1. Turbulent Decade … But Exciting
1960s
Turbulent Decade … But Exciting

2. General Characteristics
The age of youth
**All those kids from the 50’s are now teens and young adults
Time of change (liberalism)
Violence
Chaos
Achievements & Assassinations

3. Roots & Movements Started in the 50’s & Exploded in the 60’s
Brown v. Board, Emmitt Till, Buss Boycot, SCLC, Little Rock 9, Rachel Carson, Betty Friedan, Simone de Beauvoir, anti-nuke movement (SANE), Beatniks, Marijuana, Rock n’Roll
Success encourages more movements
“Go Along to Get Along” is over
Brown v. Board, Emmitt Till
Rachel Carson (the sea around us)
Betty Friedan “The Feminine Mystique”, Simone de Beauvoir “The Second Sex”
deals with the treatment of women throughout history and is often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy and the starting point of the second wave of feminism.
Anti-nuke movement (SANE) “National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy”
“Go Along to Get Along” To conform in order to have acceptance and security

4. Issues within the Movements
**Radical Elements
Violence vs. Non-Violence

5. Social Movements of the 1960s
African American: Sit in Movement (SNCC), Freedom Riders, Birmingham Crusade, March on Washington, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights act (1965), Black Power, Black Panther, MLK, Malcolm X, Stokley Carmichael
Women’s Rights (NOW)
Native American protest (AIM)
Mexican Americans (Chavez)
The Counterculture (Hippies)
Gay Rights

6. Counter Culture Reaction to the 1950s Reaction to the War
As the Counterculture gathered momentum (Hippies, Flower Children, etc.), protests became widespread and began to polarize the nation

7. January -The Worst Year in US History 1968
Tet Offensive
January 30, 1968
Massive VC attack on over 100 cities and 12 US Bases
Occupied US Embassy
Militarily-US won
Politically-US lost, people began to question US policy

8. March - The My Lai Massacre
A serious blow to U.S. credibility came with the exposure of the My Lai massacre (March 1968).
Hushed up at the time and only discovered by a tenacious journalist, this involved the killing of 400 men, women and children by US troops. 

9. Spring – Walter Cronkite
Cronkite had always been an impartial, balanced, unbiased presenter of the news
mid-February 1968, Cronkite and his producer go to Vietnam to cover the aftermath of the Tet Offensive
They eat dinner with General Abrams (current commander of all forces in Vietnam- Cronkite knew him)
"we cannot win this Goddamned war, and we ought to find a dignified way out."
LBJ - “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” 

10. April – Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, JR.
Memphis, TN
Lorraine Motel
Dr. King was there to help striking sanitation workers receive better conditions
Shot by James Earl Ray

11. June – Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
 Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy
United States Senator 
Brother of assassinated President John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy,
midnight on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles, California, during the campaign season for the United States Presidential election,
Sirhan Sirhan
a 24-year-oldPalestinian/Jordanian immigrant
 "I can explain it. I did it for my country.“
Sirhan believed that he was deliberately betrayed by Kennedy's support for Israel in the June 1967 Six-Day War
Recorded on Audio, Aftermath on film

12. August – DNC (Democratic National Convention)
Chicago (Illinois)
LBJ chose not to run for the Presidency
Police swept in and beat protestors on national TV
668 arrests, 111 sent to hospitals
Nixon wins the Election in 1968
popular vote by a narrow margin of 0.7 percentage point
easily in the Electoral College,