The 1960s

Think about the following:

What were the most important issues in the 1960s? Are there similar issues today? How have things changed since the 1960s? What changes would you favor today? What would you be like if you were born in the 1960s? How would you be different if you were a teenager then, instead of now? While you are in your seat, think about what you know (or think you know!) about the 1960s; be prepared to share your ideas.

The sixties were a time of change, counter culture and political movements. Many young people involved themselves in trying to make America a better place for all people, no matter what gender or race they were. The sixties began with the election of America's youngest(43) president ever elected, John F. Kennedy. During his period in office people stepped out and said how they felt. They thought that with Kennedy leading America, anything was possible.

1962 brought the tensest moment in US history. During the 14 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy's diplomacy prevented the deepest fear of millions: nuclear war.

In 1963, the nation lost its innocence when president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The nation mourned the loss of its beloved president. President Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas on November 22. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was never sent to trial. While being moved by police to a different jail, a man named Jack Ruby shot Oswald. Who killed President Kennedy nobody knows for sure.

By 1963 another great leader began to draw attention to another important issue, the treatment of African Americans. Martin Luther King, Jr. had such composure and such dignity that hearing him publicly speak was not only privilege but an honor. King inspired people and made them believe that they could make a difference. King believed in nonviolent protest against segregation and racial discrimination.

Many people, blacks and whites alike, joined his March on Washington in 1963, and others later helped change the way Americans treated one another. Violence in the south was still in the headlines as a black church in Mississippi was blown up while four children were inside. In 1964, President Johnson declared a "War on Poverty" and promised Americans a "Great Society." The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 became law. Rioting in Watts in 1965 nearly destroyed Los Angeles.

In 1967, Americans increasingly opposed the war in Vietnam. The war had burst into the country's living rooms on the nightly news like an open floodgate and many in the country were horrified at what they saw. 1968 was a year of great tragedy, both Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. The Democratic National Convention was the scene of horrible violence. There were some bright moments, man orbited the earth for the first time in Apollo 8 in 1968 and at the close of the decade America entered a new frontier as Neil Armstrong walked on the moon for the first time

Elvis reigned supreme in American popular music. However, by the early 1960s songs were now being written by professional composers, recorded with accompaniment by session musicians (professional musicians who perform principally on recordings), and sung by teenage crooners such as Fabian and Dion.

In the 1960s, there emerged New York City songwriters such as Carole King, and the young entrepreneur Berry Gordy, based in Detroit, Michigan, whose Motown Records produced a string of hit records.

The early 1960s also saw the development of distinctive regional styles in the United States, such as the sound of the southern California band The Beach Boys and the Greenwich Village urban folk movement that included Bob Dylan, the Kingston Trio, and Peter, Paul, and Mary

The so-called British Invasion began in 1964 with the arrival of the Beatles in New York City. British pop bands, raised on the influences of blues, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, invigorated mainstream popular music . Though the Beatles had already achieved one number-one hit in the U.S. and had been greeted by 5,000 screaming fans when they arrived at the New York airport, it was their February 9, 1963, appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show that ensured Beatlemania in America

The late 1960s was a period of corporate expansion and stylistic diversification in the American record industry. A new youthoriented popular market was defined by a broad category of rock music that included the influential studio experiments of the Beatles, San Francisco psychedelia, guitar heroes such as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, Southern rock, hard rock, jazz rock, folk rock, and other styles. Soul music, the successor to rhythm-and-blues music, covered a wide range of styles, including the gospel-based performances of Aretha Franklin, the deep funk and virtuosic stage techniques of James Brown, and the soulful crooning of Marvin Gaye.

Country-and-western musicnow firmly centered in Nashville, Tennesseehad a new generation of stars who combined elements of old country-and-westernmusic standards with rock and roll and mainstream popular song. Country singers Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Dolly Parton helped contribute to the rising popularity of country-andwestern music.

The Woodstock Art and Music Fair: "Three days of Peace and Music." August 15, 16, and 17, 1969.

It was planned as a 3-day outdoor festival of "peace and music" featuring a few of the new, hard rock bands. The four organizers wanted it to be the largest rock concert in history. (Prior to Woodstock, the largest was about 20,000.) By early August, 1969, the organizers knew that more than 200,000 would likely show up. Publicly, they claimed there would be only about 100,000. They didn't want to scare anybody. By the end, over 450,000 kids had come to a farm in upstate New York. (A farmer named Max Yasgur owned the property; it was in Bethel, NY, about 100 miles from New York City.) Once you got there, you didn't need a ticket; you just needed to be able to endure the elements. Of course, once you got there, you had no choice. The sea of people clogged the small roads leading to Bethel and blocked all traffic on the nearby New York State Thruway. Some people said that two million people tried to get to Woodstock. By that count, most of them never made it.

The organizers had exactly three ticket booths in place. In a matter of minutes, the festival became a free event. Not one cent was ever collected at the gate. In fact, after noon on Friday, there was no gate. Performers at Woodstock included Richie Havens; Country Joe McDonald; Jimi Hendrix; John Sebastian; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Melanie; Arlo Guthrie; CCR, Janis Joplin; Jefferson Airplane; and the Grateful Dead. The performers came and went via helicopter; it was the only way in or out.

People parked their cars as far as 20 miles away. Once you arrived, you had to stay; there was nowhere to go. There was no place to sleep, no place to bathe, no place to eat... no place to nothin'.
Still, most everybody who came... were glad they did; although perhaps not at the time.

Movies have always been an avenue of escape and in the 60s it was no different. Our culture was wrapped around the turbulence of changing times. People who went to the movies did not want to sit through hours of a saga, they wanted it short, sweet and to the point. Much of the movies of the times were music centered while other genres of sci-fi and horror movies were really taking off in the mainstream. Westerns and other serial movies were a dying breed, but a handful of tough guys would keep on going. If you loved music based movies, you had many choices. Elvis was all over the place with hokey movies featuring women who would seem almost mesmerized by him. He was featured in 27 movies during the 1960s. The Beatles came up with three hit movies, "A Hard Days Night," Help! and Magical Mystery Tour displaying songs from their albums. Beach movies were wildly popular. Frankie Avalon and Annnette Funicello were a famous duo who starred in such flicks as Beach Blanket Bingo. Everyone knew agent 007 as James Bond, a dapper spy with a lot of cool toys who drove fast cars during the 60s. Famous actors in the 1960s included Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood, Jack Nickolson, Natalie Wood, and Marilyn Monroe. Some enduring classic films of the 1960s include The Sound of Music, The Graduate, and The Miracle Worker.

Television offered the second prime time cartoon show, the Flintstones , in 1960. (The first was Rocky and his Friends in 1959.) It appealed to both children and adults and set off a trend that included Alvin & the Chipmunks, the Jetsons, and Mr. Magoo. The Andy Griffith Show was the epitome of prime time family television, and ran for most of the decade. The Beverly Hillbillies heralded the rise of the sitcom. The supernatural and science fiction blended in many of the popular shows, including Bewitched, The Munsters, My Favorite Martian, I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek, the Outer Limits , and the Twilight Zone.

Youth predominated the culture of the 1960's. The post World War II Baby Boom had created 70 million teenagers for the sixties, and these youth swayed the fashion, the fads and the politics of the decade. California surfers took to skateboards as a way to stay fit out of season, and by 1963, the fad had spread across the country. Barbie dolls, introduced by Mattel in 1959, became a huge success in the sixties, so much so that rival toy manufacturer Hasbro came up with G. I. Joe, 12 inches tall and the first action figure for boys. Another doll, the troll was a good luck symbol for all ages. Slot cars overtook toy trains in popularity

The 1960's began with crew cuts on men and bouffant hairstyles on women. Men's casual shirts were often plaid and buttoned down the front, while knee-length dresses were required wear for women in most public places. By mid-decade, miniskirts or hot pants, often worn with go-go boots, were popular and women's hair was either very short or long and lanky. Men's hair became longer and wider, with beards and moustaches. For men, bright colors, double-breasted sports jackets, polyester pants suits with Nehru jackets, and turtlenecks were in vogue. By the end of the decade, ties, when worn, were up to 5" wide, patterned even when worn with stripes. Women wore peasant skirts or granny dresses and chunky shoes. Unisex dressing was popular, featuring bell bottomed jeans, love beads, and embellished t-shirts.

Sports Roger Maris hit homer number 61, setting a record that wasn't broken until the September of 1998 by Mark McGwire. Wlima Rudolph, a black American woman, received three Olympic gold medals in running. As a child, she was very ill with pneumonia and scarlet fever. She barely lived, and doctors said she probably would never be able to walk again. But she never gave up hope, and was not only able to walk again, but able to outrun everyone else in the Olympics to be rewarded with three gold medals. In 1962, Jackie Robinson, the first black American to play in major league baseball, was placed in the Baseball Hall of Fame for his talent. The first Super Bowl was played in 1967, with the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs; the Packers won.

The sixties were the age of youth, as 70 million children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young adults. The movement away from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change in the cultural fabric of American life. No longer content to be images of the generation ahead of them, young people wanted change. The changes affected education, values, lifestyles, laws, and entertainment. Many of the revolutionary ideas which began in the sixties are continuing to evolve today.