The year 1968 marked many changes for the United States. It signaled the end of the Kennedy-Johnson presidencies, the pinnacle of the civil rights movement, the beginning of Women‘s rights and Gay rights, and the beginning of the end of the war in Vietnam. More than that, it meant a change in public attitudes and beliefs.
 
The year started with the Viet Cong opening the Tet Offensive in South Vietnam, a move that triggered President Lyndon B. Johnson‘s call for peace negotiations. Johnny Cash recorded "Live at Folsom Prison", Eddie Adams photographs a Viet Cong officer as he is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. On March 31st, President Lyndon B. Johnson surprised the nation by choosing not to run for reelection, on April 4th, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee, leading to riots in Washington, D.C. and other cities. In April, student protesters at Columbia University in New York City shut down the university, only one of many college protests that would unfold across the county.
 
In June, radical feminist Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol as he enters his studio, wounding him, and Robert F. Kennedy, former U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator from New York, was assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Bill Eppridge records a lone busboy trying to comfort Kennedy as he lays sprawled on the kitchen floor of the Ambassador Hotel. The only original master print, used for reproduction in LIFE magazine, will be included in the exhibition for the first time in history.
 
In August, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was marred by clashes between Vietnam War protesters and Mayor Daley‘s police force. At Mexico City‘s Summer Olympic Games, African American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos won gold and bronze medals, then bowed their heads and raised clenched fists during the playing of the U.S. national anthem in protest of U.S. racism. And in November, as the Beatles‘ "White Album" is released, Richard Nixon was elected President with running mate Spiro Agnew, making one of the most extraordinary political comebacks in U.S. history. Finally, in December, Elvis Presley‘s "1968 Comeback Special" airs on NBC television and Apollo 8 enters orbit around the moon.
 
In culture, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Rosemary‘s Baby, and Yellow Submarine dominate the box office; the Fillmore East opens in New York, Hair opens on Broadway, and "Hey Jude" by the Beatles and "Jumpin‘ Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones top the music charts.
 
These and other events marked the year as a benchmark of unrest, tumult, and change; and all are represented in "It Was Forty Years Ago Today..." We have seen many of these photographs numerous times in newspapers, magazines, books and documentaries. Universally relevant, they reflect the past, the present, and the changing times. These unforgettable images are imbedded in our collective consciousness; they are defining moments chronicling our shared history. The photographers in this exhibition have captured dramatic moments in a remarkable year, and illustrate the power of photography to inform, persuade, enlighten and enrich the viewer‘s life.