Word for the Wise

April 11, 2008 Broadcast

Topic: The Civil Rights Act, & terms of 1968

40 years ago today, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed into law. Intended as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act (as it was also known) broadened the reach of previous legislation and incorporated housing into the list of protected civil rights.

Passage of the act (which had been knocking around Congress for more than a year by that point) was spurred by the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior a week before. Remember that the U.S. was in turmoil 40 years ago, and changes on the cultural landscape were manifesting in the lexicon.

1968 witnessed the birth of more than 200 terms, ranging from Afro to yippie and from workfare to workaholic. On the style front, 1968 ushered in everything from aviator glasses to dashiki to Fu Manchu mustache. It was the year the terms sexism, consciousness-raising, and counterculture were first spotted in print. And it was the year hoisin sauce and Chinese restaurant syndrome debuted.

1968 was the year of the chocoholic and the megavitamin, the Peter Principle and the peace dividend, and it was the year the cinephile and the technophile first saw their enthusiasms merit a name in print.

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