What Was The 1960's Hippie Movement

Savannah Olson

Mr.Brown

English 11B Period 2

20 March 2015

1960’s Hippie Movement

The 1960’s Hippie movement was brought together by a group of individuals that had the same beliefs. Although they were associated with drugs, they also made a very large impact on todays society and past history. As individuals joined the hippie movement they often began to mock their parents, shut out patriotism, and became very devoted to hard work. They would put their mind to accomplishing something and then achieve it, and they believed the only way to do so was through hard work. They also worked hard to gain world peace, they tried to put an end to the Vietnam War and other major political conflicts. Throughout the Hippie movement there were
They aspired to more communitarian roots, peace, and living together. The most extreme among them founded hippie communes. Many hippies were merely attracted to the lifestyle and the drugs that were heavily associated with hippiedom. There was an underside to the hippie movement, it wasn't all hugs and happiness. San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district became a magnet for runaway kids from all over the country. Many would agree that there weren't were too many negative effects on society as a whole by the hippies, the negative effects were mainly on the hippies themselves, which were the individuals who suffered from drug problems, homelessness, etc. Many hippies came from middle class families and had parents who supported their hippie lifestyles, but others from lower class backgrounds did not fare as well. People often assume that all youth in the 60s were hippies, but in reality this is not true. The hippies were just a small subset of the overall population. And they were geographically concentrated in certain places much more than
John F. Kennedy had been elected for presidency by the democratic party on July 13th, and many did not agree with him. He increased the United States involvement in the Vietnam War, which was increasing violence and conflict. Many massive events had been occurring that ended many unnecessary lives. On june 21st three young civil rights workers went missing, until found murdered and buried on a farm just outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi (Epstein). The hippie’s wanted badly to stop these acts of violence and to discover peace, there were many agreeing citizens that wanted change. Also during this time, human rights activist, Malcolm X was assassinated by rival black muslims during a speech at Harlem’s Audubon. The Vietnam War was also an affect on the Hippie movement, the hippies believed to make love not war and and wanted to stop the violence and end the war. The vietnam war was a very bloody and tragic war. Another unnecessary event that happened because of the hate circulating was on September 15th, a church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed and left four young colored girls dead. There was so much violence, including the assassination of president John F. Kennedy while riding in Dallas motorcade