The Turbulent

60s

1960 Election

• Nixon – Republican candidate (former vice president for Eisenhower)

• Kennedy – Democratic candidate-43 year old senator from Massachusetts

TV’s role in Election

• Most decisive factor in the race for presidency

• First four televised debates– Kennedy appeared more

vigorous and comfortable

Kennedy• New Frontier• “The Torch has been

passed to a new generation”

• Administration was dubbed Camelot

Kennedy’s Domestic Policy

• Called for aid in education• Federal support of health

care• Civil rights legislation• Urban renewal

– Most none were passed

Economy stimulated due to increased spending for defense and space

Assassination in Dallas

• Lee Harvey Oswald accused gunman

• Many conspiracies linked to assassination – none have proved creditable

• Marked the beginning for distrust in government

Kennedy’s Legacy

• “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”

• Peace Corp• Inspired thousands to

public service

Johnson’s Great Society• Medicare – health insurance

for those over 65• Medicaid – health care for

poor and disabled• Elementary and Secondary

Education Act – provided funding to poor school districts

• National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities

Johnson’s Great Society cont.

• HUD• Increased funding for

secondary education• Increased funding for public

housing• Increased funding for crime

prevention• Regulated automobile

industry • Civil Rights Act of 1964

Student Movement

• Tom Hayden – leader of a group of radical students

• Port Huron statement – university decisions made through participatory democracy

• SDS – Students for a Democratic Society

Free Speech Movement

• University of California 1964

• Called an end to university restrictions on student political activities

• Student demonstrations grew with the escalation of Vietnam War –many closed down by protestsKent State - 1970

Weathermen• Radical fringe of SDS• Embraced violence and

vandalism on American institutions

• Angered by the Vietnam War

• Discredited early idealism of the New Left

• Led the protests at the Chicago Democratic convention

Counterculture• Expressed by youth in

rebellious styles of dress, music, drug use and communal living

• Bob Dylan and Joan Baez gave voice to protests

• Beatles, Janis Joplin, Rolling Stones provided the beat

• Dress code for “hippies”– Long hair, beard, and jeans

Warren CourtChanges in Criminal Law

• Mapp v. Ohio – ruled illegally seized evidence cannot be used in court against the accused

• Gideon v. Wainwright – required that courts provide an attorney for poor defendants

• Escobedo v. Illinois – required police to inform an arrested person of their rights

• Miranda v. Arizona – accused has the right to an attorney present during questioning

Expression and Privacy• Yates v. U.S. – First Amendment protected

radical and revolutionary speech, even by Communists unless it presented a “clear and present danger” to country

• Engel v. Vitale – prayer and Bible readings in public schools violated separation of church and state

• Griswold v. Connecticut – right to privacy – a state could not prohibit the use of contraceptives

Women’s Movement• The Feminine Mystique by Betty Fiedan

encouraged middle-class women to seek fulfillment in careers rather than confining roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers

• NOW – National Organization for Women goal- secure equal treatment of Women

• ERA – passed in 1972 – equality of rights under the law shall not be denied based on sex

• Accomplishments -changes in employment and hiring practices

Art of the 60s

• Andy Warhol– Famous pop artist – Removed the difference

between fine arts and commercial arts

– Painted objects of mass production

– Produced silk screens and posters using mass production

• documents in detail the true menace to the ecosystem caused by harmful pesticides

• awakened society to a responsibility to other forms of life

• is credited with launching the contemporary environmental movement

1968: Coming Apart at Home

• January – Tet Offensive• March – My Lai massacre• April – Martin Luther King assassinated• June – Robert Kennedy assassinated

Martin Luther King

• Civil rights leader committed to nonviolent protests

• March on Washington 1963 – most successful peaceful marches in history – delivered “I have a Dream” speech– Appealed to end racial

prejudice

Robert Kennedy

Assassinated June 5, 1968

– Presidential candidate 1968

– Shot and killed by a young Arab nationalists who opposed Kennedy’s support for Israel

Chicago Democratic Convention: 1968• Hubert Humphrey

emerged as the candidate controlling the convention inside

• Outside antiwar demonstrators controlled the streets

• Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley had the police out in mass – seen on TV as “police riot”

Battle of Lincoln Park

Chicago SEVEN• “YIPPIES” Youth

International Party• Accused of conspiring to

incite the riot at the Democratic National Convention, 1968

• Government reports placed the blame on Daley and police department

• Sentenced to five years; overturned in 1972 by federal appeals court

Jerry Ruben, Abby Hoffman, Tom Hayden, David Dellinger, John

Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Seale

1968 Candidates

• Hubert Humphrey – Democrat (New Deal coalition)

• George Wallace – American Independent Party (hostility towards antiwar protests and segregation)

• Richard Nixon –Republican (peace with honor)

Significance: Election of 1968Voters sent a very strong

messageSupporters of Nixon and

Wallace (“Silent Majority”) had enough of the protests, violence, the counterculture, drugs, and federal intervention in social institutions – tide was turning on the New Deal liberalism in favor of the conservatives

WOODSTOCK

1969

One Last Fling for the “Hippies”

• Woodstock music festival in upper New York

• Put together by four young entrepreneurs between the ages 24-26

• ~500,000 “hippies” gathered peacefully to listen to music