The Hippie Movement Kiarra Klemensits December 19th, 2014 The Hippie Movement of the 1960’s was one of the most constructive and significant trends during Cold War America. The first acknowledgement of the Hippie Movement came to nationwide awareness in 1965, when San Francisco Examiner writer, Michael Fallon, wrote an article about the new lifestyle that was developing in the Haight-Ashbury district in California (Baughman 1). Fallon wrote that, “a new group of young people who gathered in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco campaigned the virtues of peace, free love, recreational drug use, rock and roll, and individual freedom to do "your own thing”” (Baughman 2). Michael Fallon called these personalities “hippies”, shortening Norman …show more content…
This was the first time in American History that the younger generation actually had a voice in the protest against society. The Hippie Movement was made up of several discrete groups that criticized developments in American society and promoted social change in the late 1950’s and through the 1960’s (Pendergast 1). The “Baby Boom” generation had finally reached adulthood, making them the largest populated generation of that time (Baughman 3). Many had joined the workforce, trying to recreate the image of the “traditional family.” The other fraction of those compeers had joined the Hippie Movement, and primarily spent their time trying to expose the failures of the government. As the years went on, the amount of people who joined the Hippie Movement increased, after their eyes were opened to the harsh reality that was the United States Government. Racism, sexism, and …show more content…
What began as a small, organized event, quickly turned to chaos. The Woodstock Music Festival was a gathering of over 450,000 young people who camped together peacefully for three days in the rain, enjoying music and love (Baughman 11). It featured most of the top performers in rock like Janis Joplin and the Who (Baughman 12). It even received nationwide publicity (Baughman 13). Many Hippies felt that the new way of life had proved itself at this event because people actually paid attention to what was happening on stage and around them. But, you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain. About eighty arrests were made at the festival for possession of hard drugs like LSD, psilocybin, and hashish (Baughman 14). Thunderstorms cut some performances short, but those in attendance were not disappointed (Baughman 15). The police did not bother making arrests for marijuana, being there were far too many people in possession of the narcotic (Baughman 16). The counterculture had reached its peak in the summer of 1969 at the Woodstock Festival, and the Hippies couldn’t be