1960's Turbulence

Turbulence of the 1960s
The 1960’s is often described as the most turbulent decade of the twentieth century because of its numerous radical movements and the assassinations that occurred. The decade is filled with many social and political movements: Civil Rights Movement, Protest movements, the Women’s Liberation Movement, Red Power Movement, and Environmentalism. After the conformity of the 1950’s the Men and Women of America were looking to reform society to be unprejudiced and they did this through several unhinged social and political movements.
In the election of 1960, the youngest president, John F. Kennedy, was elected president, along with his vice president Lyndon B. Johnson. Kennedy had several reforms he planned to put in place,

He expanded unemployment benefits, food stamps, and school lunch programs, but what he couldn’t do was advance civil rights legislation. In 1962 John Kennedy was assassinated and immediately after Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into office. Johnson was a key player and supporter in advancing civil rights legislation. The Civil Rights Movement escalated with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. This was a test case that overturns the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson and concludes that separate but equal is not equal not only in education but in anything . The Montgomery Bus Boycott occurred in 1955 led by Rosa Parks, it was a three hundred and eighty-one bus boycott that resulted in the Supreme Court ruling segregation on public transportation is unconstitutional.
Then in the 1960’s the Civil Rights Movement took a turn and the movement exercised nonviolence influenced by Martin Luther King . The Greensboro Four or

The American Indian Movement in 1969 occupied Alcatraz Island to move their movement along; they were backed by many celebrities who helped fund their movement. They staged several other protests targeting the federal government at historically significant sites which of course brought backlash from the government . Environmentalism became present in American society when Rachel Carson published Silent Spring which brought awareness to the public about DDT, a pesticide used on American farms. The pesticide has harmful and was a trigger for cancer and diabetes. With this new emphasis on environmental degradation and its ties to human health people started speaking out about environmental problems and the inadequacy of the governments regulations. Rachel Carson presented the public with the ties between the environment and social issues