60s YouthDo Now: Who were the counterculture during the

1950s

Student Protest Movement

Reasons for Protest• Warfare techniques

– Chemical Warfare• Associated with Holocaust

– Torture

• Draft– Consciences objectors– Rich man’s war

• Cost of war– 66 million a day (1968)

• Shady govt.

Reasons outlined

• Warfare– Weapons banned being used against

Vietnamese• Agent orange and other chemicals

– Torture• Records of torture angered many

– The number of civilian casualties in Southern Vietnam.

Draft Dodgers

• Conscientious objector – Religious, moral or ethical beliefs

• Political– Did not believe that the war was just– Saw hypocrisy

• Draft policies were seen as unfair

War Costs• Millions of dollars a day

• Lack of social programs

• Increase in income taxes to pay for the war

• 60000 dead and hundreds of thousands wounded

Methods of Protest

• Self-Immolation– Norman Morrison follows Buddhist

example• Burning draft cards

– David Miller publicly burns– 2.5 years • 9118 follow his example

• Protest marches– Kent State– 4 dead in Ohio– March on DC– 1st 25,000– Larges anti-

war to date• Teach-ins

– UC-Berkley largest-- 30000• Taking over of govt. institutions

– Colombia University 1968

The New Left

• A growing youth movement of the 60's

• Followers demanded sweeping changes in American society

Students for a Democratic Society

• Founded by Tom Hayden and Al Haber

• Group said that corporations and the government have taken over America

Free Speech Movement

• Leader Mario Savio• Free speech on campus• California @ Berkeley• Same goals as the SDS

The Movement Grows• College Teach-ins

• March on Washington in 1965

• A call for Civil Disobedience

• 400 chapters of the SDS by 1969

Why oppose Vietnam?• Vietnam was a Civil

War and USA had no business being there

• South Vietnam was no better than Communism

• Draining American strength and resources

• Morally Unjust

Columbia University 1968

• Massive student protest. – Fitness Facility seen as segregated– IDA (Institute for Defence Analysis)

• Students took over many buildings on campus• 900 people arrested.• 3 university officials taken hostage

The Weathermen

• 1969 violent off-shoot movement of the SDS

• 1st action Chicago shopping district

• Bombed the Capital Building, broke Timothy Leary out of jail, evaded the FBI for most of the 70's

Days of Rage

October 8, 1969

Days of Rage-- 4 days of Riots

●Weatherman gather anticipating thousands but only a few hundred

● Blow up a statue dedicated to police of Haymarket Riot in Chicago. (Blew it up again after rebuilt)

● Charged police

● Shots, tear gas, etc

Kent State MassacreMay 1- Demonstrations due to invasion of Cambodia on college commons

•Vandalism that night

•May 2nd- National Guard called in

•ROTC building burned down

•Arrests made and teargas used

•May 3rd-

•Students help clean up

•Students regathered for sit-in

•Forced curfew

•Some injuries

•May 4th- 2000 gather

•Guards can’t disperse

•Eventually 60+ bullets kill 4

Significance of The New Left

• The antiwar protest lead to the abolishment of the military draft.

• The War Powers Act of 1973 that curbed the President’s power

The antiwar movement also contributed to the American publics’ suspicious view of the government.

Counterculture Movement1965-1971

• Counterculture- a movement made up of mostly white, middle-class college youths who tried to establish a new culture based on love and peace.

CopyrightedJeff Rainer2/3/05

Throughout the mid- and late sixties tens of thousands of idealistic youth left school, work, or home to create what they hope would be a perfect community of love,

peace, and harmony

Timothy Leary

• “Turn on, Tune in, Drop out” were the words of counterculture leader Timothy Leary. The counterculture grew from the 1950’s Beat Movement.

Monterey Music Festival

The idea for the Monterey International Pop Festival came out of the mid-60's belief that what had been pop music was now a much more serious art form, and could take its place alongside jazz Artists agreed to perform for free, and the Summer of Love was born. The first major music festival was held on June 16, 17 and 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. 

Pictures from Summer of Love

Haight-Ashbury Streets

This "revolution" took place mainly in Haight Ashbury, a small neighborhood in San Francisco. The Haight Ashbury was little more than a few square blocks which stretched from the edge of Golden Gate Park for a half-mile down Haight Street .One could find cafes, head shops , poster shops, hip boutiques, the Oracle office and the Straight Theatre

and the Pig Commune

Commune style living became Popular among Hippies afterThe Summer of Love. This styleOf living gave Hippies a chanceTo connect with nature and religion.Wavy Gravy was a leader of one of the Pig Commune in New Mexico. Wavy Gravy also was the MC at the Woodstock festival.

Woodstock Music FestivalThe legendary Woodstock Festival took place over three days in August 1970- August 15, 16, 17. Among the performers, there were Janis Joplin, Santana, Richie Havens, Sly and the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane, Sha Na Na and Jimi Hendrix, or as he called his band, Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. Hendrix was scheduled to close the show on Sunday night, but due to delays, Hendrix and band took the stage on Monday morning, to a crowd of only about thirty-thousand: far less than the estimated peak crowd of four hundred- thousand

Music of the Counterculture

• Music feature Hall of Fame groups Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. As well as rising artists Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

                                                   

Psychedelic Drugs

Psychedelic Drugs suchAs LSD became very Popular with the Movement because they Were not banned in California until 1966.