Good Question: What Was The Beat Generation All About?
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) - A new generation of San Franciscan's may not be aware of the role the city played in a social movement led by a group of people known as the beatniks.
In his video report, Ken Bastida visits San Francisco's North Beach to find the roots of the beat generation.
ANSWER: According to Brandon Loberg of the San Francisco Beat Museum, the phrase, "Beat Generation" was first coined by author Jack Kerouac to describe a group of New York based philosophy and literature students in 1948.
"The Beats" as they were known, were all about questioning conventionalism and the establishment. "Beatniks" were eventually displaced by the "Hippies" by the mid 1960's.
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