The Turbulent
60s
1960 Election
• Nixon – Republican candidate (former vice president for Eisenhower)
• Kennedy – Democratic candidate-43 year old senator from Massachusetts
TV’s role in Election
• Most decisive factor in the race for presidency
• First four televised debates– Kennedy appeared more
vigorous and comfortable
Kennedy• New Frontier• “The Torch has been
passed to a new generation”
• Administration was dubbed Camelot
Kennedy’s Domestic Policy
• Called for aid in education• Federal support of health
care• Civil rights legislation• Urban renewal
– Most none were passed
Economy stimulated due to increased spending for defense and space
Assassination in Dallas
• Lee Harvey Oswald accused gunman
• Many conspiracies linked to assassination – none have proved creditable
• Marked the beginning for distrust in government
Kennedy’s Legacy
• “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”
• Peace Corp• Inspired thousands to
public service
Johnson’s Great Society• Medicare – health insurance
for those over 65• Medicaid – health care for
poor and disabled• Elementary and Secondary
Education Act – provided funding to poor school districts
• National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities
Johnson’s Great Society cont.
• HUD• Increased funding for
secondary education• Increased funding for public
housing• Increased funding for crime
prevention• Regulated automobile
industry • Civil Rights Act of 1964
Student Movement
• Tom Hayden – leader of a group of radical students
• Port Huron statement – university decisions made through participatory democracy
• SDS – Students for a Democratic Society
Free Speech Movement
• University of California 1964
• Called an end to university restrictions on student political activities
• Student demonstrations grew with the escalation of Vietnam War –many closed down by protestsKent State - 1970
Weathermen• Radical fringe of SDS• Embraced violence and
vandalism on American institutions
• Angered by the Vietnam War
• Discredited early idealism of the New Left
• Led the protests at the Chicago Democratic convention
Counterculture• Expressed by youth in
rebellious styles of dress, music, drug use and communal living
• Bob Dylan and Joan Baez gave voice to protests
• Beatles, Janis Joplin, Rolling Stones provided the beat
• Dress code for “hippies”– Long hair, beard, and jeans
Warren CourtChanges in Criminal Law
• Mapp v. Ohio – ruled illegally seized evidence cannot be used in court against the accused
• Gideon v. Wainwright – required that courts provide an attorney for poor defendants
• Escobedo v. Illinois – required police to inform an arrested person of their rights
• Miranda v. Arizona – accused has the right to an attorney present during questioning
Expression and Privacy• Yates v. U.S. – First Amendment protected
radical and revolutionary speech, even by Communists unless it presented a “clear and present danger” to country
• Engel v. Vitale – prayer and Bible readings in public schools violated separation of church and state
• Griswold v. Connecticut – right to privacy – a state could not prohibit the use of contraceptives
Women’s Movement• The Feminine Mystique by Betty Fiedan
encouraged middle-class women to seek fulfillment in careers rather than confining roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers
• NOW – National Organization for Women goal- secure equal treatment of Women
• ERA – passed in 1972 – equality of rights under the law shall not be denied based on sex
• Accomplishments -changes in employment and hiring practices
Art of the 60s
• Andy Warhol– Famous pop artist – Removed the difference
between fine arts and commercial arts
– Painted objects of mass production
– Produced silk screens and posters using mass production
• documents in detail the true menace to the ecosystem caused by harmful pesticides
• awakened society to a responsibility to other forms of life
• is credited with launching the contemporary environmental movement
1968: Coming Apart at Home
• January – Tet Offensive• March – My Lai massacre• April – Martin Luther King assassinated• June – Robert Kennedy assassinated
Martin Luther King
• Civil rights leader committed to nonviolent protests
• March on Washington 1963 – most successful peaceful marches in history – delivered “I have a Dream” speech– Appealed to end racial
prejudice
Robert Kennedy
Assassinated June 5, 1968
– Presidential candidate 1968
– Shot and killed by a young Arab nationalists who opposed Kennedy’s support for Israel
Chicago Democratic Convention: 1968• Hubert Humphrey
emerged as the candidate controlling the convention inside
• Outside antiwar demonstrators controlled the streets
• Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley had the police out in mass – seen on TV as “police riot”
Battle of Lincoln Park
Chicago SEVEN• “YIPPIES” Youth
International Party• Accused of conspiring to
incite the riot at the Democratic National Convention, 1968
• Government reports placed the blame on Daley and police department
• Sentenced to five years; overturned in 1972 by federal appeals court
Jerry Ruben, Abby Hoffman, Tom Hayden, David Dellinger, John
Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Seale
1968 Candidates
• Hubert Humphrey – Democrat (New Deal coalition)
• George Wallace – American Independent Party (hostility towards antiwar protests and segregation)
• Richard Nixon –Republican (peace with honor)
Significance: Election of 1968Voters sent a very strong
messageSupporters of Nixon and
Wallace (“Silent Majority”) had enough of the protests, violence, the counterculture, drugs, and federal intervention in social institutions – tide was turning on the New Deal liberalism in favor of the conservatives
WOODSTOCK
1969
One Last Fling for the “Hippies”
• Woodstock music festival in upper New York
• Put together by four young entrepreneurs between the ages 24-26
• ~500,000 “hippies” gathered peacefully to listen to music