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Flower power
Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s
as a symbol of passive resistance and non-violence ideology.[1] It is rooted
in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War.[2] The expression was
coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 as a means to
transform war protests into peaceful affirmative spectacles.[3][4][5] Hippies
embraced the symbolism by dressing in clothing with embroidered
flowers and vibrant colors, wearing flowers in their hair, and distributing
flowers to the public, becoming known as flower children.[6] The term
later became generalized as a modern reference to the hippie movement
A demonstrator offers a flower to military
and the so-called counterculture of drugs, psychedelic music, psychedelic
police at an anti-Vietnam War protest at
art and social permissiveness.[7] The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, 21
October 1967

Contents
Origin
Movement
Cultural legacy
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Origin
Flower Power originated in Berkeley, California, as a symbolic action of protest against the Vietnam War. In a November
1965 essay titled How to Make a March/Spectacle, Ginsberg advocated that protesters should be provided with "masses of
flowers" to hand out to policemen, press, politicians and spectators.[8] The use of props like flowers, toys, flags, candy and
music were meant to turn anti-war rallies into a form of street theater thereby reducing the fear, anger and threat that is
inherent within protests.[9] In particular, Ginsberg wanted to counter the "specter" of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang
who supported the war, equated war protesters with communists and had threatened to violently disrupt planned anti-war
demonstrations at the University of California, Berkeley.[10][11][12] Using Ginsberg's methods, the protest received positive
attention and the use of "flower power" became an integral symbol in the counterculture movement.[13]

Movement
"The cry of 'Flower Power' echoes through the land. We
shall not wilt. Let a thousand flowers bloom."
— Abbie Hoffman, Workshop in Nonviolence, May 1967
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_power
By late 1966, the Flower Power method of
guerilla theater had spread from California to
other parts of the United States. The Bread and
Puppet Theater in New York City staged
numerous protests which included handing out
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balloons and flowers with their anti-war

literature.[14] Workshop in Nonviolence (WIN), a magazine published by New York activists, encouraged the use of Flower
Power. In May 1967, Abbie Hoffman organized the Flower Brigade as an official contingent of a New York City parade
honoring the soldiers in Vietnam. News coverage captured Flower Brigade participants, who carried flowers, flags and
pink posters imprinted with LOVE, being attacked and beaten by bystanders.[14] In response to the violence, Hoffman
wrote in WIN magazine, "Plans are being made to mine the East River with daffodils. Dandelion chains are being wrapped
around induction centers.... The cry of 'Flower Power' echoes through the land. We shall not wilt."[14]

On the following Sunday in May 1967, WIN activists declared the Armed Forces Day as "Flower Power Day" and held a
rally in Central Park to counter the traditional parade. Turnout was low and, according to Hoffman, the rally was
ineffective because guerilla theater needed to be more confrontational.[14][15]

In October 1967, Hoffman and Jerry Rubin helped organize the March on the Pentagon using Flower Power concepts to
create a theatrical spectacle.[16] The idea included a call for marchers to attempt to levitate the Pentagon. When the
marchers faced off against more than 2500 Army national guard troops forming a human barricade in front of the
Pentagon, demonstrators held flowers and some placed flowers in the soldier's rifle barrels.[17]

Photographs of flower-wielding protesters at the Pentagon March became External images

seminal images of the 1960s anti-war protests. An image by French
The classic photo of a young
photojournalist Marc Riboud that was printed throughout the world was of
woman with a flower facing-off
seventeen-year-old high school student Jan Rose Kasmir clasping a daisy and
against soldiers with fixed bayonets,
gazing at bayonet-wielding soldiers. Smithsonian Magazine later called it "a
by (http://www.marcriboud.com/mar
gauzy juxtaposition of armed force and flower child innocence".[20]
criboud/50ANS/pages/0003.html)Marc
One photo, titled Flower Power by Washington Star photographer Bernie Riboud[18]
Boston, was nominated for the 1967 Pulitzer Prize.[19] The photo, taken on Pulitzer Prize-nominated Flower
October 21, 1967, shows a young, long-haired man in a turtleneck sweater, Power photo by (https://media.washi
placing carnations into the rifle barrels of military policemen. (The young ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/phot
man in the photo is most commonly identified as George Edgerly Harris III, o/2007/03/17/PH2007031701303.ht
an 18-year-old actor from New York who later performed in San Francisco ml)Bernie Boston.[19]
under the stage name of Hibiscus.[21][22] The young man also has been
identified by Paul Krassner as Youth International Party organizer, "Super-
Joel" Tornabene.[23])

Cultural legacy
The iconic center of the Flower Power movement was the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco, California.[24][25] By
the mid-1960s, the area, marked by the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets, had become a focal point for
psychedelic rock music.[26] Musicians and bands like Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin all lived a
short distance from the famous intersection. During the 1967 Summer of Love, thousands of hippies gathered there,
popularized by hit songs such as "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)". A July 7, 1967, Time magazine
cover story on "The Hippies: Philosophy of a Subculture" and an August CBS News television report on "The Hippie
Temptation",[27] as well as other major media interest, exposed the hippie subculture to national attention and
popularized the Flower Power movement across the country and around the world. That same summer, the Beatles' hit
single "All You Need Is Love" served as an anthem for the movement.[28] On 25 June, the Beatles performed the song on
the Our World international satellite broadcast, ensuring that the pacifist message reached an audience estimated at 400
million.[29]

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The avant-garde art of Milton Glaser, Heinz Edelmann, and Peter Max became synonymous with the flower power
generation. Edelman's illustration style was best known in his art designs for the Beatles' 1968 animated film Yellow
Submarine. Glaser, the founder of Push Pin Studios, also developed the loose psychedelic graphic design, seen for example
in his seminal 1966 poster illustration of Bob Dylan with paisley hair.[30] It was the posters by pop artist Peter Max, with
their vivid fluid designs painted in Day-Glo colors, which became visual icons of flower power.[31] Max's cover story in Life
magazine (September 1969) as well as appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and The Ed Sullivan
Show, further established "flower power" style art into mainstream culture.[32]

See also

References
1. Stuart Hall, "The Hippies: An American Moment" published in Ann Gray (Ed.), CCCS Selected Working Papers,
Routledge, (December 20, 2007), p.155 ISBN 0-415-32441-6
2. Chatarji, Subarno, Memories of a Lost War: American Poetic Responses to the Vietnam War, Oxford University
Press, 2001, p.42 ISBN 0-19-924711-0
3. "Allen Ginsburg" (https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/ginsberg_a.html), American Masters, Public
Broadcasting System, pbs.org, retrieved 30-04-2009
4. "Guide to the Allen Ginsberg Papers: Biography/Administrative History" (http://cdn.calisphere.org/data/13030/hb/tf5c6
004hb/files/tf5c6004hb.pdf) (PDF). The Online Archive of California. Stanford University. 1997. p. 3. Retrieved
2011-09-21.
5. Tony Perry, "Poet Allen Ginsberg Dies at 70" (http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-06/news/mn-46040_1_poet-allen-gin
sberg), Los Angeles Times, April 06, 1997
6. Rennay Craats, History of the 1960s, Weigl Publishers Inc., 2001, p.36 ISBN 1-930954-29-8
7. Heilig, S., "The Brotherhood of Eternal Love-From Flower Power to Hippie Mafia: The Story of LSD Counterculture",
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2007, Vol 39; No 3, pages 307-308
8. Ginsberg, Allen, "Demonstration or Spectacle as Example, As Communication, or How to Make a March/Spectacle",
Berkeley Barb, November 19, 1965, republished in The Portable Sixties Reader, Ann Charles (Ed.), Penguin Classic,
2002, p.208-212 ISBN 978-0-14-200194-3
9. Ben Shepard,"Absurd Responses vs. Earnest Politics" (http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/1/BenShepard/s
hepard2.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20080703163847/http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/
1/BenShepard/shepard2.html) 2008-07-03 at the Wayback Machine., Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, Volume 1,
Issue 2, January 2003
10. Hyde, Lewis (January 1, 1985). On the poetry of Allen Ginsberg. University of Michigan Press. p. 264. ISBN 0-472-
06353-7.
11. Ginsberg, Allen (September 7, 2002). Family Business: Selected Letters Between a Father and Son. Bloomsbury.
p. 241. ISBN 1-58234-216-4.
12. Miles, Barry (August 28, 2005). Hippie. Sterling. p. 50. ISBN 1-4027-2873-5.
13. William Lawlor, Beat culture: lifestyles, icons, and impact, ABC-CLIO (2005), p.126 ISBN 1-85109-400-8
14. Jezer, Marty. Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel. Rutgers University Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0813520179.
15. Richard M. Freid, The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!: Pageantry and Patriotism in Cold-War
America, Oxford University Press, (1999), p. 141, ISBN 0-19-513417-6
16. James J. Farrell, The Spirit of the Sixties: The Making of Postwar Radicalism, Routledge, 1997, p.223
17. Carlito Rivera, "The 1967 March on the Pentagon and lessons for today" , Socialism and Liberation Magazine, March
2007, retrieved 26-09-2009

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18. Riboud, Marc. "Marc Riboud: Cinquante And De Photographie" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110911123811/http://w

ww.marcriboud.com/marcriboud/accueil.html). www.marcriboud.com. Archived from the original (http://www.marcribou
d.com/marcriboud/accueil.html) on 2011-09-11. Retrieved 2011-09-21.
19. Bernie Boston, "Flower Power" (https://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/03/17/PH2007031701
303.html), The Washington Evening Star, October 21, 1967
20. Curry, Andrew (April 2004). "Flower Child" (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Flower_Child.html).
Smithsonian Magazine.
21. Montgomery, Davis (March 18, 2007). "Flowers, Guns and an Iconic Snapshot" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031701300.html). The Washington Post. p. D04.
22. Silva, Hoaracio (August 17, 2003). "Karma Chameleon" (https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/17/magazine/karma-cham
eleon.html). New York Times Magazine. New York Times Company. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
23. Krassner, Paul (January 30, 2008). "Tom Waits Meets Super-Joel" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-krassner/tom-
waits-meets-superjoel_b_84035.html). The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
24. Anthony Ashbolt, "Go Ask Alice: Remembering the Summer of Love" (http://www.anzasa.arts.usyd.edu.au/a.j.a.s/Artic
les/2_07/Ashbolt.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090913113150/http://www.anzasa.arts.usyd.edu.au/a.j.
a.s/Articles/2_07/Ashbolt.pdf) 2009-09-13 at the Wayback Machine., Australasian Journal of American Studies,
December 2007, p.35-47
25. Mandalit del Barco, "Haight-Ashbury a Flower-Power Holdover" (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId
=11650213), Morning Edition, National Public Radio, July 2, 2007
26. Charles Perry, The Haight Ashbury: A History, Wenner Books; Reprint edition (30 Mar 2007), 320pp , ISBN 1-932958-
55-X
27. Harry Reasoner, "The Hippie Temptation" (http://www.sfsu.edu/~avitv/avcatalog/88444.htm) Archived (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20060319070344/http://www.sfsu.edu/~avitv/avcatalog/88444.htm) 2006-03-19 at the Wayback
Machine., CBS News, August 22, 1967
28. Wiener, Jon (1991). Come Together: John Lennon in His Time. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press. p. 40.
ISBN 978-0-252-06131-8.
29. Edwards, Gavin (28 August 2014). "The Beatles Make History With 'All You Need Is Love': A Minute-by-Minute
Breakdown" (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/the-beatles-make-history-with-all-you-need-is-love-a-minut
e-by-minute-breakdown-20140828). rollingstone.com. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
30. "2004 Lifetime Achievement Award" (https://web.archive.org/web/20101215182403/http://cooperhewitt.org/NDA/WIN
NERS/2004/LIFETIMEACHIEVEMENT/index.shtml). Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. National Design
Awards. Archived from the original (http://cooperhewitt.org/NDA/WINNERS/2004/LIFETIMEACHIEVEMENT/index.sht
ml) on 2010-12-15. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
31. Hoffman, Frank W.; Bailey, William G. (August 1990). Arts & Entertainment Fads. Haworth Press. pp. 163–164.
ISBN 0-86656-881-6.
32. Riley II, Charles A. (2002). The Art of Peter Max (1st ed.). Abrams, New York. pp. 228–235. ISBN 0-8109-3270-9.

Further reading
Bennett M. Berger, "Hippie morality—more old than new "
(http://www.springerlink.com/content/f4100q7u71123746/),Society, Volume 5, Number 2 / December, 1967
Stuart Hall, "The Hippies: an American 'moment'", CCCS selected working papers, Centre for Contemporary Cultural
Studies, Routledge, 2007, ISBN 0-415-32441-6

External links
A 1960s photographic archive (https://web.archive.org/web/20140308020415/http://www.sixtiespix.com/)

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