The Role Of Young People In The 1960s

In the United States, the beginning of the 1960s was meant to be the “dawn of a golden age,” There were major movements in civil rights and inequality. The peaceful protests and movements against injustice across the country, and throughout the decade, were commonplace, as the passion of young people and the wisdom of older people formed voices for the government to hear. At the beginning of the decade, with the election of John F. Kennedy, the possibility of these changes was hopeful. He encompassed the hopes of the decade with his inaugural address, in which he states “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” The desire for change was in the news, pop culture, and even fashion. The 1960s was a decade

Pete Seeger gained popularity in the 1950s and continued to throughout the 1960s. He sang pro-union, anti-racist, and anti-war folk songs such as “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” “Bring ‘em Home,” and “Take it From Dr. King.” Pete Seeger was vital in the rising interest in folk music during the early 60s. Seeger also found and funded the biweekly magazine Broadside, which featured songs addressing contemporary social issues, and published songs from other folk artists such as Bob Dylan, Tomm Paxton, Phil Ochs, Less Chandler, and Peter La Farge. Bob Dylan and Joan Baez became known as the King and Queen of Folk, due to the fact the pair were in a romantic relationship and focused on civil rights and pacifism in their songs. For example, on the morning of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream Speech,” Baez sang “Oh Freedom” for the people in attendance. Its lyrics are defiant and bold, to reflect the emotions fueling the civil rights movement. Similarly, Dylan wrote songs such as “Hard Rain’s A-gonna Fall,” which addressed the Cuban Missile Crisis and “Masters of War,” which addressed the complacent middle-class citizens for allowing American militarism to flourish unchecked. The popularity of folk songs remained constant throughout the decade and peaked in 1969 with the Woodstock Music and

At first, the protestors were ignored, but the more money and manpower that sank into the war effort, the more intense the anti-war movement became. Once again, however, the protests showed no signs of affecting the American policy towards Vietnam. Thus, the groups within the movement fell apart and split between violent and nonviolent measures. It was 1968 when many of these protests turned sour. That year, the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive convinced many people that the Vietnam War would be impossible to win. The Democratic Party split, and Richard Nixon won the election that falls. Then, Martin Luther King Jr and Bobby Kennedy, the two most visible leftists in American politics, were assassinated. Police used tear gas and billy clubs to break up protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Anti-war protesters in Columbia University sat for days to demand change, only to be cleared out and assaulted by police, and urban riots that had erupted across the country every summer since 1964 continued and intensified. Even entertainment was being affected at the end of the decade. On June 27, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. The bar’s patrons were sick of being subjected to harassment and discrimination and fought back. Then on December 6, 1969, the Altamont Speedway Free