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- early folk-music movement (e.g., Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul, & Mary)
- Folk movement review -
- IWW (1909) - Int'l workers of the World; radical unionists
- Musical activists - politically & socially relevant use of art
- Woody Guthrie
- Pete Seeger
- civil rights movement:
- 2/1/60 (Greensboro, NC) - 4 black students from the Agricultural Technical
College revolted by sitting at the lunch counter in a variety store ("sit-in")
- Martin Luther King was sentenced to 4 months hard labor for participating
in an Atlanta sit-in
- 11/60 - JFK elected with "civil rights"
as a central element in the Democratic platform
- this speech was given shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis
- note the conciliatory tone
- contrast the tone of this speech with that of the commencement address
above!!
- CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) - "freedom
rides," taking busses from north (more racially tolerant and
integrated) to destinations in the south
- read article about Freedom
Riders from the San Antonio Express-News (5/11/01)
- 1961-63 - series of "marches"
- 8/28/63 - March on Washington (see Martin
Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech below)
- 1965 - sweeping Civil Rights legislation
Martin Luther King
As part of the March on Washington, King delivered this speech at the base
of the Lincoln Memorial in front of a crowd of about 200,000.
shortly after the March on Washington where the "I Have a Dream"
speech was delivered, Congress passed sweeping Civil Rights legislation
2 months after delivering this speech, Robert Kennedy himself was shot and killed
in Los Angeles
Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz)
Malcolm X proposed "Black Nationalism"
as an agressive alternative to MLK's "nonviolence";
the following audio & visual excerpts were taken from an excellent documentary
entitled "El Hajj Malik El Shabazz" by Xenon Home Video (Black History
Series, XE-XX-1508).
11 months later Malcolm X was shot & killed in this same ballroom
Optimism turns to disillusionment:
Disillusionment sandwiched between two significant events
- Kennedy assassination (11/22/63)
- violence at Altamont (12/4/69)
violence + drugs + antisocial behavior = disillusionment
Changing American society (and representative musical influences on later
music):
- politically & socially conservative Republican administrations of the
1950s are followed by liberal Democrats in the 1960s
- Social issues
- racial integration
- 1965 - passage of major civil rights legislation
- general tolerance, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, etc.
These messages of love & peace carried into the music of 1970s:
- Viet Nam war
- US involvement
(excerpted from PBS web site)
- 1956 - US assumes responsibility for training South Vietnamese forces
- 1959 - first two Ameicans die in the Vietnam War as the result of a guerilla strike
- 1961 - Vice President Johnson tours Saigon
- 1962 - US military uses Agent Orange to expose roads & trails used by Vietcong forces
- 1962 - political resistance begins to form against Vietnam policy (Mike Mansfield, Senate majority leader)
- 1964 (Aug 7) - Gulf of Tonkin Resolution approved by Congress, authorizing President Johnson to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression"
- based on an alleged Aug 2nd North Vietnamese PT boat torpedo attack on the USS Maddox 30 miles off the coast of North Vietnam (in international waters); a second - even more highly disputed attack - is alleged to ahve taken place on Aug. 4
- 1965 - beginning in February, sustained American bombing raids of North Vietnam are initiated and were nearly continuous for the following three years; Marines arrive at Danang, then the first conventional battle takes place in Ia Drang Valley
- 1969 (Dec. 1) - the first draft lottery drawing (since 1942) was held at Selective Service National Headquarters (Washington D.C.)
- direct US involvement continues
- 1973 - on Jan. 28th, a ceasefire is signed in Paris, ending the American draft
- youth generation reaction
- rebellion against the draft
- general anti-war sentiment
- pollution
- dwindling natural resources
- concerns over pesticides, etc. result in the creation of a new market
... trendy "natural" foods
- proliferation of eastern religions/philosophy
- ... focus on self (enlightenment) over altruism
- sexual revolution
- women were finally recognized as social & intellectual equals
- openness in sexuality ("open" relationships)
- cohabitation & communal living
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