Massive black
rebellions, constant strikes, gigantic anti-war demonstrations, draft
resistance, Cuba, Vietnam, Algeria, a cultural revolution of seven hundred
million Chinese, occupations, red power, the rising of women, disobedience and
sabotage, communes & marijuana: amongst this chaos, there was a generation
of youths looking to set their own standard - to fight against the
establishment, which was oppressing them, and leave their mark on history.
These kids were known as the hippies. There were many stereotypes concerning
hippies; they were thought of as being pot smoking, freeloading vagabonds, who were trying to save the world. As this
small pocket of teenage rebellion rose out of the suburbs, inner cities, and
countryside's, there was a general feeling that the hippies were a product of
drugs, and rock
music; this generalization could have never been more wrong.
The hippie counterculture was more than just a product of drugs and music, but
a result of the change that was sweeping the entire western world. These
changes were brought about by various events in both the fifties and the
sixties, such as: the end of the "Golden Years" of the fifties, the
changing economical state from the fifties to the sixties, the Black Panther
Party, women moving into the work force, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy
Jr., the war in Vietnam, the Kent State protest, and finally the Woodstock
festival.
The electric
subcurrent of the fifties was, above all, rock'n'roll, the live wire that
linked bedazzled teenagers around the nation, and quickly around the world,
into the common enterprise of being young. Rock was rough, raw, insistent,
especially by comparison with the music it replaced; it whooped and groaned,
shook, rattled, and rolled. Rock was clamor, the noise of youth submerged by
order and prosperity, now frantically clawing their way out.
The winds of
change began to sweep across America in the late fifties. The political unrest
came with fear of thermo-nuclear war and the shadow that had been cast by
Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. The civil rights leaders were unhappy with President
Eisenhower's reluctance to use his powers for their cause, in spite of the fact
that the nation was becoming more receptive to civil rights reforms. With black
organizations becoming more militant, Eisenhower needed to acknowledge the
growing movement, and govern accordingly.
World politics
were still dominated by the conflict between the capitalist nations, led by the
USA, and the Communist countries, led by the USSR. The bonds that were keeping
people loyal to their leaders were breaking down. In 1960 there was a major
split between Russia and China. The Chinese decided that the Russians were
betraying Communism and set off on what they hoped would be the world
revolution against capitalism.
During the
fifties, the economic situation was in a constant state of growth. The United
States were prospering and the government was clinging to the "golden years." The rise of the
giant corporations had a profound effect on American life. A few hundred
corporations controlled much of the nation's industrial and commercial assets
and enjoyed a near monopoly in some areas. The mega corporations dominated the
seats of economic and political power. They employed millions of workers, a
large percentage of whom populated the suburbs that were growing across the
country.
The changing
American economy also experienced dramatic shifts in the composition of the
work force. Fewer workers went into traditional fields such as manufacturing,
agriculture, and mining, and more went into clerical, managerial, professional,
and service fields. In 1956, for the first time in the nation's history, white
collar workers outnumbered blue collar ones,
"and by the end of the decade blue collar workers constituted only
45 percent of the work force." The sexual composition of the work force
also changed as more and more women entered the labor market. The influx of
women into the work world that had been accelerated by the Second World War
continued in the postwar period.
The political
groups, and the negative feelings that they harbored towards the present
administration, only kindled the flames of revolution. The previous generation
was clinging to the "good times" of the fifties, and the youth were
looking for a niche to call their own. With the drastic change in child
population after the Second World War, divorce became less taboo. As a result,
single mothers were forced into the labor market, and with these jobs came
independence. The 50's and all its
political, and social change, was only the breeding ground for the free
thinking generation that was to follow.
In America, a
group of militant blacks called the "Black Panther Party" had been
dubbed "American's Vietcong." They were tired with the roadblocks and
discrimination that were plaguing the civil rights leaders, like Dr. Martin
Luther King. They decided to get equality by whatever means necessary. Their
members had been involved in shoot-outs with the police, which were, by the
radical community, dress rehearsals for the coming Armageddon.
The hippie
movement was new in the early 60's, the men only beginning to grow their hair
long and some of them still wearing suits, the women as yet uncertain about
fitting in. The introduction of the
television in the 50's brought a new information medium to the general public.
With television, people became more informed, and developed individual
opinions, instead of the bias opinions that were "spoon fed" to them
by newspapers, radio etc.. The youth
began to break free of the shackles that were the fifties. They considered their parents conformists ,
and they wanted a way to break free of the molds cast for them.
As a reaction to
the growing violence of the 1960's, many people turned to the ideals of peace
and love. Ironically, many of those who were seen to be in favor of peace -
including President John Kennedy, his brother Bobby, the black civil rights
leader Martin Luther King, and many unarmed civil rights workers - were
themselves murdered. The horrors of the war in Vietnam dramatized what many saw
as drift towards destruction, and their reaction was to seek a genuinely
peaceful way of life. Across the world, youth took up the slogan "Make Love not War", and the Love
Generation emerged. Many of these were hippies - people who dropped out of
conventional society to take up a lifestyle based on peace, loving
relationships and often mystical religions. Many more who were not fully
hippies were influenced by their ideas and fashions, especially using the soft
drug cannabis and the hallucinogenic drug LSD.
"The New
Era" referred to Kennedy promising vigorous attempt to manage a world
whose old stabilities had broken down. Kennedy received credit for recognizing
that international and domestic crises required an active response, even if
that response was "mediating, rationalizing, and managerial," a
policy of "aggressive tokenism." Abroad, the new frontier had the
virtue of working towards "political stabilization" with the
Russians; it was deeply committed to avoiding nuclear war - although Kennedy
showed no interested in general disarmament.
Meanwhile Black
Americans took President Kennedy at his word and pressed for civil rights
against racial discrimination. On 20 May, 1963 , "400 federal marshals
(government policemen) had to be sent to Montgomery, Alabama, after a peaceful
demonstration by black people had been attacked by a mob of 1500 whites."
Local police had refused to act, even though this was the third attack on
blacks in a week. "On 21 May, 1963,
100 whites attacked the church where the black leader, Martin Luther King, was
preaching. The demonstrators continued despite this when black Freedom Riders,
calling for civil rights for blacks, marched through Alabama and Mississippi to
New Orleans. 27 Black freedom Riders were arrested when they arrived in Jackson
Mississippi."
On 12 June 1964,
the President Kennedy sent a Civil Rights Bill to Congress, which, if passed,
would make equality a legal right.
"On 28 August, 1964, between 100,000 and 200,000 black people, led
by Martin Luther King," marched in Washington in support of the Civil
Rights Bill. But the violence still did not stop. In September, 1964, a black
man was shot dead in Alabama, four blacks were killed when a church in
Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed, Medger Evers of the Advancement of Colored
People was murdered, and six black children were killed when a house was burnt
down.
Kennedy had been
a controversial President. Many Americans opposed his support for black people,
while others were angry at his failure to kick the Communists out of Cuba. The
extreme right wing had threatened to kill him, but no one took these threats
seriously. Kennedy had been warned it was a dangerous to drive through the
streets of Dallas in an open car. The President felt that he should be able to
drive openly anywhere in the country, and few people expected trouble.
On 22 November,
1963 as Kennedy drove slowly through crowd-lined streets of Dallas in an open
car, together with his wife, Jackie, and Governor Connally of Texas, three or
more shots were fired at the car. Kennedy was shot through the throat and head,
and Governor Connally was also hit. The President's driver immediately raced
for the Parkland Hospital, with Jackie Kennedy covered in her husbands blood
cradling her husband's head. With those fatal shots, came the end of "Camelot" as his administration was
referred to as.
On April 4 1968,
Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. That night, eighty riots broke
out. Federal troops were dispatched into Baltimore, Chicago, Washington, and
Wilmington. "Chicago mayor Richard
J. Daley, ordered police to shoot to kill arsonists and the main looters."
The actions by Richard J. Daley, were a sign of respect of King. Ironically, a
year before, Daley was against having King speak in the city of Chicago.
King's following
had fallen off in the years leading up to his death. His moment had passed.
Since the triumph of his Slema campaign, which climaxed in the 1965 Voting
Rights Act, he had turned to the urban poor, but his strategy of nonviolence,
national publicity, and coalition-building seemed unavailing. Just a week
before his death, his hopes for a non violence march in Memphis, in support of
striking garbage workers, had been dashed by the window-smashing of a few dozen
black teenagers. King had become a hero without a strategy, but a hero he
undeniably was at a moment when the larger movement craved heroes and disowned
them with equal passion. For liberals, even for many black militants and
radicals, he was the last black hope. When he was murdered, it seemed that
nonviolence went to the grave with him, and the movement was "free at
last" from restraint.
There are times when
an entire culture takes the shape of a single event, like rows of iron fillings
lined up by the force of a magnet. What is assassination, after all, if not the
ultimate reminder of the citizen's helplessness - or even repressed
murderousness? Instantly the killing creates an abrupt contest between Good and
Evil, albeit with a wrong ending. With the enlightened establishment's great
men gunned down, a self-proclaimed black revolutionary gunned down, there was
an eerie feeling among the common people, a democracy of sudden death. The
southern civil rights movement had been deeply bloodied, of course. Dozens of
blacks were killed in the urban riots of the North from 1964 on, and, as we
have already seen, the riots of the North inspired the white radicals to start
a movement of their own. These radicals would take the form of the
"Hippy."
In 1954 Vietnam
had been divided into the Communist North, under Ho Chi Minh, and capitalist
South, under Ngo Dinh Diem, after the Communists had forced the French to abandon
Vietnam. Since 1954 a guerrilla force, the National Liberation Front (know as
the Vietcong), backed by the North, had been gradually gaining strength. The
United States had been sending arms to Diem since 1954, and in 1960 President
Kennedy decided to send American military advisors to South Vietnam to train
Diem's army.
Just as the black
movement was fighting for equality and civil rights, the hippie movement took
on the fight against the drafting of young men to Vietnam. Many protests were
staged throughout the 60's to end the war, especially the "March to End
the War in Vietnam" held at the Independence memorial in Washington,
1965.
During 1965, the
Vietnam War intensified. The USA put more and more effort into it, and the
South Vietnamese government's lack of control became apparent. In August it was
estimated that the Vietcong controlled a quarter of the country, the government
about half and the rest was not controlled by anyone. In the Vietcong area, the
Communists had taken land from the few rich landowners and given it to the many
poor peasants. This obviously made them more popular with the peasants. The
south Vietnamese army was now too weak to fight the Communists, and the US
decided it would take over the fighting leaving the Vietnamese to defend the
land they controlled.
The war in
Vietnam increased trouble in America. Blacks pointed out that black soldiers in
Vietnam suffered unfairly: "10% of
the population of the United States was Black, 12.5% of the American army was
black, 14.6% of the battle dead was black. On 23 April 1967, Muhammad Ali
called the war "a race war. Black men are being cut up by white men."
On 28 April 1967, Muhammad refused the call-up to the US army. The World Boxing Association stripped him of his world
title, and on 21 June 1967, he was found guilty of avoiding the draft. Muhammad
Ali was given a five year jail sentence, and appealed. By the first of August
1967, so many black uprisings had taken place during the 'Long Hot Summer' that
a map had to be produced to show where they had taken place.
1967 had been the
year of the hippies, peace and love. 1968 was a year dominated by violence and
ideas of revolution and change. It was the year of New Left - socialists who
rejected both capitalism and communism - whose ideas inspired students revolt
throughout the world. The New Left argued that violence was caused by
capitalism, and the continuing, escalating war in Vietnam, where the most
powerful capitalist force was waging war on a small Asian country. As the
Students moved to the Left, and the youth movement grew, so did the idea of
fighting back against the State. The idea of a single world revolution, grew.
On April 30, 1970, President Nixon ordered the "incursion" of
Cambodia, with this announcement the students went into action. By May 4, 1970,
a hundred student strikes were in progress across the country. At Kent State
University in Ohio, students burned down the ROTC building. On the same day,
National Guardsman at Kent State responded to taunts and a few rocks by firing
their M-1 rifles into a crowd of students, killing four, wounding nine others.
Kent State was a heartland school, far from elite, the very type of campus
where Nixons "silent majority" was supposed to be training.
After these and
many other violent incidents at protests, the intensity of the movement began
to dwindle. The great changes that they
were fighting for were not coming about.
The protests were not getting any sympathy or support, and greater
numbers of hippies left the protests and adopted a "peace and love"
side of things. The climax of the hippie
movement was in Woodstock, 1969. It was
where all of the violence and aggression of protesting was laid aside and the true ambiance of the
60's was expressed.
Woodstock, in
June, had been the long-deferred Festival of Life. So said not only Time and
Newsweek but world-weary friends who had navigated the traffic-blocked thruway
and felt the new society emerging, half a million strong, stoned and happy on
that muddy farm north of New York City.
Both critics and
fans concede that Woodstock has become part of the mythology of the 1960s, even
if the actual event did not necessarily represent the musical or political
taste of most young Americans at the time. Some say it symbolized the freedom
and idealism of the 1960s. Critics argue that Woodstock represented much of
what was wrong with the 60's: a glorification of drugs, a loosening of sexual
morality and a socially corrosive disrespect for authority.
Whether one is a
supporter or a critic, it is undeniable that Woodstock was one of the major
climaxes of the hippie movement: a culmination of all of the peace and love
ideals in one place. After Woodstock, the movement was on the downswing. One
could argue that Woodstock was the grand finale, with the seventies arriving
soon after it and there was a general "been there, done
that"(interview) mentality which created the seventies, a decade of disco,
and doom, never quite living up to the intensity of the sixties.
The 1960's, then,
did more than just "swing". Many of the values and conventions of the
immediate post- war world were called into question, and although many of the
questions had not been satisfactorily answered by the end of the decade, society
would never be the same again.
In conclusion,
the hippy culture arose as a result of vast political changes occurring in
North America and beyond and not as a result of drugs and music. The drugs and
music were a by-product of the hippy culture, but by no means a reason for it's
occurrence. The previous pages cite the more relevant political and social
milestones, which, I believe were directly responsible for the evolution of the
hippy culture. These milestones affected
everyone, one way or another, either directly or indirectly. They changed the
way people thought. You would be hard
pressed to find someone over the age of about forty-five who, to this day,
cannot remember what they were doing the day Kennedy was shot, and how they
were affected by it. The sixties simply evolved; a microcosm of numerous
political and social change that swept the then current generation. The hippies
were simply reacting to changes in society and, in reacting to these changes,
left an indelible mark on the history books of our time.
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