The Tumultuous Sixties The Decade That Changed the World

The SIXTIES were an exciting, revolutionary, turbulent time of great social and technological change. Against the backdrop of Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and a growing counter-culture movement, America took on a new persona unlike anytime before.

We are here to make a better world. No amount of rationalization or blaming can preempt the moment of choice each of us brings to our situation here on this planet. The lesson of the 60’s is that people who cared enough to do right could change history. We didn’t end racism but we ended legal segregation. We ended the idea that you could send half-a-million soldiers around the world to fight a war that people do not support.

We ended the idea that women are second-class citizens. We made the environment an issue that couldn’t be avoided. We were young, self-righteous, reckless, hypocritical, brave, silly, headstrong, . . . . . . . . and scared half to death. And we were right. ~Abbie Hoffman~

Civil Rights

Greensboro, North Carolina 1960- First Sit In Greensboro, North Carolina February 1, 1960

Freedom Rides 1961

1963 Gov George Wallace blocks University of Alabama doorway March for Freedom and Jobs MLK “Dream” speech Birmingham Church Bombing

Civil Rights Act of 1964

1965- March from Selma to Montgomery for Voting Rights Bloody Sunday March 7th 1965- March from Selma to Montgomery for Voting Rights Voting Rights Act of 1965

Take notes from the video! Vietnam Facts Take notes from the video!

Coming Home from Vietnam Soldiers who returned home from Vietnam in the late 60’s, early 70’s were ostracized, ignored, or worse. Tet Offensive 1968 Dodging the Draft Huey Helicopter Ia Drang Valley 1965

Talmedge Hayer & 3 unidentified NOI members Shot Down John F. Kennedy Medgar Evers Malcolm X Martin Luther King Robert F. Kennedy 11/22/63 6/12/63 2/21/65 4/4/68 6/6/68 Lee Harvey Oswald Byron de la Beckwith Talmedge Hayer & 3 unidentified NOI members James Earl Ray Sirhan Sirhan

July 20, 1969 First manned moon landing Neil Armstrong Apollo 11 crew, Neil Armstrong, Commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, launched on July 16, 1969.

Black Panthers Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in October 1966, in Oakland, California The Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community based programs.  Bobby Seale Huey Newton Originally named the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The black panther was used as the symbol because it was a powerful image. https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/

Students for a Democratic Society SDS Who- Student activist organization formed at Univ. of Michigan in 1960. What- Believed in the concept of participatory democracy (i.e. People taking part in making decisions that affect their lives.) Students as activists with a voice. Why- To have a voice in decision making. Political ownership is central theme in the rise of what was called the New Left. By 1968 there were over 250 chapters and SDS can easily assemble 50,000 members to protest any action.

Weathermen The name is from a lyric in Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues." "You don't need a weatherman To know which way the wind blows."  Organized in 1969, it was the most notorious SDS splinter group Believed peaceful protests were ineffective Widely criticized for their use of violence as a means of social & political change Launched a wave of domestic terrorism & bombing that lasted into the 1970s.

In March 1970, an accidentally detonated bomb killed three Weathermen in the basement of a Manhattan townhouse and the group becomes the target of an FBI manhunt. They become known as the Weather Underground when other key players go into hiding.

“You’re either on the bus, or you’re off the bus.” Merry Pranksters Pranksters Motto: “You’re either on the bus, or you’re off the bus.” Lead by Ken Kesey, the Pranksters traveled cross country on a psychedelic painted bus named “Further.” The bus driver was Neal Cassady. The “musical stage” on the top of the bus blasted the Pranksters homemade music and running commentary along the way.

Bread and Puppet Theater Founded in New York City in 1963 First productions ranged from puppet shows for children to pieces opposing poor housing conditions The group’s processions, involving monstrous puppets, some about 20 feet high, became a fixture of protests against the Vietnam War.

The American Counterculture 1964-1972 Counterculture youth rejected the cultural standards of their parents, especially about the following: ~Racial Segregation, the Vietnam War, Sex, Women's Rights, and materialism Hippies- the largest countercultural classification. Most were middle class whites. The Counterculture Movement divided the country.

Haight-Ashbury San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury became a haven for hippies, flower Power, psychedelic drugs, and music. Real estate was readily available and rent was cheap. Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane all lived there.

Woodstock

The Beatles First US appearance was on the Ed Sullivan show Feb 9, 1964. Beatlemania was born!

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, marked the beginning of the psychedelic era in 1967. Paul McCartney George Harrison John Lennon Ringo Starr

Charles Manson & Helter Skelter In the late 1960s, Charles Manson was the leader of a hippie cult group known as "the Family," some of whom he manipulated into brutally killing others on his behalf. Manson believed that the Beatles spoke to him through their lyrics, especially those included in the White Album, released in December 1968. He believed the song "Helter Skelter" predicted an upcoming race war. video

Manson believed that Helter Skelter was going to occur in the summer of 1969 when blacks were going to rise up and slaughter all the white people. He told his followers that they would be saved because they would go underground, literally, by traveling to an underground city of gold located in Death Valley. When this didn’t happen he decided that he and his followers must show the blacks how to do it. On August 9, 1969, Manson told four of his followers, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian, to go to 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles and kill the people inside and to make it look “witchy.”

The victims: actress Sharon Tate, who was eight months' pregnant; celebrity hairstylist, Jay Sebring; coffee fortune heiress Abigail Folger; writer Wojciech Frykowski; and Steven Parent, a friend of the family's caretaker. Each was brutally and savagely murdered. The next night, Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten murdered wealthy grocery store owners, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

What is Helter Skelter according to the song?

Detroit Riot 1967 When: Early morning on July 23, 1967 and lasted 4 days Where: 12th Street in the heart of Detroit’s predominantly African- American inner city Why: Over 60,000 crammed into 460 acres lived in poverty and squalor in divided and sub-divided apartments Detroit Police Department was viewed as a white occupying army

Results Over 7,000 police, firefighters, National Guard and U.S. Army troops, including 2000 Army paratroopers More than 7,000 people arrested 43 killed 342 injured 1,700 stores were looted 1,400 buildings burned($50 million in property damage) 5,000 people left homeless

Columbia University Protest The 1967 discovery of a Columbia University think tank working with the Institute for Defense Analysis, part of the Department of Defense spurred an uprising. Students saw this as a collaboration between the US military and the university to further weapons research that contributed to the war.

Beginning in April of 1968, students began protesting on campus drawing attention to the university’s role in the war. The protests resulted in students taking over 100 university buildings. Some students took the acting Dean, Henry Coleman, hostage until their demands were met.

The NY Police responded with violent force. Hundreds of people were beaten and several dozen needed to be hospitalized. In response to the police brutality the students called for a general strike. Classes and other university activities were shut down because of the student occupations and solidarity that emerged from the larger community.

Rat Subterranean News New York's second major underground newspaper, was created in March 1968.