The Hippies: The Summer of
Love, Drugs, Peace, and
Distraction
Gabriella Ruocco
US in the Age of the Cold War
4/28/14
Final Research Paper
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On a hot, steamy Saturday afternoon in San Francisco in 1967, a group of young people
congregate in circles in Golden Gate Park.1 They have long, scraggily hair and are wearing
ripped jeans and fringed clothing. These people look happy and comfortable with one another as
they pass around a joint and play rock songs on their guitar. One young man picks his head up
from laying down, takes a sip of his beer, and tells the two ladies lying on his stomach its time
for their friends to head out. The group, barefooted and stoned, gradually grab its tambourines
and flower crowns and make their way towards Ashbury. These people were hippies, celebrating
the ‘Summer of Love.’
Taking a moment to step outside of the groovy, psychedelic memories of the Summer of
1967 and back into present day allows you to analyze this movement. Why is it that if you go to
a ‘60s themed’ party you are motivated to wear tie-dye, baggy pants, head bands, and sport a
peace sign with your fingers all night? There was indeed a counterculture that rejected the
mainstream norms of “straight” America, but these rebellious youths only counted for a small
percentage of the American population. What did these “freaks” possibly do half a century ago
that makes people envision a “hippie” when they think of the 1960s?2
This paper will explore the reasoning behind the formation of the counterculture, or in
essence, the hippie movement. I will discuss why thousands of young people decided to reject
the conservative norms they grew up with in search for “new meaning in their daily lives.” 3 I
want you to grasp an understanding of who these people were and what their motives drove them
to do. With so much media, fashion, and hype centered around the hippies, I feel it is important
to sift through evidence to find what is fact and what are simply stereotypes. I am drawn to this
movement because of the alleged values, such as commitment to equity, sustainability, and anticonsumerism, these people uphold.
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Using the height of the hippie movement, the 1967 Summer of Love, as my focal point I
will provide a historical framework about how and why this movement began. Acknowledging
the changes and the ideological shifts that this generation went through by the early 70s, I will
discuss the impact of this infamous groovy summer, and further explain why the movement died
out. Although it is difficult to come to any exact conclusions about the demise of this
counterculture, this paper will explore and complicate the legacy of the hippies today. In essence,
I will argue that although the early fundamental hippies created a counterculture that focused on
equality, sustainability, and liberation from materialism, when the movement reached its climax
during the Summer of Love, partying and free love became more important than advocating for
social change. The hippies’ excessive use of drugs led to destructive behavior, and eventually
their demise, making their legacy controversial to this day.
Who really were the hippies? Due to their “radical” behavior their legacy is debatable,
but historians explore all three sides of this generation’s story in order to explain their behavior.
Before investigating the behavior of this generation it is important to realize the historical
context in which they grew up in. Although it is difficult to generalize the majority of the
hippies experienced childhoods in the late fifties ‘affluent society’ that valued the conveniences
of their new washer/dryers, microwaves, and automobiles. The television became the center of
the living room, making more time for advertisements and less time for conversations.4
Besides the heightened values of consumerism, suburban life in 50s were times of “rigid
and stultifying rules and regulations.”5 Conformity was key; every suburban household wanted
their nuclear family to be just as perfect as their neighbors.
This generation grew up in a postwar era; On one hand this generation was supposed to
accept and conform to the so called “perfection” of the suburbs, while the world around them
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was telling them to fear potential tragedies. Besides all of the comforts that people were left with
in middle class society, there was still a sense of “insecurity” that loomed among families. 6
Some young people were influenced by the work of Martin Luther King Jr., others were
disgusted by the Vietnam War which they thought was “illegal, inhumane, and immoral.”7 Some
youths were just plain fed up with the conservative institutions they felt constrained by and
hoped for a “psychic separation from the mainstream.”8 Whatever their individual reasoning was,
this generation began to reject mainstream norms and rebel against establishment. However,
many historians acknowledge their privilege in their ability to leave their suburban lives behind
them and “liberate themselves.”
The Diggers were the first collection of hippies who held the movement’s “visionary
core.”9 They were the early hippies, the group of young men and women who first went to the
Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in order to create a “Free City” that rejected the values
of capitalism and consumerism.10 They wanted to create a community feel within strangers,
while still allowing everyone to be their own person. The Diggers may have come to HaightAshbury to escape from the constrictions of middle class America, but they had a clear agenda
that included social change.
As the 60s progressed, “more of the young baby boomers” began to want to “escape the
rigid rules of middle-class morality.”11 Rebellious youths who were inspired by The Diggers and
rock music that rejected mainstream values began to flee to cities like New York, Chicago,
Lawrence, and especially San Francisco. Some sought after a “rural life that promised” to bring
them “closer to the earth” and ultimately joined communal living in open, remote areas. 12 Along
with the political formation of the New Left, this generation felt inspired to engage in “activism
and experimentation” to help with the social groups that were being marginalized in American
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society. 13Anderson argued that there were two main types of hippies -- those who rebelled for
their own personal liberties and those who wanted to fight for freedom on a more authoritative
level.14
The Summer of 67’ was full of music and happiness, but also an excessive amount of
partying. The use marijuana, alcohol, and LSD became prominent and acceptable. As these
bright-eyed, young people who heard about the excitement of the Summer of Love did
everything they could to make their way to San Francisco -- hitchhiking, riding crowded buses -they failed to realize that they were helping “the undoing of the Haight.”15 Haight Ashbury
became too concentrated with drugs and violence became inevitable.
As young people all over the nation jumped onto the “hippie bandwagon” of wearing
ripped clothing, fighting ‘the man,’ and living free, the ’67 Summer of Love is deemed as the
‘climax of the hippie movement.’16 Although the entire year of 1967 is associated with free love,
iconic rock music, and openness, the counterculturists’ excessive drug use brought them trouble
they were not expecting. In 1967, a Doctor from the San Francisco City of Public Health
published an article that exposed the negative effects of the hippies’ experimentation with LSD
and other hallucinogens. The fact that during the summer of `67 “approximately 12,000 patient
visits were made at the clinic..due to respiratory tract infections, hepatitis, and venereal disease”
exposes the hippies’ inability to control their drugs addictions.17 Although the hippies were
motivated to do drugs to enlighten themselves they clearly could not handle their acid trips.18
Their drug use became not only recreational, but also excessive and ultimately destructive.
By the end of the summer, the foundational hippies, ‘The Diggers’ mourned ‘The Death
of the Hippie’ because of all the evil the name was now associated with. 19Although dope may
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have “clouded the political focus” of the hippies, the notion of counterculture still influenced
American society.20
In 1968, just one year after the Summer of Love, the fundamental hippies, ‘The Diggers’
still advocated for the values in which the movement started. They had a free store known as the
‘Panhandle’ in Haight-Ashbury where “everything is free” and the idea of “doing your own
thing” was heavily supported.21 However, this select group of ‘counterculturists” that spent
“many years battling for civil rights” were now celebrating ‘The Death of the Hippie.’22 In 1967
the New York Times published an article about this “funeral.” Arthur Lisch, a member of the
Diggers, believed that the procession “symbolized the purging of the evil” and simply stated that
“Things have gone wrong.”23 Although the Diggers were “psychedelic” in nature, they preferred
to stay away from harder drugs and alcohol. The Diggers were frustrated with all of the “youths
in Hippie clothes, not living up to Hippie standards.”24 In essence, this group of individuals
recognized the negative shift in which the movement was making and longed for years prior to
these changes.
Besides the negative connotations associated with the hippies’ drug dependency, there
are sources that exposed the contradictions within the movement. A 1967 article, “Negroes
Angered by Coast Hippies” proved how these counterculturists managed to ignore one of their
alleged core values -- inclusion and acceptance. The article discussed how when the white
hippies gallivanted around public parks, openly doing drugs and having sex, they actually
instituted a “double standard.” Local police officers accused many members of the black
community for disrupting public property, when in reality it was the hippies who were creating
disorder and engaging in misconduct.25 Even if this poor behavior by the hippies was
unintentional and may have occurred because of the systemic history of racism that exists in the
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United states, if these ‘counterculturists’ really cared about promoting equality, they would have
been more proactive in helping to protect the civil liberties of this marginalized community.
Additionally, the hippie experience is generally remembered by the memoirs of the white
upper middle class kids that wanted to rebel against their white-collar working parents. However,
in Jacobson’s article, “Long, Hot Summer of Love,” he discussed the perspective of an African
American hippie during the Summer of Love in New York City. Although Jacobson advocated
for freedom from institutions and establishment, his article discussed how he spent his summer
working long hours clipping tickets at Port Authority and smoking pot on benches on the
sidewalks of busy streets.26 Jacobson mentioned how he certainly enjoyed that summer, but his
account also acknowledges the privilege of the hippies who had the opportunity to leave
everything behind and go to San Francisco. While the stereotypical flower children “advocated”
for the rejection of consumerism, they were still taking advantage of their parents’ salaries in
order to support their psychedelic lifestyle.
The legacy of this generation is deemed controversial because of the fact that the
movement ended soon after its climax, the Summer of Love. Several articles published in the
New York Times reveal the paradigm of the hippie movement.
The headline, “The Drug Scene: Dependence Grows” exemplified the generation’s steady
increase on the emphasis of drug taking. The article emphasized the youths’ and more
specifically, the hippies’ dependency on drugs and alcohol. However, the author, Anthony
Lukas, argued that “their drug use is only an extension and dramatization of a central practice in
America’s dominant culture.”27According to Lukas’s article, due to the societal values out of the
50s, of wealth and power, the busy “businessman needed three martinis in the car to unwind
from a hard day” and everyday people turned to all sorts of recreational drugs to relax from all of
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their stress.28 The article revealed that there was a spectrum of people who engaged in
overindulgent drug use -- everyone from the exhausted CEO, to the laid back hippie listening to
the Grateful Dead. Overall, although hippies were rightfully so blamed for excessive drug use,
their actions can be traced back to the larger American historical context of this time.
In February of 1968, the New York Times published an article about how the police had
to arrest several hippies in the Haight District for their traffic blockade and disruptive behavior.
A group of hippies that were strung out on drugs, were dancing in the street and blocked traffic.
Even though the police had to use tear gas to break up the party, one bystander offered insight
that put the incident in perspective. He said, “they were dancing in the street and everything was
cool until a police riot squad came and started tossing tear gas bombs.”29 Once the police forces
brought out their weapons, it helped to further justify the hippies’ argument against
establishment and violence. Even if the bombs used by the police can be recognized as immoral
and unnecessary, the counterculturists’ inability to comply with social rules can allow some to
argue that this movement was destructive to society.
My research, both through primary and secondary accounts, have left me with puzzling
conclusions to analyze. When I sift through all of this information I can conclude that the hippies
did indeed make an impact on our society. They influenced music, fashion, drug culture, and
created social change. Yes, their movement was heightened during that infamous summer in the
Haight-Ashbury district and their original agenda that included social change quickly crumbled
soon after because of drugs.
However, we must keep the historical reality of this movement in mind. Hippies did
drugs and engaged in promiscuous behavior, listened to loud music, and caused some disorder in
society. I believe there is still the opportunity to find inspiration and empowerment from this
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generation when you extract particular elements of the movement’s visionary core. The early
“flower children” embraced values of equality and anti consumerism. Whether or not you agree
with all of the behavior that this generation engaged in, I believe it is possible for everyone in
some way can all learn to appreciate particular values that were advocated by this generation -the motivation to be creative, loving, and possessing the confidence “to do your own thing.”
As environmental issues become more concerning and the debate on gay rights unfold, it
is our choice as a youth culture to either remain passive and hope the next generation makes
changes or decide to be proactive as certain hippies did. A former member of the Students for a
Democratic Society woefully stated, “Those of us who were there will not forget. And the effects
of that explosion in the sixties have by now permeated every nook and cranny of our culture.”30
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Works Cited
Primary
Adler, Renata, “Screen: Look at Hippies on the Haight.” New York Times, August 8, 1968.
Anthony, Gene. Summer of Love: Haight Ashbury at Its Highest. New York: Random House
2007.
Lukas, Anthony. “The Drug Scene: Dependence Grows” The New York Times January 8, 1968.
Accessed 4/7/14.
“Negroes Angered by Coast Hippies” The New York Times, September 24, 1967, Accessed
3/21/14.
“Parade in Haight-Ashbury Marks ‘Death of the Hippie.’” New York Times, October 7, 1967.
Accessed on 3/16/2014.
“Police Arrest 65 in Haight District.” New York Times, February 19, 1968. Accessed on
3/16/2014.
Smith, David E. “Runaways and Their Health Problems in Haight-Ashbury During The Summer
of 1967.” Hippies in Haight-Ashbury.Vol 59, No 11. (1968)
Starr, Paul, “Rebels after the cause: Living with contradictions: who are they now?” New York
Times, October 13th, 1974.
Secondary
Allyn, David. Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution: An Unfettered History (New York:
Little Brown and Company, 2001).
Anderson, Terry. “Counterculture” in The Movement and the Sixties by Terry Anderson.
(Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1996).
Bly, Laura. “Show love for summer of `67. San Francisco, others honor 40 years of flower
power.” USA Today, June 8, 2007. Accessed March 20, 2014.
Brands, H.W. American Dreams: The United States Since 1945.(New York: New York,Penguin
Press, 2010).
Chafe, William. A History of our Time: Readings on Postwar America. (Oxford, NY: Oxford
University Press, 2012),171.
Cohen, Allen. “The San Francisco Oracle: A Brief History.” In Voices from the Underground:
Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press Part 1, edited by Ken Wachsberger, 35
- 90. East Lansing, MI, USA: Michigan State University Press, 2011.
10
Drabelle, Dennis. “After the Summer of Love, Years of Turmoil.” Washington Post, May 1st,
2012.
El-Ojeili, Chamsy. “Book Review: Social Theory and Postcommunism.” Review of Social
Theory and Postcommunism, by William Outhwaite and Larry Ray. Thesis Eleven 88 (2007):
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Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1989).
Grunenberg, Christoph and Jonathan Harris. Summer of Love: Psychedelic Art, Social Crisis and
Counterculture in the 1960s. Liverpool: 2005
Jacobson, Mark. “Long Hot Summer of Love.” New York Magazine, July 2- 9, 2007.
Film:“Making sense of the sixties,” 1991.
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Thelen, David.“Memory and American History” in The Journal of American History. Mar 1989.
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3
“Rebellion and Counterculture” in A History of our Time by William Chafe, (Oxford, NY: Oxford University
Press, 2012),171.
4
Grunenburg, 25.
5
Chafe, 171.
6
Gitlin, 12.
7
Anderson, 310.
8 Timothy Miller, Hippies and American values (The University of Tennessee Press: Knoxville, 2011),94.
1
2
11
The Diggers, “Trip Without a Ticket (1968) in A History of our Time by William Chafe, (Oxford, NY: Oxford
University Press, 2012),173.
10
Chafe, 173.
11
Allyn, 80.
12
Arthur Kopecky, “New Buffalo: Journals from a Taos Commune (1971)” in A History of our Time by William
Chafe,188.
13
Grunenburg, 37.
14
Anderson, 312.
15
Douglas T., Miller, On our Own: Americans in the Sixties, (Washington D.C.;D.C. Heath and Company, 1996)
286.
16
Miller, 14.
17
David E. Smith,“Runaways and Their Health Problems in Haight-Ashbury During The Summer of 1967.” Hippies
in Haight-Ashbury.Vol 59, No 11. (1968)
18
Miller, 87.
19
Chafe, 173.
20
David Farber, “The Intoxicated State/Illegal Nation” in A History of our Time by William Chafe, (Oxford, NY:
Oxford University Press, 2012),195.
21
Chafe, 174.
22
Miller, 91.
23
Death of the Hippie.
24
Death of the Hippie.
25
“Negroes Angered by Coast Hippies.”
26
Mark, Jacobson, “Long Hot Summer of Love.” New York Magazine, July 2- 9, 2007.
27
Lukas.
28
Lukas.
29
“Police Arrest 65 in Haight District” The New York Times, February 19, 1968.
30 Miller, Foreword.
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