Sex, Love, Peace, Rock & Roll, and Revolution: A Decade of Social, Cultural, and Political Change

The American 1960s was a decade marked by change from art to science and everything in between.

The decade began with the end of the oldest President, up until that time, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the election of the youngest President, John F. Kennedy.

The country’s Baby Boomer generation came of age and, as with the rest of the world, the youth of America began to question the older generations and their ways.

What began as a decade of new, emerging ideas ended in near revolution. The Vietnam war became the center piece that divided the country and solidified the ideological divide.

More than just the politics and war, though, the whole social and cultural landscape was forever changed.

Today, our country is still feeling the effects of this decade from the Beatles and the Civil rights movement to the Kennedy Assassination and Vietnam.

Hawaii becomes the 50th state to enter the union and the new 50 star flag in unveiled in Philadelphia on July 4, 1960.

The Nixon-Kennedy Television Debates

The first ever televised Presidential debate occurs in 1960 between incumbent Vice President Nixon and Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. While radio listeners believe Nixon wins on the issues, his appearance on t.v., mainly due to a cold, led many to believe the youthful Kennedy to be the victor. The dawn of the t.v. age ushers in a youthful President for youthful change as the decade of the baby boomers truly begins.

Kennedy won the election and the dawn of the t.v. age ushered in a youthful President, the youngest ever and the first Catholic, for youthful “change” as the decade of the baby boomers truly began. Kennedy created the Peace Corps and announced the mission to land a man on the moon and return him safely.

The Bays of Pigs Invasion in 1961 was a military and political embarrassment for the U.S. as Fidel Castro and his army defeated the U.S. supported rebels. President Kennedy was so infuriated with the CIA that he is alleged to have said : "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds.”

As the Cold War raged on, the U.S. and Soviets squared off in countries around the globe, but most of all in the space race. After the embarrassment of the U2 spy plane over the USSR and the Bay of Pigs, as well as “losses” at the Olympics, the US needed a boost. This boost came in the form of a challenge that marked the decade as one of expedition and adventure into new frontiers as well as one of major scientific developments.

On May 25th 1961, President Kennedy, concerned that the US was falling behind the USSR, announced the challenge to land a man on the moon and return him safely. On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edward “Buzz” Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon. It was another moment that people remember where they were when… the US won the space race and showed dominance during the cold war.

“The Eagle has Landed”

“This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

With the FDA’s approval of the first oral contraceptive, though still limited in some states, the “sexual” revolution began with women taking control over their reproductive rights and liberating themselves sexually allowing for more open casual relationships and an increased presence of women in the work force. Women could have a career and a sex life without the thought of having children if they didn’t want to start a family at the time.

Revolutionaries that came to define challenge, especially from the poor third world, to the U.S. were born in figures like Castro and Che in the 60s.

Long before much of the new hope and potential that John F. Kennedy brought to office could be actualized, he was assassinated.

On Nov. 22, 1963, while being driven through the streets of Dallas, TX in an open limo with First Lady Jackie Kennedy and Texas Governor Connally and his wife, Kennedy was shot in the head and killed.

It is a moment that all who lived through it remember where they were when….the turning point of the 60s occurred.

Only 46 years old, he was now the youngest elected and deceased President in U.S. History. The assassination was infamously captured on an 8mm film by a local man and has come to be known as the Zapruder film. Even more infamous is the single bullet theory from Arlen Specter and the Warren Commission, which attempt to explain how Lee Harvey Oswald could have acted alone in the assassination.

Vice President LBJ was sworn into office almost immediately after the death of Kennedy. Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby and nothing seemed settled or certain.

In what has become one of the most controversial moments in American history, the death of Camelot simultaneously occurred with the rise of conspiracy theories. Though Watergate may have truly caused people to question the Presidency, the Kennedy assassination caused many to question the government in at least some capacity.

On Feb. 1, 1960, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain from North Carolina A&T College held their own sit-in movement at a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC.  By February 10, the movement had spread to fifteen southern cities in five states. This began a series of sit-in like protests and developed into the freedom riders movement.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became the key leader of the civil rights movement for African Americans. His famous “I Had a Dream” speech to the marches throughout the South and on Washington, Dr. King forever changed the issues of equality for all in America. Though, it began with the rights for all people based on skin color, the civil rights movement grew to cover many more issues from women’s rights to gay rights.

We shall overcome…FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, FREE AT LAST!

I HAD A DREAM..

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at 6:01 p.m. on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN.

The 60s would be marked by many political assassinations, King’s was perhaps one of the most significant, along with JFKs.

Initially in stark contrast to King’s approach to racial equality was Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, which wanted segregation of races to be free of the “white devil”. Malcolm X became an early symbol of black radicalization and feared by much of the white mainstream. In his later years, he softened and recanted on his racism as he left the nation of Islam. He was assassinated in 1965 while giving a speech.

“By any means necessary…”

Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded John F. Kennedy in 1963 as the 36th President of the United States. He was largely popular in 1964 when he won election on his own right by a large margin. He is remembered early for his “Great Society” expansion of domestic social policy- from Civil Rights, Medicare, Environmentalism, Education, and the “War on Poverty.” His large scale escalation of US involvement in Vietnam, however, may perhaps be his greater legacy. He was greatly committed to the US winning the war and stopping the spread of communism and yet troubled by the massive losses of US lives. I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved.

“If I left the woman I really loved the Great Society-in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would love everything at home. All of my programs...But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.”

The entire decade was split as the social, cultural and political worlds collided and split between young and old. The decade progressed out of, and acted as a further rejection, of the conservative and traditional 50s into the more liberal and progressive 70s.

More than any other person, movement, event, or conflict of the decade The Vietnam war paradoxically united the decade and divided the country. From the U.S. fought in Vietnam and saw the loss of It was a major loss for the US in morale as well as trust in US government and its policy.

Philadelphia Eagles win 1960 NFL championship

Cassius Clay wins gold in Rome in 1960.

Even Broadway and theater showed changes as the popular shows went from slightly new twists on traditional stories to major new re-thinking.

Music defined the decade. As the times changed so did its sound in popular music from the early days of dance and rock & roll to the hippie protest songs of Woodstock.

The Beatles were a group that came to define a decade and a generation. The boys from Liverpool invaded in 1964, appeared on the Ed Sullivan show, and forever changed music.

Music was perhaps the single most influential piece connecting the 60s from its beginnings to its end. The evolution of the music perhaps more so than the literature, film, or any other art form revealed the changes and mood in society. It included everything from Doris Day and Frank Sinatra to Janis Joplin and the Rolling Stones. As the the decade progressed so did the music from the softer pop rock & roll to psychedelic and also to popular folk and protest songs. It reflected that the times were a changing and the youth were coming of age from teenyboppers to adults.

1968 was a year of turmoil in the US, and besides the protest and riots in the street, the DNC riot most notably, and the assassination of MLK, Robert Kennedy, former attorney General and younger brother of JFK, was running for President. He was further pushing the message of change, peace, and end to the war, and social reform. However, he was assassinated on June 6, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in LA after a primary victory/campaign speech by Sirhan Sirhan.

“We must recognize the full human equality of all our people-before God, before the law, and in the councils of government. We must do this, not because it is economically advantageous-although it is; not because the laws of God and man command it-although they do command it; not because people in other lands wish it so. We must do it for the single and fundamental reason that it is the right thing to do."

For many the 60s is remembered most as a time of experimentation, rebellion, liberation, and even revolution or counter revolution in every facet of life from religion to sex. Ideas of opening minds and consciousness to end nuclear war and bring an age of peace through open love and sex, drug use and other radical lifestyle changes. These ideas and the ideals of the counter revolution live on today as a part of mainstream society, form feminism to gay rights and environmentalism to nuclear disarmament.

If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...If you're going to San Francisco,You're gonna meet some gentle people there.

As the 60s reached a turning point, toward the end of ‘66 and the beginning of ’67, the counterculture took off as the Hippie was born and Vietnam escalated. The era’s music, literature, clothing, and fads all changed with the political and social dialogue. The nation seemed headed toward disaster as it was being seemingly torn apart. College students of the Baby Boom Generation were listening to Professor Timothy Leary as they burned their draft cards to escape the war and/or tripped on acid, LSD. “Turning On, Tuning In, and Dropping Out.” SDS, Students for a Democratic Society, radicalized and campus protests abounded. It was the old versus the young and it was a revolution.

The Baby Boomers had truly come of age as the decade ended and they held the final party to end all in a little town in upstate New York. The Woodstock Music festival occurred from August 15-17, 1969 but would forever come to define the decade and a generation.