A Time of Change

movements A time for demanding Civil Rights – Black – Chicano – Women’s Movement – American Indian Movement – Other groups: Japanese Disabled Americans Gay Movement Gray Movement

Begin 1960 With JFK JFK defeats Nixon Deals with – Civil rights issues – Bay of Pigs – Cuban Missile Crisis – Suggests formation of NASA to land a man on the moon – Creates Peace Corps – Promotes relationships with Latin America JFK Assassinated on November

LBJ LBJ picks up where Kennedy and his “new frontier” left off with the creation of – The great society Ending racial injustice Declaring war on poverty Improving access to healthcare Supporting lifelong learning and culture Opening doors for immigrants Preserving the environment Protecting consumers

Emergence of a counterculture Counterculture: – A group with ideas and behaviors very different from those of the mainstream culture Big contributor: – Bob Dylan Sang about racial injustice, nuclear war, and other major issues that engaged people living in a time of social change Times they are a changin

Baby Boomers launch a Cultural Revolution Postwar baby boom created the largest generation of children in American History By the early 1960s the oldest baby boomers were nearing their twenties – A few of these boomers felt guilty about the growing up with advantages denied to many Americans – They believed American society was flawed (materialism, racism, and inequality) Also believed it could change

Form a New Left Responding to the suffering of the poor a small group of student activists formed a movement called the New Left – Rejected the communism of the ‘old left’ – Inspired by the civil rights movement—goal of allowing all people to have an active part in government

Students for a Democratic Society The strongest voice of the New Left During their first year (1962) membership grew to over 8,000 students Formation of the Free Speech Movement – Developed in response to a university rule banning groups like SDS from using a plaza on campus to spread their ideas – Thousands of students joined the movement shutting down the campus for weeks—eventually the university lifted the ban

New Left: Tinker v Des Moines Tinker v Des Moines

Hippies They developed a counterculture seeking freedom of expression – Shunned convention – Preferred jeans and long hair – Gave up shaving or wearing make-up

Uniting the movements No organization could unite all of the movements However beliefs did: – Distrust of the establishment Their term for the people and institutions who controlled society – Love was more important than money

Culture Clash Countercultures that embraces ideas like “be- ins” that tended to promote the illicit use of drugs seemed to prove mainstream societies worst fears – Society was in a moral decline Changing view of love and marriage – Counterculture embraces an openness about sexual behavior Sparks the Sexual revolution

Culture Clash Hippies embrace a freer society – Reject mainstream life in favor of communes – Embrace changing views of recreational drug use Rock-n-Roll gives a voice to the counterculture – Many adults worries that this music promoted increased drug use Woodstock – Counterculture at its height – 400,400 people gathered at a 3 day music festival

Impact of the Counterculture Movement By the end of the 1960s countercultural ideas and images appeared in mainstream magazines and movies and on television Experimentation with new forms of expression spread to the visual arts—new pop art Pop art focused on everyday life, commenting on consumer culture by elevating plain objects into art explanation of the counterculture explanation of the counterculture