a time of change. movements a time for demanding civil rights – black – chicano – women’s...
TRANSCRIPT
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 22 1963
1963-1968 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
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