Untitled Essay Research Paper Massive black rebellions — страница 4

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land they controlled. The war in Vietnam increased trouble in America. Blacks pointed out that black soldiers in Vietnam suffered unfairly: “10% of the population of the United States was Black, 12.5% of the American army was black, 14.6% of the battle dead was black. On 23 April 1967, Muhammad Ali called the war “a race war. Black men are being cut up by white men.” On 28 April 1967, Muhammad refused the call-up to the US army. The World Boxing Association stripped him of his world title, and on 21 June 1967, he was found guilty of avoiding the draft. Muhammad Ali was given a five year jail sentence, and appealed. By the first of August 1967, so many black uprisings had taken place during the ‘Long Hot Summer’ that a map had to be produced to show where they had taken

place. 1967 had been the year of the hippies, peace and love. 1968 was a year dominated by violence and ideas of revolution and change. It was the year of New Left - socialists who rejected both capitalism and communism – whose ideas inspired students revolt throughout the world. The New Left argued that violence was caused by capitalism, and the continuing, escalating war in Vietnam, where the most powerful capitalist force was waging war on a small Asian country. As the Students moved to the Left, and the youth movement grew, so did the idea of fighting back against the State. The idea of a single world revolution, grew. On April 30, 1970, President Nixon ordered the “incursion” of Cambodia, with this announcement the students went into action. By May 4, 1970, a hundred

student strikes were in progress across the country. At Kent State University in Ohio, students burned down the ROTC building. On the same day, National Guardsman at Kent State responded to taunts and a few rocks by firing their M-1 rifles into a crowd of students, killing four, wounding nine others. Kent State was a heartland school, far from elite, the very type of campus where Nixons “silent majority” was supposed to be training. After these and many other violent incidents at protests, the intensity of the movement began to dwindle. The great changes that they were fighting for were not coming about. The protests were not getting any sympathy or support, and greater numbers of hippies left the protests and adopted a “peace and love” side of things. The climax of the

hippie movement was in Woodstock, 1969. It was where all of the violence and aggression of protesting was laid aside and the true ambiance of the 60’s was expressed. Woodstock, in June, had been the long-deferred Festival of Life. So said not only Time and Newsweek but world-weary friends who had navigated the traffic-blocked thruway and felt the new society emerging, half a million strong, stoned and happy on that muddy farm north of New York City. Both critics and fans concede that Woodstock has become part of the mythology of the 1960s, even if the actual event did not necessarily represent the musical or political taste of most young Americans at the time. Some say it symbolized the freedom and idealism of the 1960s. Critics argue that Woodstock represented much of what was

wrong with the 60’s: a glorification of drugs, a loosening of sexual morality and a socially corrosive disrespect for authority. Whether one is a supporter or a critic, it is undeniable that Woodstock was one of the major climaxes of the hippie movement: a culmination of all of the peace and love ideals in one place. After Woodstock, the movement was on the downswing. One could argue that Woodstock was the grand finale, with the seventies arriving soon after it and there was a general “been there, done that”(interview) mentality which created the seventies, a decade of disco, and doom, never quite living up to the intensity of the sixties. The 1960’s, then, did more than just “swing”. Many of the values and conventions of the immediate post- war world were called into

question, and although many of the questions had not been satisfactorily answered by the end of the decade, society would never be the same again. In conclusion, the hippy culture arose as a result of vast political changes occurring in North America and beyond and not as a result of drugs and music. The drugs and music were a by-product of the hippy culture, but by no means a reason for it’s occurrence. The previous pages cite the more relevant political and social milestones, which, I believe were directly responsible for the evolution of the hippy culture. These milestones affected everyone, one way or another, either directly or indirectly. They changed the way people thought. You would be hard pressed to find someone over the age of about forty-five who, to this day,