The West Georgia counterculture, 1967-1974

Abstract

This thesis presents a chronological narrative of the small, but marginally influential West Georgia College counterculture movement—which included no more than a hundred or so students and at least a few dozen faculty members—during a period of great social unrest. Framed by the ongoing moral debate about America’s controversial involvement in the Vietnam War, as well as radical social changes occurring in the larger culture, this study contributes to the historiography of the U.S. counterculture in at least two distinct ways. First, it is one of the few in-depth studies to ever be conducted on the counterculture at a small liberal arts college in the Deep South. Most of the books and articles written thus far focus upon the counterculture movement at some of the nation’s largest universities. Even in the South, only a few select university histories have ever dealt with the movement in any detail. Second, this thesis sheds greater light on the reasons for that marginalization of the Southern student counterculture—and more specifically at West Georgia College—by focusing on the pushback from the much larger, more conservative culture. Manifested in the form of some college administrators, a number of older faculty members, the majority of the student body, civic and business leaders in the nearby town of Carrollton, and even the larger Carrollton community, that resistance could be extreme at times. This study will also show how that resistance was rooted in deeply held Southern beliefs about patriotism and the sanctity of national military service, the Protestant work ethic, respect for authority and tradition, and religious conservatism.