The Glorious
Early Sixties

Nature and Americans

1957 Chevrolet, 1959 Dodge Coronet

1962 Lincoln, 1964 Mustang

1960: Kennedy versus Nixon

¡ JFK: war hero, Pulitzer Prize winner

¡ Kennedy’s Catholicism an issue

¡ Recession, “missile gap”

¡ First TV debate

¡ Narrow victory & accusations of fraud

Beginnings of the “Kennedy mystique”

¡ Kennedy’s stirring inaugural address

¡ “Camelot” & a “new generation”

1962:
Visions for a Better America

Zenith of Civil Rights

¡ 1960: Sit-ins in Greensboro, N.C.

¡ Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

¡ 1961: CORE’s “Freedom Ride”

¡ Kennedy’s hand forced: marshalls called in

¡ James Meredith integrates University of Mississippi, 1962

¡ Kennedy forced to call marshalls again

¡ Gov. George Wallace blocks blacks from University of Alabama

¡ Kennedy forced to intervene, makes first call for civil rights law

¡ 1963: Filling Birmingham’s jails

¡ 1963: March on Washington: “I have a dream”

The 1000 Day Presidency

¡ The Space Race

¡ Alan Shepard, John Glenn, and the Mercury astronauts

¡ Kennedy’s Cold War

¡ Bay of Pigs, 1961

¡ Berlin Wall, 1961

¡ Cuban missile crisis, 1962

¡ Vietnam

¡ Stalled legislative agenda

Popular Music

¡ The Twist: Chubby Checker

¡ Surf rock

¡ Beach Boys

¡ Folk revival goes mainstream

¡ Kingston Trio

¡ Peter Paul and Mary

¡ Protest music

¡ Bob Dylan

¡ “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Masters of War,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’”

¡ R&B: Motown

¡ The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas,

Assassination, Nov. 22, 1963

A shocked nation

Lyndon Baines Johnson

¡ Schoolteacher from the Texas Hill Country

¡ Idolized FDR; gifted, ambitious politician; powerful Senator

¡ Passing JFK’s agenda

¡ Tax cut

¡ Civil Rights Act of 1964

¡ “War on Poverty”: Office of Economic Opportunity

¡ 1964: LBJ vs. Barry Goldwater

¡ Goldwater: anti-big government, anti-New Deal

¡ LBJ: The “Great Society”

¡ LBJ’s record 61.1% victory

The Great Society

¡ End racism

¡ Selma: Voting Rights Act of 1965; Housing discrimination banned, 1968

¡ End ignorance

¡ Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1965; Head Start & Upward Bound

¡ Higher Education Act of 1965: student loans

¡ NEH, NEA, & public broadcasting

¡ End poverty

¡ Job Corps; food stamps; urban development; Medicare & Medicaid

¡ End pollution

¡ Clean Air Act; Clean Water Act; Wilderness Act; parks

Equality for Women

¡ Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964

¡ Sexual discrimination outlawed

¡ Betty Friedan: National Organization for Women (NOW)

¡ Feminism and Women’s Liberation

Human Be-In,
San Francisco, 1967

Pop Art

Pop Art

Op Art

Op Art

Musical Creativity Explodes

¡ The British Invasion: Beatles, Hollies, Kinks, Rolling Stones

¡ Folk rock: The Byrds, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, and Nash

¡ Psychedelic rock: The Doors, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix

¡ Blues rock: Cream (Eric Clapton), the Who, Pink Floyd

¡ Soul: James Brown, Aretha Franklin

¡ Country: Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton