Upbeat Music im told im a Baby Boomer. Okay, boomer. Upbeat Music i am a very proud Baby Boomer. I am 61 years of age so, wikipedia would tell you im a Baby Boomer. That means absolutely nothing to me. Im here and one day ill be dead, and thats it. dramatic Music Engine humming Children Screaming one way or the other, whether you wanted to be a hippie and be heard, or whether you were conservative or rotc or whatever it was, our generation demanded to be heard. People Shouting dramatic music we felt that our time had come and that it was time to act. Well, the kids of the 60s brought about the notion that maybe your parents arent always right. They were seeking something different from what their parents had. These sort of stayed safe lives. People just wanted more. Group Shouting if you like natural childbirth, thank a hippie. If you like organic food, thank a hippie. If you like eastern religions, thank a hippie. I mean, were all over the place. dramatic music Mellow Music [narrator] Baby Boomers, the 76 Million children born between 1946 and 1964. Mellow Music we were for most of our lives the biggest generation in american history. Our parents fought in World War ii and korea, then came home to start families, buy cars, move to the suburbs, what you think of when you hear The American dream. That was The American reality for millions of boomers, at least if you were white. Boomers are famous for changing the world, finding their voice, protesting the Vietnam War. A lot of people think we were just a bunch of idealistic hippies, you know, Peace And Love, rock and roll. Kids who moved out west to tune in, Turn On, drop out. Its true, some of us were like that, but a lot more were conservative. Like many of the 6 Million men who volunteered for vietnam. Plane Engines Thundering however long our hair was, we all lived through the same traumas. The assassinations of our most beloved icons, race riots, the Vietnam War, the threat of nuclear war. It wasnt all bad. We saw a man walk on the moon. We witnessed historic achievements in civil rights, womens rights, gay rights, and The Movies We Watched and the music we played were as good as it gets. Crowd Cheering we came of age in a Technicolor World where our fingers did the walking, where for the first time dinner was served on a tray and where tv went off the air at The End of the Night Closing with the national anthem. instrumental national Anthem Static Noise if you lived through all of this, settle in and relive it. If you didnt, watch and learn. dramatic music [reporter] Senator John Kennedy of massachusetts, democrat, throws his hat in the president ial ring. [john f. Kennedy] i am today announcing my candidacy for the presidency of the united states. I was too young to vote. My mother, on the other hand, never said that she voted for kennedy, but we all knew that she did. He certainly had an allure for women and there was a phenomenon in that campaign that was remarked upon the hoppers. When the motorcade would go past the women would kind of give a little hop. And you see its actually detectable. There is even some nuns that were hopping. [narrator] it was hard to miss the distinction between the outgoing president , the Grandfatherly General dwight d. Eisenhower and handsome young democratic senator. Kennedy taps into this sense, or he marshals the idea that great days are ahead for the united states. I believe in 1960 and 61 and two and three we have a rendezvous with destiny and i believe It Incumbent upon us to be the defenders of the united states and the defenders of freedom, and to do that we must give this Country Leadership and we must get america moving again. [narrator]] Kennedys Opponent was eisenhowers Vice President , Richard Nixon. Kennedy was clearly the more camera ready candidate. You know, nixon had that five Oclock Shadow Thing going on. He looked like a Dick Tracy bad guy. He seemed like he was right one second before the sweat was gonna break out. I mean, nixon was only a few years older than kennedy but he looked like a man of the fifties. Kennedy was sleek and elegant and handsome and sexy and he radiated a kind of youthful energy. [woman] i cant wash my Hand Crowd murmuring he was beautiful. His wife was beautiful, elegant. All of that had an effect on me. But equally important was that he was a leader of the free world and he was going to save humanity from communism. He had the grin, he had the rap, he had the girls. chuckles more than we knew. The Nbc Victory Desk has just given California To Kennedy and that gives him the election. My congratulations to Senator Kennedy for his fine race in this campaign and to All Of You. Crowd Shouting i am sure his supporters are just as enthusiastic as you are for me, and i thank you for that. Nixon was a man of burning resentments and he almost immediately decided that hed been, you know, cheated out of a victory that belonged to him. It defined the entire course of his future career trying to repair this psychological wound. [narrator] even though john f. Kennedy was a member of the generation who fought World War ii, for Baby Boomers he was our president. [man] the whole world was governed by people who had been born in the 19th Century and you know, kennedy was new. He was a part of the the younger crowd that was ready to take over. [narrator] but the younger crowd inherited an old problem. dramatic music the looming threat of russia and its nuclear arsenal tainted almost every aspect of american life. Bombs Exploding [singer] he knew just what to do explosion Hes Duck and cover what you see in those Government Educational Films that you laugh at as a parody. We did for real. I remember the Duck And Cover drill very well, and one of the things i remember is we had desks where the chairs didnt move, so you had to roll off to the side and then roll under your desk. You couldnt pull your chair out. Its a good thing we all had small tushies at the time. [film narrator] older people will help us, as they always do but there might not be any grownups around when the bomb explodes. Then youre on your own. Remember what to do, friends . Now tell me right out loud what are you supposed to do when you see the flash . [kids shout] Duck And Cover my mother was concerned enough about atomic war that she put a Bomb Shelter in our backyard but thats how paranoid some people were. Especially my mother. [narrator] in october, 1962, all those fears became real when we learned that russia had secretly put nukes in cuba. We suspected they were aimed at us. Good evening, my fellow citizens. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of Offensive Missile Sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other then to provide a nuclear Strike Capability against the western hemisphere. Cuban Missile Crisis was like the first Trauma Highlight of my life that burns into my brain. I mean i remember everything about it. My ninth period was Algebra Class and we had this really wiry, snide, funny teacher, and he said, well, class well see you monday. If there is a monday. I was born in cuba in 1952. Here, people were terrified about the cuban Missile Crisis, thinking that armageddon, the apocalypse was just about to come and where the apocalypse was supposed to be taking place . Cuba, the island of cuba. I didnt even know that that was happening. Had war occurred in october of 1962, i think its safe to say that A Hundred Million americans could have died. Its almost hard to imagine what could have occurred. And of course we now know that we came very close. [narrator] at the last moment, russia offered a compromise. Remove american missiles from turkey and well remove soviet missiles from cuba. Kennedy took the deal, the world exhaled. The soviet missile bases in cuba are being dismantled. Their missiles and related equipment are being crated. Yeah, there was a huge collective sigh of relief. It was on sunday. People went to church and there was a lot of prayers were said that sunday. [narrator] but the Cold War didnt end. It just moved elsewhere. On kennedys watch, the conflict that would decimate Vietnam And Divide america was just beginning to heat up. As was the fight for the very soul of our nation. Crowd Yelling and screaming limu emu doug woah, limu were in a parade. Everyone customize and save hundreds on Car Insurance with liberty mutual. Customize and sa Balloon Doug pops deflates and then i wake up. And you have this dream every night . Yeah, every night hmm. I see. Limu Squawks only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Only pay for what you need. mellow Music Singing and clapping Mellow MusicGrowing Up in the jim crow south, i tell people we knew our limitations. We knew that you had whites only Drinking Fountains and whites only restrooms. Crowd Commotion we went to a Movie Theater. You had to go upstairs, you know, Color Water fountains. We learned how to read, know the word colored and know the word white. chuckles it was a way of life. So as a kid, thats my lane. My mother never explained to us what was going on why we had to do that, but she just prevented us from having any water. You know, you might be in a black town and be a black undertaker, you might be a minister, but there are very few things you could do. My father wanted to be a writer. That was not gonna happen. And then you know, people were beaten. People were killed. People were destroyed. [narrator] in 1963, Black Americans faced systematic oppression and violent retribution if they dared fight for equality. The civil Rights Act was stalled in congress. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Had a plan. [Martin LutherKing Jr. ] there is too much greatness in our heritage to tolerate the pettiness of race hate. Negros have declared they will die if need be for these freedoms. Phone Rings [narrator] his idea, march on washington, may i help you please. [narrator] organize the largest protest in the history of the civil Rights Movement in the shadow of the capitol. Singing And Clapping the president didnt want him to have the march. They tried everything possible to talk Em Out Of It because they said we are gonna have people dead in the streets. Chaos, were gonna have the place would be torn up. They predicted the ugliest picture would take place if they proceeded with the march. [narrator] but king would not be dissuaded. The march would go on as planned. [organizer] we are requesting all citizens to move into washington. This is an urgent request. Please join. Go to washington. [narrator] the quarter million demonstrators from across the country gathered in the Nations Capitol and there was no chaos. dramatic music in 1963, i was a kid in New York about to graduate from High School. Id grown up in a family that had been very involved with Social Justice movements, voting rights, equal rights in the city. It simply made sense when our church organized a bus to go to the march on washington, that we would load up into the bus first thing in the morning, head Down To Washington and be part of that major demonstration. [woman] mary. Theres mary. Group Chatting i thought the time had come. I was very proud to be a part of it. I think i had been arrested 14 times and beaten up a couple of times, but it didnt frighten me. I was determined. [narrator] one of the things that made the march so memorable was the music. Bob Dylan Singing only a pawn in their game. Hes only a pawn in their Game Mahalia JacksonSinging And Mahalia jackson, the queen of gospel, inspiring the most iconic moment of the march. clapping after her performance, dr. King took the stage. He began to read his prepared speech which originally did not include the words i have a dream. Martin had not planned to include it for the march on washington. When he went to the platform, Mahalia Jackson said, martin tell him about, i have a dream. So she was whispering, but loudly and he heard her so he added it, and thats the truth. I have a dream. My four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. Crowd Clapping Nobody will remember anything else he said but i have a dream. Inspirational Music his words were not only eloquent and inspired, they were words that were really a Call To Action and i think All Of Us who were there left washington that day, with a sense that what we had to do next was return to our local communities and spread the word, and become involved in activist activities that would address issues of racial injustice in the country. Free at last. Free at last. Thank god almighty, we are Free At Last upbeat Motown Music i mean, there was a soundtrack to the civil rights and a large part of it was motown. I mean, you can just go to dancing in the streets off the rip, like just go there. Like the way they were shouting out cities, upbeat Motown Music especially the cities where there was all of this civil unrest. The way the motown stars were showing up at civil rights protests. Those marches had a soundtrack man, and it was motown. A lot of times. [narrator] in its first 10 years, the label produced more than A Hundred top 10 hits. What made motown not just popular, but epic was how it affected audiences. Theres all these documented stories, especially down south shows would have a rope in the middle and the white kids are on one side, and the Black Kids on the other. It wasnt until the real sixties that you begin seeing those doors break, and so that people are sitting in the crowds together at shows. [narrator] at a time of tremendous racial strife. Motown broke down barriers the way only a perfect Pop Song can. singing uplifting music uplifting music [reporter] it appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route. Something i repeat, has happened in the motorcade route. Theres numerous people running up the hill. We understand there is been a shooting. The president ial car coming up now. We know its the president ial car. Y