Essay

People learn lessons every day. In the 1960s many events took place that people who lived through them should have and did take a few very important lessons with them. With events like civil rights, Nixon's presidential election, and environmental movements, there were techniques and things that went well, but also some things that went wrong. After learning lessons through these events, America, American's, and American leaders turned out for the better and made history what it is today. 

The civil rights movement was a very large, influential part of the 1960s. African-American, women, men without property, and other minorities did not always have full rights in the United States. Especially black Americans did not get treated the way, today, the Constitution demands. Americans did not realize that we were one country and need to sit together. Instead, they picked on the minorities and tore them down to a point where they felt like they didn't belong, nor deserve to live there. There were two main movements that led to white, privileged Americans learning that everyone was equal and there is no reason to treat people of your own country so poorly. The Montgomery bus boycott was a movement that was very influential in the black community and their freedom. For a black person to defy a white person was unheard of in the United States during this time. Standing up for what she knew was right, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to the white person who wanted it. After this, Rosa Parks went to jail, and in response to this, the Black community boycotted all city buses because they did not agree with the policy. This made a statement, at which shortly after, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote and presented in a inspirational, moving, and convincing speech on how black Americans, along with other minorities, deserve and will receive the same rights as the rest of Americans. Americans responded well to all of this and eventually granted the minorities the freedoms they deserved. Americans learned through all of this that when America is united as one, they are unstoppable and stronger than ever.

Before Nixon was elected,  he made sure that the people knew he was on their side and it was his goal to make things better. Nixon did some great things as president, like ending the was in Vietnam and making the relationship with the U.S.S.R. and China much better, but there was also scandal and loss of trust in the Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal came from a break-in at the office of Democratic National Committee during the 1972 campaign. There were tapes of Nixon talking to his re-elect committee telling them to spy and then there were also recordings of him trying to plan to get out of the scandal and make sure the people believed him. The people wanted to believe Nixon, and at first they did. When the people found out that Nixon had lied to them it made it very hard for them to ever believe him again. He was so embarrassed by the scandal and knew that he betrayed his people, so he decided to resign. The people learned that they really need to be careful where they place their trust in their leaders and how to pick the right one to watch over and protect their country. The American leaders learned that they cannot lie to the American people because it will never turn out in their favor. It is best to just be straight up with the people so that they can know what is going on and be a part of fixing it. It is not worth it to lie and get caught then lose the trust of all the American people. 

During the 1960s, the people living in America did not know how bad they were hurting the environment. There was something that happened called the Love Canal that brought people to realize just how bad they were hurting the earth and how they wanted to put a stop to all the madness. There were toxins and substances in this “Love Canal” that eventually came back to haunt the people and that is what woke them up. There were sicknesses being spread constantly and people of all ages were getting them and they didn’t know why. Louis Gibbs was a mother determined to find out what was wrong and why everyone was getting sick and eventually she did. She made sure Congress knew about it and made sure all the families were safely moved to a better area. Rachel Carson wrote a book about how if we don’t start to save our environment now, we will have no more life on Earth. Congress passed both The Clean Water Act and The Clean Air Act to make sure the Earth stays like this for good and for a long time. This helped the people to learn that if they want a nice clean Earth, they will have to start with themselves and take action in keeping it clean.

Americans learned lessons that they could not live without, unless they wanted a dirty, unhealthy Earth. If we didn’t learn these lessons early in life, our Earth and history of our country would not be the same. We could still be in war. Our government could be corrupted. We could be living in a mess. But the lessons we learned helped prevent all of this.  Today’s world was benefitted by all the lessons learned in the 60s. The 1960s were crucial in what today’s history is and without it, nothing would be the same.