American Experience: 1964

It was the year of the Beatles and the Civil Rights Act; of the Gulf of Tonkin and Barry Goldwater's campaign for the presidency; the year that Americans learned smoking was bad for their health and Cassius Clay became Mohammed Ali; the year that cities across the country erupted in violence and Americans tried to make sense of the assassination of their president. Based on The Last Innocent Year: America in 1964*by award-winning journalist Jon Margolis*this film will follow some of the most prominent figures of the time - Lyndon B. Johnson*Martin Luther King*Jr.*Barry Goldwater*Betty Freidan - and bring out from the shadows the actions of ordinary Americans whose frustrations*ambitions*and anxieties began to turn the country onto a different course.