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It's me.

2

It's me.

3

It's Dr.

4

G.

5

Our textbook summarizes

6

It was the decade of the Vietnam War

of inner City riots in assassinations

7

that seem to symbolize the crushing

of a new generation's idealism.

8

A decade of struggle and

disillusionment rocked by social,

9

cultural, and political upheaval.

10

The 1960s are remembered because

so much changed and because

11

so much did not end quote.

12

The very essence of the 1960s, a period

that didn't just explode out of nowhere.

13

It is predicated on the fifties and

the wartime depression experiences,

14

this post-World War II affluent

society, a time of unprecedented

15

economic growth for many Americans.

16

Often mask, deep-seated

tensions and unresolved issues.

17

The topics of our last episode,

these weren't new problems.

18

They were lingering shadows of

earlier American eras, the vast

19

economic disparities and the

concentration of corporate power,

20

the hallmarks of the Gilded Age.

21

I.

22

Continued to shape the economic landscape,

leaving many behind, even Amids, this

23

massive prosperity, the promises of

racial equality made and then largely

24

abandoned during reconstruction,

simmer beneath the surface of Jim Crow

25

segregation and injustice that could not.

26

Be indefinitely suppressed.

27

The anxieties of the Cold War fostered

a climate of conformity and suspicion.

28

While the expanded role of government,

a legacy of the Great Depression

29

in World War ii, set the stage for

both ambitious social programs.

30

And increased federal power.

31

Welcome to Star Spangled Studies.

32

Today we plunge into the turbulent,

transformative, and often

33

contradictory decade of the 1960s.

34

We'll explore the soaring idealism

of Kennedy's new frontier, the fierce

35

battles over the Civil Rights movement,

the ambitious vision of Johnson's great

36

society, the escalating tragedy of

Vietnam and the cultural earthquakes

37

that reshaped these United States.

38

It was a decade where the fault lines

of American history, some centuries

39

old, finally gave way and it unleashed

forces that would redefine the nation.

40

The reverberations we feel

today, the activism and upheaval.

41

Were not sudden ruptures, but

rather the culmination of these

42

long simmering historical issues.

43

Reaching a critical boiling point.

44

The affluence of the 1950s, for

example, was built on foundations

45

that systematically excluded many

particularly African Americans from

46

key avenues of wealth creation, like

suburban home ownership, due to practices

47

like redlining, a direct descendant

of earlier segregationist policies.

48

The fight for civil rights was,

in essence, a renewed effort to

49

achieve what reconstruction had.

50

Failed to secure full citizenship

and economic opportunity for black

51

Americans and economic anxieties that

persisted even in these boom times

52

were echoes of the Gilded ages stark

class and racial divisions, which the

53

New Deal and later the Great Society.

54

Attempted to address, so let's get to it.

55

The 1960s dawned with a

sense of new beginning.

56

Embodied by the youthful

and charismatic John F.

57

Kennedy as the new president.

58

His election in 1960 in a razor

thin victory over Richard Nixon

59

signaled a generational shift.

60

Kennedy's popular vote

margin was less than 1%.

61

Though his electoral college

victory was more decisive.

62

This narrow wind, however meant

he entered the White House without

63

the sweeping mandate he might have

hoped for to enact his ambitious.

64

What he called New Frontier Agenda.

65

Kennedy's inaugural address resonated

with a call to service quote, ask

66

not what your country can do for you.

67

Ask what you can do for your country.

68

End quote.

69

He envisioned the new frontier,

not as a set of promises,

70

but as a set of challenges.

71

A quote, frontier of unknown

opportunities and perils.

72

A frontier of unfulfilled hopes

and threats, urging Americans

73

towards exploration in science

space, peace, and the quote.

74

Unconquered pockets of

ignorance and prejudice.

75

End quote.

76

Yet, this new frontier was immediately

confronted with the icy realities of

77

the Cold War, the global rivalry with

the Soviet Union, which had defined the

78

post-World War II world intensified.

79

Kennedy had campaigned on a perceived

missile gap with the Soviets, arguing

80

that the Eisenhower administration

had allowed American military strength

81

to decline relative to the USSR.

82

This rhetoric created immense

pressure for him to demonstrate

83

American resolve against communism.

84

This pressure contributed directly

to one of his administration's.

85

Earliest and most significant

foreign policy blunders.

86

The Bay of Pigs invasion in April of 1961.

87

Inheriting A CIA plan to use Cuban

emigres to overthrow Fidel Castro,

88

whose revolutionary government had

rapidly soured relations with the us.

89

Kennedy authorized the mission.

90

The invasion force landing at Jerome

Beach was quickly and decisively

91

defeated by Cuban forces as the

anticipated popular uprising

92

against Castro never materialized.

93

The operation was a tremendous

embarrassment for the young president.

94

Bolstering Castro's legacy and pushing

Cuba further into the Soviet orbit.

95

In the aftermath, Kennedy took

publicity's sole responsibility stating

96

there's an old saying that Victory has

100 fathers, and defeat is an orphan.

97

I'm the responsible

officer of the government.

98

End quote.

99

The lessons from this failure may

have informed Kennedy's handling of

100

an even more perilous confrontation,

the Cuban Missile Crisis.

101

In October of 1962, the discovery

of Soviet nuclear missiles being

102

installed in Cuba brought the world

to the brink of nuclear annihilation.

103

Kennedy, after intense deliberation

with his advisors, opted

104

for a naval what he called.

105

Quarantine of Cuba rather than

an immediate military strike.

106

After 13 days of high stakes tensions

and direct communication between

107

Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita

Khrushchev, a resolution was reached.

108

The Soviets were removed, their

missiles from Cuba and the US

109

publicly pledged not to invade the

island, while secretly agreeing to

110

remove American Jupiter missiles.

111

From Turkey.

112

This crisis is the closest that the

superpowers ever came to nuclear war

113

paradoxically led to a slight easing of

tensions, including the signing of the

114

nuclear test Ban Treaty in 1963, which

arguably strengthens Kennedy's leadership

115

and its credentials on the world stage.

116

Beyond Cuba, Kennedy deepened

American involvement in Vietnam.

117

He was guided what other presidents

had been guided on before.

118

The domino theory, the fear

that if one domino in Southeast

119

Asia fell to communism, other

dominoes would follow suit.

120

Since the end of World War ii,

the US had supported French

121

colonial efforts to retake Vietnam

and then backed anti-communist

122

governments in South Vietnam.

123

Kennedy increased the number of US

military advisors in South Vietnam to

124

approximately 16,000, tasked with helping

suppress a growing communist insurgency.

125

Though the American public remain largely

unaware if at all of the escalating

126

commitment of the United States.

127

On the domestic front, the

civil rights movement was

128

gaining irresistible momentum.

129

Kennedy initially cautious due to his

narrow electoral victory and the need

130

for Southern Democratic support in

the Congress found his administration

131

increasingly forced to confront the issue,

the violent resistance to desegregation

132

efforts such as the Freedom Rides and

the turmoil surrounding James Meredith.

133

Enrollment at the University of

134

intervention, the Battle of Old Miss

Saw Kennedy dispatch, US Marshals and

135

National Guardsmen to restore order.

136

A turning point came in June of 1963.

137

A.

138

Following Alabama Governor George

Wallace's defiant stand in the

139

schoolhouse door to block the

integration of the University of Alabama.

140

Nine years after Brown v Board of

Education and Kennedy addressed

141

the nation with unprecedented moral

clarity, he declared quote, the

142

heart of the question is whether all

Americans are to be afforded equal

143

rights and equal opportunities.

144

If an American, because his skin

is dark, cannot eat lunch in a

145

restaurant open to the public.

146

If in short he cannot enjoy the

full and free life, which all of

147

us want, then who among us would

be content to have the color of his

148

skin changed and stand in his place?

149

Speaker 2: End quote.

150

Speaker: He announces intention to

send a comprehensive civil rights bill

151

to Congress framing racial justice,

not as a legal issue, but as a moral

152

imperative for the entire nation.

153

Tragically.

154

In response, John F.

155

Kennedy would actually not

see this bill become law.

156

His assassination in Dallas on

157

across the nation and the world

cutting short of presidency filled

158

with both promise and peril.

159

The assassination was live on

television, and the assassination was

160

a profound national trauma shattering

the optimism that had marked the early

161

years of the decade, and ushering

in an era of deep uncertainty.

162

Yet, in a strange twist of

history, Kennedy's death

163

created a political opening.

164

His successor, vice President Lyndon

b Johnson, would successfully and

165

skillfully leverage the national grief.

166

And Kennedy's legacy to push through not

only the stalled civil rights legislation

167

that Kennedy introduced, but also an

even broader social agenda of reform.

168

As we've seen throughout the previous

episodes, the fight for civil rights

169

in the 1960s was not a new struggle,

but the culmination of centuries of

170

oppression in decades of organized

resistance, the unfulfilled promises

171

of reconstruction, which ended in 1877.

172

Had allowed the entrenchment of Jim

Crow segregation creating a system of

173

political powerlessness and economic

inequality for African Americans,

174

particularly in southern states.

175

The civil rights movement of the 1950s

and the sixties is often referred

176

to as the second reconstruction, a

determined effort to finally realize the

177

constitutional guarantees of equality

enshrined during the first reconstruction.

178

The early 1960s saw a dramatic escalation

of nonviolent direct action, a strategy

179

designed to confront segregation

head on and expose its violence and

180

brutality to the nation and the world.

181

The sit down movement ignited on February

182

segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in

Greensboro, North Carolina became a potent

183

symbol of this new wave of activism.

184

These students in the thousands who

followed their example across sit-ins

185

in the south would sit peacefully at

white's only counters, enduring ridicules,

186

assaults, and arrests, all to demand

the signal dignity of being served as

187

one student newsletter from the era

quoted by Civil rights organizer, er.

188

Baker proclaimed.

189

We want the world to know that

we no longer accept the inferior

190

position of second class citizenship.

191

We are willing to go to jail,

be ridiculed, spat upon, and

192

even suffer physical violence to

obtain first class citizenship.

193

End quote.

194

The sits not only force the desegregation

of some businesses like that specific

195

Greensboro world worth counter in

196

that black southerners were content.

197

And happy with Jim Crow.

198

Segregation.

199

Crucially, they led the formation of the

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,

200

or SNCC or SNC in April of 1960.

201

This dynamic organization that

empowered young activists and

202

emphasized grassroots leadership.

203

Building on this momentum we had discussed

last episode, the Freedom Rides of Maine

204

in 1961, organized by core, the Congress

of Racial Equality with significant SNC

205

participation aimed to test Supreme court

decisions that outlawed segregation in

206

interstate travel and terminal facilities.

207

Interracial groups of activists

boarded buses bound for the deep

208

south, deliberately violating

segregation ordinances, and they

209

were met with horrific violence.

210

Go look at the pictures in Aniston,

Alabama, one bus was firebombed

211

and its fleeing Passengers were

attacked by a white mob that local

212

authorities had been given tacit

permission to act in Birmingham.

213

Riders were brutally beaten

by Klansmen while police.

214

Were conspicuously absent.

215

John Lewis, a young SNCC leader

and future congressman was

216

among those severely injured.

217

Despite the terror, the rioters persisted.

218

As SNCC activist, Diane Nash told Core

Director James Farmer, when he considered

219

ending the rides due to violence.

220

I mentioned this last episode, quote,

we can't let them stop us with violence.

221

If we do, the movement is dead.

222

The Freedom Rides through sheer

courage of the participants, and

223

importantly, the televised images

of the violence that they endured.

224

Forced Attorney General Robert

Kennedy to intervene and ultimately

225

led to the Interstate Commerce

Commission to issue regulations.

226

Banning segregation and interstate travel.

227

These early campaigns set the

stage for even larger and more

228

consequential confrontations.

229

The Birmingham campaign in the spring

230

Christian Leadership Conference

under Martin Luther King, Jr.

231

Targeted segregation in

Alabama's largest city through

232

boycotts, sit-ins and marches.

233

The city's notorious public safety

commissioner, Eugene Bull, Connor

234

unleashed police dogs in high pressure

fire hoses on peaceful demonstrators.

235

As TVs filmed all of this, many of

those who were hit with these water

236

cannons or had dogs set upon them.

237

Teenagers are children.

238

The images broadcast worldwide

created a wave of revulsion

239

and sympathy for the movement.

240

It was during this campaign

that Martin Luther King Jr.

241

Was jailed for his participation,

and he penned his famous letter

242

from the Birmingham Jail, A profound

articulation of the philosophy of

243

nonviolent resistance and a powerful

rebuke for those who counseled

244

patients in the face of injustice.

245

Before you read a letter from a

Birmingham jail, read the letter

246

that was first sent by the Alabama

Ministers to Martin Luther King, Jr.

247

Here's what King said, quote, freedom is

never voluntarily given by the oppressor.

248

It must be demanded by the oppressed

249

Speaker 2: end quote.

250

Speaker: The Birmingham campaign

ultimately led to agreement to desegregate

251

public accommodations in the city,

but again, through lots of violence.

252

And intimidation.

253

The moral authority and national

visibility of the movement itself

254

reached a zenith with the March on

Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

255

That's its title.

256

On August 28th, 1963, over a quarter

of a million people, black and white,

257

gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to

demand comprehensive civil rights

258

legislation and jobs and economic justice.

259

It wasn't just civil rights.

260

It was here where Martin Luther King Jr.

261

Delivered his iconic.

262

I have a dream speech, a soaring vision

of America, free from Racial Prejudice.

263

And you've heard this before, I have a

dream that my four little children will

264

one day live in a nation where they will

not be judged by the color of their skin,

265

but by the content of their character.

266

But how many of you actually

listen to all of the speech?

267

Is that the only line

that you know from it?

268

Maybe you should go

listen to it or read it.

269

The struggle for voting rights,

a cornerstone of full citizenship

270

intensified with Freedom Summer in

271

voter registration project involving

hundreds of mostly white Northern

272

student volunteers alongside local black

activists aimed to challenge the systemic

273

disenfranchisement of African Americans.

274

In the state of Mississippi

where only about 6.7%

275

of eligible black citizens were

registered to vote, volunteers

276

established freedom schools to teach

literacy, black history and civics.

277

The project was met, as you would

expect by now, with brutal resistance

278

and violence, including the infamous

murders of three civil rights workers,

279

James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and

Michael Schwer, which shocked the

280

nation as these three men were.

281

Murdered the Mississippi

Freedom Democratic Party.

282

MFDP emerged from this effort,

challenging the legitimacy of the

283

state's all white democratic delegation.

284

At the 1964 Democratic National

Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer, as

285

sharecropper turned activist, delivered

a powerful televised testimony before

286

the credentials committee asking

quote, is this America the land of

287

the free and the home of the brave?

288

Where we have to sleep with our telephones

off the hooks because our lives are

289

threatened daily because we want to

live as decent human beings in America.

290

End quote.

291

While the MFDP was not seated, their

challenge exposed the depths of racial

292

exclusion within the Democratic Party

itself and further galvanized the call

293

for federal voting rights legislation.

294

That call was answered after

the events in Selma, Alabama.

295

In March of 1965.

296

A series of marches from Selma to the

state capitol in Montgomery, organized

297

to protest the denial of voting rights

and the recent murder of activist Jimmy

298

Lee Jackson culminated in bloody Sunday.

299

On March 7th, peaceful protestors led

by John Lewis and Hosea Williams were

300

savagely attacked by Alabama state

troopers and local posse men, as they

301

attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus

Bridge televised images again of the

302

unprovoked brutality against nonviolent

demonstrators, including Amelia

303

Boyton, who was beaten unconscious.

304

Ann Lewis, who suffered a fractured skull.

305

Horrified the nation again, and it

spurred President Johnson to action.

306

After a second aborted March, a

third larger march, protected by

307

Federalized National Guard troops

successfully reached Montgomery

308

in a powerful address to Congress.

309

President Johnson echoing the anthem

of the movement declared quote.

310

This cause must be our cause too,

because it is not just Negroes, but

311

really it is all of us who must overcome

the crippling legacy of bigotry and

312

injustice, and we shall overcome.

313

End quote.

314

Soon after Congress passed the Voting

315

legislation that outlawed discriminatory

voting practices and authorized federal

316

oversight in elections in areas with

a history of disenfranchisement.

317

Throughout these tumultuous years,

Martin Luther King's Jr's philosophy

318

continued to evolve while remaining

steadfastly committed to non-violence

319

rooted in his Christian faith and

inspired by gandian principles,

320

quote, Christ showed us the way, and

Gandhi in India showed it could work.

321

End quote.

322

King increasingly broadened his

focus from racial desegregation to

323

encompass economic justice and peace.

324

He realized that he couldn't

have one without the other.

325

His powerful Beyond Vietnam speech,

which was delivered at Riverside Church

326

in New York City on April 4th, 1967, a

year to the day before his assassination,

327

was a courageous and controversial

condemnation of the Vietnam War.

328

He decried the war as a morally

indefensible and enemy of the poor.

329

Arguing that resources desperately

needed to combat poverty at home

330

and to feed Americans was being

diverted to an unjust war abroad.

331

I.

332

I knew that America would never invest

the necessary funds or energies in

333

rehabilitation of its poor, so long

as adventures like Vietnam continue

334

to draw men and skill and money like

some demonic destruction s of tube.

335

He lamented this.

336

He also pointed to the cruel irony

that black and white young men fighting

337

and dying together overseas for a

nation that refused to allow them

338

to sit together in the same schools.

339

At home, go listen to his speech.

340

It's out there.

341

This expanding vision culminated in

342

ambitious effort to unite impoverished

peoples of all races, to demand a

343

quote, economic bill of rights from

the federal government, including

344

a commitment to full employment,

a guaranteed annual income in the

345

construction of more low income housing,

so everyone would have a place to live.

346

King envisioned a multiracial

coalition marching on Washington

347

to dramatize the plight of poor

people and compel government action.

348

It wasn't just black people,

it was all poor people.

349

Quote, in this age of technological

wizardry and political immorality,

350

the poor are demanding that the basic

needs of people be met as the first

351

priority of our domestic program.

352

End

353

Speaker 2: quote.

354

Speaker: The legislative achievements

of this period were monumental the Civil

355

Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights

356

the legal infrastructure of Jim Crow

segregation and disenfranchisement

357

without really any votes from Southerners.

358

I.

359

The victories were the product of

a complex dynamic, the unwavering

360

courage and strategic brilliance of

grassroots activism, who created moral

361

and political crises after crises,

after crises, using the power of the

362

media and television to broadcast

the realities of southern injustices

363

that had been going on for decades.

364

If not centuries to a national audience

and eventually, often, reluctantly

365

intervention came from the federal

government, prodded by the public pressure

366

and the need to uphold federal law against

entrenched state and local resistance.

367

I.

368

However, the very successes and

the intense struggles of these

369

years also sowed the seeds of

change within the movement itself.

370

The relentless violence, the slow pace of

progress in the face of massive violence

371

and resistance, and the perceived.

372

Inadequacies of appealing to

the white establishment's.

373

Consciousness led many younger activists,

particularly those within SNC, to

374

question the efficacy of non-violence

and the goal of integration altogether.

375

Experiences like the Freedom Summer and

the Democratic national convention's.

376

Rejection of the MFDP fueled

a growing disillusionment with

377

mainstream political channels.

378

This frustration would soon find

expressions in the call for black power

379

signaling a new phase in the later part of

380

After that fateful November day in 1963,

stepping into the presidency in the

381

shadow of Kennedy's assassination stood

Lyndon b Johnson, LBJA, Texan Democrat,

382

and a master of legislative maneuvering.

383

He brought a fierce

determination to the White House.

384

He was, as our textbook notes quote,

ruthlessly ambitious and keenly

385

conscious of poverty and injustice.

386

End quote.

387

Johnson swiftly moved to enact Kennedy

stalled civil rights Bill, and then

388

launched his own sweeping domestic

agenda that he called the Great Society

389

First, articulating this vision in

390

at the University of Michigan Johnson

declared his aim to build, quote, a

391

place where the meaning of man's life

matches the marvels of man's labor.

392

End quote.

393

The great society he proclaimed,

quote, rests on abundance and

394

liberty for all it demands, an end

to poverty and racial injustice.

395

But that is just the beginning

396

Speaker 2: end quote.

397

Speaker: This ambitious program

sought to uplift disenfranchised

398

Americans and elevate the quality

of life for the entire nation.

399

You know, everyone reaping the

fruits of the affluent society.

400

His 1964 State of the Union Address,

Johnson declared an unconditional

401

war on poverty in America.

402

Vowing we shall not rest

until that war is won.

403

End quote.

404

It's interesting to think how

Johnson would be looked at had it

405

not been for the debacle of Vietnam,

which we'll get into in a moment.

406

But the legislative output for his

vision of the Great society was

407

staggering during his presidency touching

nearly every aspect of American life.

408

Here are the key pillars, of course,

the Civil Rights Act, which prohibited

409

job discrimination and public

segregation based on race, color,

410

religion, sex, or national origin.

411

There was the Economic Opportunity

412

community programs, through job

training the Job Corps, Vista Early

413

Education Head Start, the Voting

414

to minority voting and authorizing

federal oversight of elections.

415

But 1965 also saw the Medicare and

Medicaid Act providing federal health

416

insurance for the elderly Medicare as well

as low income individuals and families.

417

Medicaid.

418

There was the Elementary and Secondary

419

significant federal money to K

through 12 education, especially

420

in areas for low income students.

421

There was the Housing and Urban

422

renewal, low income housing construction.

423

Rent, subsidies, it even

CRE created the department.

424

Uh, of HUD, immigration and

425

the discriminatory national Origins

quotas establishing preference

426

system based on skill and family

reunification, not where you were born.

427

The Federal Food Stamp program was

428

assistance to low income individuals

429

the National Endowment for the Arts

and Humanities providing federal funds.

430

To build arts, cultures, and humanities.

431

So the Economic Opportunity

432

of all of this war on poverty.

433

It created the Office of economic

opportunity to oversee programs like

434

the Job Corps for Youth Training, the

volunteers in Service of America, the

435

Domestic Peace Corps, or Vista and Head

Start for early childhood education.

436

A key and controversial component was

the Community Action Program cap, which

437

mandated maximum feasible participation

of the poor themselves in the planning

438

and administering of these programs.

439

But as I mentioned, even as Johnson

championed these domestic reforms,

440

building this great society, the

shadow of Vietnam loomed ever larger

441

In his agenda, he built on Kennedy's

initial commitment and driven by

442

Cold War fears of the domino theory.

443

Johnson escalated American

involvement significantly.

444

In 1964 August, the Gulf of Tonkin

incident provided the critical pretext

445

for Johnson to act after reports

that US destroyers had been attacked

446

by North Vietnamese forces and

reports whose accuracy particularly

447

concerning a second alleged attack.

448

Later came under some serious questioning.

449

Congress overwhelmingly passed the

Gulf of Tonkin resolution, this

450

resolution granted, president Johnson

brought authority to use military

451

force in Southeast Asia without a

formal declaration of war, becoming

452

the primary legal justification for a

massive escalation that would follow.

453

The escalation was Swift Operation

Rolling Thunder, which was a sustained

454

bombing campaign against North

455

That same month, the first US Combat

troops, the Marines landed in Vietnam.

456

By 1968, over half a million American

soldiers were stationed in Vietnam,

457

and the war had become a brutal war

of attrition with success measured

458

in grim body counts rather than

what happened in captured territory.

459

The immense cost of the Vietnam

War, both in the lives and the

460

treasure began to critically strain.

461

Johnson's vision of the great society

resources and political capital that could

462

have been used to fuel domestic programs

were increasingly diverted to help him

463

win the conflict in Southeast Asia.

464

And this created a tragic guns and

butter dilemma as it's been called.

465

Got Johnson himself yearned to

be a transformative democratic

466

president like his hero, Franklin

Delano Roosevelt, and he found his

467

ambitious social agenda increasingly

overshadowed and undermined by an

468

unpopular and seemingly unwinnable war.

469

And because of that war criticisms of

the great society mounted from multiple

470

directions, conservatives, decried, that

what they saw as wasteful federal spending

471

on what they called quote unworthy

citizens, as well as an overreach of

472

government power, liberals, including

many civil rights activists, argues

473

that the programs didn't go far enough.

474

They were being starved

by the war in Vietnam.

475

The criticism we heard

from Martin Luther King Jr.

476

A few minutes ago.

477

The community action programs in

particular Drew Fire for empowering

478

poor and minority communities, which

some viewed as radical and disruptive.

479

Furthermore, despite the civil

rights victories and new anti-poverty

480

initiatives, deep-seated frustrations

in urban black communities over

481

issues like residential segregation,

in continued police brutality, and

482

a lack of economic opportunity.

483

Erupted into major riots in cities

484

and in Newark and Detroit in 1967.

485

For many Americans, these riots again on

the television seemed to be an indictment

486

of the great society suggesting that

its programs were failing to address

487

the root causes of urban despair.

488

The dream of the great society so boldly

proclaimed was increasingly mired in the

489

complexities of social change at home,

overshadowed by a devastating war abroad.

490

We need to talk about the

491

counterculture that it produced.

492

The mid to late 1960s witnessed an

explosion of activism and cultural

493

experimentation that challenged the

very foundations of American society.

494

Frustration with the slow pace of civil

rights progress for many groups, not just

495

for African Americans, as well as the

escalating war in Vietnam, and a sense

496

of alienation from mainstream values

fueled a diverse array of movements.

497

The Civil Rights Movement itself

498

While Martin Luther King Jr remained

a towering figure advocating

499

non-violence and expanding vision of

social justice, more militant voices

500

emerged at the slow pace of change.

501

Malcolm X initially a fiery

minister for the nation of Islam.

502

Preached black self-reliance and

self-defense by any means necessary, as he

503

would say, offering a radical alternative

to king's integrationist approach.

504

Malcolm X famously declared quote, we

believe in a fair exchange, an eye for

505

an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a head

for a head, and a life for a life.

506

If this is the price of freedom, we won't

hesitate to pay the price end quote.

507

After his break with the Nation of

Islam in March of 64, Malcolm X founded

508

Muslim Mosque Incorporated and the

organization of Afro-American Unity.

509

His pilgrimage to Mecca led

to an evolution of his views.

510

He embraced Orthodox Islam and a more

internationalist perspective that

511

saw the possibility of interracial

brotherhood in the fight for human rights.

512

His assassination in February of 65.

513

Cut short this evolution, but solidified

his status as a martyr for many things

514

in the burgeoning black power movement.

515

And that slogan, black Power was

forcefully articulated by Stokely

516

Carmichael, who was then the chairman

of S-N-C-S-N-C-C during a March Against

517

Fear in Mississippi in June of 1966.

518

Quote, we have to tell them that we are

going to use the term black power, and

519

we are going to define it because black

power speaks to us Carmichael proclaimed.

520

For Carmichael and many others, black

power meant black self-determination.

521

It meant racial pride in the

creation of independent, black

522

political and cultural institutions.

523

As he argued, quote, we were never

fighting for the right to integrate.

524

We were fighting against white supremacy.

525

End quote, reflecting this shift,

SNC, expelled its white members and

526

turned its focus on rural southern

integration efforts to the injustices

527

faced by African Americans in Northern

urban centers, largely abandoning its

528

founding principle of non-violence.

529

The Black Panther Party for

Self-Defense is another example of this.

530

Founded in Oakland, California in 1966

by Huey p Newton and Bobby Seale, and it

531

became the most visible and controversial

embodiment of this new black militancy.

532

I.

533

Drawing on Marxist Len ideologies

and the concepts of decolonization,

534

the Panthers advocated for armed

self-defense against police brutality

535

and sought to liberate black

communities from white power structures.

536

Their 10 point program demanded not

an only an end to police brutality and

537

freedom for black prisoners, but also full

employment, decent housing, and education

538

that taught black history as well.

539

And it exposed, quote, the true nature

of this decadent American society end

540

quote, alongside their arm patrols

or cop watching, as they called it.

541

The Panthers also ran survival programs.

542

They gave free breakfast to children

and had community healthcare clinics

543

addressing the immediate needs of

their communities and empowering

544

black activists on their own terms.

545

The rise of more assertive black

organizations alongside the broader

546

civil rights movement and the

growing anti-war protests triggered

547

a severe governmental response.

548

The FBI continually under j Edgar Hoover

expanded, did, created Cohen Telpro.

549

The counterintelligence

program and their operations.

550

It was initially designed to

disrupt the Communist Party, but

551

cointelpro in the 1960s targeted

now a wide range of activist groups.

552

They targeted Martin Luther King Jr.

553

And the SCLC sncc, the Blank Panther

Party student anti-war groups like the

554

SDS or the students For a Democratic

Society and the American Indian Movement,

555

among others, the program's tactics

were insidious and often illegal.

556

Ranging from infiltration by informants

to spreading disinformation, to

557

forging documents to create internal

conflict, what they called bad jacketing

558

to legal harassment, illegal wire

tappings, illegal break-ins, and even

559

direct involvement in violence and

assassinations such as the police raid.

560

That the FBI helped to install

that killed Black Panther leader

561

Fred Hampton in Chicago of 1969.

562

One of co intel pro's explicit goals

was to quote, prevent the coalition

563

of militant black nationalist

groups and to prevent the rise

564

of a Messiah who could unify.

565

The militant black nationalist movement

end quote, the impact was devastating,

566

sowing, paranoia, and distrust

within and between these movements.

567

It led to many arrests,

imprisonments, and deaths.

568

It significantly weakened many

organizations by undermining

569

their public legitimacy and

ability to organize effectively.

570

This covert war against dissent

represented a profound challenge to

571

democratic principles and civil liberties.

572

It was also illegal in many cases

beyond the black freedom struggle.

573

Other movements for social

change gained momentum, drawing

574

inspiration from the tactics of

the civil rights activism itself.

575

The student movement frustrated

by what they saw as the.

576

Lifeless bureaucracies of universities

and the perceived moral failings of

577

this American society, particularly

regarding their actions in Vietnam

578

War and their slow acts towards racial

injustice became a powerful force.

579

I had mentioned the students

for a Democratic society.

580

It was founded in 1960 and it in issued

its influential Port Huron statement in

581

1962, primarily authored by Tom Hayden.

582

It was a call from a generation bred

in at least modest comfort housed.

583

Now in universities looking

uncomfortably to the world we inherit

584

for a participatory democracy.

585

End quote, to combat militarism,

poverty and cultural alienation.

586

SDS chapters spread rapidly across

college campuses, organizing teach-ins

587

and protests against the Vietnam War.

588

The free speech movement at the

University of California Berkeley in

589

1964 led by figures like Mario savi

erupted when the university tried to

590

restrict students' rights to engage

in political advocacy on campus.

591

Avi's passionate denunciation of the

university as an impersonal machine.

592

Captured the student's anger.

593

Quote, there is a time when the operation

of the machine becomes so odious,

594

makes you so sick at heart that you

can't take part, and you've got to put

595

your bodies upon the gears and upon

the wheels, and you've got to make it.

596

Stop, end quote.

597

The anti-Vietnam War movement grew

from these students' grassroots

598

into a national massive phenomenon.

599

As the war continued to

escalate as the decade went on.

600

Protests range from teach-ins and peaceful

601

drew 300,000 people to New York City,

and 50,000 people to the Pentagon to

602

draft card burnings, civil disobedience,

and chance of, Hey, hey, LBJ.

603

How many kids did you kill today?

604

While the movement significantly

constrained Johnson's ability to further

605

escalate the war and contributed to

the eventual end of the draft, it

606

also faced a conservative backlash

and intense government surveillance.

607

I.

608

Another movement built out of

this was the second wave feminism

609

that surged in the 1960s.

610

We talked about Betty Frieden's 1963 book,

the Feminine Mystique Last Episode, and

611

how it gave voice to the quiet desperation

of many educated, middle class suburban

612

women identifying the problem that has no

name, this profound sense of unfulfillment

613

despite achieving the socially prescribed

roles of wife and mother and homemaker.

614

They should have been fulfilled,

but they obviously were not.

615

Each suburban wife

struggles with it alone.

616

She was afraid to ask even of herself.

617

The silent question is this all.

618

Freedom argued that true

self-discovery for women as in men

619

lay in her creative work of her own.

620

In 1966, freedom, along with

other activists like Shirley

621

Chisolm co-founded the National

Organization for Women or Now.

622

Now, statement of Purpose outlined

a broad agenda to combat employment

623

discrimination, achieve political

equality, secure reproductive rights.

624

The birth control pill had first

625

And the challenging the

restrictive gender roles.

626

Consciousness raising groups became

a hallmark of the movement where

627

women shared personal experiences of

sexism, of violence, of transforming

628

the personal is political into

a powerful organizing principle.

629

The decade culminated with the 19

seven women strike for equality,

630

which highlighted ongoing demands for

equality and employment, politics,

631

abortion access, childcare and marriage.

632

Another movement grown in this 1960s

was the Chicano movement with roots

633

in earlier Mexican American civil

rights struggles, and it gained new

634

energy in a more assertive identity.

635

Activists reclaimed the term Chicano

as a symbol of pride and mobilized

636

to fight discrimination in schools.

637

Politics, and particularly in

agriculture, Cesar Chavez and Dolores

638

Huerta, co-founders of the United

Farm Workers became iconic figures

639

leading nonviolent campaigns, including

the influential Delano grape strike

640

and boycott to improve the brutal

conditions faced by farm workers.

641

Rudolfo Corky Gonzalez Crusade for

Justice and the plan as spirituality.

642

Atan articulated a vision of

Chicano self-determination

643

while the Raza Uni party built

an independent political power.

644

I.

645

Similarly, the Native American Red Power

Movement emerged inspired again by the

646

civil rights successes and fueled by

frustration over centuries of broken

647

treaties and systemic discrimination.

648

The National Indian Youth Council

649

like FISS to assert treaty rights.

650

The American Indian Movement and other

groups later undertook more dramatic

651

protests such as the occupation of

652

the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee South

Dakota to demand self-determination,

653

American government honoring treaty

obligations and bring national attention

654

again to the plight of native peoples.

655

Finally, the 1960s saw the flowering

of a youth-driven counterculture

656

that rejected mainstream materialism,

conformity, and authority.

657

Hippies or flower children embraced

ideals of peace, love, and freedom,

658

experimenting with communal living,

psychedelic drugs like LSD and

659

new forms of artistic expression,

particularly rock and folk music.

660

Haight Ashbury in San Francisco

became a symbolic center and events

661

like the 1967 Summer of Love and

662

His three days of peace, music and

love came to define the era protest

663

songs by artists like Bob Dylan's,

Sam Cook, Aretha Franklin, credence

664

Career Water Revival, and Marvin

Gaye provided the soundtrack for a

665

generation challenging the status quo.

666

These diverse movements while

distinct, often overlapped

667

and influenced one another.

668

They shared a common critique of

existing power structures and a desire

669

for a more just and equitable society,

even as they sometimes differed on

670

the strategies and the ultimate goals.

671

The civil Rights Movement then in

particular, provided a powerful

672

template as well as a moral impetus

for other groups seeking liberation

673

and recognition in these United States.

674

However, this cross pollination was

not without friction as seen in the

675

tensions over race and gender with

some new left and feminist circles,

676

or the strategic debates between

advocates for nonviolence and the

677

proponents for a more military approach.

678

Amidst the political and the social

679

be remiss if we didn't talk about

one figure who emerged from the

680

world of sports to become a global

icon of resistance and conviction.

681

Muhammad Ali.

682

Born Cassius Clay.

683

He burst onto the boxing scene with

684

in 1964, he shocked the world by

defeating the formidable Sonny Liston

685

to become heavyweight champion.

686

But Ali's impact extended

far beyond the boxing ring.

687

I.

688

Shortly after the Liston fight, he

announced his conversion to the Nation

689

of Islam, a move heavily influenced

by his relationship with Malcolm X.

690

He renounced his birth name, Cassius

Clay, which he famously called his

691

slave name and adopted the name

Muhammad Ali, given to him by the

692

Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.

693

This assertion of black identity

and religious autonomy was a

694

powerful statement in an era

of burgeoning black pride.

695

Ali's most defining moment of the decade,

696

refused induction into the United States

Army during the Vietnam War, citing his

697

religious beliefs as a minister of Islam.

698

Ali famously declared, quote, I ain't

got no quarrel with those Viet Kong.

699

He further elaborated on his stance

by connecting the war abroad to racial

700

injustice at home, questioning why should

he fight for a country that denied basic

701

human rights to its own black citizens?

702

His refusal was an act of profound

defiance against government policy and

703

pro prevailing notions of patriotism.

704

The consequences in the backlash

was immediate and severe.

705

He became public Enemy number one.

706

He was convicted of draft evasion.

707

He was sentenced to five years in

prison, a conviction eventually

708

overturned by the Supreme Court.

709

In 1971, he was fined $10,000 stripped

of the heavyweight title and banned

710

from boxing for three critical

years at the peak of his career.

711

The passage of time has resuscitated

his reputation, and he's a

712

beloved American figure today.

713

But in the 1960s, poll after poll

showed that the two most disliked

714

people in the United States.

715

Where Martin Luther King Jr.

716

And Muhammad Ali.

717

Despite this professional cost,

Ali's stance transformed him.

718

He became a potent symbol for the anti-war

movement and a hero to many in the

719

civil rights and black power movements.

720

His willingness to sacrifice his

career and face imprisonment for

721

his principles resonated deeply,

forcing a national and international

722

conversation about race, religion, war.

723

An individual conscience.

724

Muhammad Ali's actions demonstrated

that athletes could be more powerful

725

agents of social and political change,

challenging the notion that sports and

726

politics should remain on separate fields.

727

His articulate and unwavering opposition

to the war rooted in both his faith

728

and his understandings and feelings of

racial injustice made him a uniquely

729

polarizing yet undeniable figure.

730

Of the 1960s,

731

the 1960s, as we've

journeyed through today.

732

We're indeed a decade of

profound contradictions.

733

It was a time of unparalleled

social progress, yet marked by

734

deep, often violent divisions.

735

Soaring idealism clashed

with the tragic realities.

736

The expansion of rights for

some was met with fierce.

737

Violent, sometimes brutal

resistance by others.

738

The textbook observation holds true,

739

much changed and because so much did not.

740

The legislative victories of the civil

rights were monumental forever altering

741

the legal landscape of the United States.

742

The great society, despite its

limitations and the criticisms

743

it faced, establish enduring

programs that live on to this day.

744

Healthcare, education and poverty

alleviation that shape American life.

745

New voices emerged, students, women,

Chicanos, native Americans, and

746

the counterculture demanded to be

heard against the conformity, and in

747

doing so permanently broadened the

definition of American identity as well

748

as the scope of American democracy.

749

Yet the decade also left a

legacy of unresolved tensions.

750

The Vietnam War tore the country apart.

751

It eroded trust in the government, and it

left deep scars that we still feel today.

752

The fight for full racial and economic

justice remained and remains incomplete.

753

The backlash against the social changes of

754

that we'll talk about next episode.

755

That would reshape American

politics for the decade to come.

756

The echoes of the 1960s

are all around us today.

757

It's ongoing movements for

racial and economic equality.

758

The debates over the role and the scope of

the government in the ways we are allowed

759

to protest and what is acceptable protest,

and what we can demand for change.

760

And in the culture of freedoms

we now take for granted.

761

These are all things.

762

Begin and make more sense when we

763

raised so forcefully during that 1960s

decade about justice, equality, and

764

war, and the very meaning of America

resonate and ripple to our present.

765

How did the unresolved tensions of

the sixties, the dreams deferred

766

in the battles begun, set the

stage for the political and

767

social landscape we inhabit today.

768

That's a question for all of us to ponder.

769

I'll see y'all in the past.