Dale Mineshima-Lowe
A Decade of Turbulence: The Impact of 1960s America

Dale Mineshima-Lowe | A Decade of Turbulence: The Impact of 1960s America | 05.05.24

- I think we’re going to start, it’s just two minutes past the hour, so we’ll get started. I think there’s still a few people joining us, but I want to say welcome everyone to Lockdown University. I’m Dale Mineshima-Lowe, and I will be talking today about America in the 1960s. And so I’ve got some slides, get to show you some things, hopefully, some things that you’re interested in. Now, bear in mind, I’m trying to cover a decade within 45 minutes, and so please bear with me. I’ll get to your questions at the end. I’ll see things in the chat, but also just to let you know, there’s probably things that I’m going to cover that you haven’t thought of and things that you would’ve wanted to see, and I apologise in advance, but that’s how it works, I think, sometimes, as well.

But hopefully, things will get moving. So great, you should be able to see my screen. I’ve tried to just take a bit of a collage of different pictures and images. I’m calling the talk “A Decade of Turbulence”. And I guess for me, one of the reasons why the 1960s is just such a vibrant period in American history. We go from a lot of promises and a lot of changes knowing what happened in the 1950s rolling into the 60’s, we’re trying to reset, or America’s trying to reset itself. It’s looking to make some changes, both in terms of its leadership, one would argue, but also in other areas. And unfortunately, by the end of the decade, there are some really great things that are happening, but also things that we see that are starting, and we’ll really get to see more of that in full fruition in the 1970s, as well, but we’re talking about the 60’s today, so let’s get started.

So just to give you an idea and overview of some of what I’d like to cover today, fingers crossed. I want to talk a bit about just some general statistics, some general information about America in the 1960s in terms of demographics, population, etc. And then think about moving towards this idea of anti-communism, USSR movements, and thinking about the space race and Vietnam War, as well. And then one of the interesting things to me and I’m quite interested in in particular is the activism that we’re starting to see happening in the 1960s. Now, as I said, some of this will have started in the 1950s, but really, it gets moving a bit further along in the 1960s, as well. And then we’ll end by looking at what JFK spoke about in his Democratic national, sort of party speech acceptance speech for the nomination for the party, talking about New Frontier, and then moving to LBJ’s Great Society idea for the 1960s after Kennedy’s assassination, as well.

Now, I’m not talking very specifically about politics and the presidents, but I do want to just mention to you some of those that were obviously in office during the 1960s, as well as part of our general information. So thinking about just things that we are seeing, now, the 1960s is a decade, where there’s a lot of different ideas moving around. There’s a lot of movements in terms of social movements, as well, that we start to see. There’s also interesting changes perhaps to things like family life, workplace, women’s roles that we see changing from the 1950s into the 1960s. Things like for instance in 1960, we start to see the federal government approving things like birth control pills, for instance, that will have an impact on the role of women and women’s abilities to participate more, or at least how society will perceive them as being able to participate more, knowing that they have been participating quite heavily in American society during the decades preceding this.

And you also have changes in terms of, you know, television, how family is being perceived, how it’s being shown. Things are starting to really change, some for the better, some for I think more challenging aspects of American society, as well. So just to give you a snapshot in terms of what’s happening with the population. So in 1960, we’re looking at the census sort of data here. So you’ve got a population of just over 179 million. Now, to kind of put that into context, in the last census in 19, 2020, I should say, we have 331.9 million citizens within the US. So it’s a definitely, we’re seeing a growth, in constant growth in the population. We also see in 1960, not just population growth, but obviously, at the end of the 1950s, you have the growth and the inclusion of both Alaska and Hawaii as the 49th and 50th state of the US. So you have now 50 states within the union for the 1960 census. And we begin to see sort of the population increase by 18.5%.

That is also taken into account partly to do with the now inclusion of those states, new states within the union, but also you can see there on the left hand side, just the ranking of populations of major urban areas. So think about New York City. We’re thinking about here about Chicago, Los Angeles, Philly, Detroit, and Baltimore. We begin to see that actually, numbers are really growing in many of these urban centres. Not really surprising, one could argue, but perhaps a bit more surprising. We can see in this map just another way of thinking about population changes and percentages across different states. So we see all the dark blue, you’ve got over 10% gain. So there’s been a population growth for various reasons. It could be in terms of new births, but it also could be due to partial domestic migration internally within the US, but also for work, for instance, and opportunities.

But also, that you have international migration still happening, as well. Just going to put that there. I’ve just seen some of your comments starting to come in. You can drop them in at any time, and I will get to them at the end, as well. Now, the other thing that’s really interesting, so we’ve got those dark blue states, where you’ve got a gain in terms of population, but also these red ones where you’ve got population loss. So what we’re starting to see is, you know, perhaps migration towards different locales, perhaps because of work and other things that are happening within the US during the 1960s, as well. So some interesting things. Just found some fun photos. So when we think about the 1960s, and I called it “A Decade of Turbulence”, it is also perhaps a decade where people argue, it’s a bit about defiance, as well.

We start to see that there are things happening, so perhaps, it looks fairly happy and easygoing from the images, but what we’re starting to see underneath that is a real change to family, to priorities, to ideas about freedom and identity, as well. And so you start to begin to see different groups within society, both perhaps in terms of demographics, but also in terms of age and generation, but also in terms of place within the US, making real changes. So what we’re starting to see is perhaps this idea of turbulence, not just about being massive societal changes, but also changes within how people are thinking about themselves, which has that trigger and knock on effect, freedom and change from the 1950s. If we were talk about the 1950s, we think about it and in terms of more traditional ideas of family and what we’re starting to see as a real move away from that in the 1960s.

There’s a lot more independence. Some of the things are also occurring families, where mothers as well as fathers are working. So children become much more independent, but also become known as latchkey kids. And that becomes a common thing, because essentially, they are, there’s no one to meet them at home. And so what they’re doing is they’re returning home after school on their own, as well. So we begin to see that becoming a much more occurring theme for some. Now, one of the other things that was interesting that I wanted to pull up when we’re thinking about what’s happening, you see also in the other photo, maybe television, but also older children, younger children kind of being in charge, as well as part of that change in family structure and society in terms of home and work.

Now, as I mentioned, I wasn’t going to cover this in detail, but I wanted to just highlight to you, when we talk about the 1960s, you have to acknowledge the fact that we’ve had four presidents that transcend that decade. And so we think about that not only in terms of political parties, but in terms of personalities and ideals, and idealism in terms of how things will change with each presidential change, as well. And so some obviously, with Eisenhower leaving Kennedy coming in, Kennedy’s assassination will lead to Johnson’s sort of if you like, move into the position, but also taking things that had been developed in some ways by Kennedy moving forward. And then we ended the decade with Nixon also coming in, and having his turn as president. And that has sort of different implications in terms of not just domestic politics and policymaking, which is our focus, but also on foreign policy, which I’m kind of just tangentially touching on during this session. And so thinking about this anti-communist USSR movement.

So we know anti-communism was very rife in the 1950s. That continues in the 1960s, as well, but perhaps one of the related reasons for that is because of Vietnam. And so with the Vietnam War, obviously, one of the, you know, sort of real tenets of it surrounds not just this idea about, you know, sort of the backlash at home in terms of the war, but also what the war, why America went to the war, into war to begin with. And we think about that in terms of this bipolar, sort of development within politics that’s happening globally, where you have those who are supporting much more communist ideas versus sort of what America would consider its own, sort of democratic ideas in contrast, as well. So we start to begin to see that as it’s coming to fruition through the Vietnam War, but also through what started in the latter half of the 1950s with the space race, as well, which we’ll come to in a moment. So this image is just of protestors, anti-Vietnam protestors in particular, collecting draught cards at the federal building in San Francisco. Now, one of the really interesting things I think that we start to begin to see are real challenges by citizens to government expectations, but societal expectations of them, as well.

The Vietnam War starts to really, sort of splinter some of those ideas, as well where people are fighting for that. So on the one hand, you have those who have been conscripted and are going into the country’s armed forces. Now, conscription is not something that’s new in the US during the Vietnam War, but I think what we start to see in the 1960s in particular is a real heightened resistance to the draught. So the draught was started, one could argue, as early as, you know, during the Civil War, and, you know, in the aftermath of that, as well, where you have different, you have difficult conflicts for America, but resistance to the draught in particular, which gets managed by the selective service in the United States kind of reaches a real peak during the Vietnam War.

You have those who are then sort of obligingly going into, one could argue, in some ways with conscription and others who are very vocal in fighting against conscription. You have those who are then constituting conscientious objectors and taking that status, and that status interestingly, will only be granted to those who could demonstrate sincerity of belief in religious teachings combined with a profound moral aversion to war. But one of the things we start to see is a lot more young men taking that stance in terms of becoming conscientious objectors in between 1948 and ‘73, so then kind of going through the 1960s. Men were drafted into the armed forces during both peace times and conflict times, but it becomes much more important during this period, as well, for the military.

Now, one of the interesting things to note, and many of you probably know, so men must register with the selective service systems in the US within a month of their 18th birthday. Women are excluded from the draught. They may volunteer for military service should they choose to do so. And so that still occurs widely, as well. Draught resistance, as we said, becomes hits its peak with the Vietnam War by the late 1967. We start to see a lot of casualties within the Vietnam War, and that has also an impact on its reception at home, its perception at home in the US, which then obviously, has, as well, a really big impact on conscription and the entire sort of riots, but also entire objections that are coming from many quarters about the war on the home front, for lack of a better word, as well. Now, in terms of draught evasion, those were carried out by some.

It also incurred steep fines and possibly jail time. So there were nearly, by some accounts, 200, 210,000 men were charged with draught evasion, including very famously the boxer, Muhammad Ali, whose conviction was only overturned by the US Supreme Court much later. And interestingly, for many of them, they’ve spent time in jail, steep fines. It wasn’t until the next decade, so with President Carter coming in, and in 1977, he will pardon all Vietnam War draught dodgers, but until that point that it became a part of their records, as well. I’m just seeing some other things coming through. Now, I guess the other thing I wanted to say with regard to that idea of anti-communism, but actually, very much the US’s sort of antagonism with the Soviets in the USSR really comes with the space race. And part of that is the two were competing in terms of space and dominance in space amongst other places.

But we know that the Soviets in a sense were the first to launch, you know, their satellite, but also the first to launch a man into space, and have him return. And so there is this constant competition that we start to see, and it is a part of the, sort of US-Soviet Cold War sort of mentality. So it’s not just in terms of an arms race, it’s also, in a sense, an arms race and space who can develop the, you know, sort of the best and latest technology. And we start to see that happening, in particular, when we start to see late 1950s, but going into 1960s, the Soviet space programme is in a sense a step forward, step above the US’s programme. But what will happen is in the 1960s, the US will throw, so a lot of resources both in terms of money, but research and development, but also training of astronauts to be able to start to, you know, sort of test new missions, do new test flights, create new missions into space, but also then begin to introduce other factors.

And so what we have here in the pictures are the first lunar landing mission, obviously, Apollo 11 astronauts return home feeling very triumphant for having the first man on the moon or first men on the moon in terms of that with the moon landing. And we begin to see that, I mean, that’s towards the end of the 1960s, but it becomes a real focal point in terms of this competition. And I guess to put it into context, the space race and even sort of, if you like, the, some of the, you know, sort of revolving around with Vietnam and the war, much of that I guess, contention between the US and the Soviets begin to play out in different fields. They’re antagonising each other, but also interestingly, what we start to begin to see is they’re actually starting to compete for dominance and sort of around the globe in different spheres. They’re looking for new partners and new sort of both in terms of the US, but also in terms of the Soviets and sort of communism, and trying to spread their, if you like, their influence through different means across the globe.

And that becomes also another point of contention and competition for them, kind of like with space and space is one of the, you know, sort of true, I think, interesting ones for us, because what we begin to see is that actually, moon, the race for space, but also the race to land on the moon becomes a sort of interesting aspect for, at least future development of capabilities. And that’s something we begin to really, really think about with the space race and the Soviets and the US. Now, one of the interesting things I think in side note to relate to the space race and everything that’s happening with the Cold War in the 1960s. Now, it’s only with hindsight and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

But what we start to begin to unravel and understand is actually from the 1950s and 1960s, some of the economic development of the Soviet Union actually starts to unravel, and actually has then an impact on its ability to maintain that level of response in terms of the space race, but also in terms of its nuclear development, as well. And so some of these things that we’re seeing, it’s sort of parading around on both sides, both the Soviets and the Americans, but it has that impact economically for both, because both will be throwing a lot of money into constant development of its nuclear arsenal and weaponry, but also in terms of its space capabilities through the next several decades forward, as well.

Now, I wanted to move to activism, because one of the things we recognise with America in the 1960s is really, it’s a period of the civil rights movement. And it’s not to say that the civil rights movement was not already started. So one could argue as far back as, you know, the end of the Civil War and going into the 1860s, 1870s, when we think about reconstruction period, in that period forward, that actually there has always been this push and fight for equality by African Americans within the US. Now, different pieces of legislation over that next sort of one would argue 3 years, nearly 100 years from the end of the Civil War, and actually reconstruction to the 1950s and 60’s was put in place to provide and give African Americans equal rights and protections under the law.

However, we know in practise, those things were undermined quite heavily, as well throughout the early decades of the 20th century. And so what we see as a culmination in the buildup from the 1950s with, you know, sort of the push for desegregation of schools and you have landmark cases and movements, then of schoolchildren within and particularly within the southern states, what we start to begin to see is that taking traction and culminating in 1960s with the civil rights movement. So we know the struggle for civil rights kind of becomes defined and defines the 1960s of America. We think about what’s happening in terms of the marches that we see here, but also in terms of just more generally how people are remembering, you know, sort of the lack of real enforcement in a sense of some of the things that were starting to come through the 1950s that push for equality and education.

And schools kind of also begins with, you know, sort of being recognised as equals in terms of things like public transport. So it starts with Rosa Parks and, you know, sort of Montgomery bus boycotts, we think about then the Supreme Court case to desegregate schools across the US, and then eventually in the 1960s, we also begin to see things happening, freedom writers. And so this is sort of a combination of both Black American, as well as white American activists. And what they’re trying to do is they’re embarking on a bus tour, for lack of a better word, across the American south to protest about segregation of bus terminals. So we said that actually in some cases segregation is happening, but it’s also not happening for some quick enough, given the changes that were supposed to come into place with desegregation in schools.

I think part of it was there is assumption with desegregation in one sector that should naturally have been triggered desegregation across all of America’s society, and it doesn’t happen as quickly or there are definitely roadblocks that are put into place from that happening. And so what we begin to see as activists really taking a sort of trying to bring society and bring people with them. Now, many of them faced violence both from police, but also other protestors, counter protestors during these freedom rides. But they also drew a lot of attention to the cause. And so what we begin to see happening is actually as they’re going across the country, it’s galvanising those who want to see change within America.

But also it’s being highlighted very prominently through international media, as well at the time, which has an impact on the politics domestically within the country, but also in relation between countries that are looking at this, as well. It’s a very infamously, or I should say famously, the march on Washington DC. Now here, obviously, everyone knows about, you know, Martin Luther King’s speech. I thought about trying to play it as a small video clip, but also know that there are, sometimes, issues with technology. So I’ve kind of decided not to, so forgive me, but I thought the image was quite telling in terms of just the sheer, when we start to begin to think about the march on Washington, it’s thinking about the sheer numbers of people that are galvanised towards this idea of change, as well, and trying to push, you know, Congress, but also push government really into thinking about enforcing civil rights legislation, establishing equality in terms of jobs, opportunity, education, transport, etc., across the board within society.

And so you have Martin Luther King’s very famous “I Have a Dream” speech, which really galvanises even more people in terms of that, you know, national civil rights movement, but also that slogan of equality and freedom that’s delivered. Now, one of the things that I find really interesting with speech is by some accounts, he hadn’t intended to say everything that he does say, and instead kind of turns the day around listening to the other speakers before him, as well, and then comes forward with some of what he does end up saying that becomes very famous, as well. Now, the other thing that’s really interesting for us with the civil rights movement is JFK sort of was a proponent, but also he met with civil rights leaders before the march, and he was worried about, you know, fears of violence with regard to the event.

And so there were sort of slight negotiations I guess between sort of activists, but also in the civil rights leaders, but also JFK and government. And it was interesting, 'cause in the end, by some accounts, JFK ends up reluctantly endorsing the march on Washington, but actually gives his brother, Robert Kennedy as Attorney General, the job of sort of coordinating with organisers to ensure that security is held, everyone is safe, that there’s not an overrun both at the Lincoln Memorial, but also the Capitol. And so actually, instead of meeting at the Capitol, the march maintains itself and stays within or stays around the Lincoln Memorial instead, which is quite significant in that sense, as well. But gives us this really great image of solidarity and hope one could argue from there, as well. Obviously, on the back of what we’re seeing with the civil rights movement and the March on Washington, things are moving forward.

Now, unfortunately, also a slight obviously stop, because things were moving in a particular direction in terms of legislation that had been initiated by JFK in terms of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But unfortunately, with his assassination, things sort of go into a holding pattern for a small period, but actually for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, what we find is Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ, will take up the mental that had been initiated by JFK, and really move forward. The law will guarantee equal employment for all. It would limit the use of sort of things, like voter literacy tests, and allowed federal authorities to ensure public facilities were integrated, as well. So really pushing for the, you know, the desegregation and the real true enforcement of civil rights. Now interestingly, perhaps some of you already know, Civil Rights Act of 1964 is not the first civil rights act that has passed within the US, but it is the one that will take hold and also be more utilised for enforcement.

So we’ve had predecessors to this particular Civil Rights Act that is built upon, but it was never really fully enforced previously. And so that’s what we really see culminating in the 1960s between the Civil Rights Act, but also the Voting Rights Act, as well. Now, as many of you know, it’s not that African Americans were not allowed to vote prior to 1965, because actually, they were since, you know, prior, just after the end of the Civil War. Constitutionally, they had the right to vote. They were considered citizens, and able to participate politically. But what we begin to find across several states, many southern ones, but also whether, well, we begin to see restrictions, both very visible ones, but also some silent ones. So we kind of think, sometimes, of the Jim Crow laws as really being held within the southern states, which then, obviously, have an impact on political and economic development for African Americans and opportunities for African Americans within those states.

But actually, what we’re finding historically are there are records where African Americans were not treated as equals in some of the Western states, but also in sort of northern states, as well. So it’s not just something that is only confined to the south, perhaps it’s much more visible and had been prevalent in terms of the Jim Crow laws there, as well. Yes, I’ve seen some people putting some chats, and I’ll come back to that, as well. It’s interesting when you look at the makeup of the images, as well, in terms of that. So LBJ signing the sort of, if you like, the acts into fruition. You’ve got Martin Luther King Jr. here, as well, and then, obviously, a number of senators and members of Congress at the time, as well. Notably, in terms of their, you know, how they look, as well as someone’s put down “no women” in the photographs, yes, no women.

Very few people of colour, as well, in terms of that. So something to be noted. Now, other things that were happening in the 1960s are the part of this culmination of really pushing further for, so we have legislation in place, but what we also want is to see equality happening in actual practise. And so we start to see things like the Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama, as well. And there’s several marches, so it’s not just one single march. We kind of think about it in that sense, but actually, there it kind of gets broken up into different parts, and there’s also violence that happens, obviously, is associated with this particular march in Alabama, as well. But I just wanted to show you the route on the map from Selma to Montgomery, where people are marching. And you see the images here of people marching for civil rights for that equality, for recognition of equality and freedom, as well.

But as I said, over the two days, you know, sort of if you like the days of the march, we also know that violence breaks out quite readily against the civil rights protesters who are making up the march, as well. I’m just quite conscious of time. So thinking about this idea of activism. So a lot of the 1960s is associated with the civil rights movement, but there’s actually other things happening in terms of activism. So we’re starting to see and quite controversially today, some would argue, as well, the “Feminine Mystique” that was written in the 1960s by Betty Friedan. And it’s talking about women and women’s rights and movements and women in the workforce in particular. And so it has a real impact on women’s movement and feminism one could argue in the 1960s, likewise with Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”.

So I wanted to highlight just a few things from the 1960s in terms of seeing what other activism is happening. So we’re starting to see women’s rights, but also with regard to “Silent Spring” by Carson. This is really talking about, you know, I’m pointing out in her publication from 1962, the damage chemical pesticides are having, you know, in terms of wildlife, but also in terms of water and the sort of the way in which chemicals that are being used for things like agriculture and how they’re damaging to not just nature and the sort of the bioecology around us, but actually to humans, as well. And so it’s the beginning of what we will see in the 1970s as the environmental movement, as well. But it is the first sort of way of, you know, she’s investigated and looking at the way application of agriculture.

Chemicals and pesticides are being used in the 1960s quite indiscriminately. And so you see just fields being sort of, if you like, covered with pesticide and kind of in a film going over it. And that is obviously having impact on sort of all the biodiversity around it. And some would argue damaging, you know, while it’s protecting the agricultural plants, it will have an impact on human health at a later point, as well. And that’s what we’re beginning to kind of see coming out from this period, so it’s quite interesting. And then that last picture, the Stonewall Riots from 1969. Now, the Gay Rights Movement saw some early progress in the 1960s where we start to see, you know, particular states. So for instance, Illinois becomes the first state to do away with its anti sodomy laws, and you start to see the decriminalisation of homosexuality in some places, as well.

But with the Stonewall riots, this one in particular I wanted to highlight, because it’s a part of the activism I think of what we’re starting to see in the 60’s that will carry through into the 70’s. So you have a gay club, Stonewall Inn, which is in Greenwich Village, New York, and it’s, you know, largely a place for dancing. It welcomes drag queens, homeless youth, is known to the gay community, but also tends to get sort of raided quite often. And in particular, in the summer of 1969, New York police raided the Stonewall Inn. And after years of being fed up, the community within it got fed up with police harassment. The patrons, both of the Stonewall Inn, but also the neighbourhood residents started throwing objects at the police, and they sort of then the police started arresting and loading up people for arrests, as well. But it’s, what we see is there’s a full blown riot and subsequent protests that last for more than five days against the sort of the police raiding, but also just the harassment and brutality of the community, as well during that period.

And that will lead to what we start to see in terms of the, sort of the, again, lesbian movement within the 1970s. Now, the last things counter to culture I just wanted to mention, is obviously Summer of Love, 1960s, people also think about the hippies and free love movement. And part of this is in reaction to some of the activism, and what we’re seeing in relation to things that within the sort of, if you like, the home front in the US, the Vietnam War, the conscription, you then have the, as we said, conscientious objectors, but also this counterculture is starting to develop where people want to essentially enjoy life. They want to move away from sort of those ideas of… and structures that they see during the decade. And so we start to see in the latter part of the 1960s in particular, you know, people moving into communes, they’re starting to change their attitudes in particular a lot of young people, are starting to change their attitudes towards government and governance, as well, one could argue, and that’s what we start to see here with this idea of comfort culture.

Now, the last thing I wanted to mention, which I think is quite important for the agenda within America in the 1960s. I had to bring this image, 'cause it was just quite funny. We start to see America moving from JFK’s idea of New Frontier. And it was a political slogan during his 1960 campaign, but also what JFK was promising or he thought people should want in America is this new frontier of unknown opportunities that actually it could be fulfilled with a lot of hopes. There might be uncharted areas in terms of things like space and science he mentioned, but also that, you know, in terms of trying to solve problems of peace and war, and actually acknowledging things like prejudice and ignorance, as well.

And so what we see with JFK’s New Frontier is really this idea of movement for, you know, by American people moving forward. JFK feels that actually, American people must be prepared in a sense to sacrifice something in order to be able to foresee these new opportunities and for a better future for everyone within America. Now, after his assassination, what we find is actually, LBJ takes up the mental in a sense, but rather calling it new frontier for Johnson, what he labels it as the Great Society, and on two particular fronts is his is sort of agenda, I guess you could say, for Great Society. It’s one for alleviating and it’s a war on poverty, but it’s also a war on racial injustice. LBJ felt that poverty and racial injustice really had no place in the US in the 1960s. And so was trying to develop a set of programmes and develop a set of programmes that would allow to give people, poor people in particular, a hand up he would say, not a handout. And so what we begin to see is a number of programmes, think about things like Medicare, Medicaid, that would help the elderly and low income pay for healthcare.

You also have things like head start. The head start programme becomes a thing that occurs, partly because it’s trying to encourage, but also prepare young people, young children, from very young school age, and to sort of develop their skills, providing them not just education, but also in terms of meals, et cetera, to kind of, it’s kind of a social, that whole social programme to develop society from where it needs help moving it forward and progressing, as well. And so Johnson really takes up that mantle, and I love the idea of this comic book, story character like a superhero. But one of the other things we begin to see is he’s also messaging not just to the general public, but also messaging to Congress. These are things that American people need. These are the things that American people want, let’s make this happen. And so you see here, you know, as far as he’s concerned, we can stay here all summer and not take our summer break if it means we, you know, pass legislation on civil rights, Medicare.

We tackle the issue of poverty. We raise, you know, federal pay rise, and you turn to ideas about food stamps. And so he kind of in a sense is messaging not just to the general public with his Great Society, but actually very directly to Congress to make this happen. And so some of the key tenets of LBJ’s Great Society that I’m going to end with is thinking about that war on poverty, as I said, Medicare, Medicaid, head start, and education reform. But he also then starts to push forward some of the things that JFK started, so things like urban renewal. We know with the 1950s, there’s a real push towards suburbia and the urban landscape becomes quite desolate and underdeveloped. And so what LBJ and JFK wanted really is that urban renewal, a reinvestment in sort of housing within the urban setting, but also opportunities for people.

We also see support for the arts and humanities, and as I said, you begin to see that early stages of environmental initiatives and acknowledgement of needing to think about the environment, as well. And so those are some of the real things I wanted to share with you today in a nutshell in 45 minutes. I’ve also got here in case people are interested, there’s a lot of great resources that are online. So I mean, there’s a lot of books, as well, so if anyone’s interested, they can always let someone know at Lockdown University, and I’m happy to recommend books, as well, that people might be interested in reading. But I just thought there’s some really wealth of information now that’s freely available online for all of you.

But I wanted to just say thank you all so much for listening to me ramble about the 1960s. I love thinking about the 1960s, as well, because I think it feels like a culmination of some of the things that we really saw starting in the 1950s, and it comes into fruition in the 1960s, much more prevalently, as well. And so I’m just having a look at some of the comments now and anything in the chat.

Q&A and Comments

Q: Yes, I mean, someone said is, you know, wouldn’t one of the greatest challenges in the 1960s be the sexual revolution? A: It is in the sense, but I guess one of the arguments, and I sort of put it there in small brackets, one of the big things I think that happens is the sexual revolution becomes quite important. I mentioned about in 1960 how birth control pills get approved. That actually, that changes the way in which women also then view their bodies, and start to think about things, as well, what they want in life in terms of work-life balance, family. But it gives them different options, one could argue that perhaps they didn’t see in the 1950s. And so there is a sexual revolution, but I think some of what starts in the 1960s also really starts to become more fully developed in the 1970s, as well in terms of that sexual revolution and real control in particular for women over their bodies. But also, in terms of the sexual revolution, we can think about, you know, sort of the changes that we’re starting to see in terms of attitudes to homosexuality and gay people within the US. It’s not fully across the board by the end of the 1960s, but that we’re starting to see a bit more acknowledgement and change, and that, again, we start to see more fully in the 1970s pick up on that there.

Let’s see. Yes, I didn’t mention, as I said, I wasn’t, I know I think, at least, I think one of my colleagues may have talked about more in terms of the presidents and the political informed policy, so I stayed away from that. I was looking more at the social and domestic situation within the US, but someone mentioned here about the Cuban Revolution led by Castro, and obviously, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and how that has an impact on, you know, in terms of JFK, but also, you know, the relationship between the US and the Soviets during the 1960s, as well. Yes, that becomes a part of their, you know, if you like, their overall thinking, but also, it creates a scare point on both parts. I think both the US and the USSR that actually coming to such a close potential a lot more that way directly within, you know, sort of right off of the shores of the US. It is a kind of waking up point I think for both sides that actually it’s quite interesting that when we start to see then after that real competition between them, the US and the USSR, but not directly confrontational in the same way. So they’re competing in space, they’re competing for influence in other countries across the world in terms of, you know, who are you friends with in terms of the, you know, smaller third countries. We see, the US and the Soviets going into what we would call third party countries as part of their foreign policy as a protectionism of their own interests, but also attempts to ensure that the spread of either ideology, for lack of a better word, either viewpoint of the world, perspective of the world isn’t spread more rapidly through different parts, whether it’s in Southeast Asia, like with the Vietnam War, or whether it’s across, you know, sort of Latin America, or on an African continent. We begin to see competition for domination and influence developing from the 60’s onwards. And I think that’s partly based on the fact that you have that real sort of confrontational of this of the sort of Cuban crisis as well, missile crisis. I’m just looking at other things.

Oh, that’s interesting. Someone’s mentioned about, they remember that a number of guys with low draught numbers had moved to Canada during the end of the Vietnam War. Yes, some of them tried to, as well. And someone else I mentioned with the photograph with the Civil Rights Act signing by LBJ. And others, someone had mentioned there were no women in the photograph, yes. Police raids were called “Operation Soap”. Sorry, this was mentioned earlier in terms of things, as well. Great. I’m just reading if there’s anything else. Yes, one of our attendees mentioned about, you know, they had no idea American population had doubled in 60 years, so going from that 179.3 million to, did I call, 331.9 million in the last census in 2020. So it is quite a standing, we have had, you know, growth of population continually. And as I said, some of that is natural growth. So you have births, you also have deaths, which will impact your population size, but it’s also, America is also still attractive to immigrants coming into the country, as well, which will have an impact on your population numbers, as well, eventually.

But no, if there’s no other questions, I want to say thank you all so much for joining me. I’ve really enjoyed sharing my enthusiasm, but also some knowledge on 1960s with you. As I mentioned, some of this will like to, what’s happening in the 1970s. And so if you’re interested, we’ll be talking about 1970s America next week, as well in a different session. But thank you all so much, and I hope you have a really great day wherever you are.