“Reading 1968: The Great American Whitewash”

This text is a telling critique of the ways in which activities of the radical left are often marginalised, if not ignored, within official and institutionalised histories and archives. Its author, Michele Wallace, who co-founded the group Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (WSABAL) in 1970, specifically considers how the black liberation struggles symbolised by May ‘68 have been “whitewashed” within “Americanised” readings.