Destinations - "1968" at the Oakland Museum

Because my birthday falls in December, I was 12 during most of 1968.  That didn't stop me from appreciating that I was living in an especially turbulent time.

Even now, the year seems both distant and yet like it happened yesterday.  Some events, in particular the assassinations within two months of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, mark one of the lowest points in American history.  The country has moved on, but these are wounds that scar over, never really healing.

For those of you old enough to remember living through it, as well as for anyone else interested in this pivotal year, a traveling exhibit at the Oakland Museum chronicles 1968 in all of its messy detail.

The largest part of the exhibit in the center of the museum's Great Hall, is a mostly chronological treatment of the year focused on the politics and protest that surrounded the Vietnam War and the continuing civil rights stuggles.  On the edges are exhibits that focus on the culture - both serious and silly.  There was plenty of both.

"1968" runs through 19 August, along with a concurrent exhibit of political posters: "All of Us or None: Social Justice Posters of the San Francisco Bay Area".

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Never been to Oakland?  Do you think it's only a place to nervously hurry through on your way somewhere else?  Think again.  Check out my Oakland Marathon Neighborhood Tour, a 21 chapter blog series that follows the route of the race through many of the city's interesting neighborhoods.