"The 60's": Mini-series reflection

Part I

The mini-series named “The 60’s” after the years the story takes place in, has a compilation of the stories of the members from two different families: the Herlihys and the Taylors. Each family belongs to a different world, even though they are part of the same country and the same era.

For example, the first family we are presented are the Herlihys. This is an European-American family, in which the father is a veteran and the mother is a housewife. The couple procreated three kids: Brian, William and Katie, who are raised according to the society standards but, as they grow up, each of them takes a different path in their lives: Brian becomes a Marine just like his dad, Katie gets pregnant at a young age and later on, because of the baby’s father, becomes a hippie, while William, the middle child becomes a political activist, which his father totally disapproves. This family lives the typical American life, and therefore, they do not suffer discrimination the way the other family in this story does.

The second family that we meet in the story are the Taylors. This is an African-American family, in which the father is a minister involved in the Civil Rights movement. In my opinion, this family is the one who suffers the most because the 1960’s is a traumatic time where a lot of changes were happening and there was a lot of hate against black people because of all the people that disapproved the fact that things were changing and soon, they would be considered as equals with all their rights. The family’s father is shot by the police and this happening is what gives a spin to the son’s life, who decides to join the Black Panthers to look for a change for African-American citizens.

This is just a brief summary of the series “The 60’s”; in the next entry I will be going deeper in the types of discrimination seen throughout the mini-series and how it affected the lives of the characters I mentioned before.