- Between 1960-1975
- An era of dramatic social upheaval; costly military engagement abroad
- Northerners challenged the (Deep) South's system of racial segregation
- Conflict in Southwest Asia was known as the Vietnam War (the Second Indochina War)
- Vietnam War was a battle between the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam; American client state) and Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam; Soviet support stat; leader - Ho Chi Minh)
- American White House and Pentagon, military mission to contain the spread of communism in Southeast Asia
- (1975) United States troops withdrew from Vietnam
- (Americans) more than 57,000 killed; more than 300,000 casualties
- Slain inspirational leaders: John F. Kennedy (1963), Malcolm X (1965), Martin Luther King Jr. (1968), Robert Kennedy (1968)
- Civil Rights and Black Power movements
- Discovered from energetic idealism and communal hopefulness to sullen and at times dictatorial cynicism
- Sit-in movement; Four black college students - Joseph McNeill, Ezell Blair, Franklin McCain, and David Richardson
- African American freedom struggle, encountered violent setbacks and bitter fustration
- 1946 & 1968 Ciivl Rights Act; 1965 Voting Rights Act
- The Untied States government constantly refused to enforce the laws
- New pronouncements, publications, programs and institutional leadership of the Nation of Islam, popularly known as the Black Muslims
- Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Student Nonviolent CoOrdinating Committee (SNCC), Black Panthers, Student for a Democratic Society (SDS), National Organization for Women (NOW)
- African American writers and artists collaborated with the masses for their inspiration and support
- Definded their goals in broadly collective political and social terms
- Poetry was creative, experimental, distinguished and accomplished works of black artists
A Poem for Black Hearts
![Picture](/uploads/2/0/3/4/20345609/2219486.jpeg)
For Malcolm's eyes, when they broke
the face of some dumb white man, For
Malcolm's hands raised to bless us
all black and strong in his image
of ourselves, For Malcolm's words
fire darts, the victor's tireless
thrusts, words hung above the world
change as it may, he said it, and
for this he was killed, for saying,
and feeling, and being ///change, all
collected hot in his heart, For Malcolm's
heart, raising us above our filthy cities,
for his stride, and his beat, and his address
to the grey monsters of the world, For Malcolm's
pleas for your dignity, black men, for your life,
black man, for the filling of your minds
with righteousness, For all of him dead and
gone and vanished from us, and all of him which
clings to our speech black god of our time.
For all of him, and all of yourself, look up,
black man, quit whining and stooping, for all of him,
For Great Malcolm a prince of the earth, let nothing in us rest
until we avenge ourselves for his death, stupid animals
that killed him, let us never breathe a pure breath if
we fail, and white men call us faggots till the end of
the earth.
the face of some dumb white man, For
Malcolm's hands raised to bless us
all black and strong in his image
of ourselves, For Malcolm's words
fire darts, the victor's tireless
thrusts, words hung above the world
change as it may, he said it, and
for this he was killed, for saying,
and feeling, and being ///change, all
collected hot in his heart, For Malcolm's
heart, raising us above our filthy cities,
for his stride, and his beat, and his address
to the grey monsters of the world, For Malcolm's
pleas for your dignity, black men, for your life,
black man, for the filling of your minds
with righteousness, For all of him dead and
gone and vanished from us, and all of him which
clings to our speech black god of our time.
For all of him, and all of yourself, look up,
black man, quit whining and stooping, for all of him,
For Great Malcolm a prince of the earth, let nothing in us rest
until we avenge ourselves for his death, stupid animals
that killed him, let us never breathe a pure breath if
we fail, and white men call us faggots till the end of
the earth.