That was Bob Dylan's 'Hurricane' and today on 3GG in the celebration of the anniversary of Bob Dylan's death we thought that for our segment 'Words that changed the World' we would look at his song 'Hurricane' that touched the lives of many and contributed to empowering the African-American people in the 1960's.
Musical break introducing the segment
1966 was a year when a famous robbery occurred in a hot New Jersey night. Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter was accused of this and sadly was arrested for a crime he said that he never committed. 1966 was also a time of astonishing developments in science and technology. Some of the great things to be achieved were
-NOW National organisation for women is formed in the United States pioneering new feminist solidarity
-Fibre optic telephone cables are devised
Not only did the 60's see man walking on the moon for the first time but brought hope to people imagining a good future
Sadly conditions for blacks were not developing at such an astounding rate; the early 1960's was a time when conditions were still bad for all the black people in the southern United States.
Blacks were kept out of universities; they were separated in cinemas and on buses; and many were prevented from voting. The civil rights movement campaigned against such injustices with mass demonstrations. On freedom rides blacks and whites rode together on buses through the south to defy segregation laws. Two new civil rights bills passed in 1964 and 1965 saw improved conditions in the south and 1964 civil rights act bans many forms of racial discrimination in the US, but many blacks complained that they still held inferior conditions. They got the worst housing and schooling, and the lowest paid jobs. From 1965, black riots broke out in many...