Psychodelic Decade

The 1960’s
The 1960s was filled with movements, important people and events that forever changed the history of this nation. The movements were usually related to either civil rights or anti-war issues. One of the many movements was the “Hippies”, who challenged the government as well as the uptight lifestyle of their grandparents and parents and created their own path to happiness. With the movements also came inspiring, determined leaders. The most important leader was Martin Luther King Jr. Dr King represented hope to all African American people that weren’t treated equal and wanted to be recognized at the same level of worth as any American. He and his followers practiced civil disobedience by non violent means and believed racial discrimination would only decease if they spoke out against those who oppressed them. There were also many events that defined this period like for example the Cuban Missile Crisis, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon, and the Vietnam War began. But the event that hurt many Americans was the death of our 35th president John F. Kennedy. Without these movements, people, and events this country would not be the same country it is today.
The Hippie Lifestyle was a social movement among the youth which strongly defined a generation in the United States during the mid 1960s. Hippies also known as “flower power children” began with the concept of “peace, love, and flower power”. They opposed political and social oppression and instead chose a gentle, peaceful, and free love way of life. Many hippies were pacifists and attended many political demonstrations such as the civil rights movements, anti-war demonstrations, and Washington D.C marches. Hippies refused to go to military teach-ins and instead burned draft cards and gave flowers to people who represented oppression and the war like policemen and soldiers. The hippie’s style consisted of long unkempt looking hair with a flower, Pocahontas or beaded headband around it. They often wore self made tie dyed shirts, torn grungy jeans, and no shoes to be more physically connected to their mother, “earth”. Woman hippies would often wear a halter top, hip hugger jeans with a wide leather belt, along with a flower and some groovy glasses. African American hippies would grow their hair in the afro style, the bigger the afro the better and more radical. Combat style jackets and fatiques were also very popular among them, and of course a mandatory peace symbol applied to everyone. Hippies rebelled against the uptight lifestyle of their parents and felt they didn’t have to follow their guidelines they should follow their own path to peace. Many hippies experimented with drugs. The most popular among them were marijuana and LSD, also known as “acid”, because they were said to expand the consciousness to find ecstasy and revelation within. According to the hippies, “LSD was the glue that held them together. It was the hippie sacrament, a mind detergent capable of washing away years of social programming, a re-imprinting device, a consciousness-expander, a tool that would push us up the evolutionary ladder”- Jay Stevens. Many Hippies also experimented sexually as a way to feel free. With the introduction of birth control pill many hippies didn’t have to worry about pregnancy anymore leaving them to do whatever they wanted without any worries. This sexual experimentation ultimately gave way to many sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea.
Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the main leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1960’s. Born in January 15, 1929 King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He organized many protests that practiced civil disobedience by non violent means. One of his protests was the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted from December 5, 1955 to December 20 1956 and also gave way to another civil rights activist, Rosa Parks. He also led the 1963 March on Washington, where raised public awareness of segregation, racial discrimination and the civil rights movement through his inspiring speech “I Have a Dream”. Martin Luther King Jr. also helped bring out the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On many occasions King expressed his view that African Americans are equal to any American. He believed that “people should not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. King won many awards for his accomplishments one of them being the Nobel Peace Prize which he received on October 14, 1964 were he became the youngest person to be awarded this honor. He also won the Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Dr King was tragically shot on April 4th 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on a Lorraine Motel 2nd floor balcony at 6:01. The bullet entered through his right cheek traveling down his spinal cord before going into his shoulder. After his assassination there were many riots by enraged African Americans. In 1986 Martin Luther King Day was established a national holiday and now every year on the anniversary of his birthday we celebrate this remarkable person and his accomplishments which have changed this nation.

On November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. He was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository who shot from the 6th floor of the Depository. President Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, rode in an open roof car past crowds at a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza when suddenly gunshots rang out. Most of the witnesses remember hearing 3 shots. Two shots entered Kennedy as he waved to the crowds, one through his upper back, penetrated his neck and came out through his throat, the other hit his head. Kennedy was declared dead in the emergency room at 1:00 pm. He was placed in a casket and taken from10 Parkland hospital and driven to Air Force One. Kennedy’s funeral was on November 25th which was coincidentally also his third son’s birthday. Representatives from 90 countries attended the funeral. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. At the end of the ceremony Mrs. Kennedy lit an "eternal flame" over her husband's grave. The assassination of Kennedy was important in the 1960’s because the President was dead and the whole country was in devastated and in sorrow for the loss of our president.

Even though there aren’t as many Hippies as there were in the 1960’s we all have a little hippie in us, for we all want to be happy by our own means. Movements on the other hand are not a thing of the past they are still taking place today for example the Immigration Rights and the anti-war demonstrations. After Kennedys death there has not been another president killed but there has been attempt’s. Both Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford had 2 assassination attempts. Jimmy Carter, Ronald Regan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all have had 1 assassination attempt. All in all these events marked the 1960’s as a decade of fighting for what you believe in and finding freedom and happiness through your own means.