DEFINING MOMENTS
Counterculture Movements
COMPLETE LESSON AND ACTIVITY GUIDES
Stimulating lessons that bring two of the most powerful and
engaging research tools to the classroom: the analysis of primary
documents and the revealing speculation of alternative history.
ABC-CLIO
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COPYRIGHT © 2009 BY ABC-CLIO, INC.
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce lesson material for classroom use only.
ISBN 1-59884-000-0 EAN-978-1-59884-000-0
COVER PHOTO: A young hippie couple enjoy a festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park
on August 8, 1967, during what became known as the Summer of Love.
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Contents
About the Development Team
Series Introduction
Introduction
Need to Know
Timeline
7
What If?
7
1
4
10
Student Handout A
Activity 2
v
1
Defining Moment
Activity 1
iv
12
21
Ready Reference
23
National Standards Correlations
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About the Development Team
LEE W. EYSTURLID
ILLINOIS MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE ACADEMY
Lee W. Eysturlid is a history/social science instructor at Illinois Mathematics and
Science Academy. Dr. Eysturlid has a PhD in history from Purdue University and
is a member of the Citadel Historical Association. He has published on
numerous military history topics and is an ABC-CLIO History Fellow.
JEREMY GYPTON
EMPIRE HIGH SCHOOL
Jeremy Gypton is a history/government teacher at Empire High School in
Tucson, Arizona. Gypton received his Masters from American Military
University and Bachelors from the University of Arizona. He was named
Arizona’s Outstanding American History Teacher by the Daughters of the
American Revolution, and is an ABC-CLIO Fellow.
CHRIS MULLIN
SANTA YNEZ VALLEY UNION HIGH SCHOOL
Chris Mullin graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a
degree in classical Greek and Latin and received his Master’s degree in education
from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Chris teaches Latin,
Advanced Placement European history, and Advanced Placement United States
history. In 2003, Chris was named California Teacher of the Year for his
passionate and innovative approaches to teaching history.
BRETT PIERSMA
SANTA YNEZ VALLEY UNION HIGH SCHOOL
Brett Piersma received his BA in History and his Masters of Education and
teaching credential at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He teaches AP
European History, AP American Government, and College Preparatory World
Cultures. He has facilitated the California History—Social Science Project at
UCSB twice and is a MetLife Fellow for the Teacher’s Network Leadership
Institute.
Portions of this workbook were drawn from ABC-CLIO's Turning Points—Actual and Alternate Histories series, edited by
Rodney P. Carlisle and Geoffrey Golson. For ordering information, please visit www.abc-clio.com
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Series Introduction
This packet is part of a 34-part series of primary source—based lessons for high school American History
courses. Each packet focuses on one defining moment in our history, with specific background information
and key concepts to help teachers become more knowledgeable in the history they are charged with teaching.
To help with classroom lessons, two activities are included in the packet: one based on the real history, the
other on a “counterfactual”—alternate—history. Both activities are rooted in student analysis of primary
source material, and both will help teachers meet standards-based requirements through varied and stimulating
teaching methods.
Every packet is arranged in the same manner. Teachers need to read the Introduction, which provides a “big
picture” survey of the period of history in question. The Defining Moment is a short passage that focuses on
a single, key event that was a turning point in history—a fork in the road after which the behaviors and fortunes of individuals, peoples, and places changed. The Need to Know section provides a more detailed discussion of the events leading up to and including the Defining Moment; this is followed by a short Timeline
of events. These first several pages are concerned entirely with history as it actually happened. The What If?
section supposes what might or could have taken place if events within the Defining Moment turned out differently.
The final components are the two Activities, each based on primary source documents. Activity 1 is based
on the real history and is intended to help students learn the facts and understand the concepts—enabling
teachers to meet the requirements of standards-based lessons. Activity 2 is based on the counterfactual history.
Both lessons require creative, analytical thinking and include work across the spectrum of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
To help teachers, each lesson also includes explicit lesson objectives, materials needed, and specific instructions.
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Introduction
Introduction
Counterculture, often described as “rebelling against the establishment,” is a term used to describe a movement
that swept the United States in the 1960s and early 1970s. The counterculture movement challenged the national imagination and transformed promising middle-class youth who had many material advantages into
those who were known popularly as “hippies.” The movement members were typically characterized by long
hair, brightly colored clothes, communal living, promiscuous sex, and heavy drug use. Members of the movement questioned what they saw as America’s materialism and commercialism as well as its cultural and political institutions. They sought to change the norms that had defined the prior decades as various groups came
together.
Keith Melville would write of the time in Communes in the Counter Culture: Origins, Theories, Styles of Life:
“It was easy enough in the early sixties to distinguish activists and hippies, to distinguish political from personal goals. But many of the most significant developments in the counterculture have resulted from a blending of styles. Both the rhetoric and the logic of radical activism have changed, and the hippies and activists have
converged under the banner of the Cultural Revolution.”
Rather than remain a subculture, the counterculture members hoped to transform the values and morals
of the dominant culture. The movement’s underlying values helped to invoke thinking beyond the individual
while also promoting the need to examine each person’s role and experience in society, such as through the consciousness-raising groups that are often associated with the second wave of the women’s movement. Members
of the counterculture were often viewed with suspicion by the “establishment”—the white middle and upper
classes. As Time magazine reported, “For all the hippies’ good works and gentle ways, many Americans found
them profoundly unsettling.”
Defining Moment
The counterculture movement reached its height in the late 1960s. The most visible symbols of the counterculture movement were the hippies, or those who rejected mainstream images and behaviors. The term, sometimes spelled “hippy,” was made popular by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, according to some
historians. He was well connected within the San Francisco counterculture community. Others feel the 1960s hippie culture was a reBeat culture: Practiced by
sult of the Beat culture in New York City. They claim that the first use
“beatniks,” a diverse group of
of the word hippie was on channel WNBC in New York City at the
artists, poets, musicians, and
opening of the New York World’s Fair on April 22, 1964. It was used
others, the beat culture
in a story about antiwar protesters who staged a sit-in and were
embodied the rejection of
called “hippies” by New York Police Department officers and retraditional values and morals,
porters. The police attempted to chase them off but the protestors
experimentation with drugs,
fought back and were arrested. Before that date, they claim this group
sexuality, and social
was described as “beatniks.” There were groups in New York’s Greenarrangements that later
wich Village coffee shops that were known as “hips,” which meant
typified the late ’60s.
being “in the know.” Many of the New York hippies later relocated to
San Francisco.
The hippies typically had a recognizable appearance. It included bell-bottom pants, tie-dyed shirts, and
peasant blouses. They also wore sandals, head scarves, and beaded necklaces. Their clothes were often handmade as a form of protest against the consumer culture. Men sported full beards. Hippies often traveled in Volkswagen buses or vans that featured peace symbols and other graffiti.
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Defining Moment
Allen Ginsberg at the Human Be-In in San Francisco, California in 1967. (Karl Sterne)
Some hippies began to live in communes and exercise various forms of nonconformity. Practices such as
meditation and yoga as well as taking psychedelic drugs were often used to expand the consciousness. The
movement challenged governmental authority and attitudes about traditional gender roles. It encouraged
greater social tolerance and environmental awareness. “Flower power” became a symbol of the movement.
Some followed the mantra of psychedelic guru Timothy Leary to “tune in, turn on and drop out,” meaning tune
into the movement, turn on to the philosophy, and drop out of the mainstream culture. These believers built
new lives away from the suburban conformity and created communities that were based on organic farming
and community service.
By 1972, many of its ideas and styles had more or less been accepted by most of society. One of the counterculture’s mantras was “don’t trust anyone over 30.” Yet as the years passed, many of those in the movement
were approaching that age. Some moved through the movement as if it were a phase. They shaved their beards,
donned suits, and joined the corporate world. Major trends initiated by the counterculture continued into the
1970s. These included a growing suspicion of governmental officials, advances in civil rights, an expansion of
women’s roles, an increased concern about the environment, an exploration of alternative communication
forms, and a drive to eliminate drug abuse.
The drug abuse and resulting violence aided the demise of the movement. The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco was one of the best known of the gathering places for counterculture events. Most
of the gatherings were peaceful, but by the end of 1967, the increased use of drugs and the resulting crime signaled a shift in the movement. As it began to change, some hippies announced their own death in the fall of
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Defining Moment
Protesters of the Vietnam War at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on October 21, 1967. (National Archives and
Records Administration)
1967, with the “Death of Hip” ceremony. They burned a coffin labeled the “Summer of Love.” It was a sign that
the counterculture had shifted from the innocence of “flower power”
to a mature movement with problems.
flower power: Coined by poet
As the years passed, mainstream culture embraced what was once
Allen Ginsberg, flower power
counter to the culture. The fashion and music of the time became
referred to the hippies’ stated
less alternative and was instead widely accepted. Tie-dyed clothing
love of peace and nature, and
was manufactured by and sold in corporate-owned businesses. Those
it became a symbol of the
outside the movement began wearing the clothes made popular by
hippie and peace movements.
the hippies, thus bringing them into the mainstream. Politics
changed too. Young people, including Vietnam veterans and antiwar
activists, were elected to local and national offices. Their priorities were reflected in their political agendas as
legislation was passed to address counterculture priorities such as discriminatory practices in the workplace
and environmental protections. Thus, the turning point was the 1967 Summer of Love; had the demise of the
counterculture been more forceful due to a new disease, future events might have turned out quite differently.
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Need to Know
Richard Nixon grasps the edge of the podium as he delivers his farewell speech to the White House staff on August 9,
1974. (National Archives)
Need to Know
The assassinations of leaders John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. pushed the political landscape into turmoil. The suspicion of established authority that came out of the 1960s was validated
by governmental actions in the 1970s. In 1972, Richard Nixon won reelection against Democratic candidate
George McGovern. During the election campaign, there was a bur25th Amendment: Before its
glary at the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate buildratification in 1967, there was
ing in Washington, D.C., that prompted the problems to come.
no constitutionally explicit
Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein began
mechanism by which a new
writing about the burglary and began to connect several members of
vice president was to be
the Nixon administration to the Watergate break-in. Nixon publicly
selected, and no clear line of
denied any connection to the case, yet in April 1973, two of Nixon’s
succession to the presidency
top advisors, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, resigned. A
should the president and vice
third advisor, John Dean, was fired. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew represident simultaneously be
signed after being charged with income tax evasion. He was replaced
unable to serve.
by Gerald Ford; it was the first time that the 25th Amendment,
which clarified the succession to the presidency, was applied.
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Need to Know
Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act on April 11, 1968. (Library of Congress)
In June 1973, testimony before the Senate committee investigating Watergate reported that Nixon was a part
of the cover-up and that he probably had tape recordings of meetings about the break-in. The special prosecutor called for access to the tapes, and the Supreme Court reinforced the request. The content of the tapes revealed that Nixon was involved in the cover-up. Several senators called for Nixon’s impeachment. On August
9, 1974, Nixon resigned the presidency. Ford then became president, and he granted Nixon a full pardon. The
political cynicism in the country was palpable.
The counterculture movement also joined the fight for civil rights. An important landmark in the battle
for civil rights for African American citizens came in 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson signed into law a
comprehensive civil rights act. It prohibited discrimination in education, voting, and the use of public facilities. The Supreme Court had ruled on segregation in public schools in 1954, but the federal government now
had a means of enforcing desegregation as Title VI of the act barred the use of federal funds in segregated programs and schools. The problem of segregated housing was addressed in the Civil Rights Act of 1968; it contained a clause barring racial discrimination in housing sales and rentals.
The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1968. It included special enforcement provisions aimed at areas of the
country where Congress viewed the potential for racial discrimination to be the greatest. Despite progress,
some violent reactions to racial injustice continued. More than 30 people died during riots in the Los Angeles community of Watts. Many American cities also experienced violence in the ensuing months.
There was an increase in elected African-American public officials as a result of the civil rights movement.
More African American candidates were elected to Congress, and the first African American mayors were
elected in many cities, including Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Detroit. Educational desegregation continued to be
an issue as cases involving school busing wove their way through the courts.
The women’s movement continued as well. Several of the ideals of gender equality, such as the potential of
pay equity and promotion, were reflected in legislation and reinforced by organizations such as the National
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Need to Know
Organization of Women (NOW). The group was created in large part to make sure that the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was taking pay inequity and sexual harassment cases seriously. As time
progressed, women were hired in record numbers in industries that had excluded them in the past. Newspapers stopped publishing help-wanted ads segregated by gender. Women became police officers, firefighters,
and engineers. They also began going to college in larger numbers. By 1979, female students had surpassed male
students in college enrollment figures.
Women expanded their involvement in politics in the 1970s, and the proportion of women in state legislatures nearly tripled. Women entered law schools in large numbers
and began to be named as judges. In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor
Sandra Day O’Connor:
was the first woman named to the Supreme Court. The women’s
O’Connor was a Stanford law
movement also focused on women’s reproductive rights. Access to
school graduate, Arizona state
contraception and abortion were ruled legal by the Supreme Court
senator, the first woman to
in the 1970s, although issues involving reproductive rights continued
serve as a state senate
to remain controversial.
majority leader, and first
One political issue that was not successful was passage of the
female Supreme Court justice,
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The proposed legislation would
nominated by Ronald Reagan.
have provided equal rights for all citizens regardless of gender. During the 1970s, many men and women lobbied, marched, and picketed
on behalf of the new law. The amendment passed both the Senate and the House of Representatives. On March
22, 1972, the proposed 27th Amendment to the Constitution was sent to the states for ratification with a sevenyear deadline for the ratification process. The ERA got off to a fast start, gaining 22 of the needed 38 state ratifications in its first year. But opposition grew and the pace slowed. ERA opponents such as Phyllis Schlafly and
Jerry Falwell argued that the amendment would deny a woman’s right to be supported by her husband and that
women would be sent into military combat. States’ rights advocates and religious groups also fought against
the amendment. In 1973, there were 8 ratifications but only 4 more states had ratified by the end of 1976. Illinois, Schlafly’s home state, changed its rules to require a three-fifths majority in the legislature to ratify an
amendment and thus negated passage in that state. Time ran out. The ERA was reintroduced in Congress in
1982 and has been before almost every session since that year.
The widespread drug abuse in the 1960s led to a backlash. In 1970, Nixon announced that drug education
was a national issue and should be taught in public schools. By the 1970s, nearly 18,000 school districts had
implemented drug abuse education. By the end of the decade, the Cabinet Committee on Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation determined that teenagers would likely continue to experiment with illegal drugs as a natural part of growing up. It recommended that the drug abuse education efforts be altered
to focus on the moderation of drug use. However, the federal government adopted an abstinence-only policy,
“Just Say No.” Future programs, funded by federal and state monies, continued to focus on educating children
about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, with varying results.
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Timeline
TIMELINE
1951: Jack Kerouac completes On the Road, his first stream of consciousness piece, in three
weeks; it will not be published in its entirety until 1957.
1954: Brown v. Board of Education ruling overturns segregated schools; this begins an era of
federal civil rights legislation aimed at dismantling legal racism.
1956: Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” is published; the work rails against normative American
society and culture.
1963: Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique is published, ushering feminism into the fringes of
the mainstream.
1966: The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco is seen as epicenter of hippie and
free love movements on the West Coast, if not the entire country.
1969: The Woodstock music festival takes place in rural New York State, defining the decade
in terms of counterculture music, fashion, ideas, and behavior.
What If?
If the Summer of Love had led to a health epidemic based on a fatal disease that was transmitted through drug
needles and irresponsible sexual activities, the historical outcome would likely have been very different.
In its initial years, the disease would not have had a name and different groups would have referred to it in
different ways. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would have titled it lymphadenopathy, or swollen glands—the first symptom of the disease. It soon would have become clear that the disease was
disproportionately affecting those in the counterculture movement, and some would call it the “hippie cancer.” Because very little would have been known about transmission, public anxiety would have continued to
grow. In addition to the medical responses, there would have been societal reactions of fear, stigma, and discrimination accompanying the epidemic. This stigma would have been used to marginalize and exclude members of the counterculture movement.
Every week a new theory would have proposed how the disease was spreading. As misinformation grew
about how the disease was transmitted, landlords would have evicted individuals with lymphadenopathy, and
patrol officers would have worn special masks and gloves for use when dealing with hippies. There would have
continued to be concern about the public health aspects of the disease. This would have been particularly the
case in San Francisco, where communes would have been eliminated and public concerts halted. College campuses would also have become targets of suspicion.
Awareness of the disease would have been brought to the public’s consciousness when popular movement
leader Timothy Leary died of it early on, shortly after making public his condition. Many other well-known
personalities from the entertainment industry would have added their familiar faces to the cumulative weight
of the lymphadenopathy crisis when they also succumbed to the disease.
The onset of lymphadenopathy likely would have led to hundreds of deaths of hippies across the country.
The reaction would have been one of fear and anger. With an emphasis on safe sexual practices and personal
responsibility, the questioning of authority would have been thwarted. Instead, the government would have
been looked to for help. It would not have been the enemy, but instead a partner in fighting the disease.
Rather than rejecting the power structure, the former hippies would likely have joined it. They would have
run for elected office in record numbers. They would have brought their progressive ideas, tempered with
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE What If?
Dr. Timothy Leary (1920–1996) was famous for his advice during the psychedelic revolution, “Turn on, tune in, drop
out.” (Library of Congress)
warnings of the dangers of irresponsible behavior, to their political careers. With strength in numbers, the
groups would have had a unified voice that would have led to underrepresented groups being elected to
statewide and national positions. As the voting age would have been lowered from 21 to 18, more young people would have become politically active.
Using the power structure to their advantage, the former hippies would have made major changes to social structures. They would have taken the ideals of their generation and merged them with the organization
structure already in place. The new leaders, with a background in the civil rights and women’s movements,
would have fought for an institutionalized equality. They would have sought enforcement of policy that encouraged change. For example, government-sponsored day care would have been instituted in workplaces
across the country, which would have allowed women to enter the workforce in all fields.
The alarm raised by lymphadenopathy would have meant that issues of sexuality would have been reexamined. Just as there had been an extensive educational campaign about the dangers of drug abuse in actual
history, a campaign about safe sexual practices would have been introduced to the school curriculum. This open
discussion of sexuality would have led to fewer teenage pregnancies and fewer sexually transmitted diseases.
The political landscape would have been further redefined when Representative Shirley Chisholm would
have become the vice presidential candidate. (In actual history, on January 25, 1972, Chisholm announced her
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE What If?
candidacy for president, the first woman of color to make a serious run for the Democratic nomination for
president.) Chisholm would likely have been the running mate of the anti—Vietnam War candidate George
McGovern. If they had been elected, American soldiers would have quickly left the Asian country. McGovern’s
plan for a unilateral withdrawal from the Vietnam War in exchange for the return of American prisoners of
war and an amnesty program for draft dodgers who had fled the country would have been put into place.
Government leaders, particularly those who had been affected by the Vietnam War, might have vowed not to
enter into military conflict again. This would have significantly altered the political future of the United States.
The likelihood of future military interventions would have been significantly diminished.
McGovern’s and Chisholm’s support of the ERA would likely have led to its passage in all states. The ERA
would have amended the Constitution to guarantee equal rights under the law regardless of gender. The ERA
would have stated (as it did in actual history) (1) Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex; (2) The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article; and (3) This amendment shall take effect two
years after the date of ratification.
The alternative views that would have intersected with the mainstream processes likely would have led to
a progressive environmental awareness. The gardens that lined the former hippies’ communes would have
caused an increase in organic farming. The environmental consciousness that was practiced in the communes
would have become part of the political landscape. These hippies-turned-politicians would have advocated numerous environmentally friendly causes. They would have fought for governmental funding for hybrid cars,
which would have significantly reduced smog and used far less gasoline than conventional cars. Research also
would have begun on fuels that were based on ethanol and other energy alternatives. This support for
ecofriendly cars would have led to less reliance on foreign oil. And this change would have had dramatic implications for future relationships with Middle Eastern countries.
The media landscapes also would have been altered. Rather than the corporate structure that eventually took
hold in actual history, the importance of independent publications would have been valued. Rather than conglomerations, alternative newspapers and magazines would have thrived and provided numerous viewpoints.
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Activity 1
Activity 1
LESSON OBJECTIVE:
Using a series of primary sources from the 1960s and 1970s, students will evaluate various aspects of the
counter culture movement and its subgroups. The activity will focus on the (1) women’s movement, (2)
Black Power movement, (3) American Indian movement, and (4) youth movement.
LESSON OVERVIEW :
The class will be divided into pairs or small groups, each one responsible for a primary source related to the
counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Students will collect various characteristic cards and then
come together into larger thematic groups to complete second task.
LIST OF MATERIALS:
One set of The Counterculture Game pieces
One class set of the Student Handout A
TEACHER DIRECTIONS:
Begin by cutting out all of the game pieces below and paper clipping them in their own four categories to
help keep them organized. There are four categories of pieces:
16 primary source cards
16 media cards
16 subgroup cards
16 description cards
Now divide the class into 16 pairs. Provide each pair with the following:
1 primary source card (which the pair will keep throughout the activity and must NOT trade away)
1 media card
1 subgroup card
1 decade card
It is important to make sure that you give each group a “wrong” Media card, Subgroup card, and
Description card. The goal of the first part of the game is for the students to mingle throughout the class
and collect the “correct” Media card, Subgroup card, and Description card related to their permanent
Primary Source card. For example, if a group is given the Primary Source card with a 1960s quote from
Timothy Leary, they might also receive a Poster Media card, a Native American Subgroup card and Black
Panther Description card, all of which would be “wrong” for the primary source card they hold.
After each pair has their four starting cards tell them the following:
“Each pair has been given four cards: 1 large Primary Source card which you will keep with you throughout
the game and 3 characteristic cards. The 3 characteristic cards describe or define your Primary Source card. The
three characteristic cards are: Media, Subgroup, and Description. Unfortunately, the three characteristic cards
you received are for different primary sources! Your job is to move about the room and trade characteristic cards
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Activity 1
with each other until you have a complete correct set. Your goal is to find the right three cards that match your
Primary Source card. You will have one of each. If you think you have the correct set, check with your teacher!”
Now allow the students to mingle around the room exchanging cards. You may wish to build in an
incentive for the first three to five teams that successfully complete their hunt.
When all of the pairs have found their proper sets of four cards you are ready for the next step!
Note: It is not difficult for the students to discover which of the cards are their proper Media,
Description, and Subgroup cards. The challenge will be to perform the legwork and social work of
acquiring the different cards from their peers in other groups. Some students will realize that by holding
onto card that someone else needs they will block another team’s impending victory. Inevitably, some group
will accidently trade away its Primary Source Card or end up with multiple Media Cards! It is a good idea
to warn students at the start only to trade a Subgroup Card for another Subgroup Card, a Description Card
for another Description Card, and so on.
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Student Handout A
Student Handout A
Hurry! You have just received a unique Primary Source Card and three smaller Characteristic Cards,
including a Media Card, Description Card and Subgroup Card. Unfortunately, your three Characteristic
Cards do not describe your primary source! You job is to move about the classroom and try to find the three
proper characteristic cards for your unique Primary Source Card. Get one only of each characteristic card and
check in with the teacher to see if you have it right.
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Student Handout A
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Student Handout A
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Student Handout A
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Student Handout A
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Student Handout A
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Student Handout A
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Student Handout A
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Student Handout A
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Activity 2
Activity 2
OBJECTIVE:
Students will compare social movements of the 1960s and 1970s by using primary source images to create
either a poster or a manifesto of one of these groups.
OVERVIEW :
Student pairs from Activity 1 join into groups of four around the room and share their documents. Then
each student group is given the Ready Reference essays. The group’s task is to create either a poster or a
manifesto for each of the two groups.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
-Copies of Ready Reference essays (of each Subgroup)
-Materials from Activity 1
-Poster paper (2 pieces per group)
TEACHER DIRECTIONS:
After having completed Activity 1, there should be 16 pairs of students, each holding a primary source along
with three matching characteristics cards. Instruct students that each pair must find another pair to join
with to create a group of four students. However, they must find another pair that does NOT have the same
subgroup or media cards. For example, the pair of students with Kate Millet’s quote (women subgroup) may
NOT join with the pair of students with the “NOW” poster (women subgroup), nor may they join with the
pair of students with the Timothy Leary quote. You might need to intervene and manage this grouping
process. Next, provide each group with the Ready Reference essays. Instruct students to spend some time in
their group reading the cards, sharing their primary sources, and discussing the counterculture movement.
Then instruct each group to create a “manifesto” for one of their subgroups and a poster for the other
(making sure, of course, that they don’t create something that they already have). Here is an example:
Student Pair A
Primary Source Card: Woodstock Poster
Subgroup: Youth Culture
Media: Poster
Decade: 1960s
Joins with:
Student Pair B
Primary Source Card: National Organization for Women
Subgroup: Women
Media: Manifesto
Decade: 1960s
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Activity 2
The new group of four creates:
• A Manifesto for the Youth Culture
• A Poster for the National Organization for Women
Instruct students to use their documents and the Subgroup Description Cards to create their manifestos
and posters.
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ABC-CLIO, COUNTERCULTURE Ready Reference
Ready Reference
Women’s Liberation Movement: The women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s meant more than
the struggle for equal rights; it also illustrated the desire of women to break free from traditional gender roles
and societal confines.
Sometimes referred to as the second wave of feminism, the women’s liberation movement took its name
from Time magazine, which in 1968 used the phrase “women’s liberation” in reference to a demonstration at
that year’s Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. About 100 women had gathered along the city’s
famous Boardwalk to protest male oppression and racism, which they considered blatant in the way the pageant treated women as objects and discouraged nonwhite contestants. They threw away bras and girdles, tore
up an issue of Playboy magazine, and shouted “Liberation Now!”
At the time of the Atlantic City protest, women faced massive discrimination in the United States. The federal government hired few women as professionals, and only 1% of those females who worked in the bureaucracy held the lucrative rank of GS-13 or higher. Universities remained male bastions as women occupied only
10% of all faculty positions. In public school districts, women made up about 80% of the faculty but only
10% of the principals and 3% of the superintendents. Nationwide, more than a third of all wives worked for
wages but earned only 58 cents for every dollar men earned. Moreover, several states prohibited women from
buying stocks or bonds, starting a business, or getting a loan without a male cosigner. Those conditions, as well
as the activism of the 1960s, stimulated the demands for women’s liberation.
Like so many other countercultural movements, the women’s movement displayed ideological differences,
a split between moderates and radicals. The moderates, represented most prominently by the National Organization for Women (NOW), sought equal rights and wanted to integrate women into mainstream establishment power positions. The radicals, conversely—represented most prominently by the group
Redstockings—condemned men, patriarchy, and capitalism. They wanted separatism and liberation through
a revolutionary movement—peaceful or otherwise. The difference, however, did not always appear distinct.
Both moderate and radical feminists supported (at least for a time) the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion rights.
In November 1969, the Congress to Unite Women, held in New York City, made a number of demands: nationwide, free child care centers; an end to tracking systems in schools that directed girls into home economics courses; and the establishment of women’s studies sections in all public libraries and women’s programs at
colleges. The congress made political demands as well, including the representation of women in all political
bodies proportionate to their numbers in society, the addition of an equal rights amendment to the Constitution, and an end to all legal restrictions on abortions.
The following year, feminists confronted men in several high-profile actions. Activists held a sit-in at the
Ladies’ Home Journal to demand a free day-care center and the end of exploitative advertisements. Female
workers at Newsweek and Time held protests and instigated lawsuits. Others participated in a demonstration
against radio station WBCN in Boston, which had run an employment advertisement that read, “If you’re a
chick, we need typists.”
Those and other protests caused a backlash among conservative men and women, especially after NOW and
radical groups continued to push for the Equal Rights Amendment (which passed in Congress but failed to be
ratified by the states). Nevertheless, the assault against male domination continued through demonstrations,
boycotts, and lawsuits. Eventually, corporations and colleges began to hire more women as professionals and
to revise their procedures for promotions. More women started to run for public office. Finally, the women’s
liberation movement won a major victory when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled state antiabortion laws in
Roe v. Wade (1973).
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Black Power Movement: The Black Power movement encompassed the more strident attempts of African
Americans to establish their own political, cultural, and social institutions, independent of white society. When
Stokely Carmichael proclaimed “Black Power!” during a protest march in Mississippi in June 1966, he stimulated controversy among blacks and whites, who both wondered what his demand meant for society. A debate
emerged, too, about the slogan’s origins; some insisted that it had first been expressed a year earlier at a convention held by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
Black Power meant that African Americans should unite, learn their heritage, define their own goals, lead
their own organizations, and reject white racism. “The concept of Black Power,” Carmichael insisted, “rests on
a fundamental premise: Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks.” Floyd McKissick,
CORE’s leader, defined Black Power in more concise terms: “[It] means putting power in black people’s hands.
We don’t have any, and we want some. That is simply what it means.”
Proponents of Black Power insisted that African Americans not rely on the white man’s interpretation of
their historical past. Additionally, they called for African Americans to reject the lifestyle of the bigoted, materialistic, white middle class and instead work to change society’s values and political institutions. To play a
substantial role in making those changes, African Americans needed to end economic arrangements that made
them subservient to whites. In the same vein, advocates of Black Power rejected integration and claimed that
such a policy required African Americans to lose part of their identity. Charles Hamilton, a leading advocate
of Black Power, supported that idea when he said, “Black Power clearly recognizes the need to perpetuate color
consciousness, but in a positive way—to improve a group, not to subject it.”
In calling for self-determination and self-identity, Black Power expressed black nationalism, something
that many white people feared. That nationalism sometimes meant the rejection of any white presence, at least
in terms of leadership, in African American organizations, particularly the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC). Moreover, when the Black Panthers used Black Power as the foundation for their militant organization, whites connected the phrase to violent tactics, even an impending race war. As a result, while
the phrase promoted pride among African Americans, Black Power promoted apprehension among whites
that ultimately hardened race relations. Indeed, many believed that the movement encouraged race riots that
broke out in Atlanta, Chicago, and Detroit in 1966 and 1967.
American Indian Movement: Modeled on African American civil rights organizations, the American Indian
Movement (AIM) was formed as a Native American response to white hegemony in the United States. Exhorting American Indians to reembrace their sacred and cultural traditions, AIM sought to advance the cause
of Native American rights. During the 1970s, AIM succeeded in restoring Native Americans to the public consciousness and raising awareness of their plight.
Four Native American activists—Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton-Bonai, and George
Mitchell—established the first AIM chapter in Minneapolis in 1968. AIM was conceived at the height of the
antiwar and Black Power movements; “Red Power” had begun to appear beside spray-painted Black Power
slogans throughout the country, and the movement caught on quickly.
Other Native American rights groups had conducted such demonstrations as fish-ins and the occupation
of Alcatraz Island in 1964 and 1969, respectively, but AIM members were involved in the major Native American protests of the early 1970s—including the Trail of Broken Treaties (1972), which declared their opposition to government policy toward Native Americans, and the invasion of Wounded Knee (1973), which was
carried out to protest the tactics of the president of the Oglala Nation. The occupation of Wounded Knee led
to gunfights between protesters and government agents that left three people dead, and AIM’s militancy worried the federal government.
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Following the end of a siege in Custer, South Dakota, that resulted in the burning of the courthouse there,
AIM released what it called its Three-Point Program. First, AIM demanded the formation of a Senate Treaty
Commission to examine the 371 treaties made between Native Americans and the federal government (which
had broken many of the agreements) and to enforce the conditions of those treaties. Second, AIM called for
the repeal of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Third, AIM stipulated the transformation of the Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA) into an independent, Native American—run agency, as well as reparations for the BIA’s
corrupt dealings with Native Americans in the past.
In the last two decades, AIM activists Banks and Russell Means have remained at the forefront of the fight
for Native American rights, but the organization as a whole has lost some of its high national profile. AIM
members see the lack of media interest as a criticism of the group’s past violent tactics and its rejection of the
“American way.” Nevertheless, AIM still enjoys a strong following. Most recently, AIM has been instrumental
in the campaign against the use of inappropriate Native American epithets in sports teams’ names. In addition,
they have maintained the cause for freeing AIM member Leonard Peltier, who many maintain is innocent of
the charges against him. (Peltier was arrested for allegedly shooting two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents
during the Wounded Knee occupation.)
AIM also maintains a historical archive and speakers’ bureau, conducts research, compiles statistics, and offers charitable and children’s services. Its activities also include educational programs for preschoolers up to
adults, offered through the Heart of the Earth Survival School. Membership is open only to Native Americans.
Youth Movement: The youth movement of the 1960s was a complex phenomenon that moved in more than
one direction and came from multiple sources. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s involved
many young white people in the struggle for voting and housing rights for African Americans. At the same time,
U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War created an antiwar movement in which celebrities and college students
took part along with veterans and members of peace churches. The popularity of rock and roll led to concerts, and the availability of birth control and mind-altering drugs led to the “hippie” lifestyle. Signs of youth
unrest appeared in 1962 when Students for a Democratic Society published its “Port Huron Statement,” holding that “as we grew, however, our comfort was penetrated by events too troubling to dismiss.” Anti-authoritarianism and new movements for rights and freedoms followed. The youth movement lasted from 1967 to
perhaps 1972, with its height in the 1967 “Summer of Love” and the Woodstock concert in 1969.
There was never a single organization or single leader who could command the attention (much less the
obedience) of the hippies, but such figures as Timothy Leary, Jerry Rubin, and Abbie Hoffman were well known
in the counterculture. Psychologist Leary promoted the use of the hallucinogen LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and told hippies to “tune in, turn on and drop out.” His jail terms for drug use made him a counterculture martyr. Rubin sought political power for students with the Youth International Party, and Hoffman
called for a more radical departure from social norms with his Steal This Book, a guide to living on nothing.
As had the reformers of the 1840s and 1850s, the hippies had their fixations: dress reform (especially sloppy
jeans or homemade T-shirts to show their contempt for fashion), sexuality (free love), diet (many were vegetarians or practiced other fad diets), and lifestyle. The sexual revolution and gay rights movement are two obvious results.
The Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, California, became the self-proclaimed center of hip culture
during 1967’s “Summer of Love,” heavily promoted as the birth of a new culture. Communes began to form
to pursue alternative or spiritual ways of life. Ultimately, the inspiration for these was an imagined version of
Native American life mixed with admiration for the “diggers” and “levelers” of the English Civil War of the 17th
century. Examples of communes ranged from Heavenly Breakfast, a rock-and-roll band whose members shared
a Manhattan apartment, to The Farm, a huge vegetarian community still in residence on a 1,500-acre settle-
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ment near Summertown, Tennessee. Some communes, such as Virginia’s Twin Oaks, exist today, but most
failed quickly. The commune movement produced an interesting literature and even a cookbook.
The legacy of the 1960s is everywhere today, in the music of the period, which remains popular, in the continued use of mind-altering drugs and marijuana, in fashion, and in the realization of human possibility. Most
of the members of the youth movement merged into mainstream society during the 1980s, but the continuing results of this huge political, social, and sexual upheaval are still unfolding.
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National Standards Correlations
EDSTD1642842380: Challenge arguments of historical inevitability by formulating examples of historical
contingency, of how different choices could have led to different consequences.
EDSTD1642842420: Formulate historical questions from encounters with historical documents, eyewitness accounts, letters, diaries, artifacts, photos, historical sites, art, architecture, and other records from the past.
EDSTD1642846200: Assess the Vietnam policy of the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations and the
shifts of public opinion about the war. (Analyze multiple causation).
EDSTD1642846220: Evaluate how Vietnamese and Americans experienced the war and how the war continued to affect postwar politics and culture. (Appreciate historical perspectives).
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