Honors in Action

This year’s project as selected by the involved students was centered around Theme 5 of the Honors in Action Honors Program Guide. Themes 5 dealt with Resistance-Reform, Rebellion, Revolution and was focused on the question, “What have we learned from the inherited effects of resistance, and what legacies can we envision?”.

After preliminary research into this question the team targeted a more specific question related to the theme; “How does the rebellion and resistance demonstrated by the Ozark Music Festival reflect the culture of the times, and what legacy and reformations did this revolution leave for future generations to inherit?”.

After much more extensive research the team drew the following conclusions;

1. Public unrest leads to drastic actions which often lead to unintended consequences.

2. The event left its mark on Sedalia, Missouri and its laws – negatively impacting those who attended and inducting the participants into the culture of drugs.

3. The outcome surrounding this three-day event called the 1974 Ozark Music Festival were so negative to the Sedalia, Missouri and surrounding community that many people alive at that time and living in the area do not speak about it.

To address these conclusions the HIA project team elected to provide the public a brief presentation surrounding the events of the 1974 Ozark Music Festival in order to provide greater public awareness of the general public unrest during that time that helped fuel this event, and the negative consequences that followed. The presentation also hopes to demonstrate that even decades later the legacy of civil unrest and the consequences of civil rebellion and resistance often lead to similar consequences today.