America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60's

176 Pages·2009·1.57 MB·English

by  Laban Carrick Hill

Copyright
Text copyright © 2007 by Laban Carrick Hill
All rights reserved.
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.
www.twitter.com/littlebrown
First eBook Edition: June 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-07883-2
Contents
Copyright Page
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Fifties Romper Room
2. I Wanna Hold Your Hand
3. Sitting at the Counter
4. You Say You Want a Revolution
5. Feeling Groovy
6. Burn, Baby, Burn
7. Our Bodies, Our Politics
8. Upside-Down Flag
9. Somos Latinos
10. Earth Day
11. Making a Rainbow
A Brief Chronology of Events
Selected Bibliography
Web Sites
Credits

Also by Carrick Hill: Harlem Stomp!
For Elise, always and forever
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Without Elise Whittemore-Hill and her support, insight, and inspired design, this
book would not be what it is today. I would also like to thank Jennifer Hunt for
her superb editing, Susan Cohen for her outstanding support and advocacy,
Megan Tingley for recognizing I might have something, and Christine Cuccio for
her unerring copy-editing.

Introduction
W
hether you call them the “Boomer Generation” or the “Pepsi Generation,” those
who came of age in the ’60s make up the largest and most influential generation ever in
American history. Wilder than Gen X, more activist than Gen Y, these youths changed
their world like no other generation has before or since. Their music, their language,
and their style still define our culture today. America Dreaming is more than the story of
a youth movement. It’s the story of the power and optimism of young people building a
world in their own image. Through the lens of pop culture and rock-and-roll, this book
tells the story of teens and twenty-somethings who caused a seismic change in
American culture.
The full impact of the ’60s on American culture has been obscured by the media.
When we think of this era, we picture an age of “sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll”
radicalism. We imagine a period of extremes and excess. This image has been
reinforced not only by films—such as the rockumentary Woodstock—but also by
memoirs celebrating campus protests of the Vietnam War. In truth, only a small
minority of ’60s teenagers were hippies and/or campus radicals. The real story of the
’60s depicts the largest generation in American history coming of age in an
unprecedented period of economic growth, and questioning the very basis of our
government, culture, and economy. This is the story of young African Americans,
young Latinos, young women, young Native Americans, and simply young Americans
who woke up one day and decided they wanted something more.
These were teens who dared to dream of an America that was fair and just. America
Dreaming tells their story.
—LCH
Romper, bomper, stomper, boo. Tell me, tell me, tell
me do. Magic mirror, tell me today. Did all my friends
have fun at play? I see Natalie, I see David, I see
Ella…
—“Mirror Song” from Romper Room