Sixties Protest Movements Were Driven By A Minority Of Americans

December 12, 2000

DuBois, Pa. -- Contrary to popular belief, the profound social and political changes of the 1960s emanated from a small percentage of young Americans active in the demonstrations and sit-ins, says a Penn State historian in a new book.

"College-age people in the 1960s have been alternately admired and derided as a generation of revolutionaries, when in reality only a comparative minority took part in the anti-war and civil rights movements," says Dr. John C. McWilliams, associate professor of history at Penn State's DuBois Campus and author of "The 1960s Cultural Revolution" (Greenwood Press).

"Many young Americans in the 18-25 age group had no clue what the turmoil was about, while others, though better informed, simply went about the business of living their own lives," McWilliams notes. "For them, the 1960s were essentially no different from the supposed bland and conformist 1950s, except in the area of popular culture.

"Current perceptions of the 1950s and 1960s are to some degree both media constructs ideologically charged and tinged either with regret or nostalgia," he says. "Conservative recollections of the Sixties would be typified by those of former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, who recalled the 1960s as a time when `the whole system began decaying.' Nationally syndicated columnist George Will has dismissed the entire decade as `noisy with the voices of fundamentally frivolous people feigning seriousness.' "

Liberal pundits, on the other hand, remember with fondness the genuine courage and dedication of many civil rights and anti-war activists. For them, the long-haired, bell-bottomed Woodstock generation of the late 1960s made a brave, albeit brief, attempt to usher in a new era of community and idealism.

Both sides seem to forget that hard-line ideologues counted relatively few members, according to McWilliams. A symbolic culmination of Sixties revolutionary ferment occurred when the ultra-left Weathermen staged a working class revolt and battled Chicago police during the Days of Rage in 1969. However, these radicals numbered but 600 and were hardly a cross-section of American youth, the vast majority of whom were in the "silent majority," not interested in liberating the proletariat.

"For many people, the 1960s was a time when traditional values were challenged, redefined and rejected," McWilliams says. "Today’s critics of the 1960s contrast this period with the `Happy Days’ of the 1950s, an era that typically conjures up warm images of economic prosperity, social harmony, political unity and wholesome family values, images created and reinforced by the media, especially television."

But "Happy Days," a TV sitcom premiering in 1974, was hardly a flawless depiction of the 1950s. This is judged by the fact that TV shows now considered icons of domestic felicity in the 1950s were not overwhelming favorites in their own time, McWilliams notes.

"Family situation comedies such as `The Donna Reed Show,' `The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet' and `Father Knows Best' -- all thought to be widely viewed in the 1950s and early 1960s -- never in fact received high ratings," says McWilliams. "Only `Father Knows Best,' rated sixth during the 1959-60 season, and `The Donna Reed Show,' sixteenth in 1963-64, ever appeared among the top 20 highest-rated programs. Westerns like `Gunsmoke’" and `Bonanza,’ which enjoyed an enormous vogue from the mid-1950s, were far more popular with the average television watcher."

Apart from the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War was the main source of social and political disruption in the 1960s, and opponents won widespread support as the public's patience with the war grew thin.

The Penn State historian says, "A poll released on Oct. 19, 1969, showed that 55 percent of Americans responding sympathized with anti-war activists. On Nov. 13-15, the New Mobilization Committee to End the War attracted 800,000 mostly White, middle-class people to protest in Washington, D.C.

"The Vietnam War has frequently has been, albeit unfairly, compared with World War II. Consequently, many members of the older generation expected and demanded unconditional patriotism from the younger draftees in the 1960s and severely criticized those who balked at sacrificing their lives for their country," McWilliams says.

"But Vietnam was different from the war that the older generation remembered. Vietnam was a civil war, it did not directly affected American national security interests, it possessed no valuable natural resources, it did not offer potentially lucrative commercial markets and it did not threaten any American democratic institution," he adds.

"Even if Vietnam did fall to communist domination, it was not likely to threaten America's geopolitical sphere of influence," says the Penn State historian. "Tangible differences differentiated the two wars; more significantly, Vietnam lacked the nobility and idealism of World War II -- the `last good war' that America fought and won."

Finally, those who denounce Vietnam era protesters fail to remember that Americans have a long tradition of anti-war activism, going back to the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. In the latter case, Henry David Thoreau went to jail rather than pay the $1.50 poll tax to subsidize the war.

"The cultural revolution of the 1960s, like most social movements, was driven by activist groups and organizations that represented a clear minority of Americans, not necessarily the will of most of the citizenry," McWilliams adds.

***pab***

Contacts:

Paul Blaum (814) 865-9481 (o)

Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (o)/ (814) 238-1221 (h)

EDITORS: Dr. McWilliams is at (814) 375-4819 or (814) 234-2773 or at by email.