Page 24 - 1983 Wardlaw Hartridge

20
The Sixties
The end of the fifties brought the Russian Sputnik and the Cuban missile crisis. The start of the sixties was not much better. The Civil Rights Move­ ment made a major impression with the stirring voices of Martin Luther King. Jr. and Malcolm X. Almost imme­ diately the nation was shocked by the original "good die young” period as they watched President John Kenne­ dy. Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King all die by the hands of assassins.
The nation boomed economically even while it was led into another southeast Asian war. There were many anti-war movements which became more important than the civil rights movement. The younger generation was affected most directly due to drafts and they developed slogans to try to stop the war and to express their new outlook, usually with the general phrasing of "make love not war.”
The younger generation was also greatly influenced by the Beatles and other rock groups. This period also saw a "sexual revolution” which pro­ duced real benefits towards the end of the decade with the start of the wom­ en’s rights movement. With all the ri­ ots and problems in domestic life, sci­ ence was able to make a major break­ through. First, a man was able to orbit around the earth, and then three American astronauts became the first men to walk on the moon. Considering all that occurred during this decade, it is truly one of the most explosive in our history.
Through the I960’s, Wardlaw and Hartridge each experienced a continu­ ing growth and fostered their tradi­ tionally high academic standards. This is evidenced at Wardlaw by the ever expanding faculty and the paucity of students making the first honor roll. The early prosperity of the decade bol­ stered support for building a new school, and Mr. Horne’s project "Lamplight” was born. This ambitious plan reached its fruition when then New Jersey Governor Richard Hughes and Dr. Mason Gross, former presi­ dent of Rutgers Univeristy, were the principal speakers at the dedicaiton of the new Inman Avenue building in Sep­ tember, 1969. At the same time, the Wardlaw enrollment continued its growth to new all-time highs.
Tutu/te Site oj WARDLAW COUNTRY
J # SCHOOL
^mt^HTIC FIE<46
White college students picket in Washing­ ton, D.D., in I960.