The Expanding Civil Rights and
Antiwar Movements and
1960s Counterculture
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a
Baptist minister and political activist who was the most famous leader of the American civil rights movement.
King won the Nobel Peace Prize before being assassinated in 1968.
For his promotion of non-violence and racial equality, King is considered a peacemaker and a martyr by many people around the world.
Martin Luther King's most influential and well-known speech is "I Have A Dream."
Malcolm X Born Malcolm Little,
Malcolm X was a Muslim Minister and National Spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
Malcolm X became one of the most prominent black nationalist leaders in the United States, and when murdered was considered by some as a martyr of Islam, and a champion of equality.
As a militant leader, Malcolm X advocated black pride, economic self-reliance, and identity politics.
He ultimately rose to become a world renowned African American/Pan-Africanist and human rights activist.
Malcolm X: Letter to Martin Luther King (July 31, 1963)
The present racial crisis in this country carries within it powerful destructive ingredients that may soon erupt into an uncontrollable explosion. ….A United Front involving all Negro factions, elements and their leaders is absolutely necessary. A racial explosion is more destructive than a nuclear explosion. …We are inviting several Negro leaders to give their analysis of the present race problem and also their solution. …There will be no debating, arguing, criticizing, or condemning. I will moderate the meeting and guarantee order and courtesy for all speakers. This rally is designed not only to reflect the spirit of unity, but it will give you a chance to present your views to the largest and most explosive elements in Metropolitan New York. …
The Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party was
an African American civil-rights and self-defense organization, founded in 1966.
The organization espoused a doctrine of armed resistance to societal oppression.
The group was founded on the principles of its Ten-Point Program.
They also advocated an exemption from military service that would utilize African Americans to "fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized by the White racist government of America."
Bobby Seale (left) and Huey Newton (right), Two of the
Founders of the Black Panthers
The Black Panther
Party
The Black Panthers focused their rhetoric on revolutionary class struggle, taking many ideas from Maoism.
The party turned to the works of Marx, Lenin, and Mao to inform the manner in which it should organize, as a revolutionary cadre organization.
In consciously working toward such a revolution, they considered themselves the vanguard party, “committed to organizing support for a socialist revolution.”
The Black Panther Platform1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny
of our Black Community.2. We want full employment for our people. 3. We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our
Black Community. 4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings. 5. We want education … that exposes the true nature of this
decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society…
6. We want all black men to be exempt from military service. 7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder
of black people. 8. We want freedom for all black men held in … prisons and
jails. 9. We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried
in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities…
10.We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And … a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate for the purpose of determining the will of black people as to their national destiny…
Stokely Carmichael and Black Power
Stokely Carmichael was a black activist and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party.
He later became a black separatist and a Pan-Africanist.
Carmichael joined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and others to continue James Meredith's “March Against Fear” after his assassination.
Stokely Carmichael and Black Power Stokely was arrested
during the march; on his release he gave his "Black Power" speech, urging black pride and independence.
SNCC became more radical under his leadership.
He was critical of civil rights leaders that simply called for integration of African Americans into the existing institutions of white middle class culture.
Carmichael is credited for coining the phrase “institutional racism” (or structural racism or systemic racism).
Tommie Smith and John Carlos, American
athletes at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, displaying the Black Power Salute
Latinos of Varied Origins
Mexican Americans 1miilion came in
1900s following the Mexican Revolution
some came in the 1940’s and 1950’s as braceros, and 1 million came in the 60’s
Latinos of Varied Origins Puerto Ricans
immigrating after the Spanish American War of 1898, and by 1960’s 1miilion in the US
Cubans Fled Castro’s gov’t
after 1959 and large communities formed in NYC, Miami, NJ
1960’s thousand of Central and South American emigrated
Latinos Fight For Change
In 1966 Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta merged their new unions to form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee
Latinos Fight For Change
Chavez believed in non-violence in dealing with California’s large fruit and vegetable companies (Ex. Boycotts/Fast)
In the 1960’s the Chicano Movement took off, “Brown Power” and the “Brown Berets” demanded Spanish speaking classes and Chicano studies programs at universities (Bilingual ED. Act of 1968)
Native Americans Fight For Equality
Suffered high unemployment rates, alcoholism, infant mortality rates and suicides
In 1961 reps from 61 tribes drafted the Declaration of Indian Purpose
In 1968 LBJ established the National Council on Indian Opportunity
Voices of Protests
In 1968 the AIM (American Indian Movement) was formed to demand lands, burial grounds, fishing/ timber rights, and a respect of their culture
Women’s movements of the
1960s
Background Second wave of
activism. Drew inspiration from
the civil rights movement
It was made up of members of the middle class
It was also caused by the sexual revolution of the 1960s Sparked by the
development of the birth-control pill in 1960
National Organization for Women (NOW)
Founded in 1966. by a group of
people, including Betty Friedan, and Rev. Pauli Murray.
The first African-American woman Episcopal priest.
Betty Friedan became the organization's first president.
NOW (con’t.) The goal of NOW is to bring about equality for
all women. They campaigned to gain passage of the
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) at the state level.
Issues NOW deals with: works to eliminate discrimination and
harassment in the workplace, schools, and the justice system.
secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women
end all forms of violence against women eradicate racism, sexism and homophobia promote equality and justice in society.
Betty Friedan Wrote the book,
Feminine Mystique in 1963.
In her book, she depicted the roles of women in industrial societies.
She focused most of her attention on the housewife role of women.
She referred to the problem of gender roles as "the problem without a name".
The book became a bestseller and was the cause for the second wave of feminism in the 60s.
Feb. 4th, 1921- Feb. 4th, 2006
First national Commission on the Status of Women
President Kennedyestablished the firstnational Commissionon the Status of Women in 1961.
In 1963 the commission issued a report detailing employment discrimination, unequal pay, legal inequality, and insufficient support services for working women.
Equal Pay Act 1963 It is the first federal law prohibiting sexual
discrimination.
In 1963 the average female worker’s wages in the United States were equivalent to 58.9 % of the average male worker’s earnings.
It abolished wage differences based on sex. “No employer having employees subject to any
provisions of this section [section 206 of title 29 of the United States Code] shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs…” -- Equal Pay Act
The Protest Movement in the Media
Caught up in all of the whirlwind of the 60’s and everyone marching for their own cause, were those who had no real cause but were tired of all the fussing and fighting
Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an
Beat poet best known for “Howl” (1956), a long poem about consumer society's negative human values.
Ginsberg formed a bridge between the Beat movement of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s, participating in the anti-war movement.
Ginsberg's principal work, "Howl” is well known for its opening line: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness".
Many characters referenced in "Howl" destroyed themselves through substance abuse or a generally wild lifestyle.
Bob Dylan
The 1963 release of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan marked his emergence as one of the most original and poetic voices in the history of American popular music. The album included, “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
His next album, The Times They Are A-Changin’, firmly established Dylan as the definitive songwriter of the ‘60s protest movement.
By 1964, Dylan was playing 200 concerts annually, but he tired of his role as “the” folk singer-songwriter of the protest movement.
From Bob Dylan’s, “The Times They Are a Changing” (1964)
Come gather 'round peopleWherever you roamAnd admit that the watersAround you have grownAnd accept it that soonYou'll be drenched to the bone.If your time to youIs worth savin'Then you better start swimmin'Or you'll sink like a stoneFor the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and criticsWho prophesize with your penAnd keep your eyes wideThe chance won't come againAnd don't speak too soonFor the wheel's still in spinAnd there's no tellin' whoThat it's namin'.For the loser nowWill be later to winFor the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmenPlease heed the callDon't stand in the doorwayDon't block up the hallFor he that gets hurtWill be he who has stalledThere's a battle outsideAnd it is ragin'.It'll soon shake your windowsAnd rattle your wallsFor the times they are a-changin'.
The Beatles
The Beatles are held in high regard for their artistic achievements, their commercial success, and their ground-breaking role in popular music and culture.
Their early material fused elements of early rock 'n roll, pop, and R&B into a new form of popular Rock 'n Roll.
The Beatles
They were instrumental in the development of 1960s musical styles, such as folk-rock, hard rock and psychedelia.
Their clothes, hairstyles, statements, and choice of instruments made them trend-setters, whilst their growing social awareness saw their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.
Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary
was an American writer, psychologist, computer software designer, and advocate of psychedelic drug research and use.
As a 1960s counterculture icon, he is most famous as a proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD.
During the 1960s, he coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
Anti-War Demonstrations
Shock and Disillusionment in the Wake of the Tet
Offensive
As 1968 began, President Johnson and the military offered optimistic appraisals of the situation in Vietnam.
January 30th, North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops launched a massive, unexpected offensive on the lunar New Year holiday of Tet.
U.S. forces repelled enemy forces, but public support for the war plummeted as Americans recognized the inevitability of stalemate.
Walter Cronkite’s “We are Mired in Stalemate” Broadcast
(February 27, 1968)To say that we are closer to victory
today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have
been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to
yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate
seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the
off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's
intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people
who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best
they could.
The 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago
The events of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago illustrated the depth of the divisions in the Party and society at large when it erupted into violence.
Anti-war activists planned a massive demonstration outside convention venues.
Chicago's mayor refused all parade permits and mobilized over 20,000 law enforcement personnel.
On August 28, as demonstrators marched toward the convention, a "police riot" occurred as officers fired tear gas and beat protesters and reporters.
John Kerry and Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Current Secretary of State John Kerry served in the Navy during the Vietnam War.
He was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts.
Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW).
John Kerry and Vietnam Veterans Against the War
In 1971, Kerry became the first Vietnam veteran to testify before Congress.
He asked, "[H]ow do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
The day after this testimony, Kerry participated in a demonstration with 800 other veterans.
They threw their medals and ribbons over a fence at the front steps of the U.S. Capitol building.
Kerry explained, "I'm not doing this for any violent reasons, but for peace and justice, and to try and make this country wake up once and for all."
Jane Fonda and Vietnam Jane Fonda is an Oscar-
winning actor, writer, producer, and political activist.
She is credited with exposing Nixon's potential strategy of bombing the dikes in Vietnam.
United Nations ambassador George H. W. Bush. Bush intended to provide evidence of US innocence, but Fonda released filmed evidence.
In Vietnam, Fonda was photographed multiple times seated on an anti-aircraft battery used against American aircrews.
She participated in radio broadcasts on behalf of the Communist regime, asking US aircrews to turn around without dropping their bombs.
At a Vietcong photo op, an American POW slipped her a secret note to take back to the US. She looked at it, disgusted, and threw it down exposing the man’s secret to Vietcong guards.
Jane Fonda and Vietnam Opposition to the
war was building, but Fonda's actions in 1972 were widely perceived as an unpatriotic display of aid and comfort to the enemy, with some even characterizing it as treason.
Her detractors labeled her Hanoi Jane, comparing her to war propagandists Tokyo Rose and Hanoi Hannah.
Add to all that… the hippies
The Hippie Movement The term “hippie”
comes from being hip. You were either hip or you were a “square” or a “pig.”
Hippies were looking for an alternative way to live life.
Most hippies valued freedom, nature, intimacy, peace, sharing, and spirituality.
Way of Life Hippies wanted to distance themselves from mainstream ways of life.
They discarded possessions and often lived in parks or campsites in the woods.
Living like this made them feel free (the drugs helped too)
Nudity was another form of freedom
Counterculture Fashion Hippies distanced
themselves from mainstream culture by their dress and lack of hygiene.
Colorful, flowing clothing, beads, headbands bellbottoms, and tie-dye were popular.
Men wore their hair and beards long or in afros.
Hippies were often called “longhairs”
San Francisco and Haight Ashbury
San Francisco was the birthplace of the counterculture/hippy movement.
By 1965 hippies had taken over the Haight Ashbury district.
Haight Ashbury district contains Golden Gate Park home of the Trips Festival
This is a 20,000-strong be-in at Golden gate park in
1967
Hippie Music The most popular music of the time was
psychedelic rock Bands like Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver
Messenger Service, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Grateful Dead played free concerts at Golden Gate Park.
Concerts were places for hippies to protest, socialize, dance, or take drugs.
At Woodstock over 200,000 hippies showed up to hear artists like Janis Joplin, The Who, Canned Heat, The Allman Brothers, and County Joe and the Fish.
WoodstockWoodstock was not just a music concert. “For
thousands who couldn’t even hear the music” it was a “profound religious experience.”
Meager resources were shared with everyone.Many people at Woodstock used
illegal drugs openly
Drug Culture
Drugs like marijuana and LSD were a big part of the hippy/counterculture movement.
Using drugs made hippies feel like the were rebelling from mainstream society.
Drug Culture Timothy Leary (a Harvard professor) was an advocate of LSD.
LSD was created by a Swiss scientist, used by the CIA, and tested for use by psychiatrists before it became illegal.
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