http://www.ushistory.org

It was one of the closest elections in American history.

The Republican insider was Richard Nixon of California, relatively young but experienced as the nation's Vice-President for 8 years under Dwight Eisenhower. The Democratic newcomer was John F. Kennedy, senator from Massachusetts, who at the age of 43 could become the youngest person ever to be elected President. Regardless of the outcome, the United States would for the first time have a leader born in the 20th century.

Coming into the first televised Presidential debate, John F. Kennedy had spent time relaxing in Florida while Richard Nixon maintained a hectic campaign schedule. As a result, Kennedy appeared tan and relaxed during the debate while Nixon seemed a bit worn down. Radio listeners proclaimed Nixon the better debater, while those who watched on television made Kennedy their choice.

Kennedy was also Roman Catholic, and no Catholic had ever been elected President before. To mollify these concerns, Kennedy addressed a group of Protestant ministers. He pledged a solid commitment to separation of church and state. Despite his assurances, his faith cost him an estimated 1.5 million votes in November 1960.

The Presidential election of 1960 was one of the closest in American history. John F. Kennedy won the popular vote by a slim margin of approximately 100,000 votes. Richard Nixon won more individual states than Kennedy, but it was Kennedy who prevailed by winning key states with many electoral votes.

They called it Camelot.

Like King Arthur and Guinevere, a dynamic young leader and his beautiful bride led the nation. The White House was their home, America their kingdom. They were John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy.

John F. Kennedy's youthful looks, cheerful family and charming demeanor captured the American imagination like few Presidents had ever done. Here, Kennedy poses with his wife Jacqueline and their two children John and Caroline.

After squeaking by Richard Nixon in the election of 1960, John F. Kennedy set forth new challenges for the United States. In his inauguration speech, he challenged his fellow Americans to "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

Proclaiming that the "torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans," Kennedy, young and good-looking, boldly and proudly assumed office with a bravado. Many Americans responded to his call by joining the newly formed Peace Corps or volunteering in America to work toward social justice. The nation was united, positive, and forward-looking. No frontier was too distant.

One of Kennedy's most popular foreign policy initiatives was the Peace Corps. Led by Sargent Shriver, this program allowed Americans to volunteer two years of service to a developing nation. Applicants would be placed based upon their particular skill sets. English teachers would be placed where the learning of the language was needed. Entrepreneurs trained local merchants how to maximize profits. Doctors and nurses were needed anywhere.

Kennedy's greatest foreign policy failure and greatest foreign policy success both involved one nation — Cuba. In 1961, CIA-trained Cuban exiles landed in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, hoping to ignite a popular uprising that would oust Fidel Castro from power. When the revolution failed to occur, Castro's troops moved in. The exiles believed air support would come from the United States, but Kennedy refused. Many of the rebels were shot, and the rest were arrested. The incident was an embarrassment to the United States and a great victory for Fidel Castro.

In October 1962, the United States learned that the Soviet Union was about to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba. Kennedy found this unacceptable. He ordered a naval "quarantine" of Cuba and ordered Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to turn his missile-carrying boats back to the USSR. Any Soviet attempt to penetrate the American blockade would be met with an immediate military response. The world watched this dangerous game of nuclear chicken unfold. Finally, Khrushchev acceded to Kennedy's demands, and the world remained safe from global confrontation.

The Cuban Missile Crisis marked the closest the United States and the Soviet Union came to direct confrontation in the entire Cold War.

Ask any American who was over the age of 8 in 1963 the question: "Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?" and a complete detailed story is likely to follow.

On November 22, 1963, a wave of shock and grief swept the United States. While visiting Dallas, President Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullet. Millions of Americans had indelible images burned into their memories. The bloodstained dress of Jacqueline Kennedy, a mournful Vice-President Johnson swearing the Presidential oath of office, and dozens and dozens of unanswered questions.

November 22, 1963, was a sunny day in Dallas, Texas, and for this reason the convertible Presidential limousine went through the afternoon parade with the top down. The President and his wife are seated in the back of the car, while Texas governor John Connally is seated directly in front of the President.

President Kennedy was scheduled to speak at a luncheon in Dallas on November 22. The weather was bright and clear, and the President wished to wave to the crowds as his motorcade moved from the airport through the city. A protective covering was not placed over his convertible limousine.

As the procession moved through Dealey Plaza, gunshots tore through the midday air. Within minutes President Kennedy was dead, and John Connally, the Texas governor was badly wounded. Kennedy was rushed to the hospital, but to no avail. The news rang out through the nation. Businesses and schools closed so grief-stricken Americans could watch the unfolding events.

Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder. Oswald was an avowed communist who spent three years living in the Soviet Union. He allegedly shot the President from a window in the Texas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza. Two days later, while Oswald was being transferred between prison facilities, a nightclub owner named Jack Ruby stepped out of the crowd and fired a bullet into Oswald at point blank range killing the prisoner. Oswald's murder was captured on live television.

Oswald's death left many unanswered, searing questions. Among them, "Did Oswald actually assassinate Kennedy?" "Did he act alone?"

A committee headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren studied the events surrounding the assassination and declared that Oswald was Kennedy's killer — and that he acted alone.

Critics of the Warren Commission cited irregularities in the findings. Questions surrounded the ability of any sharpshooter to fire the number of bullets Oswald supposedly fired, from such a great distance, with any degree of accuracy. Witnesses testified that shots were fired from another direction at the President — the infamous grassy knoll — suggesting the presence of a second shooter

Lyndon Baines Johnson moved quickly to establish himself in the office of the Presidency. Despite his conservative voting record in the Senate, Johnson soon reacquainted himself with his liberal roots. LBJ sponsored the largest reform agenda since Roosevelt's New Deal.

The aftershock of Kennedy's assassination provided a climate for Johnson to complete the unfinished work of JFK's New Frontier. He had eleven months before the election of 1964 to prove to American voters that he deserved a chance to be President in his own right.

Johnson also signed the omnibus Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. The law created the Office of Economic Opportunity aimed at attacking the roots of American poverty. A Job Corps was established to provide valuable vocational training.

The Civil Rights Bill that JFK promised to sign was passed into law. The Civil Rights Act banned discrimination based on race and gender in employment and ending segregation in all public facilities.

The Voting Rights Act banned literacy tests and other discriminatory methods of denying suffrage to African Americans.

It outlawed literacy tests and poll taxes as a way of assessing whether anyone was fit or unfit to vote. As far as Johnson was concerned, all you needed to vote was American citizenship and the registration of your name on an electoral list. No form of hindrance to this would be tolerated by the law courts.

The impact of this act was dramatic. By the end of 1966, only 4 out of the traditional 13 Southern states, had less than 50% of African Americans registered to vote. By 1968, even hard-line Mississippi had 59% of African Americans registered. In the longer term, far more African Americans were elected into public office. The Act was the boost that the civil rights cause needed to move it swiftly along and Johnson has to take full credit for this. As Martin Luther King had predicted in earlier years, demonstrations served a good purpose but real change would only come through the power of Federal government. Johnson proved this.

Head Start, a preschool program designed to help disadvantaged students arrive at kindergarten ready to learn was put into place. The Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) was set up as a domestic Peace Corps. Schools in impoverished American regions would now receive volunteer teaching attention. Federal funds were sent to struggling communities to attack unemployment and illiteracy.

As he campaigned in 1964, Johnson declared a "war on poverty." He challenged Americans to build a "Great Society" that eliminated the troubles of the poor. Johnson won a decisive victory over his archconservative Republican opponent Barry Goldwater of Arizona.

American liberalism was at high tide under President Johnson.

The Wilderness Protection Act saved 9.1 million acres of forestland from industrial development.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided major funding for American public schools.

Medicare was created to offset the costs of health care for the nation's elderly.

The National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities used public money to fund artists and galleries.

The Immigration Act ended discriminatory quotas based on ethnic origin.

An Omnibus Housing Act provided funds to construct low-income housing.

Congress tightened pollution controls with stronger Air and Water Quality Acts.

Standards were raised for safety in consumer products.

Vietnam War (1945-1975)

The Vietnam War was the longest war in United States history.

Promises and commitments to the people and government of South Vietnam to keep communist forces from overtaking them reached back into the Truman Administration. Eisenhower placed military advisers and CIA operatives in Vietnam, and John F. Kennedy sent American soldiers to Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson ordered the first real combat by American troops, and Richard Nixon concluded the war.

In August 1964, in response to American and GVN espionage along its coast, the DRV launched a local and controlled attack against the C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox, two American ships on call in the Gulf of Tonkin. The first of these attacks occurred on August 2, 1964. A second attack was supposed to have taken place on August 4, although Vo Nguyen Giap, the DRV's leading military figure at the time, and Johnson's Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara have recently concluded that no second attack ever took place. In any event, the Johnson administration used the August 4 attack as political cover for a Congressional resolution that gave the president broad war powers. The resolution, now known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed both the House and Senate with only two dissenting votes (Senators Morse of Oregon and Gruening of Alaska). The Resolution was followed by limited reprisal air attacks against the DRV.

Throughout the fall and into the winter of 1964, the Johnson administration debated the correct strategy in Vietnam. The Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to expand the air war over the DRV quickly to help stabilize the new Saigon regime. The civilians in the Pentagon wanted to apply gradual pressure to the Communist Party with limited and selective bombings. Only Undersecretary of State George Ball dissented, claiming that Johnson's Vietnam policy was too provocative for its limited expected results. In early 1965, the NLF attacked two U.S. army installations in South Vietnam, and as a result, Johnson ordered the sustained bombing missions over the DRV that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had long advocated.

The bombing missions, known as OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER, caused the Communist Party to reassess its own war strategy. From 1960 through late 1964, the Party believed it could win a military victory in the south "in a relatively short period of time." With the new American military commitment, confirmed in March 1965 when Johnson sent the first combat troops to Vietnam, the Party moved to a protracted war strategy. The idea was to get the United States bogged down in a war that it could not win militarily and create unfavorable conditions for political victory. The Communist Party believed that it would prevail in a protracted war because the United States had no clearly defined objectives, and therefore, the country would eventually tire of the war and demand a negotiated settlement. While some naive and simple-minded critics have claimed that the Communist Party, and Vietnamese in general, did not have the same regard for life and therefore were willing to sustain more losses in a protracted war, the Party understood that it had an ideological commitment to victory from large segments of the Vietnamese population.

The Vietnam War grew increasingly unpopular and this was reflected in the music of the ‘60’s. Many of the songs of this era were in protest to this war. The first of these songs was “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town”, a Country Music song. It was about a Vietnam Vet who was paralyzed in Vietnam and the impact it had on his marriage when he came home.

"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town"

You've painted up your lipsAnd rolled and curled your tinted

hairRuby are you contemplatingGoing out somewhereThe shadow on the wallTells me the sun is going downOh RubyDon't take your love to town

It wasn't meThat started that old crazy Asian

warBut I was proud to goAnd do my patriotic choreAnd yes, it's true thatI'm not the man I used to beOh, Ruby I still need some

company

Its hard to love a man Whose legs are bent and paralysedAnd the wants and the needs of a

woman your age Ruby I realize,But it won't be long i've heard them

say until I not aroundOh RubyDon't take your love to town

She's leaving now causeI just heard the slamming of the doorThe way I know I've heard it slam100 times beforeAnd if I could move I'd get my gunAnd put her in the groundOh RubyDon't take your love to town

Oh Ruby for God's sake turn around

Some of the other anti war songs included

1. Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag

2. War3. One Tin Soldier4. Give Peace a Chance5. The Times They are a Changin’6. Where have all the Flowers Go

ne

7. In the year 25258. Ballad of the Green Berets

By 1968, things had gone from bad to worse for the Johnson administration. In late January, the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong launched coordinated attacks against the major southern cities. These attacks, known in the West as the Tet Offensive, were designed to force the Johnson administration to the bargaining table. The Communist Party correctly believed that the American people were growing war-weary and that its continued successes in the countryside had tipped the balance of forces in its favor. Although many historians have since claimed that the Tet Offensive was a military defeat, but a psychological victory for the Communists, it had produced the desired results. In late March 1968, a disgraced Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek the Democratic Party's re-nomination for president and hinted that he would go to the bargaining table with the Communists to end the war.

March 28, 1968 - The initial report by participants at My Lai states that 69 Viet Cong soldiers were killed and makes no mention of civilian causalities.

The My Lai massacre is successfully concealed for a year, until a series of letters from Vietnam veteran Ronald Ridenhour spark an official Army investigation that results in Charlie Company Commander, Capt. Ernest L. Medina, First Platoon Leader, Lt. William Calley, and 14 others being brought to trial by the Army. A news photos of the carnage, showing a mass of dead children, women and old men, remains one of the most enduring images of America's involvement in Vietnam.

Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent American Civil Rights leader and, according to a Gallup poll conducted in 2000, the second most admired person of the 20th Century, was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. On June 10, 1968, James Earl Ray, a fugitive from a Missouri prison, was arrested in London at Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States, and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, Ray entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee state penitentiary. Ray's many later attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and be tried by a jury were unsuccessful; he died in prison on April 23, 1998, at the age of 70.

The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a United States Senator and brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, took place shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968 in Los Angeles, California. After winning the California primary election for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy was shot as he walked through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel and died in the Good Samaritan Hospital twenty-six hours later. The assassin was a twenty-four year old Palestinian immigrant named Sirhan Sirhan, who remains incarcerated for this crime as of 2010. The shooting was recorded on audio tape by a freelance newspaper reporter, and the aftermath was captured on film.

Kennedy's body lay in repose at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York for two days before a funeral mass was held on June 8. His body was interred near his brother John at Arlington National Cemetery. His death prompted the protection of presidential candidates by the United States Secret Service. Hubert Humphrey went on to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency, but ultimately narrowly lost the election to Richard Nixon.

In June 1962, the founding members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) ratified the Port Huron Statement. The Huron Statement was a manifesto, largely written by a young student named Tom Hayden, condemning middle-class materialism, racism, conformity, and anticommunism.

Strongly influenced by C. Wright Mills' The Power Elite, SDS members feared that the Cold War was undermining American democracy. A military-industrial complex seemed to be driving the United States. Military leaders justified huge budgets by involvement in foreign wars. The expenditures led to major defense contracts for industrialists and millions of jobs across America. The liberal establishment of Kennedy and Johnson accepted the trend for fear of losing powerful supporters and thousands of votes from working Americans. The results, they claimed led to unjust involvement in foreign conflicts. Hayden called for "participatory democracy," — grassroots organizations where the true voices of Americans could be heard.

SDS became the leaders of the antiwar movement in America. Drawing support from the civil rights movement, SDS chapters organized local demonstrations on college campuses and marches to the steps of the Capitol Building. They worked in inner cities to provide free lunches and participated in voter drives to turn out the African American electorate in the Deep South. In addition to these causes, the movement was concerned with student rights. Many universities required a dress code, curfews, and restrictions on free speech. As SDS advocated a freer society, they pointed their arguments to their deans as well as their political representatives.

With the growth of SDS, the New Left flourished in America. Student leaders labeled the Old Left the Socialists of a bygone era. The Old Left was concerned with the problems brought by poverty, while the New Left criticized the suburban conformity and career materialism spawned by postwar affluence as well. They were critical of their left-leaning national politicians. SDS leaders did not believe Kennedy and Johnson were sincere in their support of civil rights. In the wake of McCarthyism, taking a soft stand on communism was unthinkable to Washington politicians. While the New Left did not glorify the Soviet system, they were willing to blame both the United States and the Soviet Union for escalating the Cold War.

As the decade came to a close, SDS fragmented into moderate and radical factions much like most other movements. Although most SDS members were dedicated to peaceful protest, some did go beyond marches to the occupation of buildings and confrontations with the police. An extreme branch of SDS splintered off to form the Weathermen in 1970. This group was a terrorist organization openly committed to a violent overthrow of the government. FBI scrutiny forced many Weathermen underground before long.

'Freedom Summer" (also known as the Mississippi Summer Project) was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi, which up to that time had almost totally excluded black voters. The project also set up dozens of Freedom Schools and Freedom Houses in small towns throughout Mississippi to aid the local black population. The project was organized by the only two groups working on Civil Rights in Mississippi. The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) was a coalition of established civil rights organizations and handled many logistics for Freedom Summer. But most of the impetus came from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Robert Parris Moses, SNCC field secretary and co-director of COFO, directed the summer project.

By 1964, students and others had begun the process of integrating public accommodations, registering to vote, and above all organizing a network of local leadership. But recent voting campaigns, including a massive effort in Greenwood and a 1963 Freedom Election that brought students from Stanford and Yale to help distribute non-binding ballots, had been met with whiplash violence. Speakers recruited on college campuses across the country, drawing standing ovations for their dedication in braving the routine violence perpetrated by cops, sheriffs, and others in Mississippi. SNCC recruiters interviewed dozens of potential volunteers, weeding out those with a John Brown complex, informing others that their job that summer would not be to "save the Mississippi Negro" but to work with local leadership to develop the grassroots movement.

Well over 1,000 out-of-state volunteers participated in Freedom Summer alongside thousands of black Mississippians. Most of the volunteers were young, most of them from the North, 90 percent were white and many were Jewish. Two one-week orientation sessions for the volunteers were held at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio (now part of Miami University), from June 14 to June 27.

Organizers focused on Mississippi because it had the lowest percentage of African Americans registered to vote in the country; in 1962 only 6.7% of eligible black voters were registered. White officials in the South systematically kept African Americans from being able to vote by charging them expensive poll taxes, forcing them to take especially difficult literacy tests, making the application process inconvenient, harassing would-be voters economically (as by denying crop loans), and carrying out arson, battery, and lynching.

During the ten weeks of Freedom Summer, a number of other organizations provided support for the COFO Summer Project. More than 100 volunteer doctors, nurses, psychologists, medical students and other medical professionals from the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) provided emergency care for volunteers and local activists, taught health education classes, and advocated improvements in Mississippi's segregated health system. Volunteer lawyers from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Inc ("Ink Fund"), National Lawyers Guild, Lawyer's Constitutional Defense Committee (LCDC) an arm of the ACLU, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCR) provided free legal services — handling arrests, freedom of speech, voter registration and other matters. And the Commission on Religion and Race (CORR), an endeavor of the National Council of Churches (NCC), brought Christian and Jewish clergy and divinity students to Mississippi to support the work of the Summer Project. In addition to offering traditional religious support to volunteers and activists, the ministers and rabbis engaged in voting rights protests at courthouses, recruited voter applicants and accompanied them to register, taught in Freedom Schools, and performed office and other support functions.

Many of Mississippi's white residents deeply resented the outsiders and any attempt to change their society. Locals routinely harassed volunteers. Newspapers called them "unshaven and unwashed trash." Their presence in local black communities sparked drive by shootings, Molotov cocktails, and constant harassment. State and local governments, police, the White Citizens' Council and the Ku Klux Klan used murder, arrests, beatings, arson, spying, firing, evictions, and other forms of intimidation and harassment to oppose the project and prevent blacks from registering to vote or achieving social equality.

Over the course of the ten-week project:four civil rights workers were killed (one in a head-on

collision)• four people were critically wounded• eighty Freedom Summer workers were beaten• one-thousand and sixty-two people were arrested

(volunteers and locals)• thirty seven churches were bombed or burnedthirty Black homes or businesses were bombed or

burned.

Violence struck the campaign almost as soon as it started. On June 21, 1964, James Chaney (a black CORE activist from Mississippi), CORE organizer Michael Schwerner, and summer volunteer Andrew Goodman (both of whom were Jews from New York) were arrested by Cecil Price, a Neshoba County deputy sheriff and member of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. They were held in jail until after nightfall, then released into a waiting ambush by Klansmen who abducted and killed them. Goodman and Schwerner were shot at point blank range. Chaney was chased, beaten mercilessly, and shot three times. Reported on TV and on newspaper front pages, the triple disappearance shocked the nation and drew massive media attention to Freedom Summer and to "the closed society" of Mississippi.

As soon as the men had turned up missing, SNCC and COFO workers began phoning the FBI asking for an investigation. FBI agents refused, saying it was a local matter. Finally, after 36 hours of foot-dragging by the FBI, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered an investigation and FBI agents began swarming around Philadelphia, Mississippi, where Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney had been arrested. For the next seven weeks, FBI agents and sailors from a nearby naval airbase searched for the bodies, wading into swamps, hacking through underbrush. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover came to Mississippi on July 10 to open the first FBI branch office there. Throughout the search, Mississippi newspapers and word of mouth perpetuated the common belief that the disappearance was "a hoax" designed to draw publicity. But on August 4, 1964, the three bodies were found buried beneath an earthen dam. These events inspired the film “Mississippi Burning”

Though Freedom Summer failed to register many voters, it had a significant effect on the course of the Civil Rights Movement. It helped break down the decades of isolation and repression that were the foundation of the Jim Crow system. Before Freedom Summer, the national news media had paid little attention to the persecution of black voters in the Deep South and the dangers endured by black civil rights workers, but when the lives of affluent northern white students were threatened the full attention of the media spotlight was turned on the state. This evident disparity between the value that the media placed on the lives of whites and blacks embittered many black activists. Perhaps the most significant effect of Freedom Summer was on the volunteers themselves, almost all of whom — black and white — still consider it one of the defining moments of their lives.

Peace movement leaders opposed the war on moral and economic grounds. The North Vietnamese, they argued, were fighting a patriotic war to rid themselves of foreign aggressors. Innocent Vietnamese peasants were being killed in the crossfire. American planes wrought environmental damage by dropping their defoliating chemicals.

Ho Chi Minh was the most popular leader in all of Vietnam, and the United States was supporting an undemocratic, corrupt military regime. Young American soldiers were suffering and dying. Their economic arguments were less complex, but as critical of the war effort. Military spending simply took money away from Great Society social programs such as welfare, housing, and urban renewal.

The late 1960s became increasingly radical as the activists felt their demands were ignored. Peaceful demonstrations turned violent. When the police arrived to arrest protesters, the crowds often retaliated. Students occupied buildings across college campuses forcing many schools to cancel classes. Roads were blocked and ROTC buildings were burned. Doves clashed with police and the National Guard in August 1968, when antiwar demonstrators flocked to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to prevent the nomination of a prowar candidate.

August 28, 1968 - During the Democratic national convention in Chicago, 10,000 anti-war protesters gather on downtown streets and are then confronted by 26,000 police and national guardsmen. The brutal crackdown is covered live on network TV. 800 demonstrators are injured.

The United States is now experiencing a level of social unrest unseen since the American Civil War era, a hundred years earlier. There have been 221 student protests at 101 colleges and universities thus far in 1968.

THE DEFENDANTS Abbie Hoffman

Jerry Rubin David Dellinger Rennie Davis Tom Hayden John Froines Lee Weiner

Bobby Seale

DEFENSE LAWYERS William Kunstler Leonard Weinglass

William Kunstler was the flamboyant lead defense attorney in the Chicago Conspiracy Trial. It was obvious to all that Kunstler chose sides in the battleground of Judge Hoffman's courtroom and fully joined his clients' cause. He ate, danced, drank, and demonstrated with the defendants, causing the judge to observe at one point, "You get awfully chummy with your clients." Kunstler was a man with a huge ego, and the press covering the trial frequently accused him of "showboating." It was clear that Kunstler had the confidence to "wing it," but often his lack of preparation showed during cross-examination or argument. Kunstler engaged in increasingly bitter confrontations with Judge Hoffman as the trial proceeded; some confrontations were no doubt calculated melodrama, others spontaneous expressions of outrage. Kunstler's performance earned him a sentence of over four years in prison for contempt.

Conspiracy : Trial of the Chicago 8

Abbie Hoffman was a leader of the Youth International Party. At trial, Hoffman described himself as "an orphan of America" and "a child of Woodstock Nation." He was, perhaps, the most intriguing figure in Judge Hoffman's courtroom. Hoffman believed that identity is defined by myth propagated through the media.

Despite an outwardly zany style, Jerry Rubin lacked the natural lightheartedness of his Yippie co-founder Abbie Hoffman. Rubin often seemed more tense or anxious during the trial than other defendants. He provided one of the most memorable moments of the trial when he paraded back and forth in front of Judge Hoffman, thrusting his arm in a Nazi salute and shouting "Heil Hitler!“

David Dellinger, age 54 at the time of trial, was the Chicago Seven's old man. The stern, Christian Socialist from Wakefield, Massachusetts was described by prosecutors "the chief architect of the conspiracy" because of his position as the chair of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.

Rennie Davis was, at the time of trial, the twenty-nine-year-old National Director of community organizing programs for the Students for a Democratic Society. As a Movement bureaucrat based in Chicago, Davis did most of the organizing for the Convention week demonstrations.

John Froines, along with Lee Weiner, were the two forgotten defendants at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial. Not individually charged with inciting a riot, but rather with making incendiary devices (stink bombs), Froines and Weiner were acquitted by the jury.

Intelligent and coolly analytical, Thomas Hayden was widely viewed as the chief ideologue of the Movement. In 1962, Hayden had drafted the famous Port Huron Statement expressing the idealism of the New Left. He was co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society. In the early sixties, Hayden participated in civil rights work in the South and in the black ghettoes of Newark. He later shifted his focus to efforts to end the Vietnam War, twice making trips to North Vietnam. After the Chicago Seven trial, Hayden married (and later divorced) activist actress Jane Fonda.

August 27, 1968 Allan Ginsberg leads a sunrise service that includes chanting, prayers, and meditation. About 4,000 gather at a rally in the Chicago Coliseum to hear Dellinger, Hoffman, folksinger Phil Ochs, novelist William Burroughs and others. A planned march to the Amphitheatre, site of the Democratic National Convention, is discussed. Bobby Seale addressed a crowd of about 2,000 in Lincoln Park. Seale's address is observed by undercover police officer Robert Pierson. At 11:20 p.m. in Lincoln Park, police charge and beat demonstrators. Some enraged demonstrators smash windows and streetlights. Violent encounters between police and demonstrators occur in the streets near Grant Park.

August 28, 1968 Hoffman is arrested while having breakfast for having the word "Fuck" on his forehead. Dellinger, Seale, Davis, and Hayden address 10,000 to 15,000 demonstrators at the bandshell in Grant Park, opposite the Hilton. Democrats nominate Hubert Humphrey as their candidate for President. Dellinger announces that he will lead a march to the Amphitheatre. The march is stopped by police. Demonstators are attacked by police with teargas and clubs at Balbo and Michigan and other locations in the area.

August 29, 1968 Senator Eugene McCarthy, Dick Gregory are among others who address a crowd in Grant Park. Hoffman allegedly proposes the kidnapping of Superintendent Rochford.

August 25, 1968 Police club persons attending a music festival in Lincoln Park who refuse to leave at curfew. Davis and Hayden meet to lead march to the Conrad Hilton, the main Convention hotel. At 9 p.m., police confront and attack some demonstrators. Rubin allegedly urges demonstrators to attack police. At 10:30 p.m., two police officers observe Hayden letting the air out of tires of their police car.

August 26, 1968 Hoffman calls Deputy Mayor Stahl to protest decision to forcibly drive people out of park. Hayden is arrested in the afternoon for the squad car incident. Hoffman and Rubin allegedly urge demonstrators to hold Lincoln Park. Davis urges demonstrators "Don't let the pigs take the hill (high ground near a statue in the park)." About 3,000 demonstrators gathered in park for chanting, singing songs, and talking are attacked by police with clubs and tear gas after 11 p.m. curfew.

September 24, 1969 The trial of the Chicago Eight begins in Chicago before Judge Julius Hoffman.

October 29 to November 3, 1969 Because of his courtroom outbursts, Bobby Seale is ordered bound and gagged.

November 5, 1969 The trial of Seale is severed from the trial of what now becomes the Chicago Seven.

February 14, 1970 The case goes to the jury.

February 18, 1970 The jury returns its verdict, finding five of the seven defendants guilty of violating the Anti-Riot Act of 1968. Froines and Weiner are acquitted.

February 20, 1970 Judge Hoffman sentences the convicted defendants.

May 11, 1972 The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reverses the contempt convictions of the Chicago Seven and their two defense attorneys, Leonard Weinglass and William Kunstler.

November 21, 1972 The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reverses the convictions of Hoffman, Rubin, Dellinger, Davis, and Hayden.

Nixon began the campaign as the front runner, with a clear lead. He campaigned against rising crime and claimed he would restore "law and order". Nixon also instituted the Southern policy, taking advantage of Southern voters resentments at civil rights legislation passed by the Johnson administration it successful received support from what had been a solidly democratic south. Toward the end of the campaign as Humphrey became more critical of Johnson's handling of the war, the lead narrowed. It did not narrow enough to stop a Nixon victory however.

Make love, not war. Don't trust anyone over 30. Turn on, tune in, and drop out. I am a human being — please do not fold, bend spindle, or mutilate.

These and many more became slogans for emerging youth culture — a counterculture — in the 1960s. The baby boom was entering its teen years, and in sheer numbers they represented a larger force than any prior generation in the history of the United States. As more and more children of middle-class Americans entered college, many rejected the suburban conformity designed by their parents.

Never more than a minority movement, the so-called "hippie" lifestyle became synonymous with American youth of the 1960s. Displaying frank new attitudes about drugs and sex, communal lifestyles, and innovations in food, fashion, and music, the counterculture youth of America broke profoundly with almost all values their parents held dear.

The sexual revolution was in full swing on American college campuses. Birth control and a rejection of traditional views of sexuality led to a more casual attitude toward sex. Displays of public nudity became commonplace. Living together outside marriage shattered old norms.

In addition to changes in sexual attitudes, many youths experimented with drugs. Marijuana and LSD were used most commonly, but experimentation with mushrooms and pills was common as well. A Harvard professor named Timothy Leary made headlines by openly promoting the use of LSD. There was a price to be paid for these new attitudes. With the new freedom came an upsurge of venereal diseases, bad trips, and drug addictions.

One lasting change from the countercultural movement was in American diet. Health food stores sold wheat germ, yogurt, and granola, products completely foreign to the 1950s America. Vegetarianism became popular among many youths. Changes in fashion proved more fleeting. Long hair on young men was standard, as were Afros. Women often wore flowers in their hair. Ethnic or peasant clothing was celebrated.. Beads, bellbottom jeans, and tie-dyed shirts became the rage, as each person tried to celebrate his or her own sense of individuality.

It is important to note that the counterculture was probably no more than ten percent of the American youth population. Contrary to common belief, most young Americans sought careers and lifestyles similar to their parents. Young educated people actually supported the war in Vietnam in greater numbers than older, uneducated Americans. The counterculture was simply so outrageous that the media made their numbers seem larger than in reality. Nevertheless, this lifestyle made an indelible cultural impact on America for decades to come.

Old HippeHe turned thirty-five last Sunday In his hair he found some gray But he still ain't changed his lifestyleHe likes it better the old way So he grows a little garden in the back yard by the

fence He's consuming what he's growing nowadays in self

defenseHe get's out there in the twilight zone Sometimes when it just don't make no sense

He gets off on country music Cause disco left him cold He's got young friends into new wave But he's just too friggin' oldAnd he dreams at night of Woodstock and the day

John Lennon died How the music made him happy and the silence

made him cry Yeah he thinks of John sometimes And he has to wonder why

He's an old hippie and he don't know what to doShould he hang on to the old Should he grab on to the new He's an old hippie...his new life is just a bust He ain't trying to change nobody He's just trying real hard to adjust

He was sure back in the sixties that everyone was hip Then they sent him off to Vietnam on his senior trip And they forced him to become a man while he was still

a boy And behind each wave of tragedy he waited for the joy Now this world may change around him But he just can't change no more

He's an old hippie and he don't know what to doShould he hang on to the old Should he grab on to the new He's an old hippie...his new life is just a bust He ain't trying to change nobody He's just trying real hard to adjust

Well he stays away a lot now from the parties and the clubs

And he's thinking while he's joggin' 'round Sure is glad he quit the hard drugs Cause him and his kind get more endangered everyday And pretty soon the species will just up and fade away Like the smoke from that torpedo...just up and fade

away

He's an old hippie and he don't know what to doShould he hang on to the old Should he grab on to the new He's an old hippie...his new life is just a bust He ain't trying to change nobody He's just trying real hard to adjust.

During the Summer of Love, as many as 100,000 young people from around the world flocked to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, as well as to nearby Berkeley and to other San Francisco Bay Area cities, to join in a popularized version of the hippie experience. Free food, free drugs and free love were available in Golden Gate Park, a Free Clinic (whose work continues today) was established for medical treatment, and a Free Store gave away basic necessities to anyone who needed them.

The Summer of Love attracted a wide range of people of various ages: teenagers and college students drawn by their peers and the allure of joining a cultural utopia; middle-class vacationers; and even partying military personnel from bases within driving distance. The Haight-Ashbury could not accommodate this rapid influx of people, and the neighborhood scene quickly deteriorated. Overcrowding, homelessness, hunger, drug problems, and crime afflicted the neighborhood. Many people left in the fall to resume their college studies.

San Francisco

On October 6, 1967, those remaining in the Haight staged a mock funeral, "The Death of the Hippie" ceremony, to signal the end of the played-out scene. Mary Kasper explained the message of the mock funeral as follows:

“We wanted to signal that this was the end of it, don't come out. Stay where you are! Bring the revolution to where you live. Don't come here because it's over and done with.”

This was a 3 day concert in Bethel, NY that turned into THE event of the 1960’s. 500,000 people attended and because of an improperly set up fence at the entrance to the site, it became a free concert.

The common bond among many youths of the time was music. Centered in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco, a new wave of psychedelic rock and roll became the music of choice. Bands like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and the Doors created new sounds with electrically enhanced guitars, subversive lyrics, and association with drugs.

Folk music was fused with rock, embodied by the best-known solo artist of the decade, Bob Dylan. When the popular Beatles went psychedelic with their landmark album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, counterculture music became mainstream.

Year Song Artist

1960 The Twist Chubby Checker

1961 At Last Etta James

1962 Miserlou Dick Dale

1963 Yakety Sax Boots Randolf

1964 Twist and Shout Beatles

1965 Unchained Melody Righteous Brothers

1966 I'm A Believer The Monkees

1967 Ain't No Mountain High Enough Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

1968 Sittin On The Dock Of The Bay Otis Redding

1969 Build Me Up Buttercup Foundations

Most requested songs of the 1960’s

The average song that was played on the radio was 2 minutes and 37 seconds.

Longest songs in the 1960’s

Song Time

Hey Jude (The Beatles) 7 minutes and 3 seconds

Monster (Steppenwolf) 9 minutes 17 seconds

In-a gadda-da-vida (Iron Butterfly) 17 minutes and 3 seconds

.ARTIST ARTIST

The Beach Boys Aretha Franklin

The Beatles Gary Puckett & The Union Gap

Roy Orbison The Grateful Dead

Buddy Holly The Jimi Hendrix Experience

The Drifters Cream

The Mamas & the Papas Moody Blues

The Monkees Steppenwolf

The Rolling Stones Creedence Clearwater Revival

Simon and Garfunkel Strawberry Alarm Clock

The Supremes Big Brother and the Holding Company

Fleetwood Mac Eric Burdon and The Animals

The Doors Bob Dylan

The Who Wilson Pickett

Popular Artists of the 1960’s

.

American Bandstand is an American musical variety show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, hosted from 1957 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40-type music introduced by Clark; at least one popular musical act—over the decades, running the gamut from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run DMC—would usually appear in-person to lip-sync one of their latest singles.

Regulars that appeared on the show more than two or three times a week were not actors or professional dancers, but ordinary high school students.It was immediately clear to the producers that regulars drew a huge viewing audience, as well as a dependable studio audience. For teen viewers, especially outside Philadelphia, the regulars were role models. Girls copied hair-dos and make-up; boys copied dance steps and clothing styles.

Year Title

1960 The Apartment

1961 West Side Story

1962 Lawrence of Arabia

1963 Tom Jones

1964 My Fair Lady

1965 The Sound of Music

1966 A Man For All Seasons

1967 In The Heat Of The Night

1968 “OLIVER!”

1969 Midnight Cowboy

Year Title

1960 Psycho

1961 Breakfast at Tiffany's

1961 The Hustler

1962 The Manchurian Candidate

1962 To Kill a Mockingbird

1963 The Birds

1964 A Hard Day's Night (The Beatles first film)

1964 Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1967 Cool Hand Luke

1967 The Graduate

1967 Bonnie and Clyde

1967 Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?

1968 2001: A Space Odyssey

1969 Easy Rider

Top TV ShowsYear Show Networ

k

1960-61 Gunsmoke CBS

1961-62 Wagon Train NBC

1962-64 The Beverly Hillbillies CBS

1964-67 Bonanza NBC

1967-68 The Andy Griffith Show CBS

1968-70 Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In NBC

Other Popular TV Shows

Show Network

The Ed Sullivan Show CBS

My Three Sons ABC

The Dick Van Dyke Show CBS

Petticoat Junction CBS

Bewitched ABC

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. CBS

Gilligan's Island CBS

Hogan's Heroes CBS

Green Acres CBS

Dragnet NBC

Hawaii Five-O CBS

The Monkees CBS

Star Trek NBC

Year Baseball Football Basketball Hockey

1960 Pittsburgh Pirates Philadelphia Eagles St. Louis Hawks Montreal Canadiens

1961 New York Yankees Green Bay Packers St. Louis Hawks Chicago Black Hawks

1962 New York Yankees Green Bay Packers Los Angeles Lakers Toronto Maple Leafs

1963 Los Angeles Dodgers

Chicago Bears Los Angeles Lakers Toronto Maple Leafs

1964 St. Louis Cardinals Cleveland Browns San Francisco Warriors

Toronto Maple Leafs

1965 Los Angeles Dodgers

Green Bay Packers Los Angeles Lakers Montreal Canadiens

1966 Baltimore Orioles Green Bay Packers Los Angeles Lakers Montreal Canadiens

1967 St. Louis Cardinals Green Bay Packers San Francisco Warriors

Toronto Maple Leafs

1968 Detroit Tigers Green Bay Packers Los Angeles Lakers Toronto Maple Leafs

1969 New York Mets New York Jets Los Angeles Lakers Toronto Maple Leafs

Many black people felt the civil rights movement was achieving the economic, social and political liberation of the race. Some of them, more radical, were disgusted with the slow pace of reform, and felt the need to speed things up and force the issue directly. Among these outspoken black people was Malcolm X, a black muslim who demanded not just equality, but advocated a black revolution as a response to the oppression and inequality black people experienced. Malcolm X looked at the history of black people in America and pointed out how they were still suffering from slave mentality on the part of both the white establishment, and their own thinking.

Around this time, black students on college campuses were demanding classes that focused on black history and minority studies, rather than the standard white version of history. Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) chairman, Stokely Charmichael, used the term Black Power to create an awareness among blacks of their human rights and ability to change their own circumstances without reliance on the white power structure for improving the lot of black people

The Black Panther Party was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale and embraced the teachings of Malcolm X. The Black Panthers set out to change the way black people were being treated in America. First they wanted to protect blacks from police harrassment and brutality. To this end, they advocated arming black people with weapons and using them when necessary to defend oneself. When you realize that most of the leaders of the Black Panthers were former US military men, many of whom served in Vietnam, you know they weren't bluffing.

The second thing the Panthers wanted to achieve was economic and political equality for black people. To achieve this they felt it necessary to reject the existing system and set about creating an independent self-supporting political and economic system. Black Panthers setup many new community services including feeding the poor, teaching young children black history and black pride and free medical services.

But their leaders became targets for the police, and a number of busts and shootouts resulted in the Panther leadership either being killed or incarcerated. Yet the Panthers managed to inspire many black people to become more active in their communities and to fight the system. Likewise the threat they represented to the white status quo and to black conservatives, was a shot across America's bow, forcing it to change course in dealing with minority rights.

On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 launched from the Kennedy Space Center.

On July 20, 1969, Commander Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. He said the historic words, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

A camera in the Lunar Module, "Eagle" provided live television coverage as Neil Armstrong climbed down the ladder to the surface of the moon.

The crew spend a total of two and a half hours on the moon's surface. While on the moon's surface, the performed a variety of experiments and collected soil and rock samples to return to Earth.An American flag was left on the moon's surface as a reminder of the accomplishment.

The Command Module "Columbia" returned to Earth on July 24, 1969. Apollo 11 had successfully completed its mission. President Kennedy's objective to land men on the moon and return them safely to Earth had been accomplished.

The 1960's began with crew cuts on men and bouffant hairstyles on women. Men's casual shirts were often plaid and buttoned down the front, while knee-length dresses were required wear for women in most public places. By mid-decade, miniskirts or hot pants, often worn with go-go boots, were revealing legs, bodywear was revealing curves, and women's hair was either very short or long and lanky. Men's hair became longer and wider, with beards and moustaches. Men's wear had a renaissance. Bright colors, double-breasted sports jackets, polyester pants suits with Nehru jackets, and turtlenecks were in vogue. By the end of the decade, ties, when worn, were up to 5" wide, patterned even when worn with stripes. Women wore peasant skirts or granny dresses and chunky shoes. Unisex dressing was popular, featuring bell bottomed jeans, love beads, and embellished t-shirts. Clothing was as likely to be purchased at surplus stores as boutiques. Blacks of both genders wore their hair in an afro.

The Bouffant

Go-go boots

Nehru Jackets

Peasant SkirtsThe Afro

The Mini dress