Youth Culture and Protests of the 1960s and 1970s: Characteristics

and Manifestations of a Counterculture of the United States of

America and Mexico

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

- Radical youth group established in 1959 which developed from the League
for Industrial Democracy which was an older socialist educational
organization.
- They were a non-violent group that wanted the citizens to be in control of
social policy.
- The Port Huron Statement (The political manifesto for this organization) was
written by a 22-year-old named Tom Hayden. He was the previous editor for
the newspaper at the University of Michigan.
- In April, 1965, they organized a national march on Washington. After this
point they become more aggressive but not violent especially in opposing
the Vietnam War.
- They used demonstrations and occupation of administration buildings on
campuses to prove their points.
- After 1965, it became known as the main opposition to the Vietnam War for
youth movements.

Berkeley Free Speech Movement

- Led by Mario Savio, a junior philosophy major.

- It was formed as a reaction to Berkeley officials trying to prevent students
from collecting donations and trying to recruit other students to the civil
rights movement. The Berkeley officials were under pressure from the
conservatives.
- This led to massive sit-ins and occupation of administration buildings.
- 500 demonstrators were arrested which led to several more massive
demonstrations and a strike of nearly 70% of Berkeley’s student population.

Hippie Culture

- subculture that was originally a youth movement (in the United States)
during the 1960s
- Originates from the term hipster, and was initially used to describe people
who had moved into Greenwich Village (NY), Haight-Ashbury district (SFO),
etc.
- The early hippie ideology included the countercultural values of the Beat
Generation.
- Psychedelic rock, opposition to the Vietnam War, sexual revolution, and
drugs were all significant aspects to hippie culture.

Gay Rights

- Publishing houses started publishing novels like The Velvet Underground

that were targeted directly at gay people.
- Early 1960s, openly gay political organizations such as the Mattachine
Society were formally protesting abusive treatment toward gay people,
challenging the entrenched idea that homosexuality was acondition, and
calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality.
- The major event in the American gay rights movement was the 1969
Stonewall riots in New York City.