In 1968, Richard Nixon proclaimed:''If I could choose a time and a country to live in, I would choose the United States of America in 1968.''
The United States enjoyed a peaceful period in 1968; this economic superpower does not have to worry about its industry, its services or its political system.Though the United States remain a model for the rest of the world, the widespread unity and national consensus experienced during the time of the Second World War have disappeared and the number of protest movements has surged.
American society has known major structural changes such as the rise of the tertiary sector and the emergence of the baby boom. These fundamental changes will necessarily be accompanied by a renewal of values and benchmarks within the society fabric. This gradual change has brought along with it a set of challenges: the Americans' refusal to recognize and abide by the established order.
Is it possible to limit the emergence of protest movements in this rapidly changing economic climate and generational renewal? What are the factors that create challenges? The dissension assumes new forms of direct action, a veritable constellation of movements (civil rights, women's rights, opposition to the war). How can we explain the conjunction of protest movements at the same time? What means are common to all movements; what are the most basic demands?
To capture the specificity of the protest movements of that period, we may first consider the various players in these dissent movements; how these dissenters organize themselves and the purpose of such protest movements in the early 80s.
Tags: Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Feminism, Flower Power, Vietnam War
[...] He advocated non-violence in his fight to achieve equality for African Americans and often mobilized marches and peaceful demonstrations to enlighten the mainstream society of the plight of the marginalized Blacks. During the marches in Birmingham and Selma in 1963 and 1965, the police doused Black protesters with fire hoses at close range and loosed police dogs upon them. Luther King, who reached the zenith of international recognition by winning the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964, was influenced by the Bible, the theories of civil disobedience of Thoreau and Gandhi's pacifist policies. [...]
[...] Her book If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance, in which she espouses the values and beliefs she cherished, joined a roster of protest oriented literary works including Civil desobedience by Thoreau and One-Dimensional Man by Marcuse. Collective movements Mass movements have been numerous, for example, in the early 80s, the movement for civil rights began with the sit-in by students from Greensboro in North Carolina, demanding to be served in a cafeteria where segregation was practiced . [...]
[...] The Flower Power was a protest movement more distinct from its counterparts as it sought to change society while remaining loyal to the ideas of love and peace. With their long unkempt hair, psychedelic fashion statement and contempt for hygiene, they expressed their derision of a world that they perceived as sterile and bleak. At the root of all these movements is the clamor for change, which the dissenters felt was not only possible but necessary. This conviction gained strength with the repeal of various restrictive measures such as the revocation of the Smith Act of 1940. [...]
[...] The anti-culture protest shows a particular spirit: it is not a revolt to a particular vision of society, but in defense of values. The anti-culture protest was based on sexual liberation and rejection of principles such as consumption, Puritanism and conformity.Despite the communal aspect of the struggles, the objective was to influence the whole society. The surge in popularity of British music and the appearance of bands including the Beatles and Rolling Stones further upped the tempo of the protest movements. [...]
[...] The medium of protest serves a unifying platform that fights for civil rights; the Vietnam War was a major issue during this time as protestors perceived in this war a scale of violence and loss of life that they felt could have been avoided. Moreover, they did not identify with the imperialist policy toed by the United States at the time. They felt that they had been deprived of the freedom of speech and experienced firsthand the feeling of powerlessness to power change in society as evidenced by the slogan''Do not trust those over 30 years.'' We can therefore speak of a generational clash, especially as students refused to choose the future mapped out by their parents. [...]
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