Once the religious, the hunted and weary
Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
Came to this country to build a new vision
Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope
Like good Christians, some would burn the witches
Later some got slaves to gather riches
But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light
And once the ties with the crown had been broken
Westward in saddle and wagon it went
And 'til the railroad linked ocean to ocean
Many the lives which had come to an end
While we bullied, stole and bought a homeland
We began the slaughter of the red man
But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light
The blue and grey they stomped it
They kicked it just like a dog
And when the war over
They stuffed it just like a hog
And though the past has it's share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But it's protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it's a monster and will not obey
The spirit was freedom and justice
And it's keepers seem generous and kind
It's leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won't pay it no mind
'Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
And now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it's all just an echo of what they've been told
Yeah, there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watchin'
Our cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin' the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can't understand
We don't know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who's the winner
We can't pay the cost
'Cause there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watching
America where are you now?
Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster
http://www.ushistory.org

It was one of the closest
elections in American history.

The Republican insider was
Richard Nixon of California,
relatively young but
experienced as the nation's
Vice-President for 8 years
under Dwight Eisenhower. The
Democratic newcomer was
John F. Kennedy, senator from
Massachusetts, who at the
age of 43 could become the
youngest person ever to be
elected President. Regardless
of the outcome, the United
States would for the first time
have a leader born in the 20th
century.

Coming into the first
televised Presidential
debate, John F. Kennedy
had spent time relaxing in
Florida while Richard Nixon
maintained a hectic
campaign schedule. As a
result, Kennedy appeared
tan and relaxed during the
debate while Nixon
seemed a bit worn down.
Radio listeners proclaimed
Nixon the better debater,
while those who watched
on television made
Kennedy their choice.

Kennedy was also
Roman Catholic, and
no Catholic had ever
been elected
President before. To
mollify these concerns,
Kennedy addressed a
group of Protestant
ministers. He pledged
a solid commitment to
separation of church
and state. Despite his
assurances, his faith
cost him an estimated
1.5 million votes in
November 1960.
The Presidential election of 1960 was
one of the closest in American history.
John F. Kennedy won the popular vote
by a slim margin of approximately
100,000 votes. Richard Nixon won more
individual states than Kennedy, but it
was Kennedy who prevailed by winning
key states with many electoral votes.

They called it
Camelot.

Like King Arthur and
Guinevere, a dynamic
young leader and his
beautiful bride led the
nation. The White
House was their home,
America their
kingdom. They were
John F. and
Jacqueline Kennedy.
John F. Kennedy's youthful
looks, cheerful family and
charming demeanor
captured the American
imagination like few
Presidents had ever done.
Here, Kennedy poses with
his wife Jacqueline and
their two children John and
Caroline.
After squeaking by
Richard Nixon in the
election of 1960, John
F. Kennedy set forth
new challenges for the
United States. In his
inauguration speech,
he challenged his
fellow Americans to
"Ask not what your
country can do for you
— ask what you can
do for your country."
Proclaiming that the "torch has
been passed to a new
generation of Americans,"
Kennedy, young and
good-looking, boldly and
proudly assumed office
with a bravado. Many
Americans responded to
his call by joining the newly
formed Peace Corps or
volunteering in America to
work toward social justice.
The nation was united,
positive, and forwardlooking. No frontier was too
distant.
One of Kennedy's most
popular foreign policy
initiatives was the Peace
Corps. Led by Sargent
Shriver, this program
allowed Americans to
volunteer two years of
service to a developing
nation. Applicants would
be placed based upon
their particular skill sets.
English teachers would be
placed where the learning
of the language was
needed. Entrepreneurs
trained local merchants
how to maximize profits.
Doctors and nurses were
needed anywhere.
Kennedy's greatest foreign
policy failure and greatest
foreign policy success both
involved one nation —
Cuba. In 1961, CIA-trained
Cuban exiles landed in
Cuba at the Bay of Pigs,
hoping to ignite a popular
uprising that would oust Fidel
Castro from power. When
the revolution failed to
occur, Castro's troops
moved in. The exiles
believed air support would
come from the United
States, but Kennedy refused.
Many of the rebels were
shot, and the rest were
arrested. The incident was
an embarrassment to the
United States and a great
victory for Fidel Castro.
In October 1962, the United
States learned that the
Soviet Union was about to
deploy nuclear missiles in
Cuba. Kennedy found this
unacceptable. He ordered
a naval "quarantine" of
Cuba and ordered Soviet
leader Nikita Khrushchev to
turn his missile-carrying boats
back to the USSR. Any Soviet
attempt to penetrate the
American blockade would
be met with an immediate
military response. The world
watched this dangerous
game of nuclear chicken
unfold. Finally, Khrushchev
acceded to Kennedy's
demands, and the world
remained safe from global
confrontation.
The Cuban Missile Crisis marked the
closest the United States and the Soviet
Union came to direct confrontation in the
entire Cold War.
Ask any American who was over
the age of 8 in 1963 the
question: "Where were you
when President Kennedy was
shot?" and a complete
detailed story is likely to follow.
On November 22, 1963, a wave of
shock and grief swept the
United States. While visiting
Dallas, President Kennedy was
killed by an assassin's bullet.
Millions of Americans had
indelible images burned into
their memories. The
bloodstained dress of
Jacqueline Kennedy, a
mournful Vice-President
Johnson swearing the
Presidential oath of office,
and dozens and dozens of
unanswered questions.
November 22, 1963, was a sunny day
in Dallas, Texas, and for this reason
the convertible Presidential limousine
went through the afternoon parade
with the top down. The President and
his wife are seated in the back of the
car, while Texas governor John
Connally is seated directly in front of
the President.
President Kennedy was scheduled to speak
at a luncheon in Dallas on November
22. The weather was bright and clear,
and the President wished to wave to
the crowds as his motorcade moved
from the airport through the city. A
protective covering was not placed
over his convertible limousine.
As the procession moved through Dealey
Plaza, gunshots tore through the
midday air. Within minutes President
Kennedy was dead, and John
Connally, the Texas governor was
badly wounded. Kennedy was rushed
to the hospital, but to no avail. The
news rang out through the nation.
Businesses and schools closed so griefstricken Americans could watch the
unfolding events.
Lee Harvey Oswald was
arrested for the murder.
Oswald was an avowed
communist who spent
three years living in the
Soviet Union. He allegedly
shot the President from a
window in the Texas School
Book Depository in Dealey
Plaza. Two days later, while
Oswald was being
transferred between prison
facilities, a nightclub owner
named Jack Ruby stepped
out of the crowd and fired
a bullet into Oswald at
point blank range killing the
prisoner. Oswald's murder
was captured on live
television.
Oswald's death left many
unanswered, searing questions.
Among them, "Did Oswald
actually assassinate Kennedy?"
"Did he act alone?"
A committee headed by Chief Justice
Earl Warren studied the events
surrounding the assassination and
declared that Oswald was
Kennedy's killer — and that he
acted alone.
Critics of the Warren Commission
cited irregularities in the findings.
Questions surrounded the ability of
any sharpshooter to fire the
number of bullets Oswald
supposedly fired, from such a
great distance, with any degree
of accuracy. Witnesses testified
that shots were fired from another
direction at the President — the
infamous grassy knoll —
suggesting the presence of a
second shooter
Lyndon Baines Johnson moved quickly to
establish himself in the office of the Presidency.
Despite his conservative voting record in the
Senate, Johnson soon reacquainted himself
with his liberal roots. LBJ sponsored the largest
reform agenda since Roosevelt's New Deal.
The aftershock of Kennedy's assassination
provided a climate for Johnson to complete
the unfinished work of JFK's New Frontier. He
had eleven months before the election of 1964
to prove to American voters that he deserved
a chance to be President in his own right.
Johnson also signed the omnibus
Economic Opportunity Act of
1964. The law created the Office
of Economic Opportunity aimed
at attacking the roots of
American poverty. A Job Corps
was established to provide
valuable vocational training.

The Civil Rights Bill that
JFK promised to sign
was passed into law.
The Civil Rights Act
banned discrimination
based on race and
gender in employment
and ending
segregation in all public
facilities.
The Voting Rights Act banned literacy tests
and other discriminatory methods of
denying suffrage to African Americans.
It outlawed literacy tests and poll taxes as
a way of assessing whether anyone
was fit or unfit to vote. As far as
Johnson was concerned, all you
needed to vote was American
citizenship and the registration of your
name on an electoral list. No form of
hindrance to this would be tolerated
by the law courts.
The impact of this act was dramatic. By the end of 1966, only 4 out of the traditional
13 Southern states, had less than 50% of African Americans registered to vote. By
1968, even hard-line Mississippi had 59% of African Americans registered. In the
longer term, far more African Americans were elected into public office. The Act
was the boost that the civil rights cause needed to move it swiftly along and
Johnson has to take full credit for this. As Martin Luther King had predicted in
earlier years, demonstrations served a good purpose but real change would only
come through the power of Federal government. Johnson proved this.
Head Start, a preschool program designed to
help disadvantaged students arrive at
kindergarten ready to learn was put into
place. The Volunteers in Service to America
(VISTA) was set up as a domestic Peace
Corps. Schools in impoverished American
regions would now receive volunteer
teaching attention. Federal funds were sent
to struggling communities to attack
unemployment and illiteracy.
As he campaigned in 1964, Johnson declared a "war on poverty." He challenged Americans to build a
"Great Society" that eliminated the troubles of the poor. Johnson won a decisive victory over his
archconservative Republican opponent Barry Goldwater of Arizona.
American liberalism was at high tide under President Johnson.
The Wilderness Protection Act saved 9.1 million acres of forestland from industrial development.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided major funding for American public schools.
Medicare was created to offset the costs of health care for the nation's elderly.
The National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities used public money to fund artists and galleries.
The Immigration Act ended discriminatory quotas based on ethnic origin.
An Omnibus Housing Act provided funds to construct low-income housing.
Congress tightened pollution controls with stronger Air and Water Quality Acts.
Standards were raised for safety in consumer products.
Vietnam War (1945-1975)
The Vietnam War was the longest
war in United States history.
Promises and commitments to the
people and government of
South Vietnam to keep
communist forces from
overtaking them reached
back into the Truman
Administration. Eisenhower
placed military advisers and
CIA operatives in Vietnam, and
John F. Kennedy sent
American soldiers to Vietnam.
Lyndon Johnson ordered the
first real combat by American
troops, and Richard Nixon
concluded the war.

In August 1964, in response to American and GVN
espionage along its coast, the DRV launched a local and
controlled attack against the C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S.
Maddox, two American ships on call in the Gulf of Tonkin.
The first of these attacks occurred on August 2, 1964. A
second attack was supposed to have taken place on
August 4, although Vo Nguyen Giap, the DRV's leading
military figure at the time, and Johnson's Secretary of
Defense Robert S. McNamara have recently concluded
that no second attack ever took place. In any event, the
Johnson administration used the August 4 attack as political
cover for a Congressional resolution that gave the president
broad war powers. The resolution, now known as the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution, passed both the House and Senate with
only two dissenting votes (Senators Morse of Oregon and
Gruening of Alaska). The Resolution was followed by limited
reprisal air attacks against the DRV.

Throughout the fall and into the
winter of 1964, the Johnson
administration debated the
correct strategy in Vietnam. The
Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to
expand the air war over the DRV
quickly to help stabilize the new
Saigon regime. The civilians in the
Pentagon wanted to apply
gradual pressure to the
Communist Party with limited and
selective bombings. Only
Undersecretary of State George
Ball dissented, claiming that
Johnson's Vietnam policy was too
provocative for its limited
expected results. In early 1965, the
NLF attacked two U.S. army
installations in South Vietnam, and
as a result, Johnson ordered the
sustained bombing missions over
the DRV that the Joint Chiefs of
Staff had long advocated.
The bombing missions, known as OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER, caused the
Communist Party to reassess its own war strategy. From 1960 through late 1964, the
Party believed it could win a military victory in the south "in a relatively short period
of time." With the new American military commitment, confirmed in March 1965
when Johnson sent the first combat troops to Vietnam, the Party moved to a
protracted war strategy. The idea was to get the United States bogged down in a
war that it could not win militarily and create unfavorable conditions for political
victory. The Communist Party believed that it would prevail in a protracted war
because the United States had no clearly defined objectives, and therefore, the
country would eventually tire of the war and demand a negotiated settlement.
While some naive and simple-minded critics have claimed that the Communist
Party, and Vietnamese in general, did not have the same regard for life and
therefore were willing to sustain more losses in a protracted war, the Party
understood that it had an ideological commitment to victory from large segments
of the Vietnamese population.

The Vietnam War grew increasingly
unpopular and this was reflected in the
music of the ‘60’s. Many of the songs of
this era were in protest to this war. The
first of these songs was “Ruby, Don’t Take
Your Love To Town”, a Country Music
song. It was about a Vietnam Vet who
was paralyzed in Vietnam and the
impact it had on his marriage when he
came home.

"Ruby,
Town"
Don't Take Your Love To
You've painted up your lips
And rolled and curled your tinted
hair
Ruby are you contemplating
Going out somewhere
The shadow on the wall
Tells me the sun is going down
Oh Ruby
Don't take your love to town
It wasn't me
That started that old crazy Asian
war
But I was proud to go
And do my patriotic chore
And yes, it's true that
I'm not the man I used to be
Oh, Ruby I still need some company
Its hard to love a man
Whose legs are bent and paralysed
And the wants and the needs of a
woman your age
Ruby I realize,
But it won't be long i've heard them
say until I not around
Oh Ruby
Don't take your love to town
She's leaving now cause
I just heard the slamming of the door
The way I know I've heard it slam
100 times before
And if I could move I'd get my gun
And put her in the ground
Oh Ruby
Don't take your love to town
Oh Ruby for God's sake turn around
Some of the other anti war
songs included
1.
Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag
2.
War
One Tin Soldier
Give Peace a Chance
3.
4.
6.
The Times They are a Changin’
Where have all the Flowers
Gone
7.
In the year 2525
8.
Ballad of the Green Berets
5.

By 1968, things had gone from bad to
worse for the Johnson administration. In
late January, the North Vietnamese Army
and the Viet Cong launched coordinated
attacks against the major southern cities.
These attacks, known in the West as the
Tet Offensive, were designed to force the
Johnson administration to the bargaining
table. The Communist Party correctly
believed that the American people were
growing war-weary and that its continued
successes in the countryside had tipped
the balance of forces in its favor.
Although many historians have since
claimed that the Tet Offensive was a
military defeat, but a psychological
victory for the Communists, it had
produced the desired results. In late
March 1968, a disgraced Lyndon Johnson
announced that he would not seek the
Democratic Party's re-nomination for
president and hinted that he would go to
the bargaining table with the Communists
to end the war.
March 28, 1968 - The initial report by
participants at My Lai states that 69 Viet Cong
soldiers were killed and makes no mention of
civilian causalities.
The My Lai massacre is successfully
concealed for a year, until a series of letters
from Vietnam veteran Ronald Ridenhour
spark an official Army investigation that results
in Charlie Company Commander, Capt.
Ernest L. Medina, First Platoon Leader, Lt.
William Calley, and 14 others being brought to
trial by the Army. A news photos of the
carnage, showing a mass of dead children,
women and old men, remains one of the most
enduring images of America's involvement in
Vietnam.
Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent
American Civil Rights leader and,
according to a Gallup poll conducted
in 2000, the second most admired
person of the 20th Century, was
assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee,
on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. On
June 10, 1968, James Earl Ray, a
fugitive from a Missouri prison, was
arrested in London at Heathrow
Airport, extradited to the United States,
and charged with the crime. On
March 10, 1969, Ray entered a plea of
guilty and was sentenced to 99 years
in the Tennessee state penitentiary.
Ray's many later attempts to withdraw
his guilty plea and be tried by a jury
were unsuccessful; he died in prison
on April 23, 1998, at the age of 70.
The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a
United States Senator and brother of
assassinated President John F. Kennedy,
took place shortly after midnight on June 5,
1968 in Los Angeles, California. After
winning the California primary election for
the Democratic nomination for President of
the United States, Robert F. Kennedy was
shot as he walked through the kitchen of
the Ambassador Hotel and died in the
Good Samaritan Hospital twenty-six hours
later. The assassin was a twenty-four year
old Palestinian immigrant named Sirhan
Sirhan, who remains incarcerated for this
crime as of 2010. The shooting was
recorded on audio tape by a freelance
newspaper reporter, and the aftermath
was captured on film.
Kennedy's body lay in repose at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York for two days before
a funeral mass was held on June 8. His body was interred near his brother John at
Arlington National Cemetery. His death prompted the protection of presidential
candidates by the United States Secret Service. Hubert Humphrey went on to win the
Democratic nomination for the presidency, but ultimately narrowly lost the election to
Richard Nixon.
In June 1962, the founding members of Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS) ratified the Port Huron Statement. The Huron
Statement was a manifesto, largely written by a young student
named Tom Hayden, condemning middle-class materialism,
racism, conformity, and anticommunism.
Strongly influenced by C. Wright Mills' The Power Elite, SDS members
feared that the Cold War was undermining American
democracy. A military-industrial complex seemed to be driving
the United States. Military leaders justified huge budgets by
involvement in foreign wars. The expenditures led to major
defense contracts for industrialists and millions of jobs across
America. The liberal establishment of Kennedy and Johnson
accepted the trend for fear of losing powerful supporters and
thousands of votes from working Americans. The results, they
claimed led to unjust involvement in foreign conflicts. Hayden
called for "participatory democracy," — grassroots organizations
where the true voices of Americans could be heard.
SDS became the leaders of the antiwar movement
in America. Drawing support from the civil rights
movement, SDS chapters organized local
demonstrations on college campuses and
marches to the steps of the Capitol Building. They
worked in inner cities to provide free lunches and
participated in voter drives to turn out the
African American electorate in the Deep South.
In addition to these causes, the movement was
concerned with student rights. Many universities
required a dress code, curfews, and restrictions
on free speech. As SDS advocated a freer
society, they pointed their arguments to their
deans as well as their political representatives.
With the growth of SDS, the New Left flourished in
America. Student leaders labeled the Old Left
the Socialists of a bygone era. The Old Left was
concerned with the problems brought by
poverty, while the New Left criticized the
suburban conformity and career materialism
spawned by postwar affluence as well. They
were critical of their left-leaning national
politicians. SDS leaders did not believe Kennedy
and Johnson were sincere in their support of civil
rights. In the wake of McCarthyism, taking a soft
stand on communism was unthinkable to
Washington politicians. While the New Left did
not glorify the Soviet system, they were willing to
blame both the United States and the Soviet
Union for escalating the Cold War.
As the decade came to a close, SDS
fragmented into moderate and radical
factions much like most other movements.
Although most SDS members were dedicated
to peaceful protest, some did go beyond
marches to the occupation of buildings and
confrontations with the police. An extreme
branch of SDS splintered off to form the
Weathermen in 1970. This group was a terrorist
organization openly committed to a violent
overthrow of the government. FBI scrutiny
forced many Weathermen underground
before long.
'Freedom Summer" (also known as the Mississippi Summer
Project) was a campaign in the United States launched in
June 1964 to attempt to register as many African
American voters as possible in Mississippi, which up to
that time had almost totally excluded black voters. The
project also set up dozens of Freedom Schools and
Freedom Houses in small towns throughout Mississippi to
aid the local black population. The project was
organized by the only two groups working on Civil Rights
in Mississippi. The Council of Federated Organizations
(COFO) was a coalition of established civil rights
organizations and handled many logistics for Freedom
Summer. But most of the impetus came from the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Robert
Parris Moses, SNCC field secretary and co-director of
COFO, directed the summer project.
By 1964, students and others had begun the process of
integrating public accommodations, registering to vote,
and above all organizing a network of local leadership.
But recent voting campaigns, including a massive effort
in Greenwood and a 1963 Freedom Election that brought
students from Stanford and Yale to help distribute nonbinding ballots, had been met with whiplash violence.
Speakers recruited on college campuses across the
country, drawing standing ovations for their dedication in
braving the routine violence perpetrated by cops,
sheriffs, and others in Mississippi. SNCC recruiters
interviewed dozens of potential volunteers, weeding out
those with a John Brown complex, informing others that
their job that summer would not be to "save the
Mississippi Negro" but to work with local leadership to
develop the grassroots movement.
Well over 1,000 out-of-state volunteers
participated in Freedom Summer
alongside thousands of black
Mississippians. Most of the volunteers were
young, most of them from the North, 90
percent were white and many were
Jewish. Two one-week orientation sessions
for the volunteers were held at Western
College for Women in Oxford, Ohio (now
part of Miami University), from June 14 to
June 27.
Organizers focused on Mississippi because it
had the lowest percentage of African
Americans registered to vote in the country; in
1962 only 6.7% of eligible black voters were
registered. White officials in the South
systematically kept African Americans from
being able to vote by charging them
expensive poll taxes, forcing them to take
especially difficult literacy tests, making the
application process inconvenient, harassing
would-be voters economically (as by denying
crop loans), and carrying out arson, battery,
and lynching.
During the ten weeks of Freedom Summer, a number of other
organizations provided support for the COFO Summer Project. More
than 100 volunteer doctors, nurses, psychologists, medical students
and other medical professionals from the Medical Committee for
Human Rights (MCHR) provided emergency care for volunteers and
local activists, taught health education classes, and advocated
improvements in Mississippi's segregated health system. Volunteer
lawyers from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Inc ("Ink Fund"),
National Lawyers Guild, Lawyer's Constitutional Defense Committee
(LCDC) an arm of the ACLU, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law (LCCR) provided free legal services — handling
arrests, freedom of speech, voter registration and other matters. And
the Commission on Religion and Race (CORR), an endeavor of the
National Council of Churches (NCC), brought Christian and Jewish
clergy and divinity students to Mississippi to support the work of the
Summer Project. In addition to offering traditional religious support to
volunteers and activists, the ministers and rabbis engaged in voting
rights protests at courthouses, recruited voter applicants and
accompanied them to register, taught in Freedom Schools, and
performed office and other support functions.
Many of Mississippi's white residents deeply resented the
outsiders and any attempt to change their society. Locals
routinely harassed volunteers. Newspapers called them
"unshaven and unwashed trash." Their presence in local
black communities sparked drive by shootings, Molotov
cocktails, and constant harassment. State and local
governments, police, the White Citizens' Council and the
Ku Klux Klan used murder, arrests, beatings, arson, spying,
firing, evictions, and other forms of intimidation and
harassment to oppose the project and prevent blacks
from registering to vote or achieving social equality.
Over the course of the ten-week project:
w four civil rights workers were killed (one in a head-on
collision)
• W four people were critically wounded
• M eighty Freedom Summer workers were beaten
• F one-thousand and sixty-two people were arrested
(volunteers and locals)
• T thirty seven churches were bombed or burned
V thirty Black homes or businesses were bombed or
burned.
Violence struck the campaign almost as soon as it started.
On June 21, 1964, James Chaney (a black CORE activist
from Mississippi), CORE organizer Michael Schwerner, and
summer volunteer Andrew Goodman (both of whom
were Jews from New York) were arrested by Cecil Price, a
Neshoba County deputy sheriff and member of the White
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. They were held in jail until after
nightfall, then released into a waiting ambush by
Klansmen who abducted and killed them. Goodman
and Schwerner were shot at point blank range. Chaney
was chased, beaten mercilessly, and shot three times.
Reported on TV and on newspaper front pages, the triple
disappearance shocked the nation and drew massive
media attention to Freedom Summer and to "the closed
society" of Mississippi.
As soon as the men had turned up missing, SNCC and COFO
workers began phoning the FBI asking for an investigation. FBI
agents refused, saying it was a local matter. Finally, after 36
hours of foot-dragging by the FBI, Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy ordered an investigation and FBI agents began
swarming around Philadelphia, Mississippi, where Goodman,
Schwerner, and Chaney had been arrested. For the next
seven weeks, FBI agents and sailors from a nearby naval
airbase searched for the bodies, wading into swamps, hacking
through underbrush. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover came to
Mississippi on July 10 to open the first FBI branch office there.
Throughout the search, Mississippi newspapers and word of
mouth perpetuated the common belief that the
disappearance was "a hoax" designed to draw publicity. But
on August 4, 1964, the three bodies were found buried
beneath an earthen dam. These events inspired the film
“Mississippi Burning”
Though Freedom Summer failed to register many voters, it
had a significant effect on the course of the Civil Rights
Movement. It helped break down the decades of
isolation and repression that were the foundation of the
Jim Crow system. Before Freedom Summer, the national
news media had paid little attention to the persecution
of black voters in the Deep South and the dangers
endured by black civil rights workers, but when the lives
of affluent northern white students were threatened the
full attention of the media spotlight was turned on the
state. This evident disparity between the value that the
media placed on the lives of whites and blacks
embittered many black activists. Perhaps the most
significant effect of Freedom Summer was on the
volunteers themselves, almost all of whom — black and
white — still consider it one of the defining moments of
their lives.
Peace movement leaders opposed the war on moral and
economic grounds. The North Vietnamese, they argued,
were fighting a patriotic war to rid themselves of foreign
aggressors. Innocent Vietnamese peasants were being
killed in the crossfire. American planes wrought
environmental damage by dropping their defoliating
chemicals.
Ho Chi Minh was the most popular leader in all of Vietnam,
and the United States was supporting an undemocratic,
corrupt military regime. Young American soldiers were
suffering and dying. Their economic arguments were less
complex, but as critical of the war effort. Military spending
simply took money away from Great Society social
programs such as welfare, housing, and urban renewal.
The late 1960s became increasingly radical as the
activists felt their demands were ignored.
Peaceful demonstrations turned violent. When
the police arrived to arrest protesters, the crowds
often retaliated. Students occupied buildings
across college campuses forcing many schools
to cancel classes. Roads were blocked and
ROTC buildings were burned. Doves clashed with
police and the National Guard in August 1968,
when antiwar demonstrators flocked to the
Democratic National Convention in Chicago to
prevent the nomination of a prowar candidate.
August 28, 1968 - During the Democratic national
convention in Chicago, 10,000 anti-war
protesters gather on downtown streets and are
then confronted by 26,000 police and national
guardsmen. The brutal crackdown is covered
live on network TV. 800 demonstrators are
injured.
The United States is now experiencing a level of
social unrest unseen since the American Civil
War era, a hundred years earlier. There have
been 221 student protests at 101 colleges and
universities thus far in 1968.
DEFENSE LAWYERS
William Kunstler
Leonard Weinglass
THE DEFENDANTS
Abbie Hoffman
Jerry Rubin
David Dellinger
Rennie Davis
Tom Hayden
John Froines
Lee Weiner
Bobby Seale
Conspiracy :
Trial of the
Chicago 8
William Kunstler was the flamboyant lead
defense attorney in the Chicago Conspiracy
Trial. It was obvious to all that Kunstler chose
sides in the battleground of Judge Hoffman's
courtroom and fully joined his clients' cause.
He ate, danced, drank, and demonstrated with
the defendants, causing the judge to observe at
one point, "You get awfully chummy with your
clients." Kunstler was a man with a huge ego,
and the press covering the trial frequently
accused him of "showboating." It was clear that
Kunstler had the confidence to "wing it," but
often his lack of preparation showed during
cross-examination or argument. Kunstler
engaged in increasingly bitter confrontations
with Judge Hoffman as the trial proceeded;
some confrontations were no doubt calculated
melodrama, others spontaneous expressions of
outrage. Kunstler's performance earned him a
sentence of over four years in prison for
contempt.
Intelligent and coolly analytical,
Thomas Hayden was widely
viewed as the chief ideologue of
the Movement. In 1962, Hayden
had drafted the famous Port
Huron Statement expressing the
idealism of the New Left. He was
co-founder of the Students for a
Democratic Society. In the early
sixties, Hayden participated in
civil rights work in the South and
in the black ghettoes of Newark.
He later shifted his focus to
efforts to end the Vietnam War,
twice making trips to North
Vietnam. After the Chicago
Seven trial, Hayden married (and
later divorced) activist actress
Jane Fonda.
Abbie Hoffman was a leader of the Youth International Party. At trial,
Hoffman described himself as "an orphan of America" and "a child of
Woodstock Nation." He was, perhaps, the most intriguing figure in Judge
Hoffman's courtroom. Hoffman believed that identity is defined by myth
propagated through the media.
Despite an outwardly zany style, Jerry Rubin lacked the natural
lightheartedness of his Yippie co-founder Abbie Hoffman. Rubin often
seemed more tense or anxious during the trial than other defendants. He
provided one of the most memorable moments of the trial when he
paraded back and forth in front of Judge Hoffman, thrusting his arm in a
Nazi salute and shouting "Heil Hitler!“
David Dellinger, age 54 at the time of trial, was the Chicago Seven's old
man. The stern, Christian Socialist from Wakefield, Massachusetts was
described by prosecutors "the chief architect of the conspiracy" because
of his position as the chair of the National Mobilization Committee to End
the War in Vietnam.
Rennie Davis was, at the time of trial, the twenty-nine-year-old National
Director of community organizing programs for the Students for a
Democratic Society. As a Movement bureaucrat based in Chicago, Davis
did most of the organizing for the Convention week demonstrations.
John Froines, along with Lee Weiner, were the two forgotten defendants
at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial. Not individually charged with inciting a
riot, but rather with making incendiary devices (stink bombs), Froines and
Weiner were acquitted by the jury.
August 25, 1968
Police club persons attending a music festival in
Lincoln Park who refuse to leave at curfew. Davis and
Hayden meet to lead march to the Conrad Hilton, the
main Convention hotel. At 9 p.m., police confront and
attack some demonstrators. Rubin allegedly urges
demonstrators to attack police. At 10:30 p.m., two
police officers observe Hayden letting the air out of
tires of their police car.
August 26, 1968
Hoffman calls Deputy Mayor Stahl to protest decision
to forcibly drive people out of park. Hayden is arrested
in the afternoon for the squad car incident. Hoffman
and Rubin allegedly urge demonstrators to hold
Lincoln Park. Davis urges demonstrators "Don't let the
pigs take the hill (high ground near a statue in the
park)." About 3,000 demonstrators gathered in park for
chanting, singing songs, and talking are attacked by
police with clubs and tear gas after 11 p.m. curfew.
August 27, 1968
Allan Ginsberg leads a sunrise service that includes chanting,
prayers, and meditation. About 4,000 gather at a rally in the
Chicago Coliseum to hear Dellinger, Hoffman, folksinger Phil Ochs,
novelist William Burroughs and others. A planned march to the
Amphitheatre, site of the Democratic National Convention, is
discussed. Bobby Seale addressed a crowd of about 2,000 in
Lincoln Park. Seale's address is observed by undercover police
officer Robert Pierson. At 11:20 p.m. in Lincoln Park, police charge
and beat demonstrators. Some enraged demonstrators smash
windows and streetlights. Violent encounters between police and
demonstrators occur in the streets near Grant Park.
August 28, 1968
Hoffman is arrested while having breakfast for having the word
"Fuck" on his forehead. Dellinger, Seale, Davis, and Hayden
address 10,000 to 15,000 demonstrators at the bandshell in Grant
Park, opposite the Hilton. Democrats nominate Hubert Humphrey
as their candidate for President. Dellinger announces that he will
lead a march to the Amphitheatre. The march is stopped by police.
Demonstators are attacked by police with teargas and clubs at
Balbo and Michigan and other locations in the area.
August 29, 1968
Senator Eugene McCarthy, Dick Gregory are among others who
address a crowd in Grant Park. Hoffman allegedly proposes the
kidnapping of Superintendent Rochford.
September 24, 1969
The trial of the Chicago Eight begins in Chicago
before Judge Julius Hoffman.
October 29 to November 3, 1969
Because of his courtroom outbursts, Bobby Seale
is ordered bound and gagged.
November 5, 1969
The trial of Seale is severed from the trial of what
now becomes the Chicago Seven.
February 14, 1970
The case goes to the jury.
February 18, 1970
The jury returns its verdict, finding five of the
seven defendants guilty of violating the Anti-Riot
Act of 1968. Froines and Weiner are acquitted.
February 20, 1970
Judge Hoffman sentences the convicted
defendants.
May 11, 1972
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
reverses the contempt convictions of the
Chicago Seven and their two defense
attorneys, Leonard Weinglass and
William Kunstler.
November 21, 1972
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
reverses the convictions of Hoffman,
Rubin, Dellinger, Davis, and Hayden.
Nixon began the campaign as
the front runner, with a clear
lead. He campaigned
against rising crime and
claimed he would restore
"law and order". Nixon also
instituted the Southern policy,
taking advantage of
Southern voters resentments
at civil rights legislation
passed by the Johnson
administration it successful
received support from what
had been a solidly
democratic south. Toward
the end of the campaign as
Humphrey became more
critical of Johnson's handling
of the war, the lead
narrowed. It did not narrow
enough to stop a Nixon
victory however.
Make love, not war. Don't trust anyone over 30. Turn on,
tune in, and drop out. I am a human being — please
do not fold, bend spindle, or mutilate.
These and many more became slogans for emerging
youth culture — a counterculture — in the 1960s. The
baby boom was entering its teen years, and in sheer
numbers they represented a larger force than any
prior generation in the history of the United States. As
more and more children of middle-class Americans
entered college, many rejected the suburban
conformity designed by their parents.
Never more than a minority
movement, the so-called
"hippie" lifestyle became
synonymous with
American youth of the
1960s. Displaying frank
new attitudes about
drugs and sex, communal
lifestyles, and innovations
in food, fashion, and
music, the counterculture
youth of America broke
profoundly with almost all
values their parents held
dear.
The sexual revolution was
in full swing on
American college
campuses. Birth
control and a rejection
of traditional views of
sexuality led to a more
casual attitude toward
sex. Displays of public
nudity became
commonplace. Living
together outside
marriage shattered old
norms.
In addition to changes in
sexual attitudes, many
youths experimented with
drugs. Marijuana and LSD
were used most commonly,
but experimentation with
mushrooms and pills was
common as well. A Harvard
professor named Timothy
Leary made headlines by
openly promoting the use of
LSD. There was a price to be
paid for these new
attitudes. With the new
freedom came an upsurge
of venereal diseases, bad
trips, and drug addictions.
One lasting change from the
countercultural movement was
in American diet. Health food
stores sold wheat germ, yogurt,
and granola, products
completely foreign to the 1950s
America. Vegetarianism
became popular among many
youths. Changes in fashion
proved more fleeting. Long hair
on young men was standard, as
were Afros. Women often wore
flowers in their hair. Ethnic or
peasant clothing was
celebrated.. Beads, bellbottom
jeans, and tie-dyed shirts
became the rage, as each
person tried to celebrate his or
her own sense of individuality.
It is important to note that the
counterculture was probably no
more than ten percent of the
American youth population.
Contrary to common belief, most
young Americans sought careers
and lifestyles similar to their
parents. Young educated
people actually supported the
war in Vietnam in greater
numbers than older,
uneducated Americans. The
counterculture was simply so
outrageous that the media
made their numbers seem larger
than in reality. Nevertheless, this
lifestyle made an indelible
cultural impact on America for
decades to come.
Old Hippe
He turned thirty-five last Sunday
In his hair he found some gray
But he still ain't changed his lifestyle
He likes it better the old way
So he grows a little garden in the back yard by the fence
He's consuming what he's growing nowadays in self
defense
He get's out there in the twilight zone
Sometimes when it just don't make no sense
He gets off on country music
Cause disco left him cold
He's got young friends into new wave
But he's just too friggin' old
And he dreams at night of Woodstock and the day
John Lennon died
How the music made him happy and the silence
made him cry
Yeah he thinks of John sometimes
And he has to wonder why
He's an old hippie and he don't know what to do
Should he hang on to the old
Should he grab on to the new
He's an old hippie...his new life is just a bust
He ain't trying to change nobody
He's just trying real hard to adjust
He was sure back in the sixties that everyone was hip
Then they sent him off to Vietnam on his senior trip
And they forced him to become a man while he was still a boy
And behind each wave of tragedy he waited for the joy
Now this world may change around him
But he just can't change no more
He's an old hippie and he don't know what to do
Should he hang on to the old
Should he grab on to the new
He's an old hippie...his new life is just a bust
He ain't trying to change nobody
He's just trying real hard to adjust
Well he stays away a lot now from the parties and the clubs
And he's thinking while he's joggin' 'round
Sure is glad he quit the hard drugs
Cause him and his kind get more endangered everyday
And pretty soon the species will just up and fade away
Like the smoke from that torpedo...just up and fade away
He's an old hippie and he don't know what to do
Should he hang on to the old
Should he grab on to the new
He's an old hippie...his new life is just a bust
He ain't trying to change nobody
He's just trying real hard to adjust.
During the Summer of Love, as many as 100,000
young people from around the world flocked to San
Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, as well as to
nearby Berkeley and to other San Francisco Bay
Area cities, to join in a popularized version of the
hippie experience. Free food, free drugs and free
love were available in Golden Gate Park, a Free
Clinic (whose work continues today) was
established for medical treatment, and a Free Store
gave away basic necessities to anyone who
needed them.
The Summer of Love attracted a wide range of
people of various ages: teenagers and college
students drawn by their peers and the allure of
joining a cultural utopia; middle-class vacationers;
and even partying military personnel from bases
within driving distance. The Haight-Ashbury could
not accommodate this rapid influx of people, and
the neighborhood scene quickly deteriorated.
Overcrowding, homelessness, hunger, drug
problems, and crime afflicted the neighborhood.
Many people left in the fall to resume their college
studies.
San Francisco
On October 6, 1967, those remaining in the
Haight staged a mock funeral, "The Death of
the Hippie" ceremony, to signal the end of the
played-out scene. Mary Kasper explained the
message of the mock funeral as follows:
“We wanted to signal that this was the end of
it, don't come out. Stay where you are! Bring
the revolution to where you live. Don't come
here because it's over and done with.”
This was a 3 day concert in Bethel, NY
that turned into THE event of the 1960’s.
500,000 people attended and because of
an improperly set up fence at the
entrance to the site, it became a free
concert.
The common bond among
many youths of the time
was music. Centered in
the Haight-Ashbury
section of San Francisco,
a new wave of
psychedelic rock and roll
became the music of
choice. Bands like the
Grateful Dead, Jefferson
Airplane, and the Doors
created new sounds with
electrically enhanced
guitars, subversive lyrics,
and association with
drugs.
Folk music was fused with
rock, embodied by the
best-known solo artist of
the decade, Bob Dylan.
When the popular Beatles
went psychedelic with
their landmark album Sgt
Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band,
counterculture music
became mainstream.
Most requested songs of the 1960’s
Year
Song
Artist
1960
The Twist
Chubby Checker
1961
At Last
Etta James
1962
Miserlou
Dick Dale
1963
Yakety Sax
Boots Randolf
1964
Twist and Shout
Beatles
1965
Unchained Melody
Righteous Brothers
1966
I'm A Believer
The Monkees
1967
Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Marvin Gaye and Tammi
Terrell
1968
Sittin On The Dock Of The Bay
Otis Redding
1969
Build Me Up Buttercup
Foundations

Longest songs in the 1960’s
Song
Time
Hey Jude (The Beatles)
7 minutes and 3 seconds
Monster (Steppenwolf)
9 minutes 17 seconds
In-a gadda-da-vida (Iron Butterfly)
17 minutes and 3 seconds
The average song that was played on the radio
was 2 minutes and 37 seconds.
Popular Artists of the 1960’s
.
ARTIST
ARTIST
The Beach Boys
Aretha Franklin
The Beatles
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
Roy Orbison
The Grateful Dead
Buddy Holly
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Drifters
Cream
The Mamas & the Papas
Moody Blues
The Monkees
Steppenwolf
The Rolling Stones
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Simon and Garfunkel
Strawberry Alarm Clock
The Supremes
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Fleetwood Mac
Eric Burdon and The Animals
The Doors
Bob Dylan
The Who
Wilson Pickett
American Bandstand is an American musical
variety show that aired in various versions from
1952
. to 1989, hosted from 1957 until its final
season by Dick Clark, who also served as
producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to
Top 40-type music introduced by Clark; at least
one popular musical act—over the decades,
running the gamut from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run
DMC—would usually appear in-person to lip-sync
one of their latest singles.
Regulars that appeared on the show more than
two or three times a week were not actors or
professional dancers, but ordinary high school
students.It was immediately clear to the producers
that regulars drew a huge viewing audience, as
well as a dependable studio audience. For teen
viewers, especially outside Philadelphia, the
regulars were role models. Girls copied hair-dos
and make-up; boys copied dance steps and
clothing styles.
Year
Title
1960
The Apartment
1961
West Side Story
1962
Lawrence of Arabia
1963
Tom Jones
1964
My Fair Lady
1965
The Sound of Music
1966
A Man For All Seasons
1967
In The Heat Of The Night
1968
“OLIVER!”
1969
Midnight Cowboy
Year
Title
1960
Psycho
1961
Breakfast at Tiffany's
1961
The Hustler
1962
The Manchurian Candidate
1962
To Kill a Mockingbird
1963
The Birds
1964
A Hard Day's Night (The Beatles first film)
1964
Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love the Bomb
1966
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967
Cool Hand Luke
1967
The Graduate
1967
Bonnie and Clyde
1967
Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?
1968
2001: A Space Odyssey
1969
Easy Rider
Top TV Shows
Year
Show
Network
1960-61
Gunsmoke
CBS
1961-62
Wagon Train
NBC
1962-64
The Beverly Hillbillies
CBS
1964-67
Bonanza
NBC
1967-68
The Andy Griffith Show
CBS
1968-70
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
NBC
Other Popular TV Shows
Show
Network
The Ed Sullivan Show
CBS
My Three Sons
ABC
The Dick Van Dyke Show
CBS
Petticoat Junction
CBS
Bewitched
ABC
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
CBS
Gilligan's Island
CBS
Hogan's Heroes
CBS
Green Acres
CBS
Dragnet
NBC
Hawaii Five-O
CBS
The Monkees
CBS
Star Trek
NBC
Year
Baseball
Football
Basketball
Hockey
1960
Pittsburgh Pirates
Philadelphia Eagles
St. Louis Hawks
Montreal Canadiens
1961
New York Yankees
Green Bay Packers
St. Louis Hawks
Chicago Black Hawks
1962
New York Yankees
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Lakers
Toronto Maple Leafs
1963
Los Angeles Dodgers
Chicago Bears
Los Angeles Lakers
Toronto Maple Leafs
1964
St. Louis Cardinals
Cleveland Browns
San Francisco Warriors
Toronto Maple Leafs
1965
Los Angeles Dodgers
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Lakers
Montreal Canadiens
1966
Baltimore Orioles
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Lakers
Montreal Canadiens
1967
St. Louis Cardinals
Green Bay Packers
San Francisco Warriors
Toronto Maple Leafs
1968
Detroit Tigers
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Lakers
Toronto Maple Leafs
1969
New York Mets
New York Jets
Los Angeles Lakers
Toronto Maple Leafs
Many black people felt the civil rights
movement was achieving the
economic, social and political
liberation of the race. Some of them,
more radical, were disgusted with the
slow pace of reform, and felt the need
to speed things up and force the issue
directly. Among these outspoken black
people was Malcolm X, a black muslim
who demanded not just equality, but
advocated a black revolution as a
response to the oppression and
inequality black people experienced.
Malcolm X looked at the history of
black people in America and pointed
out how they were still suffering from
slave mentality on the part of both the
white establishment, and their own
thinking.
Around this time, black students on
college campuses were
demanding classes that focused
on black history and minority
studies, rather than the standard
white version of history. Student
Non-violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) chairman,
Stokely Charmichael, used the
term Black Power to create an
awareness among blacks of their
human rights and ability to
change their own circumstances
without reliance on the white
power structure for improving the
lot of black people
The Black Panther Party was
founded by Huey P. Newton
and Bobby Seale and
embraced the teachings of
Malcolm X. The Black Panthers
set out to change the way
black people were being
treated in America. First they
wanted to protect blacks from
police harrassment and
brutality. To this end, they
advocated arming black
people with weapons and using
them when necessary to
defend oneself. When you
realize that most of the leaders
of the Black Panthers were
former US military men, many of
whom served in Vietnam, you
know they weren't bluffing.
The second thing the Panthers
wanted to achieve was
economic and political
equality for black people. To
achieve this they felt it
necessary to reject the
existing system and set about
creating an independent
self-supporting political and
economic system. Black
Panthers setup many new
community services including
feeding the poor, teaching
young children black history
and black pride and free
medical services.
But their leaders became
targets for the police, and a
number of busts and
shootouts resulted in the
Panther leadership either
being killed or incarcerated.
Yet the Panthers managed
to inspire many black people
to become more active in
their communities and to
fight the system. Likewise the
threat they represented to
the white status quo and to
black conservatives, was a
shot across America's bow,
forcing it to change course in
dealing with minority rights.
On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 launched from the
Kennedy Space Center.
On July 20, 1969, Commander Neil Armstrong became
the first man on the moon. He said the historic words,
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
A camera in the Lunar Module, "Eagle" provided live
television coverage as Neil Armstrong climbed down
the ladder to the surface of the moon.
The crew spend a total of two and a half hours on the
moon's surface. While on the moon's surface, the
performed a variety of experiments and collected soil
and rock samples to return to Earth.
An American flag was left on the moon's surface as a
reminder of the accomplishment.
The Command Module
"Columbia" returned to
Earth on July 24, 1969.
Apollo 11 had
successfully completed
its mission. President
Kennedy's objective to
land men on the moon
and return them safely
to Earth had been
accomplished.
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 revealing legs, bodywear
was revealing curves, and women's hair was either very short or
long and lanky. Men's hair became longer and wider, with beards
and moustaches. Men's wear had a renaissance. 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. Clothing
was as likely to be purchased at surplus stores as boutiques.
Blacks of both genders wore their hair in an afro.
The
Mini
dress
Go-go boots
The Afro
Peasant Skirts
The Bouffant
Nehru Jackets