We continue our reports on societal stresses of the 1960s, including political, military and racial upheaval. It made some people uncertain about the nation's future.
Our first story featured the perspective of a white man who was a Milwaukee police officer in the `60s, in the middle of racial unrest. In this report, we ask an African American, Dr. Howard Fuller, director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University.
Fuller has worn many hats. In the 1960s, he was a frequent protester in North Carolina, where he sometimes tangled with police.
Archive audio for this story comes from the documentary Change Comes Knocking: The Story of the North Carolina Fund.
When Howard Fuller watches today's Black Lives Matter movement, he says memories of protests in the `60s come to mind. Both have concerned the treatment of African Americans. But for Fuller, that's where the similarities to the 1960s end.
"In my mind, there were currents of broader social movements that were going on, and I don't necessarily see those same currents today," Fuller says.
Fuller says Black Lives Matter focuses on police interactions with African Americans, while the civil rights struggles of the `60s were more wide-ranging. They included a push for better housing and schools. Fuller, a Milwaukee native, had moved to North Carolina at the time, to join anti-poverty efforts.
"So I go to Durham and get involved in community organizing as a part of the poverty program, and then became infamous, I guess," Fuller says.
Infamous, because he grew vocal about the unequal treatment of African Americans and promoted black power. A newspaper article suggested Fuller incited violence in 1966, when he talked about society's "haves" and "have-nots." He described the contrast between the two groups as a fight between someone with a baseball bat, and someone with a small stick.
"We got to get a baseball bat in our hands, to fight the baseball bat that they got in their hands," Fuller said.
Fuller often was at the center of protests, sometimes helping to restore calm. On other occasions, he had run-ins with law enforcement.
"They turned fire hoses on us and we started running, and some of the people started breaking out windows and so forth, and a police officer had grabbed one of the demonstrators and was beating him, and I intervened. They handcuffed me behind my back, beat me from my legs, then when they got me downtown they beat in my stomach. I remember that vividly," Fuller says.
Fuller says protesters also risked confrontations with white supremacists. He describes a photo taken of him, shortly after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
"I was leading a demonstration in Durham, North Carolina, and what you can't see is the Klan was on the other side of the street. I had just spotted these three white men up on the bank building with high-powered rifles, and so you can see the stress in my face," Fuller says.
Fuller says his anxiety level remained high throughout the `60s.
"There was a lot of stress, but when you are engaged in the movement, there was a lot of adrenaline," Fuller says.
Fuller says as the decade ended the stress subsided, but his emotions about that period remain high.
"I'm not sure it's ever abated totally, at least not for me. I mean, I have the same level of anger in a certain way, and just concern about the people who still have the least in this society. That's always been the thing that's driven me. It drives me today," Fuller says.
Over the years Fuller has channeled his passion into multiple causes, including education and the treatment of African Americans in police custody.
