SUBJECTS: Civics and Citizenship, History
YEARS: 9–10
Imagine a country arming its police force with tanks, heavy weapons and chemicals to combat its own people.
This extract shows the escalation of violence and the results of racism in the USA in 1968.
Army, police and fire units are shown practising new riot control activities in preparation for expected violent demonstrations in the approaching summer.
Things to think about
- 1.Demonstrating is one way people can show their disapproval of or support for an action or issue. What rules do you think should apply to any demonstration? Choose a recent Australian demonstration and consider whether your rules were followed. If not, would your rules have improved the situation?
- 2.Why is activist Floyd McKissick outraged by the government's expenditure on new arms for police? What is the political event that activist Dick Gregory intends to disrupt? What careful distinction does Gregory make between a riot and his intended action? What methods of crowd control are used by the police?
- 3.Find the American Declaration of Independence online and read the first sentence of paragraph two. How might Dick Gregory use this to justify the actions he describes in the clip? What effect might the statement have upon the following people: an African American living on welfare, a racist politician, an Australian seeing the violence on the news and a shop-owner in a riot-prone area?
- 4.The Kerner commission is referred to as condemning the stockpiling of police weapons. What did it recommend and what action did President Johnson take? What effects did this have? What was the result of the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago? Were the actions of demonstrators and the police justified? Are there any parallels between events in the USA in 1968 and in Australia around the same time?
Acknowledgements
Image credit: 'Riot damage in D.C.', courtesy Library of Congress (Wikimedia Commons).
Date of broadcast: 14 Apr 1968
Copyright
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