To be a teenager on June 19, 1967, and especially one of color, was to see America as a 20-quart iron stockpot approaching a hard boil. The heat intensified with every headline. In just the previous three months, Muhammad Ali refused military service, massive protests arose in San Francisco and New York against the Vietnam War, and a breakout star named Jimi Hendrix was among the many musicians to take the stage that weekend at the Monterey Pop Festival, the launching pad to “The Summer of Love,” a younger generation’s vocal counter to war and inequality.
The simmer loomed especially ominous in the South.