“The times they are a’changin”
The Revolution of the 1960s
“The Times They Are A-Changin”
By Bob Dylan
Come gather round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
Youll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin
Then you better start swimmin
Or youll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And dont criticize
What you cant understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin.
Please get out of the new one
If you cant lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance wont come again
And dont speak too soon
For the wheels still in spin
And theres no tellin who
That its namin.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Dont stand in the doorway
Dont block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
Theres a battle outside
And it is ragin.
Itll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin.
“We Shall Overcome”
Civil Rights Era, 1940-60s
Background
1930s - Increased public awareness of
lynchings in the South
1940s
Biggest Goal = end of Jim Crow in
the South (legal & educational)
1942 - FDR outlawed segregation
of defense industries during WWII
All-black military units
1948 - Truman desegregates
military
Jackie Robinson breaks baseball
color line in 1947
1950s
Pres. Eisenhower federal action
for civil rights = a bad idea
Cold War Era
Civil Rights linked to Cold War
ideology
The Four Freedoms:
Freedom of Speech & Expression
Freedom of Worship
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear
“We Shall Overcome”
Civil Rights Era, 1940-60s
Desegregation
NAACP trying cases in South against
“separate but equal” in education
(1930s)
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Brown v. Board of Education (1952)
Thurgood Marshall (NAACP lawyer)
Sociological & Psychological
arguments
Separate = feelings of inferiority
9 to 0 for desegregation “with all
deliberate speed”
Southern Response
Citizens’ Councils
Use economic coercion to keep
blacks intimidated
Emmett Till (Summer, 1955)
kidnapped and beaten to death for
whistling at a white woman
Little Rock Central High School (1957)
The Little Rock Nine
“We Shall Overcome”
Civil Rights Era, 1940-60s
Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955
Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks,
NAACP stage 13 month boycott
Blacks provide most revenue to bus
system
King’s Background/Philosophy:
Ph.D Boston Univ. (Theology)
“Militant Nonviolence” Gospels,
Gandhi
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere.”
Power of the media
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC)
Movement gains momentum (1960-63)
Four students at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC
“sit-ins,” “kneel-ins,” “wade-ins”
Becomes mass movement
college students
(white & black)
“freedom riders”
violence erupts
Effects of “Freedom Songs”
“We Shall Overcome”
Civil Rights Era, 1940-60s
Birmingham, AL (most racist city in the
South)
King needs major victory
500-600 arrested in first day,
demonstration stalling
Over 700 children imprisoned
Police Comm. Eugene “Bull” Connor
attack dogs, hoses, tear gas,
cattle prods gain media
attention
“Letter from Birmingham City Jail”
Organized non-violent protest
will force the issue into the
public
J. Edgar Hoover (FBI) King is
“the most dangerous Negro of
the future in this nation”
Counter Intelligence Program
(COINTELPRO)
“We Shall Overcome”
Civil Rights Era, 1940-60s
Kennedy’s New Frontier
Reasons for Kennedy’s victory (1960):
Handled the “Catholic question”
Televised debates w/ Nixon
Civil Rights stance
Bobby Kennedy’s support of Civil
Rights movement
JFK on Civil Rights
Nationally televised address (June,
1963)
racial discrimination “has no
place in American life or law”
asks Congress for legislation
Result?
Civil Rights movement becomes
mainstream
March on Washington, Aug 1963
MLK “I have a dream today”
“Let freedom ring”
“We Shall Overcome”
Civil Rights Era, 1940-60s
Kennedy’s New Frontier
Reasons for Kennedy’s victory (1960):
Handled the “Catholic question”
Televised debates w/ Nixon
Civil Rights stance
Bobby Kennedy’s support of Civil
Rights movement
JFK on Civil Rights
Nationally televised address (June,
1963)
racial discrimination “has no
place in American life or law”
asks Congress for legislation
Result?
Civil Rights movement becomes
mainstream
March on Washington, Aug 1963
MLK “I have a dream today”
What America says vs. what
America does
Nov 1963 Movement changes hands
Dallas, 22 Nov -- Lee Harvey Oswald
“We Shall Overcome”
Civil Rights Era, 1940-60s
Kennedy’s New Frontier
Reasons for Kennedy’s victory (1960):
Handled the “Catholic question”
Televised debates w/ Nixon
Civil Rights stance
Bobby Kennedy’s support of Civil
Rights movement
JFK on Civil Rights
Nationally televised address (June,
1963)
racial discrimination “has no
place in American life or law”
asks Congress for legislation
Result?
Civil Rights movement becomes
mainstream
March on Washington, Aug 1963
MLK “I have a dream today”
What America says vs. what
America does
Nov 1963 Movement changes hands
Dallas, 22 Nov -- Lee Harvey Oswald
Lyndon B. Johnson (TX, Dem)
The Great Society = program of social
reforms (esp. civil rights)
Civil Rights Act, 1964 outlaws
discrimination in public