A wealth of material is available on videotape. The CBS documentary The Sixties provides a polished journalistic overview. The PBS series A Walk Through the Twentieth Century with Bill Moyers offers a sixty-minute videotape. Change, Change describes the upheavals of the sixties, public protests, social unrest, environmental concerns, Vietnam, assassinations, a man on the moon, and the impact of television and increased computerization. PBS also offers America's War on Poverty, a series of five one-hour documentaries that deals with both people and larger policy goals often related to the civil-rights movement. Films for the Humanities and Sciences has The Turbulent Sixties (thirty-nine minutes) and Zenger Media, P.O. Box 802, Culver City, Calif. 90232, offers Berkeley in the Sixties (117 minutes).

John F. Kennedy's presidential career is dramatically and effectively portrayed in JFK: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums (available through the National AudioVisual Center of the General Services Administration). Coronet/MTI offers Kennedy: Years of Charisma (twenty-four minutes) and Films for the Humanities and Sciences has John F. Kennedy (twenty-nine minutes). The whole Kennedy family is celebrated in PBS Video's The Kennedys (four hours), part of the American Experience series. Three other PBS videos consider various aspects of the Kennedy years: Robert F. Kennedy: The Man and the Memories (eighty-six minutes) and Bobby Kennedy: In His Own Words and JFK: In His Own Words (each fifty-eight minutes). President Kennedy's major foreign-policy crisis is described in The Missiles of October, a two-hour "docudrama" from ABC. One Week in October (thirty minutes) includes reconnaissance-plane footage of Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962 (twenty minutes), from Films for the Humanities and Sciences, has Cuban background as well. Also from Films for the Humanities and Sciences is From the Bay of Pigs to the Brink (sixteen minutes) and The JFK Tapes: Inside the Cuban Missile Crisis (twenty minutes), in which we hear the actual conversations of Kennedy, McNamara, Rusk, and the others. The PBS series, American Experience, offers a full hour on the subject, The Bay of Pigs, with film footage as well as interviews with combat veterans. President Kennedy's tragic end is depicted in Kennedy in Texas (1963), a thirty-minute videotape that contains a good deal of original footage. The question of Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? is considered for more than one hour in a video available from PBS. The question of Who Shot President Kennedy? is explored in a one-hour documentary by PBS made a quarter-century after the assassination. The evidence presented does not lead to any firm conclusion. But a feature film by Oliver Stone made three years later, JFK, challenges the answer provided by the Warren Commission. Students may find very instructive the reviews of the Stone film and a subsequent flurry of angry letters in the Journal of American History 79 (December 1992): 1262-1268 and Journal of American History 80 (June 1993): 363-367. The argument is far from settled.

Not surprisingly, materials dealing with the second reconstruction are both abundant and of excellent quality. Eyes on the Prize, an award-winning PBS series, is organized into six hour-long segments. Part 3, Ain't Scared of Your Jails (1960-1961), deals with sit-ins, freedom rides, and the creation of SNCC. Part 4, No Easy Walk (1962-1966), covers events in Albany, Georgia, and in Birmingham. Part 5, Mississippi: Is This America? (1962-1964), treats voting rights, Freedom Summer, and the challenge to the Democratic party. In Part 6, Bridge to Freedom (1965), the focus is on Selma and then on looking north. Films for the Humanities and Sciences offers The Fateful Decade: From Little Rock to the Civil Rights Bill (twenty-seven minutes); Saviors (forty-seven minutes), an exploration of the role of the federal government in enforcing civil rights; Lowndes County Freedom Party: The Rise of the Black Panthers (twenty-five minutes); Racial Integration: America's Long March (fifty-one minutes), telling the story from the Voting Rights Act to the 1990s; Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Legacy (eighty minutes); a forty-five-minute video of speeches by the two protagonists in Kennedy and King: Promises and Dreams; and an exploration of the deaths of three civil-rights workers in Murder in Mississippi (fifty-two minutes).

King: Montgomery to Memphis (103 minutes), available from Films, Inc., is a superb piece of work. Films for the Humanities and Sciences offers Martin Luther King, Jr.: Portrait of an American, a video biography of twenty-eight minutes intended for use with the January 15 holiday. It also offers two 15-minute biographies, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. PBS Video has Malcolm X: Make It Plain (2.5 hours), a documentary that presents its subject as earnest, rational, and committed. PBS also has A Day to Remember, August 28, 1963, a thirty-minute consideration of the March on Washington and the fifteen years that intervened between that event and the making of the documentary in 1978. It includes, as do many of the videotapes dealing with Dr. King, excerpts from the "I Have a Dream" speech. Films for the Humanities has a sixty-minute videotape, Mississippi Summer, that not only treats the events of 1964 but provides some background on the Brown case and Little Rock as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. PBS also offers Freedom on My Mind (two hours), about the 1964 Voter Registration Project, and Mississippi, America (one hour).

Other social problems of the 1960s are addressed in two Peter Davis documentary films, Hunger in America (1968) and Hearts and Minds (1974). The latter deals with the impact of the Vietnam War at home and abroad. PBS Video offers America's War on Poverty in five 60-minute episodes. The account begins with Johnson declaring "unconditional war on poverty" in 1964 and ends with the failure of a guaranteed income reform in the Nixon administration. A more extended examination of the career of the Great Society president is available from PBS in LBJ (four hours), covering Johnson's early year as a New Deal congressman through the difficult Vietnam War period. Films for the Humanities and Sciences also offers Lyndon Johnson's Great Society? (fifty-one minutes), Lyndon Johnson's War: Deceit and Demise of the "Great Society" (fifty-five minutes), and The LBJ Tapes (twenty minutes), containing off-the-record material and a commentary by Michael Bechloss, whose book on the tapes is cited in the chapter bibliography.

Issues involving Mexican-Americans are explored in PBS Video's The Fight in the Fields: César Chávez and the Farmworkers' Struggle (two hours) and in Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, focusing on land, labor, educational reform, and political empowerment in four one-hour segments.

A number of feature films are quite suitable for teaching about the 1960s, and some assistance may be obtained in Robert Brent Toplin, "Teaching the Sixties with Film," OAH Magazine of History. Two feature films from the 1950s contain elements that make them suitable for use in teaching about either decade. Salt of the Earth (1954), directed by Edward Dmytryk, is an unusual movie that treats a strike by Mexican-American zinc miners. When the men are enjoined from picketing, their wives take their places. The film celebrates the reality of Mexican-Americans in New Mexico and also takes a positive view of women's rights. In 1955 Mark Robson directed The Trial, about a Mexican-American youth unjustly charged with murder. The film rejects race and culture bias. Even the judge is African-American. Its anticommunist stance is shown by its portrayal of communists exploiting the case to serve their own ends. The theme of racial justice is more directly set out in Nothing But a Man (1964), starring Ivan Dixon and Abby Lincoln. Dixon is an African-American sawmill worker in the South seeking only to live with some dignity. The film shows how difficult that can be. Spike Lee's Malcolm X, released in 1992, shows its subject as one who grew and developed into one of the decade's most important leaders.
Document Set 3028-1

Critical Decisions: "Waist Deep in The Big Muddy"

1. President Kennedy's Analysis of Prospects for the Diem Regime, 1963
2. Roger Hilsman Recalls a Realistic Evaluation of the Situation in South Vietnam, 1963
3. Richard McNaughton's Assessment of Conditions in Vietnam, 1964
4. McGeorge Bundy Recommends "Sustained Reprisal," 1965
5. A Major Policy Review, 1965
6. George Ball's Dissenting Opinion, 1965
7. President Johnson's Defense of American Presence in Vietnam, 1965
8. A Cartoon Essay on the Johnson Escalation, 1965-1966For many Americans the Vietnam War was the central experience of the "turbulent sixties."1960s. While most students will have a vague awareness that an escalating war went badly in the late 1960s, their grasp of the war's origins will be less certain. Taking advantage of the text's strong coverage of American involvement in Vietnam under Kennedy and Johnson, this chapter focuses on the important period from 1963 to 1965, when the United States moved toward an irrevocable commitment. The documents are so arranged that students can use them to gain insight into the process by which the critical decision to escalate was made in 1965.In order to make optimum use of the documents, instructors may want to lecture on the first Indochina war and the policies of the Eisenhower Era. However, careful reading of text Chapters 30 and 31 will enable students to participate in this analytical exercise. Another option would be a classroom discussion stressing the background for escalation, with emphasis on the Diem regime.This topic lends itself to the use of role-playing as a learning device. Study groups or individuals could be assigned responsibility for researching the background, assumptions, and actions of key players such as McNamara, Bundy, Lodge, Wheeler, Ball, McNaughton, Hilsman, Rusk, and Johnson. With their knowledge of these details, students could assume the roles assigned them and proceed with a decision-making exercise, giving attention to plausible alternatives for the parties involved. During this discussion instructors may wish to introduce Ernest May's Lessons of the Past and Irving Janis's "groupthink" hypothesis (see "Recommended Readings") as students grapple with the decisions made by people of an earlier generation in another environment.As students evaluate the words and actions of President Johnson, it will also be possible to examine the problem of the imperial presidency. The documents are, by their nature, likely to raise the issue of expanding presidential power in the foreign-policy process. Instructors might also urge students to consider the importance of policy continuity for Johnson and his advisers, as revealed in the documentary evidence.Finally, instructors should be aware of the excellent visual resources available for an examination of the Vietnam experience. Portions of the PBS series on Vietnam and the government-produced Why Vietnam? (see "Audiovisual Resources"), if studied in comparison with the documentary evidence, provide excellent illustrations of film propaganda in the hands of government persuaders.In the final analysis, these documents will enable students to attack the difficult task of interpreting the Vietnam War. By exploring the nature of the war, flaws in American policy, and the decision-making process, they can begin an inquiry that will lead to a better understanding of the central issue of the 1960s.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 3028-1


Larry Berman. Planning a Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam (1982).

David L. DiLeo. George Ball, Vietnam, and the Rethinking of Containment (1991).

Lloyd Gardner. Pay Any Price: LBJ and the Wars for Vietnam (1995).

George C. Herring. LBJ and Vietnam: A Different Kind of War (1994).

Irving L. Janis. Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign Policy Decisions and Fiascoes (1972).

George McTurner Kahin. Intervention: How America Became Involved in Vietnam (1986).

Ernest May. Lessons of the Past: The Use and Misuse of History in American Foreign Policy (1973).

Deborah Shapley. Promise and Power: The Life and Times of Robert McNamara (1993).

Brian Van Der Mark. Into the Quagmire (1991).

Marilyn B. Young. The Vietnam Years, 1945-1990 (1991).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 3028-1


America's Mandarin, 1954-1963, Episode 3 in Vietnam: A Television History Series (videotape--58 min.). Films, Inc., 5547 N. Ravenswood Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 60640-1199.

LBJ, Part 2 (videotape--120 min.). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.

L.B.J. Goes to War, 1964-1965, Episode 4 in Vietnam: A Television History Series (videotape--58 min.). Films, Inc., 5547 N. Ravenswood Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 60640-1199.

Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War (especially Episode 3, Days of Decision) (videotape--60 min.). Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1500 Bronson Avenue, P.O. Box 8478, Ottawa, Canada K1G 3J5.

Why Vietnam? (videotape, film--25 min.). National Audio Visual Center, National Archives and Records Center, General Services Administration, Order Section JL, Washington, D.C. 20409.
Document Set 3028-2

Black Nationalism and Black Power: When The Singing Stopped

1. Malcolm X Demands Black Liberation, 1964
2. Stokely Carmichael's Assertion of Black Consciousness, 1966
3. Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton Define Black Power, 1967
4. The Black Panther Program, 1966
5. The Kerner Commission Report on the Causes of Civil Disorder, 1968
6. James Forman's Black Manifesto, 1969This chapter explores both continuities and contrasts between the early stages of the civil-rights movement and the turn toward black nationalism, black consciousness, and violence in the 1960s. Instructors might launch discussion with an inquiry into the contrast between nonviolent direct action and Black Power, asking students to compare the assumptions in this document set with those evident in Document Set 2927-1. This discussion could also examine the reasons why militants became disillusioned with the ideas and tactics of the early civil-rights movement.Introducing black nationalism with the topic of the Black Muslims, the instructor might encourage students to assess Malcolm X's reasoning as well as his influence on the development of Black Power theory. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X is best understood through exposure to his charismatic presence. Fortunately some of his recorded speeches are available for classroom use. Particularly effective in support of this unit is Ballots or Bullets, which includes the reactions of an enthusiastic audience. Following classroom use of this fifty-five-minute recording, students might compare the spoken work with the excerpt from Malcolm's writings in an effort to understand his appeal and popularity.Central to this chapter is the definition of Black Power. The Carmichael and Hamilton material should be especially helpful in student efforts to understand those controversial words. One approach is to engage students in comparative analysis of African-Americans and other ethnic groups that have employed group solidarity to maximize political influence and achieve their goals. While exploring the various uses of the term Black Power, it is also important to mine the documents for insight into the fears and insecurities of whites in the 1960s, including both the problem of white backlash and the confused responses of rejected white liberals.In this context it will be productive to examine words like revolution, reform, power, radical, and demand, as an exercise in rhetoric. Instructors seeking to emphasize communications skills might ask students to keep a notebook list of controversial terms and definitions that might be brought to class for a discussion of precision in rhetoric and the power of words as tools for communication, persuasion, or obfuscation. Reflecting on the text account of the 1960s and the documents, students could debate the proposition that meaningful reform was not possible in American society in the 1960s, given financial, social, economic, and political limitations.Students will note that the African-American self-consciousness of the 1960s was not an isolated phenomenon; rather, the text suggests linkage between African-American activism and a greater awareness among other outsider groups in this period of social change. Discussion of the Mexican-American, Asian, and feminist experiences will not only reveal relationships with the civil-rights movement but can also contribute to student awareness of the fragmentation of American society that was the product of the 1960s.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 3028-2


Stewart Burns. Social Movements of the 1960s (1990).

James Button. Political Impact of the 1960's Riots (1978).

Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton. Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America (1967).

Clayborn Carson. In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960's (1981).

Gerald Horne. Fire this Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s (1996).

Manning Marable. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction, 1945-1982 (1984).

August Meier and Elliot Rudwick, eds. Black Protest in the Sixties (1970).

Hugh Pearson. The Shadow of the Panther (1994).

Harvard Sitkoff. The Struggle for Black Equality (1981).

Robert Weisbrot. Freedom Bound: A History of the American Civil Rights Movement (1990).

Nathan Wright, Jr. Black Power and Urban Unrest (1967).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 3028-2


Ballots or Bullets (LP recording--55 min.). First Amendment Records, LP Farido.

Civil Disorder: The Kerner Report, esp. Parts 1, 2, 3 (videotape--80 min. total). Indiana University Audiovisual Center, Bloomington, Ind. 47405-5901.

Eyes on the Prize Series, Part 2 (videotapes--60 min. each). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.

Making Sense of the Sixties Series (videotapes--60 min. each). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.

Malcolm X--Make It Plain. From The American Experience Series (videotape--120 min.). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.

A Tribute to Malcolm X (videotape--15 min.). Indiana University Audio-visual Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. 47405-5901.
Document Set 3028-3

Huelga: Religion, Nonviolence and The Rise of UFW

1. Picket Captain Eugene Nelson Describes the Origins of the Delano Strike, 1965
2. Jessie Lopez de la Cruz Offers a Woman's Perspective on La Causa, 1962-1970
3. César Chávez Consolidates His Alliance with the Churches, 1968
4. Chávez Defines the Character of the Movement, 1969
5. A Symbol of Hope for California's Rural Underclass, ca. 1960sAlthough the predominant reform movement of the 1960s was the black struggle for social equality, the period witnessed a variety of "freedom movements" dedicated to securing the rights of other groups in the United States. Among the most significant of these was the Mexican-American drive for equality that developed as Chicanos and Chicanas rallied to the side of César Chávez, the popular leader of West Coast farmworkers. These documents will help students to see the relationships among these movements.A natural stimulus to discussion would be an examination of the influence of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the nonviolent civil-rights movement on Chávez and the workers inspired by his leadership. Instructors might ask students to search the documents for evidence of linkage between la causa and the civil-rights activity of the early 1960s. The discussion could easily expand into a fruitful comparison of the two movements.Another approach would be a comparative exercise in which students focus on the connection between the industrial unionism of the 1930s and the use of a labor union model in the fields of California in the 1960s. Students could mine the documents for clues to the role of unions and union leaders in the struggle to create an agricultural unionism in what proved to be a hostile environment. This analytical exercise could incorporate debate over the motives of AFL-CIO and Teamster leaders in entering the California contest.This analysis could lead into a wider exploration of the term social movement. Ask students to define the characteristics of such movements, as opposed to those of more traditional campaigns to organize workers. Lists of the definitive characteristics of broader movements could be used as a springboard for student debate over the nature of the farm workers' struggle (see Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, Poor People's Movements).While identifying the unique aspects of la causa, students will have an unparalleled opportunity to consider the impact of religion and moral imperatives on the course of economic and social progress. This relationship cannot be separated from an examination of the charismatic presence of César Chávez, whose asceticism and sacrifice inspired intense loyalty among his followers. Students should be asked to consider the ways in which religion has made a difference to people in the freedom movements.Finally, these documents will permit instructors to explore gender roles in traditional Hispanic culture with an eye to its impact on the division of labor among organizers of farm workers in California. Students could carefully examine Jessie de la Cruz's account of her role in both worker and community organizing. A searching discussion might result from student inquiry into the personal transformation that occurred in de la Cruz's life. In turn, this activity could easily return a class to the more comprehensive issue of the psychology and impact social movement.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 3028-3


Rodolfo Acuna. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (3d ed.; 1988).

Cletus E. Daniel. Bitter Harvest: A History of California Farmworkers (1981).

------. "César Chávez," in Melvyn Dubofsky and Warren Van Time, eds., Labor Leaders in America (1987), pp. 350-382.

Mario T. Garciá. Mexican-Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity (1989).

Juan Gomez-Quiñones. Chicano Politics (1990).

Jacques Levy. César Chávez: Autobiography of La Causa (1975).

Joan London and Henry Anderson. So Shall Ye Reap: The Story of César Chávez and the Farm Labor Movement (1970).

Dick Meister and Ann Loftis. A Long Time Coming: The Struggle to Unionize America's Farm Workers (1977).

Carlos Muñoz, Jr. Youth, Identity, and Power: The Chicano Movement (1989).

Ronald B. Taylor. Chávez and the Farm Workers (1977).

Jean Maddern Pitrone. Chávez: Man of the Migrants (1972).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 3028-3


Decision at Delano (film--26 min.). United Auto Workers Education Department, Film Library, 8000 E. Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, Mich. 48214.

Farmworkers Diary (videotape--10 min.). University of California Extension, Center for Media and Independent Learning, 2176 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, Calif. 94704.

The Golden Cage: A Story of California's Farmworkers (videotape--29 min.). Reference and Loan Library, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 125 South Webster Street, Madison, Wis. 53702.

Huelga (film--53 min.). AFL-CIO Department of Education--Film Division, 815 16th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20006.