'1968' ends Sunday at the National Portrait Gallery

Louis S. Glanzman (1922-2013), Robert F. Kennedy 1925-1968, Time cover, June 14, 1968. After winning California's Democratic primary on June 5, 1968, "Bobby" Kennedy was fatally shot in Los Angeles, two months after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in Memphis. (In this drawing, Kennedy's head pose resembles his brother John's pose, also painted after his assassination which used to hang in the entrance hallway at the White House. [See * below.] Aaron Shikler was the artist of the JFK portrait which was unveiled at the White House in 1971, the likeness directed by Jacqueline Kennedy. Is it still there?)


For a visual glimpse at what happened in 1968, the telling exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, One Year: 1968, An American Odyssey provides a quick history lesson about a year no one wants to remember. 

It was a tumultuous, tragic time: Two national leaders were assassinated, the Vietnam war continued, violence and police beatings were the norm in Chicago which was the site of the Democratic National Convention where Chicago's mayor Richard J. Daley boasted that no one was killed. Richard Nixon's lies persisted.

It was a year of national sadness, one I hope every high school student studies to learn what happened and may happen, a year which certainly ranks near the top of "worst years."

Many of the 30 works in the exhibition are political, sports, rock stars, and other celebrities whose portraits appeared on Time magazine covers which Time gave to the Portrait Gallery.

Also included is a video of Janis Joplin belting out a song before she died of a heroin overdose in 1970.

The exhibition is part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the National Portrait Gallery.

The 1968 Democratic presidential ticket of Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978) and Edmund Muskie (1914-1996) was overshadowed by 23,000 police troops who beat 3,000 protestors and onlookers under direction by  Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley (drawn in the background above, shouting orders) at the Democratic National Convention. This Time cover by Louis S. Glanzman (1922-2013) ran Sept. 6, 1968.

David Levine,(1926-2009), President Johnson as King Lear, Time, Jan. 5, 1968. President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) was named Time's "Man of the Year" in 1964 and 1967, the latter year "because of his perceived failures," including the interminable Vietnam War, according to the wall label.  His approval rating sank to 38 percent from a high of 80 percent. Mr. Levine modeled Johnson after King Lear, both of whom had troubles with close "associates."

One of the most hated vice-presidents in memory, Spiro Agnew 1918-1996 by Louis S. Glanzman, 1922-2013, ran on the cover of Time Sept. 20, 1968, five years before Agnew resigned the vice presidency due to financial scandal. (John C. Calhoun was the only other vice president to quit.) Richard Nixon chose Agnew as a running mate partially to avoid being usurped as Nixon had been when he served as vice president under President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969). Nixon's and Agnew's mediocrity served as springboards to persistence intolerance. 

Ardent segregationist George C. Wallace 1919-1998 of Alabama was photographed by Jerome Liebling (1924-2011) in 1968 when Wallace launched the first of three campaigns for president. He won five states in the national race that year but did not do as well in 1972 and 1976.  In the 1972 race while campaigning at a shopping center in Laurel, Maryland on May 15, Wallace was shot and paralyzed.

Unidentified artist, no date, Jimi Hendrix, 1942-1970. After a successful run in Europe, when he returned to the U.S. in 1968, rock star Jimi Hendrix was named "Artist of the Year" by Rolling Stone and Billboard. Like Janis Joplin, he died of a drug overdose in 1970.

At the press briefing to open the exhibition, curator James Barber gave details of the gun screenprint by Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) which ran on the cover of Time June 21, 1968. Above is a photo by Richard Darby (no known dates) of Helen Chavez, 1928-2016, Robert Kennedy, and Cesar Chavez, 1927-1993, from March 10, 1968 when Mr. Kennedy visited a rally in California to show support for Mr. Chavez, recently ending a 25-day fast.  He was the president of the United Farm Workers which sought better working conditions and wages/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What: One Year: 1968, An American Odyssey

When: Closing May 19, 2019. The National Portrait Gallery is open daily from 11:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Where: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, 8th and F streets, N. W., Washington, D.C. 20001

Admission: None

For more information: 202-633-8300 or visit the website.

Closest Metro station: Gallery Place-Chinatown or walk 10 minutes from Metro Center
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Inside the Christmas White House, 2012/Photo by Patricia Leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com

RFK Book and Journalism Awards, 2017

 

Ethel Kennedy and her daughter, Kerry Kennedy, arrive at the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards presentation at the Newseum, May 23, 2017/Photo by Patricia Leslie

As the photos attest, Ethel Kennedy, age 89, and her daughter, Kerry Kennedy, 57, looked wonderful and glam (I realize this is not p.c., but still they looked so good, comments cannot be ignored) at Tuesday night's 49th annual presentation  of the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards. 

The awards are given to those writers who "best applied RFK's ideals and values" and instilled his goals and aspirations "in the public interest, on the issues of poverty, political inclusion, and justice," according to the website and remarks by Ms. Kennedy, president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and presidential historian Michael Beschloss who presided with Margaret Engel at the event at the Newseum.

 Ethel Kennedy and her daughter, Kerry Kennedy, arrive at the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards presentation at the Newseum, May 23, 2017/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Ethel Kennedy and her daughter, Kerry Kennedy, arrive at the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards presentation at the Newseum, May 23, 2017/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Winners in the journalism category were chosen by 60 judges. The book award went to Matthew Desmond for Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, chosen by writers Peter Edelman, Ruth Marcus, and Annette Gordon Reed.

Journalism categories included college, high school print and high school broadcast, radio, cartoons, new media, and domestic and international print, television, and photography. (A complete list of winners is available here.)

 Ethel Kennedy and her daughter, Kerry Kennedy at the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards presentation at the Newseum, May 23, 2017/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Before the ceremony began, Ethel Kennedy, center, sitting, received guests at the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards presentation at the Newseum, May 23, 2017.  To Mrs. Kennedy's left is her daughter, Kerry Kennedy, sitting/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Kerry Kennedy, president of RFK Human Rights, at the podium with Margaret Engel and Michael Beschloss at the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards presentation at the Newseum, May 23, 2017/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 John Seigenthaler, Jr. congratulates Josh Salman, Emily Le Coz, and Elizabeth Johnson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on winning the John Seigenthaler Journalism Prize at the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards presentation at the Newseum, May 23, 2017/Photo by Patricia Leslie

John Seigenthaler, Jr., presented the John Seigenthaler Journalism Prize to "Bias on the Bench" by Josh Salman, Emily Le Coz, and Elizabeth Johnson writing for the Sarasota Herald Tribune.  The reporters studied 80 million records to show that judges discriminate against black defendants in Florida. (Mr. Seigenthaler was RFK's close personal aide.)

The RFK Media Advocacy Prize went to "Rikers" by Bill Moyers, Judy Doctoroff O'Neill, Marc Levin, Mark Benjamin and Rolake Bamgbose, Schumann Media Center and Brick City TV in association with Public Square Media, PBS.  

Mr. Moyers was not present and unable to accept the award which was the same for all winners:  a bust of RFK, about 18 inches high with a design, reminiscent of the JFK bust at the Kennedy Center.  The busts looked to be bronze and based upon Kerry Kennedy's reaction when lifting them from a table to present them to the winners, they were bronze.

Receiving "special recognition" was My Own Words by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg written with Wendy Williams and Mary Hartnett.  Due to a long-standing commitment with the American Bar Association, Justice Ginsburg was unable to attend the presentation and sent a video message instead.  

During her remarks, Kerry Kennedy made several references to "Daddy" which seemed odd, simply because she looked too young to remember her father, but when he was killed in 1968, she was eight years old. 

She quoted from a speech he made to the American Association of Newspaper Editors in 1961 about the importance of journalism to the lifeblood of the U.S.: Writers and reporters must dig into government and find out what's going on, and report it accurately.  

Kerry Kennedy issued a refrain:  "The press is under attack; our freedoms are under attack" which Mr. Beschloss picked up and repeated. 

So much more is at stake this spring, he said, when "values are under assault...hour by hour." Robert Kennedy "didn't denigrate; he dreamed."

Lest anyone forget, he reminded all, it was a night of celebration and a reflection on Robert Kennedy's journey.

 

At the beginning of the evening Mr. Beschloss publicly recognized Ethel Kennedy sitting on the front row with her daughter, before her daughter took the podium. 

Ethel Kennedy is not just "a national treasure," Mr. Beschloss said, "she is a global treasure." Mrs. Kennedy beamed and stood to wave, and the audience rose to gave her a standing ovation and applaud her achievements and her life.

 U.S. Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD and House Minority Whip) at the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards presentation at the Newseum, May 23, 2017/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Mr. Beschloss noted that three buildings important to Mr. Kennedy stood nearby:  the U.S. Capitol (he was a U.S. Senator from New York from 1965 to 1968), the Justice Department (he served as attorney general from 1961 until September, 1964) and the White House.  

A short video of the last few years of RFK's life was screened.  In one segment RFK recounted telling his wife that he wanted to start a speech with a funny story, and Ethel Kennedy replied:  "Just point to the top of your head, and they'll laugh."  (Mr. Kennedy had a healthy and notable head of hair.) 

Videos of less than three minutes each which described themes of each of the winning articles and book were shown before winners arrived on stage to accept awards. 

A cocktail reception followed.  About 200 attended.

Robert F. Kennedy: "One person can make a difference and each of us should try." 

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