Documents from Reading the American Past

Chapter 28

Introduction to the Documents

During the 1960s, many Americans sought to make changes that many other Americans resisted. To those who wanted change, the times seemed right and the causes just. Presidents sympathetic to change occupied the Oval Office for most of the period. Civil rights demonstrators confronted Jim Crow laws, black power advocates called for racial pride and revolution, and women's rights leaders outlined proposals for gender equality over the course of the decade. The possibilities for change seemed extraordinary. The widespread sense that the American dream could be more fully realized, as well as the lingering obstacles to achieving that goal, are revealed in the following documents.