Civil rights advances of 1963 spilled into a broader sense of
possibilities. Many people had long hoped for relief from the
specter of atomic war — what Kennedy called the "darkening
prospect of mass destruction on earth" as he announced the
Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in July. "Yesterday a shaft of
light cut into the darkness," he said. "For the first time, an
agreement has been reached on bringing the forces of nuclear
destruction under control." For years, people had staged "ban
the bomb" street demonstrations — but almost unnoticed in 1963,
they were joined by a few early protesters against U.S.
involvement in the Vietnam war, where Kennedy had been sending
American military "advisers." In the continuum of popular
culture, no single year is definitive. Still, by 1963, record
buyers, radio stations, even jukebox operators were embracing a
broadening range of entertainment. There was the "Motown sound"
of black pop songs — singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson has
spoken of "the barriers that we broke down