Essay about The Sixties

During the 1950's, the United States experienced great change with the end of World War II, making it difficult to label the busy decade. America was the most powerful nation in the world and it was a time of complacency. The United States accepted two new states, Hawaii and Alaska (www.fifties.com). The science world boomed with new inventions; televisions broadcast nationally; rock n' roll was popular; commercial hotel and fast food chains became common; the car industry exploded; vaccinations for measles and polio were discovered; and birth control pills were introduced (Layman VII). Another event in the 1950’s was the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which limited presidents to two terms in office. The 1950's "baby

In the duration of one year, 1968, the American national mood shifted from general confidence and optimism to chaotic confusion. Certainly the most turbulent twelve months of the post-WWII period and arguably one of the most disturbing episodes the country has endured since the Civil War, 1968 offers the world a glimpse into the tumultuous workings of a revolution. Although the entire epoch of the 1960's remains significant in US history, 1968 stands alone as the pivotal year of the decade; it was the moment when all of the nation's urges toward violence, sublimity, diversity, and disorder peaked to produce a transformation great enough to blanket an entire society. While some may superficially disagree, the evidence found in the Tet

The Sixties Scoop was a horrendous time in Canadian history. It was a catastrophic failure in terms of Aboriginal children's welfare. The Sixties Scoop compromised the welfare of Indigenous children in three major ways: the victims were subject to abuse in foster families, the victim's lost their sense of identity and their success was inhibited.

The 1960’s were a time of radical change. It was a decade where people began to question authority, and time of confrontation. The decade's radicalism began with the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November of 1963. This event changed the country's idealistic views, and started an upheaval of civil rights movements. Baby boomers started a new perception, and formalized the act of resistance to war. There were also many of whom, turned violent and rebellious; in their effort to fight "the system."

The 1960s was crammed full of many impacting events and important figures. From Hitchcock releasing one of the greatest thrillers of all time, Psycho, to Marilyn Monroe’s untimely death, to the infamous Woodstock festival. This era changed history completely and made the United States think twice about its youth. Events of the 1960s are still impacting our country as we know it today. The sudden pull from the conservative ‘50s changed America’s views on all aspects of life, including fashion, entertainment, and lifestyles.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded in 1957 and headed by Martin Luther King until his assassination in 1968. It grew out of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which has organized a successful boycott of the segregated city bus system in 1955-56, which resulted in the city's segregation laws being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Rosa Parks, the NAACP secretary in Montgomery, had become the test case to challenge segregated buses after she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. In 1963, SCLC organized the protests against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama and the protests for voting rights in Selma, Alabama in 1965, which gained international publicity for the civil rights movement and led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These were the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history and two key parts of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society agenda. King later broke with Johnson openly over the Vietnam War, which other mainstream civil rights leaders were very reluctant to do, and was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers.

The Sixties, by Terry H. Anderson, takes the reader on a journey through one of the most turbulent decades in American life. Beginning with the crew-cut conformity of 1950s Cold War culture and ending with the transition into the uneasy '70s, Anderson notes the rise of an idealistic generation of baby boomers, widespread social activism, and revolutionary counterculture. Anderson explores the rapidly shifting mood of the country with the optimism during the Kennedy years, the liberal advances of Johnson's "Great Society," and the growing conflict over Vietnam that nearly tore America apart. The book also navigates through different themes regarding the decade's different currents of social change; including the anti-war movement, the civil

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929; He died on April 4, 1968. His original name was Michael Luther King Jr. he changed his name to Martin Luther King. His grandfather started the family long tradition of pastoring of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; His father had served as pastor from 1916 until death. Martin Luther King was co pastoring under his father, he attended segregated public school in Georgia. Graduating high school at the age of 15; He received the B.A. degree in 1940 from More House college, a distinguished negro institution of Atlanta, from which his father and grandfather graduated from. After 3 years of Theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class. He was awarded B.D. in 195, with a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled graduate studies at Boston University. He met his wife Coretta Scott while in Boston, Martin has 2 daughters and 2 Sons. He awarded leadership of the first negro in 1955. His bus boycott lasted for 382 days. On December 1956, After the Supreme Court of the United States declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, and now the road the bus at equals. During these days king was arrested multiple time for the bombing of his house, which also subjected to personal abuse. He engaged as a negro leader, at age 35 he was the youngest man to receive the “Nobel” prize, and on April 14, 1968, while standing on his balcony in Tennessee he was assassinated.

After the radical bus blockade, Martin Luther King Jr. continued to strive and motivate other by being one of the most prominent leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. During the beginnings of his equality involvement, he first demonstrated his leadership capabilities through the establishment of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, where he stood as president and made several dynamic changes on the base foundation of this organization (Cho). Moreover, the SCLC became a driving force into formulating specific civil rights transformations by their dedicating a majority of their efforts towards the abolishment of segregation through their practices of civil disobedience and nonviolent protests (Brunner 1). A significant

The 1960’s impacted the United States in profound ways. With the seventy million baby boomers growing into their teens, they brought with them change that is still evolving in our society today. The sixties was a time where American culture moved from being conservative to new and insightful ways of thinking. With these changes, it brought a new counter culture that would be known as the hippie culture. The hippies led way into a new sexual revolution that would break the old fashioned boundaries. The hippies also ushered in a new era where drugs became popular to a large public as well as within their own culture. Drugs were becoming a part of American culture, as well as new scientific research, into the benefits

The 1960’s was one of the most controversial decades in American history because of not only the Vietnam War, but there was an outbreak of protests involving civil and social conditions all across college campuses. These protests have been taken to the extent where people either have died or have been seriously injured. However, during the 1960’s, America saw a popular form of art known as protest music, which responded to the social turmoil of that era, from the civil rights movement to the war in Vietnam. A veritable pantheon of musicians, such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan sang their songs to encourage union organizers to protest the inequities of their time, creating a diverse variety of popular

The 1960’s was a decade that forever changed the culture and society of America. The

To some people the 1960s were the best of times, to others it was a

Hippies- known for their love of drugs and sex, they often misguided the common folk of their intentions. In their minds, what they were doing was guilelessly standing up for themselves and what they considered was theirs; what they believed in. They believed in their rights, and they wanted to do what they pleased; not to conform to the requirements of living in the average society of the time. They wanted to create a culture where spiritual awareness was highly regarded (sometimes through psychedelic drugs), where everything was given freely, where everyone (even strangers) were thought of as one's brother, where everyone valued peace, and where rights were given freely to everyone. (Express Thyself. (n.d.)) These rights would include

It seems impossible that I have lived through so many decades! I have lived through decades from the thirties to the sixties, and there are many similarities between the two decades. In both decades democrats gained control in the political arena. Both decades were a time of rapid change, socially, economically, politically, and culturally. The population in the United States greatly increased by about fifty-four million people between the thirties and the sixties. Both decades were affected by a war; the 1930’s was greatly affected by WWII, and the sixties was greatly affected by the Viet Nam war. It seems like just yesterday that we began the roller coaster ride of the 1930’s.