In New York, it was estimated that 100,000 to 125,000 people listened to speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., Floyd McKissick, Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Benjamin Spock. Prior to the march, nearly 200 draft cards were burned by youths in Central Park. In San Francisco, black nationalists led a march, but most of the 20,000 marchers were white.
In the 1960s through to the mid-1970s, New York City, San Francisco and London were the hotbeds of countercultural activity.
The counterculture and hippie peace movement of the 1960s refer to an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed in the US and the UK and then spread throughout much of the Western world.
As the 1960s progressed, widespread social tensions developed regarding human sexuality, women’s rights, traditional modes of authority, experimentation with psychoactive drugs and differing interpretations of the American Dream.
Flower Power
San Francisco by Scott McKenzie was one of many songs written to protest against the Vietnam war. Music played a huge role in the counterculture movement and in the lives of the young soldiers in Vietnam.
If the doors of perception were cleansed…
Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, was the son of a US Navy rear admiral. Morrison senior was the commander of the U.S. naval forces in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964 sparked an escalation of American involvement in the Vietnam War.
Eve of Destruction
Eve of Destruction was written by 19-year-old P.F. Sloan, but was made famous by Barry McGuire. It contains the lyrics “you’re old enough to kill, but not for voting, you don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re toting” and “you can bury your dead, but don’t leave a trace, hate your next door neighbour, but don’t forget to say grace.” It was the Number 1 song in America in 1965.
