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It was the year the Beatles came to America, Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali, and three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi. It was the year when students at UC Berkeley rose up in protest, African Americans fought back against injustice in Harlem, and a conservative revolution took place in the Republican Party. In myriad ways, 1964 was the year when Americans faced important choices: between the liberalism of Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) or Barry Goldwater’s grassroots conservatism, between support of or opposition to the civil rights movement, between an embrace of the emerging counterculture or a defense of “traditional” values.

On the political front, seismic change could also be felt. At his commencement address at the University of Michigan, LBJ called upon the graduates to help him build a “Great Society” and used his legendary powers of persuasion to engineer the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. But even with such a historic federal commitment to advance the cause of equality, racial unrest, in both the rural South and the cities of the North, would continue to fester and eventually explode.

During the summer of 1964, Martha Reeves’s hit song “Dancing in the Street” became an unexpected anthem for a nation in the midst of radical social change. In June, nearly 300 students and veteran civil rights activists joined together to launch Freedom Summer, a nonviolent campaign to challenge Mississippi’s voter registration laws. On June 21, three of the young activists—two whites from the North and a local black volunteer—went missing. While the search for Andrew Goodman, James Cheney, and Michael Schwerner continued for six weeks, the killing of a black youth by a white police officer in Harlem triggered civil unrest and looting that shocked the nation. The violence by whites that had characterized race relations in the South was now being expressed by the black community, angry and impatient with the slow pace of civil rights reform.

On August 4, 1964, the bodies of the three Freedom Summer volunteers were finally found. As classes began on the campus at UC Berkeley in the fall, hundreds of young people, including many Freedom Summer veterans, started to demonstrate on campus for racial justice in the Bay Area. When the university administration tried to crack down on the students, the Free Speech Movement was born. The Berkeley protests were a spontaneous expression by a generation of affluent young men and women who, for the first time, began to flex their political muscle and demand a seat at the table. Their nonviolent, highly organized, grassroots style of protest would become the model for student protest and student activism that would reverberate throughout the decade.

In November, Johnson was elected president by a landslide. But his fight for civil rights in the South transformed the previously Democratic region into a formidable bloc for the emerging Republican right. In the years to follow, LBJ’s dream of a Great Society would be shattered by the long and divisive war in Vietnam. Out of the ashes of Goldwater’s defeat, conservative young Republicans regrouped, determined to claim the White House.

Even as the idealism and enthusiasm of 1964 were reshaped by subsequent events and personalities, the nation could never go back. This pivotal year heralded a tumultuous change in every aspect of American life—a transformation that would spread throughout the world.

The year 1964 was a pivotal one in American history. As Americans emerged from the trauma of President’s Kennedy assassination, the status quo seemed to be shifting on every front: social, political, and cultural. This video is part of a series of media resources from American Experience: “1964.” Use it on its own or in conjunction with others from “1964” on PBS LearningMedia (see "You Might Also Like") to begin a study of the 1960s or to focus on a specific trend or issue.  For further information, see Related Books and Websites.

• Republicans had dominated American presidential politics between 1860 and 1932, but between 1932 and 1968, only one Republican—Dwight Eisenhower—had won the White House. Have students trace the rise and fall (and resurgence) of the Republican Party after the Civil War and how shifts in demographics and ideology led to the birth of the “modern” conservative movement.
• Historian Lee Edwards describes the tenets of conservatism in the video as limited government, individual freedom, free enterprise, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. He also says that these conservative ideas were “American” ideas. Have students debate what Edwards means by that statement. What are American ideas? What are “traditional” American values? Have students work in small groups to come up with their own definition of American ideas and values and present them to the class. What political label would they use?
• In the video, conservative leader Phyllis Schlafly describes Barry Goldwater as an “authentic” candidate, a “real conservative … who would stand up for real American conservative principles.” Why was Goldwater so attractive as a candidate to young conservatives in 1964? How did his opponents view him?
• Have students investigate Schlafly’s claim that previous Republican candidates had been “me, too” Republicans. Was this accurate?
• In 1960, at the inaugural meeting of the Young Americans for Freedom, the “Sharon Statement” was issued. Have students research the statement and explore its impact then and now.
• Even though Barry Goldwater lost in a landslide, he is considered an important political figure. Have students trace the rise of the modern conservative movement and Goldwater’s place in it.