The sixties.

Picture this: In 1960, girls wore girdles and prim dresses to their knees. Boys sported crew cuts and penny loafers. Most Americans believed that what the government told them was true. And in many places in the U.S., blacks and whites did not or could not mix freely. By 1969, that ancient society had utterly disappeared. What happened in between was the Sixties--a decade of cultural explosions. For people who lived through the Sixties, everything appeared to happen at once, and the whole world seemed to be at stake.

In the beginning, there was John F. Kennedy. The youngest man ever elected President, Kennedy became the symbol of a new era of American prominence in the world. When he was assassinated on November 22, 1963, the country's grief was profound. "We'll never be young again," said future Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of his generation. But a new crop of youth was waiting.

The Rock Generation

"Turn down that awful noise," said millions of parents to their children. But from the opening blast of the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand," the roar of the baby boomers would not be stilled. The largest generation in U.S. history, the baby boomers dominated the cultural life of the decade. And rock music was the soundtrack of their restless days and nights.

The rock generation challenged everything. "Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command," Bob Dylan sang to baffled parents. Hippies, also called "flower children," rejected their families' tidy suburban houses to live together in "communes." Everywhere, people spoke of "the generation gap."

"All political systems are on their way out," said singer Arlo Guthrie. "We're finally going to get to the point where there's no more bigotry [racism] or greed or war." It didn't quite happen that way. But in the Sixties, everything seemed possible.

Black Power

The civil rights struggle was characterized by one dramatic event after another. Southern sheriffs turned fire hoses on peaceful demonstrators. White college students joined black "freedom riders" to integrate buses in the South. Many other students went to Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964 to register black voters.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were important milestones. Soon, a quest for equal rights would change into a demand for "black power" and pride.

Then pride turned to rage. During the "long, hot summers" of 1965-67, black youths, mostly in Northern cities, burned and looted their own neighborhoods and battled police. The clashes resulted in more than 200 deaths and millions of dollars in damage.

They were difficult times. But the struggle for civil rights continued.

Vietnam

For many people, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was the central issue of the decade. College campuses exploded in protest against the war and the military draft. In November 1969, an antiwar march on Washington, D.C., drew nearly 700,000 protesters.

The country was bitterly divided over Vietnam. Many people saw antiwar protesters as disloyal. Meanwhile, Vietnamese and U.S. casualties mounted. In March 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election because of the discontent the war had caused. The scars of Vietnam linger to this day.

The End of the Sixties

All of the major themes of the decade collided in 1968. Two Sixties visionaries, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the late President's brother, were assassinated. At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, Mayor Richard Daley allowed the police to beat up on 10,000 antiwar demonstrators. People wondered if things could get any worse.

In 1969, Richard M. Nixon, a symbol of the establishment, became President. But the decade ended with two other key Sixties moments. On July 20, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. Some 600 million TV viewers around the world watched in awe. And for three days in August, 400,000 young people gathered for the Woodstock music festival in upstate New York. It was a triumph for the rock generation--but also the end of an era.

Even today, people debate the meaning and effects of the Sixties. But many agree with the Beatles' John Lennon: "The thing the Sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility." JS

OBJECTIVES

Students should understand

* Many Americans recall the Sixties as a decade in which important political, social, and cultural changes took place.

TEACHING STRATEGY

Ask students to create a list of the most memorable events in the U.S. since 2000, and explain their choices. Compare them with a list of a similar number of years from a time line of the 1960s.

BACKGROUND

Some historians believe the riots and rebellions of the 1960s resulted in a political backlash. In 1968, Richard Nixon was elected U.S. President on a "law and order" platform. But the youth revolt was influential, as evidenced by Nixon's actions to abolish the draft and end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

THINKING SKILLS

MAKING INFERENCES: What did Daniel Patrick Moynihan mean when he said "after President Kennedy's assassination that he and his peers would "never be young again"? (Moynihan's comment expressed the enormous grief felt by many Americans after President Kennedy's death. For those people, JFK symbolized a shared sense of idealism and American purpose. The President's death shocked the nation and bad the effect of extinguishing such hopes for many.)

COMPREHENSION: Why are the Sixties remembered as a time when "everything appeared to happen at once"? (Many important political, cultural, and social changes happened during the Sixties. Such changes created dramatic unity or disagreement among sections of American society and contributed to a sense that the world was experiencing great upheaval.)

ACTIVITY

THE SIXTIES AND TODAY: Instruct students to research the 1960s and write a report on whether any of the decade's changes and events are relevant to American society today.

Words to Know

* Baby boomers: children born during the baby boom that followed World War II, about 76 million from 1946 to 1964.