The 1960s was a turbulent time for youth in America. Several social movements emerged including the Civil Rights Movement, anti-war protests, Black Power, and the Counterculture. Young people played pivotal roles in these movements seeking social change and challenging the status quo. The decade was defined by youth activism on issues like desegregation, free speech, environmentalism, and women's rights. Events like the Children's Crusade in 1963 and protests at Berkeley highlighted tensions between youth and authority figures over social and political ideals.

1. The 1960s: Youth in Turmoil

2. At particular moments and for particular
reasons, youth are able to come
together in a powerful way and enact
change, approaching the world
differently from their elders.

3. Cold War Childhoods
• Nuclear fears
• Cold War Rhetoric
• Conformity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60
https://archive.org/details/AreYouPo1947

4. The Eve Destruction, 1965
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntLsElbW
9Xo

5. Youth

6. The Movements
• The Civil Rights Movement
• The New Left (SDS)
• Free speech / “in loco parentis”
• The Vietnam War Protest Movement
• Black Power
• The Counterculture
• The Women’s Movement

7. The Civil Rights Movement
• Claudette Colvin, age 15
• Refused to give up her seat
on a bus, Montgomery,
Alabama, 1955

11. Children’s Crusade, 1963

20. Free Speech
• The 1964 to 1965
academic year, Berkeley
• “in loco parentis”

23. Black Power
• "This is the twenty-seventh time I have been arrested and I
ain't going to jail no more! The only way we gonna stop them
white men from whuppin' us is to take over. What we gonna
start sayin' now is Black Power!” ~ Stokely Carmichael, 1966
• “It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead
their own organizations.” ~ Stokely Carmichael on Black Power

25. The 1968 Olympics
"If I win, I am American, not a
black American. But if I did
something bad, then they would
say I am a Negro. We are black and
we are proud of being black. Black
America will understand what we
did tonight.”
~ Tommie Smith

26. African-American Fashion and African-
American Studies

27. PRIMARY SOURCE: PORT HURON
STATEMENT

28. Vietnam War Protests

33. The Counterculture
• “Sex, Drugs, and Rock’n’Roll”
• “Tune in, turn on, and drop out”

34. Pleasant Valley Sunday, 1967
The local rock group down the street
Is trying hard to learn their song
Serenade the weekend squire, who just came out to mow his lawn
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Rows of houses that are all the same
And no one seems to care
See Mrs. Gray she's proud today because her roses are in bloom
Mr. Green he's so serene, He's got a t.v. in every room
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land
Mothers complain about how hard life is
And the kids just don't understand
Creature comfort goals
They only numb my soul and make it hard for me to see
My thoughts all seem to stray, to places far away
I need a change of scenery
Ta Ta Ta...
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday…

35. Woodstock, by Joni Mitchel, 1969
I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something
turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it's the time of man
I don't know who I am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and
celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
back to the garden

36. Environmentalism
• Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, 1962
• Concerns about chemicals used in Vietnam
• A desire for sustainable living
• Pollution problems in the U.S.

37. The Women’s Movement

38. What happened?
Where did the energy of the 1960s go?

39. PRIMARY SOURCE: THE SHARON
STATEMENT