When people think of the 60's, the one word that is sure to come out of their mouths is “marijuana”. However, this is not the only thing the 60s have to offer us. The generation of the 1960s represented a great leap forward in freedom of speech and thought, technology, literature, music and language. Two popular literary figures of the 1960s were Harper Lee and Gwendolyn Brooks. Harper Lee wrote the book To Kill a Mockingbird which was about racial inequality in Alabama in the 1930s. (“Harper”) The book helped open the eyes of the white population in America to the problems that African Americans faced in their daily lives. "Thrushes do nothing but create music for our entertainment. They don't eat people's gardens, they don't nest in corn feeders, they do nothing but sing at the top of their lungs for us. That's why it's a shame to kill a mockingbird." (Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird) The symbolic mockingbird symbolizes innocence and to kill one is to kill your innocence, so it is not right to hate African Americans when they have done nothing wrong. (“Spark Notes”) Another influential literary figure of the 1960s is poet laureate Gwendolyn Brooks, whose writing career took off in 1962 when she was invited by John F. Kennedy to read at a poetry festival. (“Riot”) From his poem Riot, Brooks says: 'Don't let it touch me! the darkness! Gentleman!' he whispered to any angel within reach in the sky. (Lad, Famous African American Poets) This excerpt from the poem describes the whites' point of view towards African Americans as the whites did not want the blacks to change anything. They thought blacks were inferior; therefore, they wanted nothing to do with them. Two of the most important technological advances of the 1960s were Kevlar and impla......middle of paper......2011. .Foster, Bethney. "History of the Hippie Movement | EHow.com." EHow | Videos, articles and more: reliable advice for the curious life | EHow.com. 2011. Network. April 14, 2011. .Goodwin, Susan and Becky Bradley. "1960-1969." American cultural history. Lone Star College-Kingwood Library, 1999. Web. February 7, 2011.Lad, Kashmira. "Famous African American Poets." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. 2011. Network. 05 April 2011. .Ray, James Earl. “The history of the 1960s, including popular culture, events, cost of living, technology and inventions.” Where people, history and memories come together from the People History website. 2004. Network. 06 April. 2011. .