250px|thumb|A demonstrator offers a flower to military police at an anti-Vietnam War protest at [[The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, 21 October 1967]]
Flower power was a political movement and slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence. It is rooted in the anti-war movement which was opposed to US involvement in the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 as a means to transform war protests into peaceful affirmative spectacles. Hippies embraced the symbolism by dressing in clothing with embroidered flowers and vibrant colors, wearing flowers in their hair, and distributing flowers to the public, becoming known as flower children. The term later became generalized as a modern reference to the hippie movement and the so-called counterculture of drugs, psychedelic music, psychedelic art and social permissiveness.
Etymology
Origins
The term "Flower Power" originated in Berkeley, California, as a symbolic action of protest against the Vietnam War. In a November 1965 essay titled How to Make a March/Spectacle, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg advocated that protesters should be provided with "masses of flowers" to hand out to policemen, press, politicians and spectators. The use of props like flowers, toys, flags, candy and music were meant to turn anti-war rallies into a form of street theater thereby reducing the fear, anger and threat that is inherent within protests. In particular, Ginsberg wanted to counter the "specter" of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang who supported the war, equated war protesters with communists and had threatened to violently disrupt planned anti-war demonstrations at the University of California, Berkeley. Using Ginsberg's methods, the protest received positive attention and the use of "flower power" became an integral symbol in the counterculture movement.
In 1965, Sky Saxon of Californian rock band the Seeds began to use the term "flower rock" to describe their music. Their manager DJ Lord Tim Hudson would claim to have coined the term "flower power," and "flower child" encouraging the band to write songs such as "March of the Flower Children" for their album Future (1967). Hudson stated "Seed music is the original Flower Power music". Daryl Hooper, the Seeds keyboardist stated:
Definition
In December 1967, English journalist Peter Fryer published a glossary on hippie slang entitled "A to Z of Zowie," in the Sunday Observer, which defined flower power as "from Flower Children or Beautiful People. Revolutionary philosophy akin to ideas of Young Liberals, e.g. Make Love Not War. Characteristic: bell." According to writer Skip Stone's 1999 book Hippies from A to Z, "Flower Power was the hippie equivalent of the Black Power movement. An extension of the Peace and Love theme, Flower Power assumed that the power of Love would win out over violence and hate."
Movement
By late 1966, the Flower Power method of guerilla theater had spread from California to other parts of the United States. The Bread and Puppet Theater in New York City staged numerous protests which included handing out balloons and flowers with their anti-war literature. Workshop in Nonviolence (WIN), a magazine published by New York activists, encouraged the use of Flower Power.
In May 1967, Abbie Hoffman organized the Flower Brigade as an official contingent of a New York City parade honoring the soldiers in Vietnam. News coverage captured Flower Brigade participants, who carried flowers, flags and pink posters imprinted with LOVE, being attacked and beaten by bystanders.
In October 1967, Hoffman and Jerry Rubin helped organize the March on the Pentagon using Flower Power concepts to create a theatrical spectacle. The plan included a call for marchers to attempt to "levitate" the Pentagon. When the marchers faced off against more than 2500 Army national guard troops forming a human barricade in front of the Pentagon, some demonstrators held out flowers and a few placed their flowers in the soldiers' rifle barrels.