The sixties were turbulent times for America, both domestically and abroad. During the
sixties America witnessed the assassination of a president, the assassination of a civil rights
leader, a "conflict" in Vietnam, and a counterculture revolution among the youth. The
counterculture would peacefully protest and rally against the government early on, but as the
decade progressed, the counterculture would split into various factions. Some of these splinter
groups would carry out violent measures to make themselves, and there opinions, known. While
the violent actions were carried out by a strict minority, they attracted much attention from the
The purpose of this paper is to establish a connection between the peace movement and
the violence perpetrated by the counterculture. I feel that it is important that we find out how a
movement that was peaceful in the beginning could end up being so violent. The fact that
Americas youth could get caught up in such a frightening and violent situation should be of
concern to all of us. The music, and music festivals, of the era are also worthy of consideration.
Did the music contribute to the violence, or was it a just reflection of the turmoil felt during the
In order to understand the violent groups and their connection with the counterculture, we
first need to understand what the counterculture was. The sixties were full of groups which lived
outside of the norm, one of the earlier and most famous groups to form were the hippies. "In
1965, Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle labeled these people 'hippies,' as if they were
apprentice hipsters. The young insurgents called themselves 'freaks' or 'heads,' and they called
their 'here and now revolution' a counterculture." The hippies were into living a communal life,
a life of peace and tranquility and they were blowing t...