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The 1960 s were a time of great change in American society characterized by ethnic consciousness and civil rights, womens rights and female liberalism, anti-war demonstrations, student protests, and the genesis of the counterculture. A noted speaker once said, The Cold War, conformity, and consumerism provided the background for the social protests movement of the 1960 s. The cause of the protest movements were much more deeply rooted in U. S. institutions and history. Although the protest movements of the 1960 s were deeply rooted in U.
S. institutions and history of the 1950 s, the Cold War, conformity, and consumerism provided much more than a background for these movements, in a way they were the reason behind them. In the 1950 s politicians constantly used the Cold War as a threat to the lifestyle of the American people-a conformist lifestyle dominated by consumerism in which families for the first time in history had the purchasing power of credit. Families now had the power to own homes, which resulted in the construction of ethnic communities and they had the ability to afford luxuries, which they could never dream of before, these include cars, televisions, and other new appliances. This ideal lifestyle was championed on television sitcoms such as Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best and it included the above mentioned luxuries, furthermore it illustrated the breakdown of the family and how it was supposed to appear. The shows stressed the breadwinner and head of the family as the father, the mother as the ideal housewife, taking diligent care that all the housework be done before her husband arrives from work, and the children as well-mannered and respectful citizens upon whose problems the shows usually center.
In essence the shows stressed the importance of family and family life, and what threatened the family-Communism, Cold War-the Communist that could be living next door! McCarthy and McCarthyism, in essence, gave the people of the 1950 s a cause, a cause of preservation characterized by scare tactics in which he (McCarthy) constantly accused others as being Communists who sell secrets to the Soviets and thus threaten the livelihood of Americana. As the younger generation of the 1950 s grew older, however, disenchantment with the idealized American lifestyle, which had in some cases already been around, seemed to grow. In Takin It to the Streets, the author writes that young people resist the efforts of adults to shape and control their maturation (9). The refusal of children to follow in their parents footsteps is one of the first signs of a generation gap growing between the parents of the 50 s and what will be the children of the 60 s. A generation gap that is characterized not by conformity, but rather change, sweeping change that alters the course of America and American history.
Growing men in the family saw through their fathers that the roles they would play, in the idealized family, were not very fulfilling. This was evident in the high rate of divorce, alcoholism, heart disease, and other personal and social disorders prevalent among breadwinners (Breines, 10). Young women too saw no bright future if they followed the female path so championed in the 1950 s. A path that only led to two titles: wife and mother, a path in which there was no future outside of the family. The result of these young peoples resistance to the trends set forth by their parents were the social movements of the 1960 s-movements that were reactions against the conformity instilled into the American people through the threat of the Cold War and Communism. The cause of the 1960 s was not one of preservation, but rather change, for people of the 60 s no longer saw America as an ideal place, but rather as a place that demanded change.
No longer was the focus on family, instead young people of the 1960 s focused on the problems of America and American society. While white America did not wake up to social issues (on a large scale) until the 1960 s, many black Americans started to champion civil rights, with limited success, in the 1950 s. These victories came mainly from the NAACP who fought black disenfranchisement in the realm of education. In 1954, the NAACP won its battle on school segregation in the Supreme Court decision of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, which declared school segregation unconstitutional (Breines, 7). Even with the victory, resistance to desegregation was very strong, in many cases the end result was even death for blacks.
The strong resistance of whites led to more and more protests by blacks including sit-ins and breaking of white / black rules of where one can sit, eat, or use the bathroom. These demonstrations coupled with non-violence mad it a very attractive movement for young white Americans to throw their hats into. Furthermore the fact that the NAACP was successful in its desegregation of schools let everyone know that change was not out of the realm of possibilities. All these things gave the young people of the 1960 s a cause, a cause that was within reach, and a cause that they could, in some way, call their own.
The SNCC, especially, provided a vehicle which white and black students alike could use in their efforts to sure up equality for the black race. The success of some of their demonstrations, boycotts, and sit-ins helped members of the SNCC realize just how powerful they were and could be. This fact led female members of the SNCC to go one step further, one step beyond what was expected; they dared to challenge female roles within the actual group and furthermore within society. Evidence of womens efforts to liberate themselves from roles assigned to them by society comes from the SNCC Position Paper, which can be found in Breines Takin It to the Streets.
The paper was written anonymously, probably by a female, in order to show how unfairly women were assigned roles in the group. Some of the biases mentioned in the paper included an instance in which a veteran of two years work for the SNCC spent her days doing clerical work for others in her group. Another instance sited that all the leadership positions in the group mainly went to male, there wasnt any case in which a woman had the final say (45). This is a glaring example that shows the genesis of womens consciousness coming from the civil rights movement. By first challenging their roles in protests movements, women were able to extend their gripes to the national spotlight and get the attention and respect that they deserved. The sweeping changes that occurred in the 1960 s did not come out of the blue; they were a chain reaction that stemmed from the threat of the Cold War, conformity, and civil rights movements of the 1950 s.
The idealized view of the American family provided young white Americans with a cause of rebellion against the status quo, a status quo that supported the disenfranchisement of blacks. This coupled with the newfound success of the NAACP led to groups like the SNCC, which attracted both whites and blacks and united them under one cause-civil rights. Furthermore, this led successful women in the (SNCC) group to challenge their roles in the movement and eventually paved the way for the womens rights movement so prevalent in the 1960 s. Thus the protest movements of the 1960 s were indeed rooted in the history and institutions of the 1950 s which were characterized by the threat of Cold War, conformity, and consumerism. Bibliography: No Bibliography
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