Hippies and Black Panthers

After the Cold War, The United States had come under an economic, social, and political consensus. This consensus was shaped due to fear of Communism and as a result any outlying opinion was often regarded as being disloyal to the country or being of communist opinion. This is often remembered as the Red Scare and led to an atmosphere of conformity, in addition to the post war economic boom that led to a rise of suburban living, mass consumption and materialism. This atmosphere led middle-class Americans to celebrate traditional roles and values they saw on TV, with Women often being confined to home spaces and family life. Additionally, threats like nuclear war loomed over the minds of civilians living in the late 1940s to 1950s.

While the post war consensus of the late 1950s emphasized conformity, materialism, and traditional family values, creating what critics called a “plastic” society (Bach, 9). The 1960s are often remembered as a time of “movement of movements” that emerged with a wave of groups challenging the status quo and in pursuit of freedom and justice. From the civil rights to the counterculture movement, these groups fought to redefine what freedom meant in their ever changing world. Hippies placed value in personal identity and detached themselves from set social norms and structures, while groups like the Black Panthers fought for systematic change and racial liberation. Hippies rejected post war conformity, materialism, and traditional values in favor of individuality and spirituality, while the Black Panthers sought freedom through militant based community organization against oppression (Bloom, 125). Although both groups fought for change and freedom, their approaches and definitions of freedom were very different.

In addition to the postwar influence, the Beats generations paved the way for the Hippies who shared their rejection of societal norms, though the Hippies approach often avoided direct political action. As Bach interprets it, the emergence of Hippies was deeply influenced by those who came before them, writing, “Indeed, without pioneers to point the way, hippies might never have emerged to fascinate and outrage America.” (Bach, 14). He also adds that “disaffected youth” needed catalysts to galvanize their movement and points towards figures such as the Beatles and Bob Dylan (Bach, 14). Songs like Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the wind” and Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” mirrored the Hippies outlook against materialism, conformity and war, while also showing their ideals of liberation, peace, and love. Bob Dylan’s lyrics captured these ideals of conformity and war, while Jefferson Airplane’s lyrics captured the counterculture’s embrace of higher states of consciousness and the role of psychedelic drugs, such as LSD. As stated by Bach, “LSD, it is argued, was the crucial element that facilitated a transformation from Beat to hip.” (Bach, 14).

The use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD became a very defining feature of the Hippie movement and further pushed their rejection of societal norms and their pursuit for freedom. As seen in the Acid Test by Donovan Bess he believed exploring your inner self was as revolutionary as exploring outer space (Bloom, 270). He also believed the reason young people at the time were using LSD was because they were fed up with being “latent human beings” imposed on them by “ersatz education, electronic conditioning, and living in families led by synthetic productions labeled ‘mother’ and ‘father.’” (Bloom, 271). Freedom to the hippies meant to alienate themselves from society and societal structures put in place, with LSD being just one of the ways they achieved freedom.

Bach quotes Robert Nisbet who defines alienation as, “the state of mind that can find a social order remote, incomprehensible, or fraudulent; beyond real hope or desire; inviting apathy, boredom, or even hostility. The individual not only does not feel a part of the social order; he has lost interest in being a part of it.” (Bach, 14). Hippies, or better put people of all ages wanted something different, they were “bored” and wanted to get out of their daily routines. They had a desire for something more, they believed there was something more to life than these societal structures and norms put in place. They wanted to find themselves and live in the moment, wanting to feel and be human, as we can see in “The Human Be-In” essay by Helen Swick Perry.

In her essay, Helen Swick Perry, talks about a famous gathering in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park that was scheduled as an all day affair. She explains on her way the people she was passing, who had been there and were making their way home, “all seemed enchanted, happy, and smiled like a welcoming committee” (Bloom, 282). She tells of people sitting on the grass field, kids running around, hearing bands and poetry, without it being planned. There were hundreds of people and she describes the experience as, “a religious rite in which nothing particular happened. And yet it was a day that marked for me at least the end of something and the beginning of something else. There was clearly a renewal of the spirit of man, unplanned, non-political.” (Bloom, 283). Her experience, along with the hundreds there, mirrors the Hippies desire for detachment from societal structure and social norms; being in the moment and feeling human.

Many people can’t understand why Hippies choose to drop out of society, or as Guy Strait puts it, “Many people cannot understand the hippies’ rejection of everything that is commonly expected of the individual in regard to employment and life goals: steady lucrative employment, and the accumulation through the years of possessions and money, building (always building) security for the future.” (Bloom, 280). In his essay, “What is a Hippie?”, He attempts to define what “true” hippies were and how they looked for freedom in abandoning the traditional world. He explains that society’s obsessions with money and materialism is what drives the youth away and gives the example of parents slaving away years of their life to make sure their houses are paid off. Parents then send their kids to go through school in order to get “good” jobs so that they can repeat the same process (Bloom, 280). He states that, “We have been brainwashed by the advertising industry into being the most dissatisfied people in the world. We are told we must all be handsome or beautiful, sexually devastating, and owners of a staggering amount of recreational gadgetry or doomed to frustration.” (Bloom, 281). He gives these reasons as to why Hippies drop out and seek inner freedom, rather than stay in a culture where “machine is god”. Hippies chose to escape a culture/society that prioritizes materialism and money over inner fulfillment and individuality.

While Hippies fought for freedom through individuality and detachment from societal norms/structures, the Black Panthers fought for freedom through militant based community organization against oppression. Unlike Hippies who decided to detach themselves from society, the Black Panthers were fighting for racial liberation and equality in society through aggressive and political action. They weren’t trying to escape society but rather change it to one where Black Americans could be treated equally. Unlike Hippies who took influence from the Beats but often avoided political action, the Black Panthers took influence from their Black counterpart political organized party; SNCC. The Black Panther Party was formed in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, and they were trying to address issues in the northern ghettos with their platform, “What We Want, What We Believe,”.

The Black Panther Party platform, “What We Want, What We Believe,” addressed multiple demands against the problems of northern Black life. In it they address their demand for freedom stating, “We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.” (Bloom, 143). They wanted to be in control of their communities and future believing that it was one of the ways to be in control of their freedom. As a result of white landlords giving indecent housing to Black Americans, they believed the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that their communities could build decent housing for its people (Bloom, 143). They also took an aggressive stand against the injustices faced during slavery, stating, “We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules was promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities.” (Bloom, 143). That wanted retribution for the injustices faced, they didn’t sit around like hippies, they demanded to be heard and took action to fight for these rights.

The Black Panther Party also called out police brutality and murder in Black communities. They believed they had the right to organize Black self defense groups to defend Black communities against racist police brutality and oppression. They called for the Second Amendment which gives a right to bear arms and therefore believed Black people should be able to arm themselves for self defense (Bloom, 144). The Black Panther Party also addressed war in their platform, stating “We want all black men to be exempt from military service” (Bloom, 144). They believed Black people shouldn’t be forced to fight for a racist government that oppresses them. They did not want to support a racist government that already suppressed them, and nevertheless fight other people of color who like them were being victimized by the American government (Bloom, 144).

Overall, both Hippies and The Black Panther Party were groups that emerged in the 1960s that were challenging the status quo and in pursuit of freedom and justice. These groups were both combating society’s norms and structures at the same time. They were both fighting for freedom although in very different ways. Hippies wanted to detach themselves from society and its norms because they wanted to find themselves in a new way of being. While The Black Panther Party wanted to change societal structures and norms so that Black people would no longer be oppressed and face inequality. Although both groups fought for change and freedom, their approaches and definitions of freedom were very different.