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A look back at the ‘Roaring ‘60s’
(by Michael Dennehy - February 20, 2008)
It was a period of social, artistic and cultural dynamism. Normality returned to politics in the wake of the war. Our music changed; mode of dress and women entered a new era. There was a general feeling of discontinuity with the past, a break with traditions. Everything seemed feasible through modern technology. New technologies proliferated, bringing modernity to a large part of the population. The era was further distinguished by several discoveries of far-reaching import, unprecedented industrial growth and accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle.
The above comments are taken from Wikipedia on the Internet describing the “Roaring ‘20s.” How similar it seems to the “Roaring ‘60s” when I was in my 20s. Post WWI jazz music blossomed; the flapper redefined womanhood and Art Deco peaked. The Prohibition Era failed to eliminate alcohol from American society. Post WWII and the Korean War we saw the birth of Rock & Roll, accompanying changes in attire, hairdos and behavior for men and women. The hippie movement followed as did the drug culture. Where radio had proliferated in the ‘20s TV followed the same path in the ‘60s. Women’s Liberation gathered momentum highlighted by the Equal Pay Act passed in 1963. The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in 1966. In 1970, 50,000 people marched in
New York City for the first women’s Strike for Equality.
The ‘60s will be remembered for its tragedies perhaps more than anything else. I remember learning of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in grammar school and I thought how terrible, how uncivilized ‘those Americans’ were! I had a lot to learn about life, needless to say. On Nov. 22, 1963 JFK was assassinated in
Dallas . I was serving in the USMC,
Camp Pendleton, Calif. We had seen him in person during the summer in a motorcade as he campaigned in
San Diego for re-election. The day of the shooting I was in Battalion Headquarters with my CO Major Bourne. He was on the phone and I heard him say “Oh no! Why did it have to be
Dallas ?” Bourne was from
Dallas . There are no words to describe the shock that the nation felt.
My reverie here was brought about by this being February, “Black History Month.” Rev. Martin Luther King comes quickly to mind – his heroism his dedication to equal rights. The other “revolution” of the roaring ‘60s was the Civil Rights Movement which gained great momentum with the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) overturning the doctrine of separate but equal and doing away with segregation. The Chief Attorney for NAACP arguing the case and winning was Thurgood Marshall who would win 29 of 32 cases before the Supreme Court. He would go on to be the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court. He did so from 1967 to 1991.
Other landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement include the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banning discrimination in employment practices and public accommodations. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 restored voting rights and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 banned discrimination in the sale or renting of housing. The “roaring 60s” also saw the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King in
Atlanta, Ga. , on April 4. Hard as it is to imagine after the killing of the president this evil act took away the Civil Rights most prominent figure.
But it didn’t end there. Just two months later, June 6, 1964, saw the assassination of JFK’s brother Robert Kennedy who was running for president. RFK was also committed to civil rights as expressed in a 1961 speech at the University of Georgia Law School: “We will not stand by or be aloof… I happen to believe that (civil rights law) was right… Some of you may believe the decision to be wrong. That does not matter. It is the law.”
The depth of racial prejudice always amazed me. It was typified, I think, by trial judge Leon Bazile’s comments in affirming
Virginia ’s anti-miscegenation law prohibiting marriage between races. The judge proclaimed: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red… he placed them on separate continents… The fact that he separated the races shows he did not intend for the races to mix.” It reminded me of a letter my dad wrote in 1964: “… the world remains full of hate… Some people hate black people because they are black… brown people because they are brown. In many parts of the country, if you are black you could not go into that ice cream parlor, onto that beach or even enter that church.”
Anyone of age in the ‘60s would have some contact with racial prejudice. I recall in 1966 serving in
Dayton, Ohio . I was working with a senior agent who was from
Alabama originally. We got into a discussion about race and he basically uttered sentiments espoused by Judge Basile that God had condemned the black to live in servitude. In 1968 I had been recently transferred to the
New York City office. I had stopped at a rest stop to use the men’s room. It might well have been the day Rev. King was assassinated. A guy in there with me said to a buddy, “It’s about time somebody shot that “n—!” I was flabbergasted. I had my gun on under my jacket and the thought passed my mind to show it up close and personal to the jerk and see how he liked it. I didn’t.
Finally there was the Vietnam War. What’s left to be said on that issue? It was the beginning of a 10-year war costing the lives of 58,000 military and countless Vietnamese.
“Roaring ‘60s” seems an understatement.
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