The New Left and Counterculture

America in the 1960s By the 1960s, the United States had experienced major changes: Economic prosperity, a rapid growth of suburbs, a baby boom, & increased college enrollment Nuclear threats in the Cold War & a controversial war in Vietnam Assassinations of political leaders, a growing poverty gap, & tensions over civil rights for black Americans

The Youth Revolt in the 1960s One of the most visible changes was protest among the nation’s youth The generation gap between kids & their parents was the widest of any previous era in history …were the most educated generation; 75% graduated high school & 40% graduated college Kids in the 1960s…missed the Great Depression & patriotism of World War II …rejected their parents’ expectations & looked to find personal fulfillment

One impact of the 1960s youth movement was the rise of the “New Left” Promoted participatory democracy—direct involvement by the youth in political issues The New Left Late in the spring of 1962, five dozen college students gathered at a lakeside camp near Port Huron, Michigan, to discuss politics. For four days and nights, the members of an obscure student group, known as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), talked passionately about such topics as civil rights, foreign policy, and the quality of American life. At 5 a.m. on June 16, the gathering ended when the participants agreed on a political platform that expressed their sentiments. This manifesto, one of the pivotal political documents of the 1960s, became known as the Port Huron Statement. The goal set forward in the Port Huron Statement was the creation of a radically new democratic political movement in the United States that rejected hierarchy and bureaucracy. In its most important paragraphs, the document called for "participatory democracy"--direct individual involvement in the decisions that affected their lives. This notion would become the battle cry of the student movement of the 1960s--a movement that came to be known as the New Left. The Port Huron Statement's chief author was Tom Hayden. Hayden was born in 1939, in Royal Oak, Michigan, a predominantly Catholic working-class suburb of Detroit. From an early age, he was unusually politically conscious and questioning of established authority. During the 1960s, thousands of young college students, like Tom Hayden, became politically active. The first issue to spark student radicalism was the impersonality of the modern university, which many students criticized for being too bureaucratic and formal. Students questioned university requirements, restrictions on student political activities, and dormitory rules that limited the hours that male and female students could socialize with each other. Restrictions on students handing out political pamphlets on university property led to the first campus demonstrations that broke out at the University of California at Berkeley, and soon spread to other campuses. Involvement in the Civil Rights Movement in the South initiated many students into radical politics. In the early 1960s, many white students from Northern universities began to participate in voter registration drives, freedom schools, sit-ins, and freedom rides in order to help desegregate the South. For the first time, many witnessed poverty, discrimination, and violence first hand. Student radicalism also drew inspiration from a literature of social criticism that flourished in the 1950s. During that decade, many of the most popular films, novels, and writings aimed at young people criticized conventional middle class life. Popular films, like Rebel Without a Cause, and popular novels, like J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, celebrated sensitive, directionless, alienated youths unable to conform to the conventional adult values of suburban and corporate America. Sophisticated works of social criticism, by such maverick sociologists, psychologists, and economists as Herbert Marcuse, Norman O. Brown, Paul Goodman, Michael Harrington, and C. Wright Mills, documented the growing concentration of power in the hands of social elites, the persistence of poverty in a land of plenty, and the stresses and injustices in America's social order. Above all, student radicalism owed its support to student opposition of the Vietnam War. SDS held its first antiwar march in 1965, which attracted at least 15,000 protestors to Washington and commanded wide press attention. Over the next three years, opposition to the war brought thousands of new members to SDS. The organization grew phenomenally, from fewer than a thousand members in 1962 to at least 50,000 in 1968. In addition to its antiwar activities, members of SDS also tried to organize a democratic "interracial movement of the poor" in Northern city neighborhoods. Many members of SDS quickly grew frustrated by the slow pace of social change and began to embrace violence as a tool to transform society. After 1968, SDS rapidly tore itself apart as an effective political force, and in its final convention in 1969, degenerated into a shouting match between radicals and moderates. That same year, the Weathermen, a surviving faction of SDS, attempted to launch a guerrilla war in the streets of Chicago--an incident known as the "Days of Rage"--to "tear pig city apart." Finally, in 1970 three members of the Weathermen blew themselves up in a Greenwich Village brownstone trying to make a bomb out of a stick of dynamite and an alarm clock. Throughout the 1960s, the SDS and other radical student organizations claimed to speak for the nation's youth, and in thousands of editorials and magazine articles, journalists accepted this claim. In fact, the SDS represented only a small minority of college students who, themselves, composed a minority of the country's youth. Far more young Americans voted for George Wallace in 1968 than joined SDS, and most college students during the decade spent far more time studying and enjoying the college experience than protesting. Nevertheless, radical students did help to draw the nation's attention to the problem of racism in American society and the moral issues involved in the Vietnam War. In that sense, their impact far exceeded their numbers.

The New Left One impact of the 1960s youth movement was the rise of the New Left Demanded more freedom on college campuses The student movement was strongest at the Univ of CA at Berkeley Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) fought to end racism & poverty

The New Left One impact of the 1960s youth movement was the rise of the New Left College students participated in the civil rights movement Students played a role in SNCC sit-ins Students helped with voter registration in the 1964 Freedom Summer

The New Left One impact of the 1960s youth movement was the rise of the New Left Ending the Vietnam War was the most important issue of the “New Left”

Flower power & hippie fashion Counter Culture Another impact of the 1960s youth movement was the emergence of a social counter-culture While the “New Left” tried to improve America through protest, “hippies” tried to create their own society based on love & peace While the New Left labored to change the world and remake American society, other youths attempted to alter themselves and reorder consciousness. Variously labeled the counterculture, hippies, or flower children, they had their own heroes, music, dress, and approach to life. In theory, supporters of the counterculture rejected individualism, competition, and capitalism. Adopting rather unsystematic ideas from oriental religions, they sought to become one with the universe. Rejection of monogamy and the traditional nuclear family gave way to the tribal or communal ideal, where members renounced individualism and private property and shared food, work, and sex. In such a community, love was a general abstract ideal rather than a focused emotion. The quest for oneness with the universe led many youths to experiment with hallucinogenic drugs. LSD had a particularly powerful allure. Under its influence, poets, musicians, politicians, and thousands of other Americans claimed to have tapped into an all-powerful spiritual force. Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor who became the leading prophet of LSD, asserted that the drug would unlock the universe. Although LSD was outlawed in 1966, the drug continued to spread. Perhaps some takers discovered profound truths, but by the late 1960s, drugs had done more harm than good. The history of the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco illustrated the problems caused by drugs. In 1967, Haight was the center of the counterculture, the home of the flower children. In the "city of love," hippies ingested LSD, smoked pot, listened to "acid rock," and proclaimed the dawning of a new age. Yet the area was suffering from severe problems. High levels of racial violence, venereal disease, rape, drug overdoses, and poverty ensured more bad trips than good. Even music, which along with drugs and sex formed the counterculture trinity, failed to alter human behavior. In 1969, journalists hailed the Woodstock music festival as a symbol of love. But a few months later, a group of Hell's Angels violently interrupted the Altamont Raceway music festival. As Mick Jagger sang "Under My Thumb," an Angel stabbed a black man to death. Like the New Left, the counterculture fell victim to its own excesses. Sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll did not solve the problems facing the United States. And by the end of the 1960s, the counterculture had lost its force. Flower power & hippie fashion

Counter Culture Counter culture in the 1960s was represented by: Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ roll Deaths due to drug overdose included: Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon Harvard professor Timothy Leary endorsed LSD as a way of “unlocking the universe” Hippie culture embraced casual sexual behavior (the “sexual revolution”) Drugs were acceptable in the counter culture; Especially marijuana & “mind-expanding” hallucinogens like LSD

Music in the 1960s & 70s included: Counter Culture Counter culture in the 1960s was represented by: Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ roll Music in the 1960s & 70s included: Folk music R&B Electric rock Acid rock

1960s counter culture was represented by: “Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ roll” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrIpFV23mm0&playnext_from=QL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5-f0oS_4A&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ4QF45Vygw&feature=related Counter culture music was best represented by the Woodstock concert in 1969

Counter Culture For many in the counter culture, living in “normal” society was unacceptable The Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco was the epicenter of counter culture Many hippies created self-sustaining communes where all property shared

Counter Culture For many in the counter culture, living in “normal” society was unacceptable Members of Hog Farm commune in California Some hippies created self-sustaining communes where property was shared Drop City, Colorado (later moved to New Mexico)

Conclusions: America in the 1960s Both the New Left protest & hippie culture were visible in the 1960s, but neither represented the majority of Americans Conservative citizens were a “silent majority” that believed the youth movement was destroying traditional American values Conservatives changed U.S. politics by voting for Richard Nixon in 1968

America in the 1960s Both the New Left protest & hippie culture were visible in the 1960s, but neither represented the majority of Americans But, the success of the civil rights movement & anti-Vietnam protest by the New Left inspired other groups to demand change Black Power Red Power Brown Power Pink Power Yellow Power Green Power Rainbow Power

Black Power: SNCC & the Black Panthers

Black Power By 1965, African American civil rights leaders helped bring an end to segregation & voting restrictions After MLK’s death in 1968, the civil rights movement turned from non-violence to… militant action & demand for economic equality

…embracing African culture & black pride (“Black is beautiful”) Black Power …embracing African culture & black pride (“Black is beautiful”) militant action & demand for economic equality

Black Power …creating economic opportunities through black nationalism (Black-owned businesses) & militant action to protect African Americans The leading “Black Power” groups were SNCC under Stokely Carmichael & the Black Panthers militant action & demand for economic equality

1968 Mexico City Olympics Tommie Smith & John Carlos

Yellow Power: Asian American Movement

“Yellow Power” Asian Americans faced discrimination in the U.S. (Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment during WWII, anti-Asian attitudes due to Vietnam) Pan-Asian groups gained Asian-American studies programs in colleges, health services in Asian communities, & reparations for interned Japanese-Americans movement began with the formation of the Asian American Political Alliance: Protested U.S. involvement in Vietnam & use of term “gooks”

Brown Power: Chicanos, Cesar Chavez, & the United Farm Workers

Mexican American groups worked to improve the lives of “Chicanos” “Brown Power” Mexican American groups worked to improve the lives of “Chicanos” Embraced Mexican heritage (“La Raza”) & fought for voter registration, poverty reforms, & bilingual education programs

Mexican American groups worked to improve the lives of “Chicanos” “Brown Power” Mexican American groups worked to improve the lives of “Chicanos” César Chávez organized the United Farm Workers & helped gain better pay, union recognition, & better working conditions for farm laborers

Rainbow Power: The Gay Liberation Movement

“Rainbow Power” The Gay Liberation movement started in 1969 after a police raid at the Stonewall Inn led to riots in New York City

“Rainbow Power” The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed to bring an end to discrimination against homosexuals The GLF emphasized “gay pride” & encouraged people to “come out of the closet”

Red Power: The Native American Movement

Red Power By the 1960s, Native Americans had the lowest income, highest unemployment rate, & shortest life expectancy of any group of Americans Indian groups began demanding tribal autonomy & the return of lands taken by broken treaties with Indian tribes By the 1960s, American Indians had the lowest income, worst health, highest suicide rate, shortest life expectancy and highest unemployment rate of any minority group in the United States. Native American activists tried to draw attention to these conditions by suing the federal government and organizing protest marches to demand Indian autonomy and the return of Indian lands lost because of broken treaties. In 1969, 78 Indians occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; in 1972 the militant American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC; and in 1973, 200 armed AIM members took control of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of the 1890 massacre of Indians. In each of these protests, American Indians brought attention to their cause.

Red Power In 1969, a group of 78 Native Americans seized Alcatraz Island in San Francisco In 1973, 200 armed Indians took control of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of the 1890 massacre of Indians By the 1960s, American Indians had the lowest income, worst health, highest suicide rate, shortest life expectancy and highest unemployment rate of any minority group in the United States. Native American activists tried to draw attention to these conditions by suing the federal government and organizing protest marches to demand Indian autonomy and the return of Indian lands lost because of broken treaties. In 1969, 78 Indians occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; in 1972 the militant American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC; and in 1973, 200 armed AIM members took control of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of the 1890 massacre of Indians. In each of these protests, American Indians brought attention to their cause.

Pink Power: The Women’s Movement

Pink Power Betty Freidan began the modern women’s movement by publishing Feminine Mystique in 1963

Pink Power Feminists drew attention to sexual discrimination & unequal pay for women

Pink Power Feminists drew attention to sexual discrimination & unequal pay for women Betty Freidan co-founded the National Organization of Women (NOW) to advocate for women

Pink Power The leader of the anti-ERA movement was Phyllis Schlafly who believed that women were protected by the Civil Rights Act Feminists drew attention to sexual discrimination & unequal pay for women Feminists demanded an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to ban sexism The ERA was defeated in the 1970s by conservatives & anti-ERA women

Pink Power But, the women’s movement did have successes Gained abortion rights in Roe v Wade (1973) Congress passed Title VII to protect women from sexual harassment Congress passed Title IX that outlawed sexual discrimination in education programs

Green Power: The Environmental Movement

Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22 Green Power Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22 In 1962, biologist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring exposing the dangers of pesticides on the environment . She had become concerned during the 1950s at the rapid increase in pesticides by farmers and government agencies. Reaction to her book led the government to organize an investigation of the industry and sparked the environmental movement. In 1970, the government created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) The United States also passed new legislation such as the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act- the foundations for current environmental standards. By 1970, the government passed clean air & water laws, created the Endangered Species Act & formed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Power Movements of the 1960s & 70s What were the demands of the various “power” movements of the 1960s & 70s? In groups, research 1 social group using the information on the placards in preparation for a class presentation Answer the questions on the chart Create a “button” with a slogan & symbol for your power movement Take notes after each presentation