 1963 which seemed unlikely to pass. But after the Kennedy assassination, LBJ lobbied hard to get the law passed in July, 1964.
This was major legislation, but it became clear to black activists that this was not enough. Southern States had added all sort of rules and literacy tests and poll taxes to discourage minority groups from registering to vote.
This was especially true in Alabama where several black activists had been attacked and the Selma sheriff even arrested people trying to register. In Dallas County for example, 57% of the population was black, but of the 15,000 voting age blacks in that county, only 130 were registered. In early 1965, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and various organizers like Amelia Boynton (W), Martin Luther King and John Lewis led a series of marches from Selma to Montgomery to protest these things.
An excellent 2014 historical drama, Selma (directed by Ava DuVernay) shows the drama behind these marches. The Selma to Montgomery marches are also covered in detail in Part 6 of “Eyes on the Prize.” (see below). This civil rights documentary includes lots of news reports and later interviews.
(Also, here’s 44 minute video of an 1985 interview with Amelia Boynton Robinson, the Selma voting activist who was beaten unconscious during the march.)
Despite the violence and loss of life, the Selma protests were effective and led LBJ to propose the Voting Rights Act shortly thereafter.
Within days of the passing of the Voting Rights Act, LBJ was pushing the Social Security Amendments of 1965 which established the Medicare (Parts A and B) and Medicaid programs for elderly and poor people.
It was a stunning string of legislative accomplishments which unfortunately was overshadowed by Johnson’s escalation of US involvement in the Vietnam War.
The US in Vietnam
In 1964 the US had sent military advisors and claimed that the Vietcong had attacked a US military ship. As it turns out, this claim turned out to be false, but it still caused Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave more authority to Johnson to conduct military operations without a declaration of war. In 1965 this actually happened. Actual combat troops were sent to Vietnam in March 1965, and in July 1965, shortly before passing Social Security Amendments, LBJ increased the monthly draft from 17,000 to 35,000 In October and December, protests about the Vietnam War was beginning to gain attention.
Disturbingly, American casualties were increasing. Here were the grim statistics about U.S. deaths in Vietnam (source). In red are U.S. military combat deaths in Vietnam. (The Vietnamese military combat deaths are listed in red). Note: This does not include any Vietnamese civilian deaths.
- 1962: 53 (4,457)
- 1963: 122 (5,665)
- 1964: 216 (7,457)
- 1965: 1,928 (11,242)
- 1966: 6,350 (11,953)
- 1967: 11,363 (12,716)
- 1968: 16, 899 (27,915)
Protests about the war started in 1965 (W), and had started to seep into the public consciousness. Young comedian George Carlin (W) even did a comedy routine about it (YT). Protests were taking place at University of Michigan, Berkeley and even Washington D.C. After draftees started burning their draft cards, in August 1965, the federal government passed a law criminalizing the act of destroying or mutilating one’s draft card. The penalty for burning a draft card was up to five years in prison (or a $10,000 fine). For the next few months, some individuals were arrested and sentenced for doing just that. All these protests culminated in a march of 15,000-20,000 people in Washington D.C. on November 27 (the day of my birth!) The crowd outside the White House chanted, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” Disturbingly, during this year a handful of U.S. protesters voluntarily set themselves on fire and died as a dramatic form of protest against the war.
Whole books have been written about the Vietnam quagmire, the protests and how the media influenced public perceptions of it. In 1965 TV and newspapers expanded their Vietnam coverage. Morley Safer provided ongoing reports (here and here) which brought the faraway war to people’s living rooms. (Later in 2000, Safer reflected about his Vietnam reporting here and here and here). For a less US-centric perspective, here is a July 5, 1965 British TV report detailing how the war and the presence of American soldiers had changed Saigon.
Other National Events from 1965
First, the Watts riots were taking place in mid-August. It started when a 21 year old black man was pulled over for drunk driving and was beat up when resisting arrest. For six days there was rioting, the National Guard was called in and 34 people died from it (23 of them were shot by LAPD). Later, a commission studied the root causes of the riot and concluded that unemployment and poor schools in the areas where black residents lived was a major factor. Curiously, most of the people involved in the riots had no previous criminal record.
Second, on November 9 there was a big blackout affecting many regions of the Northeast. It affected 30 million people in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New England and parts of Canada. (Fun fact: my pregnant mom was living in Jamaica, Queens in New York City at the time). The blackout lasted 13 hours. Eventually power was restored, but because telephones were still operational and the weather was pretty cool, people endured it without too much inconvenience. Even reports of looting were fairly minimal.
1965 was also a busy time for the US space program. With the NASA Gemini program, astronauts regularly went into space to test equipment and procedures in preparation for a manned moon mission. Six of the 12 test flights were in 1965, where the most important (Gemini 7) was a two week mission (between Dec 4-18, 1965). Gemini 7 helped NASA test living conditions ona spaceship; that included waste storage, scheduling labor, testing spacesuits and studying nutrition. It also staged a rendezvous with Gemini 6A and provided useful experience about making burns to do course corrections. The two astronauts on that flight were Frank Borman and Jim Lovell (who was on Apollo 13 in 1970), and each astronaut brought books to read (Roughing it by Mark Twain and Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds).
(Fun fact: the Gemini program was managed by a Houston building now known as the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center).
5. Miscellaneous Song of the Day: We’ll Sing in the Sunshine
This easy listening song won the 1965 Grammy for Best Ethnic/Folk Song. Gale Garnett (W) is a Canadian born in New Zealand. After retiring from music in the 1980s, she wrote fiction, book reviews and newspaper columns. (She also had a TV acting career — Kojak, Bonanza, etc.