America 250 · 1960–1968
The Sixties & Civil Rights
Eight years that broke the postwar consensus and remade American culture.
From Greensboro through the Tet Offensive — the sit-ins, the March on Washington, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Voting Rights Act, the Great Society, Vietnam escalation, the King and Kennedy assassinations. The decade everyone has an opinion about.
Presidents who served
Histories
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63
Taylor Branch · 1988
Pulitzer winner. Volume one of the trilogy — the civil-rights movement seen through MLK's first decade in public life.
The Best and the Brightest
David Halberstam · 1972
How the Kennedy and Johnson Cabinets — the smartest men in any room — talked themselves into Vietnam.
Lives
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Robert A. Caro · 2002
Pulitzer winner. The third volume of Caro's LBJ — and the best one — covers his Senate years that produced the 1957 Civil Rights Act.
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
Robert Dallek · 2003
Post-Camelot, post-revelations — the best balanced full life of JFK.
In their own words
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X · 1965
As told to Alex Haley. Published the year of Malcolm X's assassination — the other arc of the era's Black politics.
Fiction
Libra
Don DeLillo · 1988
DeLillo's reconstruction of Lee Harvey Oswald — the JFK assassination as American fiction.
On screen
Selma
Ava DuVernay · 2014
The 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery — David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as LBJ.
All the Way
Jay Roach · 2016
HBO film — Bryan Cranston as LBJ in the first year after the assassination through the 1964 election.
Common questions
What is the best book to start learning about The Sixties & Civil Rights?
Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 is an essential starting point. It provides a comprehensive look at the early civil rights movement, covering the sit-ins and the March on Washington, which were pivotal events that helped break the postwar consensus during this era.
Which U.S. presidents served during The Sixties & Civil Rights era?
The era between 1960 and 1968 saw two U.S. presidents in office. John F. Kennedy served during the early part of the decade, followed by Lyndon B. Johnson, whose administration oversaw major legislative achievements like the Voting Rights Act and the escalation of the war in Vietnam.
How does the film Selma represent The Sixties & Civil Rights?
Selma (2014) serves as a key screen treatment for The Sixties & Civil Rights. It focuses on the struggle for voting rights, capturing the intensity of the period between 1960 and 1968 by dramatizing the events surrounding the march from Selma to Montgomery.
Why does The Sixties & Civil Rights era matter to American history?
The Sixties & Civil Rights era is significant because it represents eight years that broke the postwar consensus and remade American culture. It encompassed transformative events ranging from the Greensboro sit-ins and the Great Society to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassinations of King and Kennedy.
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