Roundtable | Why Does 1963 Matter Today?

1963 Then & Now: A 60-Year Retrospective of America
This interdisciplinary symposium was co-presented by the Stanford Humanities Center and Stanford's Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. While August 2023 marked 60 years since the momentous March on Washington, the Institute felt hosting the event on the 60th anniversary of Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s memo granting the FBI permission to wiretap MLK "at his current address or at any future address to which he may move," was a way to center just how radical the events of 1963 were in the moment.
The aim of this symposium then is to commemorate the importance of the civil rights struggles of 1963 and what they mean for us today, 60 years later. In revisiting 1963, we hope to have robust conversation, civil disagreement, and above all, an educational and empowering experience.