1950s and ‘60s We shall overcome! - How did the challenges of the fifties and sixties era change America? …..Civil Rights and towards a Great Society?

Cold War at Home: Red Hunt becomes a witch Hunt – fears of communists at home 1938 – House established HUAC, Committee on Un-American Activities to investigate subversion. Alger Hiss, convicted of perjury in 1950 Nixon, Roy Jenkins, Robert F. Kennedy and Senator Joseph McCArthy 1951 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg convicted and electrocuted in 1953 for espionage– leaked atomic doctrines to Moscow McCarran Internal Security Act vetoed by Truman but overriden by Congress

Vietnam Eisenhower (1954): Dien Bien Phu, (French defeat/surrender) Geneva Accords (17 th parallel) -US supports South Vietnam Kennedy: Military Advisers (early 1960s) Johnson: Golf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964 Ho Chi Minh Trail / Viet Cong Americanization, 1965 (American ground forces) Tet offensive, Nixon- “Peace with Honor” My Lai massacre, 1968 (1970) Vietnamisation, – invasion of Cambodia 1973 – War Powers Resolution Act (Congress Limits Pres.) 1975 – Saigon Falls (Vietnam is reunified under communism)

The Eisenhower Era, Joseph McCarthy –bubble bursts Early Civil Rights movement: Rosa Parks; Desegregation of schools Prosperity – a new consumer culture, centered around television Broad public consensus as a reaction to turbulent 30s & 40s; New Deal, Fair Deal + anticommunism Cold War tensions: Sputnik, Berlin Crisis, U-2 incident & Castro’s Cuban revolution Nonintervention in Hungarian revolt

ASSESSING THE EISENHOWER PRESIDENCY He wielded the veto 169 times, only twice overrode Economic prosperity 1959, Alaska and Hawaii become states Greatest failing: no real crusade on civil rights (more on this in later slides) As a Republican, he supported the New Deal +Fair Deal Restraint in the use of military power: failed in goal of ending the arms race with the Soviets He had ended the Korean War and avoided others

1960 Election: Kennedy “New Frontier” vs Nixon First televised debate: Who won the debate? JFK – youngest man to be president and the first Roman Catholic

JFK as President: youngest man to be president and the first Roman Catholic New Frontier

Robert McNamara briefing on Vietnam Escalation of the Vietnam War after 1965 Affected resources available for domestic programs

FOREIGN POLICY in the ‘60s “Flexible response vs. Dulles’/ Eisenhower‘s “massive retaliation” –Peace Corps –Special Forces –Conventional Forces 1961, Berlin Wall Cuba: 1962 Bay of Pigs; missile crisis; 1963 “hot line” installed Defense Sect.McNamara: 1962,US aid increase to Vietnam 1964, Tonkin Gulf Resolution; 1965, Johnson bombs No. Vietnam 1968, Tet Offensive 1973, Nixon and N. Vietnam sign cease fire agreement; US troops leave S. Vietnam

TRAGEDY IN DALLAS: JFK Assassinated 22 November 1963: while visiting Dallas, Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald Before being brought to trial, Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby, owner of a Dallas nightclub Many people believed a conspiracy was behind the Kennedy assassination and a special commission under Chief Justice Earl Warren was established to investigate Concluded Oswald had acted alone

Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Initiated and passed more social welfare Legislation more quickly, than any other president. Civil Rights Act of 1964 Voting Rights Act of 1965

Lyndon B. Johnson November 22, 1963 –1969 Johnson sought election as president in his own right in 1964 Championship of civil rights garnered him almost unanimous support of blacks His tax policy attracted the well-to-do and business interests War on poverty held the allegiance of labor and other traditionally Democratic groups Down-home southern antecedents counterbalanced his liberalism on race in the eyes of many white Southerners Johnson declared war on poverty and set out to create a Great Society In 1960, between 20 and 25 percent of American families—about 40 million people—lived below the poverty line Prosperity and advancing technology had changed the definition of poverty; yet, as living standards rose so did the educational requirements of many jobs

Pearson Education, Inc, publishing as Longman © 2008 THE GREAT SOCIETY Medicare and Medicaid January 1965: Johnson proposed a compulsory hospital insurance system, Medicare, for all persons over 65 Part A: hospital insurance for retired (funded by increase in Social Security) Part B: a voluntary plan covering doctors’ bills (paid for in part by the government) Also provided for grants to the states to help pay medical expenses of poor people regardless of age—Medicaid In the end, it provided medical treatment for millions of people but gave doctors, hospitals and drug companies the ability to raise fees without fear of losing customers Economic Opportunity Act of 1964: created a mixture of programs that combined the progressive concept of government with the conservative concept of individual responsibility Job Corps which was supposed to provide vocational training to help people get better jobs, was almost a complete failure Community action program to finance local antipoverty efforts System for training the unskilled unemployed and for lending money to small businesses in poor areas

Civil Rights: “We shall Overcome!” Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Martin Luther King, Jr. (SCLC) –Non violence –Integration –Montgomery Bus boycott (1955) –Marches (Selma, Birmingham, and on Washington

Early Civil Rights Movement Brown vs Board of Ed of Topeka SC Judge Earl Warren reversed the Plessy v Ferguson of “separate but equal” = integration By 1956 only 700 of the South’s 10,000 school districts desegregated Incidents of violence: –Clinton, Tennessee: “Kill the niggers!” -Nat’l Guard sent in but school blown up! -Virginia governor: “Massive Resistance” by denying state aid to integrated schools -U of Alabama: expulsion of black female student after riots - Little Rock, Arkansas 1957: Governor Orval Faubus sends in National Guard troops to PREVENT integration!

Central High School, Little Rock Arkansas integrated, 1957

Little Rock Arkansas Eisenhower sends in 1000 paratroopers and took over the National Guardsmen sent in by the Faubus to enforce segregation. Troops remain for the rest of the school year!

Desegregation

Forced integration ended by Supreme Court decision in 2007.

Rosa Parks, 1955

Seeds of the Civil Rights Movement Freedom Riders Montgomery Alabama, 1961 Rosa Parks’ bus, 1955 “I just decided I was not going to be moved out of that seat.”

SNCC Students Non-violent Coordinating Committee –Sit-ins (“Greensboro Four” Civil Rights Act (1964) - outlawed discrimination by employers against blacks and also against women Broke down legal barriers to black voting in southern states Outlawed racial segregation of all sorts in places of public accommodation Johnson made sure the act was enforced –Freedom Riders Voting Rights Act of 1965: provided for federal intervention to protect black registration and voting in six southern states and applied to state and local as well as federal elections

Civil Rights Movement: “Shoot Don’t Loot!” Black Power! - “Nation of Islam” and Malcolm X - Carmichael Stockley - “Separation not Integration” -Self-determination

Malcom X Born: May 19, 1925, Full name: Malcolm Little Assassinated: February 21, 1965, New York City MLK, Jr. Born: January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia Assassinated: April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee Compare and contrast them!

Thurgood Marshall NAACP member First African American SC Judge

CIVIL RIGHTS 1960s n – Black movement more militant 1960, SNCC – Student Non-Violent Coordinating Comm.- college students 1963, Malcolm X broke with Nation of Islam; assassinate in 1965 Black Panther Party – Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton – black power, Angela Davis 1960s, Freedom Riders; 1962, James Meredith at U. Mississippi; 1963, March on Washington, King’s “I have a Dream” speech; 1964-Civil Rights Act – created EEOC;1965 – Voting Rights Act 1965, race riots in U.S. cities – Watts, Detroit and Newark: “Burn baby burn”

Civil Rights Movement Other long term effects of Brown v. Board of Ed: –Bussing –Affirmative Action Example to other groups fighting for their rights: -Women -Minorities -Environmentalists.....NEXT 1970s and ’80s

Election of 1968