M 1967: WAR, LOVE, & INSURRECTION

At the beginning of 1967 there were 490,000 U S troops in Vietnam along with 850,000 South Vietnamese and South Koreans.  Large Battles and Search & Destroy were the war strategies for 1967. 

April 4:  Dr Martin Luther King speaks out against the Vietnam War at Riverside Church, (watch video 7:30).

April 15:  300,000 protesters in the 'Spring Mobe"  in New York City.

June 1 VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR is formed. 

June 23: 1,300 police attack 10,000 marchers in Los Angeles

October 16: A day of wide spread protests organized by the Mobe in 30 ciies 

October 18:  Protest at University of Wisconsin sends 19 police officers and 50 students to the hospital.

October 21-23: 100,000 students participate in  The March on the Pentagon (watch video 1:32)  Memorialized by Norman Mailer's "The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel/The Novel as History."

"IT IS GOOD TO KNOW IN THESE TIMES OF HIPPIES,LOVE-INS, ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATIONS, LSD, AND POT PARTIES, THAT COLLEGE KIDS CAN STILL BE COLLEGE KIDS,"  Reported in the Detroit Free Press in reference to the "College Kids" of Delta Sigma Phi the day after The Greatest College Prank of All Time.

1967 is widely know as the SUMMER OF LOVE.

Partly because of the large number of young students who overtook San Francisco and the Monterey Music Festival that summer.

PSYCHEDELIC drug LSD and marijuana were popluar.  The music changed that summer,  Sott Makenzie's "San Franciso" (2:54) was the anthem.

Psychedelic Music began in the mid 1960s.It is music influenced by psychedelic culture which attempted to replicate or enhance the psychedelic experience from psychedelic drugs such as LSD.  Some of the most significant hits:

LIGHT MY FIRE: The Doors

WHITE RABBIT: Jefferson Airplane

THIS IS THE END: The doors 

EIGHT MILES HIGH:  The Byrds

SKY PILOT: The Animals

RIDERS ON THE STORM:  The Doors

.July 23, 1967 what appeared to be a local disturbance soon grew into a Rebellion.

43 people died, 324 were injured, and  1,400 buildings destroyed.  7,000 paratroopers and National guard soldiers were use to finally restore order. (watch video of first days (4:39)

Riots occurred in 159 American Cities in the summer of 1967 including;  

APRLI:  Cleveland

JUNE:  Cincinnati, Oh; Buffalo, NY

JULY:  Newark, NJ;  Plainfield, NJ; Cairo, IL, Detroit, Mi; Cambridge, Md; Saginaw, MI; 

Grand Rapids, Mi;  Milwaukee, Wi;  

Back Home: The Hippies turn to LSD, pot, communes, and "free" love.  Listen to:

1. SAN FRANCISCO
2. WHITE RABBIT
3. LIGHT MY FIRE
4. SUMMER OF 1967

The "protest music" was accelerating social change.  For What It Is Worth by Buffalo Springfield.

ALICE'S RESTAURANT

TURN, TURN, TURN

WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE

FORTUNATE SON

July 23, 1967 what appeared to be a "racial disturbance"  quickly ignited a REBELLION.  (watch video of first days (4:39)

Seeking Safety

Detroit looks like World War II Berlin.

Paratroopers arrive.