Murdered Greats of the 1960s

The four assassinations of the 1960s and the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council may not seem connected on the surface but they all actually mark a distinct reversal of course—a dramatic change of direction for multiple populations and culture in general. JFK’s assassination in 1963 brought an end to the détente that president had developed with Khrushchev as the two sough to de-escalate the Cold War tensions in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. With JFK out of the way, Johnson upped the ante in Vietnam while attempting to smooth things out at home by pacifying the African American population. That worked until MLK, Jr., was assassinated in 1968. MLK had become a vocal opponent of Johnson’s war in Vietnam (Stone & Kuznick, 2012). The FBI had already attempted to get MLK to kill himself (Weiner, 2013), and with MLK out of the way, the African American community lost its second great leader. The first was Malcolm X, who had been assassinated three years earlier in 1965. Malcolm X had converted from being a common lowlife criminal to being a staunch conservative Muslim. He advocated for social and religious values that would help black people to stop their waywardness and stand up against racist bullies in the state. Malcolm X proved to be too strident for some, however, as the Nation of Islam could not stand up to his criticisms of its corruption and so they executed him for it.
That same year, the Second Vatican Council ended and the Catholic Church—the most popular religion in the U.S.—changed its teachings to better reflect modern ideologies. It was the clearest indication yet that the 1960s was a period of revolution: the Old World was being tossed aside to make way for the new. The values represented by JFK, Malcolm X, and MLK were stomped out, and the Catholic Church at Vatican II essentially stood by as the revolutionaries within the Church promoted new doctrines and a new liturgical look. When RFK was killed in 1968, it capped the tumultuous decade and the hope that anyone in the U.S. had for another Catholic president stepping up to fight the corruption growing in Washington and seemingly all over the world. The murders were mainly blamed on patsies while those who benefitted secured their power and were able to redirect the course of history in the way they wanted.
References
Stone, O. & Kuznick, P. (2012). The untold history of the United States. NY: Gallery.
Weiner, T. (2013). Enemies. New York, NY: Random House.