The Civil Rights Act of 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 Muhammad 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 follows some of the most prominent figures of the time – Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Barry Goldwater, Betty Friedan — 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.