Counterculture

The Peace Movement began as a protest movement in opposition to the United States's involvement in the Vietnam War.

Main reasons Americans did not support this war include unclear objectives, Vietnam not posing a direct threat to the US, an unpopular draft system, and images from the war being shown on TV.

Antiwar Protests led to violence and upheaval in U.S. streets; for example, the national guard killed 4 protesters at Kent State University

MLK argued in 1967 that the war took away resources for poor relief programs promised to American communities; John Kerry argued in 1971 that the U.S. refused to leave the war because they did not want to admit the war was a mistake.

Mary Beth and John Tinker fought for their right to protest the war through symbolic speech at their school in 1969.

A counterculture is a movement that challenges the existing standards of a group

The Peace Movement produced a counterculture, especially amongst young people that questioned and challenged U.S. society at the time. They asked questions about how U.S. policies impacts their lives and challenged the standards of U.S. society. This counterculture had an impact on the growing Black Power movement, Women's Liberation Movement, the LGBT movement, and Environmental Movement (to name a few).

This counterculture produced many works of art (paintings, music, poetry, literature, etc) that questioned the U.S. government and its place in the world.

Today we are going to look at some of the art produced by the counterculture of the 1960s.