The United States in the 1960s and Early 1970s

Life in the United States during the time in which Pynchon wrote and published Gravity's Rainbow was marked by dramatic social change and turbulent conflict. The civil rights movement, a term which normally refers to the effort to end discrimination and segregation against African Americans, reached a climax in the 1960s. In the South, sit-in campaigns at segregated businesses, the integration of black students into segregated schools and colleges, and demonstrations against discrimination were met with extraordinary violence. Police tactics such as releasing dogs and spraying high-powered fire hoses on groups of high school students focused national attention on leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68). One year after King's “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington, D.C., President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-73) signed the Civil Rights Act, but race relations continued to...