Major Social And Cultural Changes Of The 1960's

272 Words2 Pages
The 1960s were years in which major social, political, and cultural changes took place in the United States. As historian Eric Foner pointed out, one of the key factors driving change during that era was the combination of activist movements that sought to bring about substantial policy shifts impacting minorities, women, conscientious objectors to military service, and young people pursuing alternatives to the lifestyles of their parents (288-289). When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated by a man named James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, riots, looting, and violence broke out in a number of major American cities (Johnson 893). Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Baltimore among other cities, were