Bird Community & Countercultures

The Bird is often remembered as a hippie newspaper.  Although the paper covered countercultural movements and lifestyles, most of the people who contributed to and worked on the paper did not self-identify as hippies; rather, they saw themselves as engaged political activists.  Yet in its eight years of publication, a diverse group of approximately five hundred people contributed to the paper through work in layout, writing, editing, art, sales, advertising, and circulation.  The bond that tied these people together was a passion to change the world and themselves for the better.

A toddler smiles at the camera from his mother's arms at a park.
Photographed by Tom Coffin: Stephanie Coffin and infant at a free concert sponsored by the “Great Speckled Bird” alternative newspaper at Piedmont Park, Atlanta, Georgia, September 25, 1969.
A group of people smile for the camera outside the Bird office.
Great Speckled Bird Christmas at the Bird House Atlanta, Georgia, December 12, 1971. 
Young woman seated on a sidewalk with a kitten. A young man is leaning over her with his back to the camera; he has an American flag patch on his right rear pocket, Atlanta, Georgia, April 1970.
Young woman seated on a sidewalk with a kitten. A young man is leaning over her with his back to the camera; he has an American flag patch on his right rear pocket, Atlanta, Georgia, April 1970.