With rioting in our cities and a rapidly escalating war in Southeast Asia, 1965 was a turbulent year for the birth of a new magazine for Tennessee lawyers. And just as the Tennessee Bar Journal has persevered through four decades, many of the issues and topics of that period remain a part of our world.

Vietnam — still a contentious topic in presidential politics and the nation’s psyche — is the logical place to start. Forty years ago, the war dominated headlines as the U.S. changed its role from advisor to full combatant. Following attacks by the North Vietnamese, President Lyndon Johnson launched major air strikes through the Operation Rolling Thunder campaign, and also sent in a first wave of combat troop. The first major American ground battle of the war soon followed, when 5,500 U.S. Marines destroyed a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula. In all, troop levels increased from 23,000 at the beginning of the year to 154,000 by year-end.

As the war escalated, so did opposition back home. In October, the anti-war student- run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged its first public burning of draft cards.

Also taking to the streets were protesters fighting to extend civil rights to the nation’s African-American population. Long deprived the opportunity to vote in many areas, these citizens held marches and protests across the nation, including the famous march from Selma, Ala., to the capitol in Montgomery led by Martin Luther King.

That protest was originally scheduled for March 7, but Gov. George Wallace swore to stop it, and that Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge near Selma, the marchers were met by state troopers and horsemen armed with clubs and whips. The ensuing bloodshed was captured by national television crews, resulting in a public relations disaster for the governor. In Washington, support for legislation to guarantee rights of African Americans grew, leading to August passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – a measure that suspended literacy tests and provided for the appointment of federal examiners who could register qualified citizens to vote.

Violence also erupted that year in New York, where Malcolm X was assassinated by Black Muslims, and in Los Angles, where a routine traffic stop sparked rioters, who took over the streets in the Watts neighborhood for six days, leaving 34 deaths, more than 1,000 people injured and more than $40 million in damages.

Amidst all of this upheaval, there was also triumph, perhaps most notably in space, where several milestones were passed. Soviet cosmonauts were the first to walk in space in March, and days later NASA launched Gemini 3, the nation’s first two-person space flight. In June, Edward White took the first steps in space by a U.S. astronaut.

Unmanned space crafts also explored new regions, with the U.S.’s Mariner 4 flying past Mars in July and the Soviet’s Venera 3 taking flight toward Venus in November (it landed on March 1, 1966).

The Birth of Rudolph and Raindrops on Roses

Other creations from 1965 remain with us today. “The Sound of Music” opened to crowds that even surpassed “Gone with the Wind,” the Gateway Arch began welcoming travelers to St. Louis, and the animated Christmas favorite “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” made its debut. One 1965 invention that didn’t have such a long run — the Sony Betamax video format.

Births

• Michael Dell, founder of Dell Inc.
• Steve Finley, Major League Baseball All-Star
• Sarah Jessica Parker, actress
• Robert Downey Jr., actor
• Brooke Shields, actress
• Sandra Bullock, actress
• Joanne Kathleen Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series
• Reggie Miller, basketball star
• Shania Twain, singer/songwriter
• Katarina Witt, figure skater

Deaths

• T. S. Eliot, American/British poet
• Alan Freed, disk jockey
• Winston Churchill, British politician
• Nat King Cole, singer, musician
• Malcolm X, Black Muslim Movement activist
• Felix Frankfurter, justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Edward R. Murrow
• Albert Schweitzer, German physician

Sports

• Los Angeles Dodgers win World Series 4-3 over the Minnesota Twins. The Series MVP was the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax
• UCLA wins NCAA Basketball Championship 91-80 over Michigan
• Boston Celtics wins NBA title 4-1 over the Los Angeles Lakers
• Felice Gimondi of Italy wins the Tour de France
• Jack Nicklaus wins The Masters • Gary Player wins the U.S. Open
• Peter Thomson wins the British Open
• Dave Marr wins the PGA Championship
• Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup: 4-3 over the Chicago Blackhawks

Debuts

• Television shows that made their debut in 1965: Days of Our Lives, Green Acres, Hogan’s Heroes, I Dream of Jeannie, Lost in Space and The Dean Martin Show.

In Tennessee

• Memphis civil rights lawyer and businessman A.W. Willis Jr. becomes the first African American representative elected to take office in the Tennessee General Assembly in 65 years.
• Memphis lawyer and juris Abe Fortas, whose most famous case was Gideon v. Wainwright, was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson.
• “Tennessee Waltz” by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King joins “My Homeland, Tennessee,” “When It’s Iris Time in Tennessee,” “My Tennessee,” “Rocky Top” and “Tennessee” as state songs.
• Vol basketball player A. W. Davis is taken in the fifth round by the Los Angeles Lakers.
• The Vols finish the 1965 season 8-1-2 under coach Doug Dickey.
• John Pechonick; chemistry/physics teacher at Jackson High School in Jackson is named State Teacher of the Year.
• At the Professional Putters Association (yes, Putt Putt golf) National Championships in Indiannapolis, Mike Swett of Memphis finishes in a tie for 21st place in the professional division and takes home $321.66.
• Chicago Bears use their first round draft choice to take Tennessee tackle Steve DeLong.
• The General Assembly adopts official slogan “Tennessee – America at its Best.”

Barry Kolar is assistant executive director of the Tennessee Bar Association. He is, of course, not old enough to remember any of these events personally.