Jill Rosenbaum Meyer

Few acts of protest provoke as much outrage as burning the American flag. Yet for decades, the Supreme Court has held that this act is protected political speech. This Retro Report video traces the legal battle, from Joey Johnson’s arrest after a 1984 protest at the Republican National Convention to the controversy surrounding artist Dread Scott’s use of the flag and Congress’s attempts to outlaw flag desecration.

Just over 50 years ago, on June 26, 1976, I graduated from high school. Along with 700 other “bicentennial seniors,” I received my diploma on a stage decked out in red, white, and blue bunting celebrating the country’s 200th birthday. Though almost all white, my classmates and I were not homogeneous. Our town, Trumbull, Conn., was heavily blue-collar. But it was changing quickly, as large corporations like General Electric moved their headquarters and executives into the area.

The contraceptive pill, approved in 1960, had a profound political, economic and social impact on modern America. The pill gave many women something earlier generations lacked: the ability to plan when to have children. Before it became available, many women married young and had children soon after, often with limited control over timing. As access expanded, so did options. In 1965, the Supreme Court’s decision in Griswold v.