Fighting for Public Education with the Activist Hippies, the Original Hipsters
Austin is well-know for its hipsters that wander the streets during our SXSW music festival.
But, did you know that “Hippies” were the original “Hipsters”? From Wikipedia:
The hippie (or hippy) subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The word ‘hippie’ came from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into New York City’s Greenwich Village and San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. The origins of the terms hip and hep are uncertain, though by the 1940s both had become part of African American jive slang and meant “sophisticated; currently fashionable; fully up-to-date”. The Beats adopted the term hip, and early hippies inherited the language and countercultural values of the Beat Generation.
Recently, I had the special opportunity to hang out with two original sixties activist hipsters on The Rag Blog radio show. What is the Rag Blog?
The Rag Blog (TheRagBlog.com) is a reader-supported Internet newsmagazine produced by activist journalists committed to progressive social change. The Rag Blog is a digital-age rebirth of the pioneering underground newspaper, The Rag, published in Austin, Texas, from 1966-1977.
Rag Radio is broadcast on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin.
My partner on the show was Chicago’s Mike Klonsky. His bio:
Michael Klonsky, a veteran of SDS and the civil rights and anti-war movement, is a Chicago-based
