The OJ trial was significant because it was a litmus test for American society. To some people, it was about race. For some, it was about fame and money. For others, domestic violence. You could tell a lot about someone by where they stood, and why, on OJ’s guilt or innocence.
(That said, the white Bronco should have been in the little box in the corner, with the NBA game full-screen.)
JFK assassination biggest event in my lifetime. Second was the death of FDR (I was 8) and the end of the war that soon followed (the bomb was in there somewhere). After that, 9/11, then assassinations of MLK and RFK, the latter probably leading to Nixon. I paid little attention to the OJ trial.
Right, there’s no question that the JFK assassination was much more significant, in global terms, than the OJ case. The killing of a president, vs. the killing of 2 people virtually no one had ever heard of; the question of what this would mean for the US government, vs. the question of what this would mean for a football-player-turned-actor; the significance of a person daring to shoot at a president, vs. the sadly-every-day incidence of a husband apparently killing his wife…there’s no comparison.
But I was three years old when Kennedy was killed, and I don’t remember it at all. And while I get the significance of the event intellectually I didn’t experience it myself. And the fact is that the government didn’t fall apart, and it’s not clear that policies changed all that much as a result of the killing (Johnson was certainly much more aggressive on civil rights than Kennedy had been, and much more aggressive of Vietnam as well, but it’s not at all clear that LBJ’s actions on either were significantly different from what Kennedy’s would’ve been). And the culprit was found, and there was no conspiracy (I know, I know), and no president has been killed since (not that people haven’t tried, hello, Squeaky Fromme).
So when I look at it from my vantage point, I see “not as big a deal as it might have been,” whereas for those who lived through it, it must have been very different. I just can’t access that easily.
Anyway, I’d argue that King’s death might have been more significant than Kennedy’s, but that may simply be that I do dimply remember MLK and his death. And I would absolutely argue that Watergate was THE most significant event of this type of my lifetime–at least until 9/11, and now Trump might be in the mix, we’ll see–but again, I remember Watergate very well; my wife and I both call it our formative political experience.
As for Simpson–I followed the case, it would have been difficult not to, and while there was on the surface not a lot there other than celebrity, it was remarkable theater, and as others have mentioned it was an interesting litmus test. As important as the JFK assassination? Not even close. But I lived through the one and not the other, and I get where the OP is coming from.
I think I may be the same, and I don’t think it’s entirely because I was only around for one of them. When I learned about the JFK assassination, it wasn’t that much of a surprise. If someone with a gun wants to kill you, it doesn’t matter how politically powerful you are. If you don’t have adequate protection, you can die. Maybe people at the time had some illusion that the president was safe, but I never did.
But OJ’s trial did a lot of things for me. It opened me up to the idea that the justice system is not inherently good. Murderers can get away with it. And it was my first taste of the idea that racism wasn’t a thing of the past, and we weren’t all living in a post racial harmony as I’d seen on all my TV shows.
This trial actually changed fundamental assumptions of how I thought the world worked. JFK was assassinated, just like Lincoln before him. That didn’t have the foundation-shaking impetus the OJ trial did.
That said, I’m sure some other event could stand for OJ’s trial for others. So it’s nothing inherently special about that trial. But I do think it won’t be relegated to history books entirely, either.
I happened to be visiting a friend in Houston during the chase, and was in a bar playing pool and watching the NBA playoffs. . .OMG the locals were loosing their minds over the networks breaking in with coverage of the chase! It got to the point were I was actually afraid for my safety and was convinced there was going to be rioting. Fortunately, Houston was in the grip of a heatwave and it was far too uncomfortable to leave the bar, so they had to stay inside and continue drinking and yell the most violent and racially charged things at the tv.
That’s a great point, and I’m a little embarrassed I didn’t note the demise of MLK. That said, as much as I hate to say it…maybe a bit expected?
MLK was also assassinated along with RFK and in the middle of a tumultuous period in American history.
But I’d be bereft in not ignoring the fact he was black and the death of a handsome, white President 5 years earlier sold more papers.
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Agree. Anyone who references OJ Simpson as a “B-list celebrity” has no idea how well known he was. And how well liked. I would put his fame and celebrity way ahead of Jenner, Brady and Jeter. Peyton Manning is on his way to being as well known and liked as OJ. After Peyton is in some more TV shows, movies and sports broadcasts, to round out his football and TV commercial exposure, he will become more like OJ was at that time.
And the freeway chase had little to do with how notorious and popular the trial was in this country. This was the first trial widely broadcast on TV, and it was on for week after week after week.
Does it compare in any meaningful way with a president being assassinated or terrorists killing thousands of people? Of course not. But it absolutely lived up to the hype of being the “trial of the century”.
For context, I am 42 years old and a child of 1980’s.
Here’s my take on what’s be mentioned already that I lived through:
Here’s my take on what’ hasn’t been mentioned yet:
Also, to add my parents perspective, my mom always talks about the JFK assassination as being one of her clearest memories of her childhood. She also has vivid memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis and doing duck and cover drills when he was in school.
My father, who was much older than mother, he was a child when the Pearl Harbor attack happened and spoke of it in the same way. I also remember him talking about the launch of the first man in space in the 1961 shocked the hell out of a lot of a people.