Chapter 30: The Turbulent Sixties, 1960-1969 (#3) Johnson Escalates the Vietnam War
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| Years of Turmoil
Vietnam War – became the focal point for a growing movement of youthful protest 1960s – most turbulent decade of the twentieth century American youth – ready to create a counterculture all who felt disadvantaged: students African Americans Hispanics Native Americans women hippies took to the streets to vent their feelings The Student Revolt University of California at Berkeley – small group of radical students resisted university efforts to deny them a place to solicit volunteers and funds for off-campus causes Free Speech movement – occupying administration buildings and blocking the arrest of a nonstudent protestor protestors won the rights of free speech and association causes of campus unrest student suspicion of an older, Depression-born generation that viewed affluence as the answer to all problems viewed higher education as the faithful servant of a corporate culture growth of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) – wanted to rid American society of poverty, racism, and violence embraced many traditional liberal reforms – expanded public housing and comprehensive health insurance, advocated a new approach called participatory democracy sought salvation through the individual rather than the group emphasis on the individual and its fear of bureaucracy left it leaderless and subject to division and disunity meteoric career of the SDS symbolized the turbulence of the 1960s seemed as though the nation’s youth had gone berserk wave of experimentation: drugs sex rock music not all American youth joined protestors set the tone for an entire era and left a lasting impression on American society Protesting the Vietnam War most dramatic aspect of the youthful rebellion came in opposing the Vietnam War system of student draft deferments – enabled most of those enrolled in college to avoid military service children of the well-to-do – who were more likely to attend college, were able to escape the draft men from disadvantaged families, including a disproportionately large number of African and Hispanic Americans – were twice as likely to be drafted and engage in combat in Vietnam as those from more privileged backgrounds sense of guilt led many college activists to take the lead in denouncing an unjust war SDS and African Americans radicals at Columbia University joined forces in April seized five buildings for eight days before the New York City police regained control students held sit-ins, there were teach-ins, and marches at more than one hundred colleges the students failed to stop the war - did succeed in gaining a voice in their education spawned a cultural uprising that transformed the manners & morals of America The Cultural Revolution young people challenged the prevailing adult values in clothing, hairstyles, sexual conduct, work habits, and music families gave way to communes for the “flower children” music became the touchstone of the new departure folksingers rock groups “acid rock” Woodstock – concert in Bethel in upstate New York – 400,000 young people indulged in a three-day festival of rock music and drug experimentation Timothy Leary – experimented with marijuana and with LSD – a new and dangerous chemical hallucinogen Yippie movement – mocked the consumer culture, they delighted in capitalizing on the mood of social protest to win attention “Black Power” civil rights movement – achieved economic equality in the cities of the North – where more than half of the nation’s African Americans lived in poverty raised the expectations of urban African Americans for improvement 1964 – African American teenagers in Harlem and Rochester, New York – rioted massive outburst of rage and destruction swept over the Watts area of Los Angeles 1967 – worst ones yet took place in Newark and Detroit civil rights coalition fell apart black militants – took over the leadership of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) – disdained white help and even reversed Martin Luther King’s insistence on nonviolence Stokely Carmichael – new leader who told blacks they should seize power in those parts of the South where they outnumbered whites calls for “black power” became a rallying cry need for African Americans to form “our own institutions, credit unions, co-ops, political parties” and even write “our own history” H. Rap Brown – replaced Carmichael Huey Newton – helped found the militant Black Panther party King – suffered the most from this extremism finally sized on poverty as the proper enemy for attack, but before he could lead his Poor People’s March on Washington – he was assassinated in Memphis in early April both blacks and whites realized the nation had lost its most eloquent voice for racial harmony death elevated King to the status of a martyr also led to one last outbreak of urban violence positive side to black nationalism – leaders urged African Americans to take pride in their ethnic heritage, to embrace their blackness as a positive value began to wear Afro hairstyles and dress in dashikis – stressing their African roots demanded new black studies programs in the colleges word Negro – virtually disappeared from usage overnight, replaced by the favored Afro-American or black Download 28.13 Kb. Share with your friends:
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