If this course was a movie, it would be “must-see!” Love, war, peace, protests, and secrets – all set to an amazing soundtrack! We will begin in simpler times, at the end of the 1950’s amidst the baby boom and learn about a President with charisma whose life was taken too soon. We’ll enter a war half way across the world and see who protested it and why. We’ll follow a man who changed the course of a nation’s human rights, those who followed him and those who didn’t. We’ll listen to the music that not only defined the era, but was defined by it. Love history? This class is for you! Love social movements? This class is for you. Love learning about war? Peace? Take it! Want to know what people did for fun? How they dressed? Love the music of the 60’s and 70’s and the people who made it? Just click that green button and enroll already! 

This course is designed to provide an in depth look at the events that raised the consciousness of the American people.  It will focus on how the great events of the counter-cultural movements and politics affected the music and how the music impacted the times.  It is hoped that this course will provide students with an awakening of their own awareness of the world around them.

Please note, I require a minimum of two learners enrolled to conduct class. If the minimum is not achieved within ten hours of the course, I will notify you that the class will not be held.

We will open each class with a quick review of the previous class (year). Then the stage will be set for learning with an opening song. In many cases, we will talk about the artist and the lyrics and how that song was iconic for that time. Next, we will look at what else was happening that year with our focus being: Presidential actions, Vietnam, The Civil Rights Movement, and culture. (See the outline below for specific content.) While the instructor will be lecturing using slides, it by no means will be one sided. There will be many questions asked as we cover each topic so that it is, to a large extent, a discussion class. Students will be given frequent opportunities to stop, think, reflect, and evaluate the content that is taught. Students will often be given the chance to interact and reflect through the use of Nearpod, an interactive teaching tool used for both virtual and in-person learning. A code is required and it will be posted in the class page prior to the class meeting, as well during the class meeting.
At the completion of each weekly class, students will be given an assignment to show what they’ve learned or to extend their learning even further by creating a virtual collage, a mind map, a timeline of events, or a written or visual representation of the content that was covered.  These assignments will be used as the review that starts the next class period.

The 60’s Content Outline - Each number represents a new week - pretty much each week covers a year in history. Please see notes at end of this section and in the "Parental Guidance" section.

1.	Pre-60’s:  “Happy People with Happy Problems”
   a.	Leisure Time and the Suburbs
   b.	Civil Rights
          1)	Rosa Parks
          2)	Brown v. Board of Education
          3)	Little Rock 9
   c.	The Vietnam War didn’t "begin" til 1964
          1)	From France to the US
          2)	Geneva Peace Accords
          3)	SEATO
          4)	Military “advisors”
   d.	Culture
          1)	Beatniks
          2)	Early TV influence
   e.	Music
          1)	Elvis

2.	1960: Camelot
   a.	The Election of a King
          1)	The Role of TV: The Kennedy/Nixon debate
   b.	Civil Rights- Can One Person Make a Difference?
          1)	SNCC
          2)	Sit-ins
          3)	Civil Rights Act of 1960
   c.	Vietnam- Viet-Cong and the Guerillas
          1).	Ngo Dinh Diem - The Appointment of a Pawn  
         2)	NLF
   e.	Music
        1)	Bob Dylan

3.	1961- Many Beginnings
   a.	The First 100 days
      1)	Peace Corps
   b.	Civil Rights
      1)	The Freedom Riders
   c.	The Space Race Begins
      1)	Yuri Gargarin
      2)	Shepard, Grissom
   d.	Nuclear Concerns –
      1)	Bay of Pigs
      2)	 Berlin wall, 	
      3)	underground nuke testing
   e.	Music
      1)	Ray Charles
      2)	Roy Orbison
4.	1962:
   a.	___ Days in October- The Cuban Missile Crisis
   b.	John Glenn
   c.	Culture
      1)	Timothy Leary – The Psychedelic Review
      2)	Marilyn Monroe dies
   d.	Music
      1)	The Twist
      2)	Monster Mash
5.	1963:  
   a.	Civil Rights
      1)	George Wallace “Segregation Forever”
      2)	SCLC
      3)	MLK in Jail
      4)	I Have a Dream speech
      5)	Medgar Evers
   b.	Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
   c.	Music
     1)	The British Invasion
     2)	Stevie Wonder
   d.	The End of Innocence
     1)	The Assassination Theories
   e.	Aldous Huxley

6.	1964
   a.	If We Only Knew Then What We Know Now:  The Gulf of Tonkin
   b.	War on Poverty
   c.	Music
      1)	Beatles continue to take US by storm
      2)	Bob Dylan
      3)	The Rolling Stones
  d.	Culture
     1)	The Magic Bus
     2)	McDonalds expands into the eastern states
   e.	Civil Rights
      1)	Race Riots in Harlem, Philadelphia
      2)	Civil Rights Act
      3)	MLK Jr. wins Nobel Peace Prize
7.	1965
   a.	Johnson outlines “Great Society”
   b.	Civil Rights
      1)	MLK Jr. arrested in Selma after 5 day march
      2)	Malcolm X assassinated
      3)	Race Riot in Watts
   c.	Vietnam
      1)	US begins bombing N. Vietnam
      2)	1st American “officially” sets foot on Vietnam battlefields
      3)	First Teach-in
      4)	SDS- march in Washington
      5)	100,000 Anti-war protesters nationwide
      6)	Crime to burn draft cards
   d.	Culture
      1)	LSD factory opens
      2)	“Hippie”
      3)	unsafe at any speed
      4)	Timothy Leary
   e.	Music
      1)	Beatles
      2)	Rolling Stones
      3)	Bob Dylan
      4)	Sonny and Cher
      5)	Eve of Destruction
8.	1966
   a.	Vietnam
      1)	Continued protests
   b.	Music 
      1)	Grateful Dead
      2)	Jefferson Airplane
      3)	Janis Joplin
      4)	Cream
   c.	Culture
      1)	Leary “Turn on, Tune in, Drop Out”
9.	1967:  The Summer of Love
   a.	Music
      1)	The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper
      2)	Donovan- Mello Yellow
      3)	Monterey Pop Festival 
      4)	Doors
      5)	Procol Harum
      6)	Hendrix
      7)	Woodie Guthrie dies
      8)	Otis Redding – Dock of the Bay
      9)	Respect
      10)	Incense and Peppermints
   b.	Culture
      1)	Hippie Tours of Haight/Ashbury
      2)	Summer of Love in SFC
      3)	Yippies
      4)	Origin of the Peace sign
      5)	Super bowl I
   c.	Civil Rights
      1)	Riots
	
   d.	Vietnam
      1)	Vietnam week starts
      2)	First US Air strike on Hanoi
      3)	War protesters storm Pentagon
      4)	Stop the Draft Movement
10.	 1968:  The Year that Changed Everything
   a.	Election of 1968
      1)	Candidates
      2)	Johnson doesn’t seek re-election
      3)	Bobby Kennedy
      4)	Democratic Convention
      5)	Nixon elected
   b.	Civil Rights
      1)	Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated
      2)	Uprisings across the US
   c.	Vietnam
      1)	Tet Offensive
      2)	The “new left” occupied several bldgs at Columbia
      3)	My Lai
      4)	Dr. Spock and Ginsberg arrested
   d.	Music
      1)	Beatles/Donovan go to India
      2)	Hair opens
      3)	FM “underground”
      4)	Hello I Love You – Doors
      5)	People Got to Be Free – The Rascals
11.	 1969
   a.	Civil Rights
      1)	Student protests
      2)	American Indians seize Alcatraz
   b.	Culture
      1)	Easy Rider
      2)	Charles Manson
   c.	Man Walks on the Moon
   d.	Music
      1)	Woodstock
      2)	Blind Faith
      3)	Alice’s Restaurant
      4)	Rolling Stones “Altamont” concerts
      5)	Age of Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In
      6)	Come Together
      7)	Crimson & Clover
      8)	In the Year 2525 
   e.	Vietnam
      1)	Ho Chi Min dies
      2)	½ million march in Washington DC
      3)	First draft lottery
12.	 1970:  Four Dead in Ohio
   a.	Kent State Shooting
   b.	Vietnam
      1)	Troops in Cambodia
      2)	Construction workers v. war demonstrators
      3)	Supreme Court O.K.’s conscientious objector status
      4)	Voting age lowered to 18
   c.	Music
      1)	Joplin dies
      2)	Hendrix dies
      3)	Beatles Break up
	
13.	 1971
   a.	Vietnam
      1)	Pentagon Papers published
      2)	Nixon begins withdrawing troops
   b.	Music
      1)	Jim Morrison dies
14.	 1972
   a.	Culture
      1)	National Commission recommends legalizing marijuana
   b.	Vietnam
      1)	N. Vietnamese escalate – US resumes bombing
      2)	Watergate
   c.	Olympic massacre
15.	 1973 and beyond
   a.	Vietnam
      1)	Ceasefire agreement signed
      2)	US bombs Laos
      3)	War Powers Act passed
      4)	Draft evaders and deserters pardoned
      5)	Fall of Saigon
   b.	Nixon resigns and is pardoned

Please see the Parental Guidance section regarding sensitive topics.
Teaching of Civil Rights and the actions that led to the movement is from an historical, fact based accounting (though it is difficult to deny the emotion this evokes). While this can be disturbing subject matter, it creates a clear justification for the passion behind the Civil Rights movement.