Postwar America

& Civil

Rights

American Life after WWII – 1940s GI Bill – 1944 act helping veterans make a

smooth entry into civilian life by providing $ for college or advanced job training, also loans for buying homes, farms, or businesses

Baby boom – dramatic rise in birthrate after WWII, generation of people born 1945-1964

Truman wins 1948 presidential election Fair Deal – Truman’s program, fashioned

after New Deal, relatively unsuccessful (lots of opposition, foreign affairs more important)

Television Age – 1950s TV immediately impacts politics &

electionsCheckers SpeechPolitical campaign commercialsMcCarthy – Army hearingsKennedy/Nixon debates

Television becomes major method of advertisingSponsors, then commercials

Popular cultureGame shows, sitcoms featuring family values,

stereotypes, comedies

Society Trends in 1950s Movement to suburbs

Levittown Proliferation of automobile

Interstate system Increasing birthrates/large families End of decade = beginning of rebellion of

young people

The United States

1962 U.S. and USSR face off in Cuban missile crisis. John Glenn is first American to orbit the earth.

1965 Edward White II takes first spacewalk by an American.

1966 Supreme Court rules in Miranda that criminal suspects must be read their rights before questioning.

1967 Thurgood Marshall becomes first African– American justice on the Supreme Court.

1961 U.S. launches Bay of Pigs invasion.

1964 Congress passes major tax cut, Economic Opportunity Act, and Civil Rights Act.

1968 Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy are assassinated.

Timeline

1960 Presidential Election Kennedy – Democrat

From wealthy Massachusetts familyRoman CatholicStrong anti-communist stanceYounger, represents hope and change

associated with young people & new ideas Nixon – Republican

VP under Eisenhower, tied to Ike’s policiesAppears to be opposed to new ideas

Kennedy wins by 120,000 votes, out of 69 million cast

Kennedy’s Presidency At 43, youngest elected American

president Cabinet consists of intellectuals (many

from Ivy League schools), referred to as “the best and the brightest” availableYounger people dominate

Domestic issues/problems will be priority

Kennedy’s New Frontier Increase public spending

Increase the minimum wage to $1.25/hourProvide money for retraining workers and for

public works projects where unemployment is above 6%

Lower taxesArea Development Act – give tax benefits to

industries locating in depressed areasTrade Expansion Act of 1962 – lower tariffs

Space explorationSet aside $9 billion for space explorationConstruct launching facilities and mission

control centers

The New Frontier

What were some of the programs of the New Frontier?

SUMMARIZING

Peace Corps

Alliance for Progressmoon program

tax cuts

civil rights The New Frontier

Peace Corps – program to train and send volunteers to poor nations to serve as educators, healthcare workers, agricultural advisors, etc. Increased image of US

throughout world Alliance for Progress in

Latin America focusing on building schools, houses, and sanitation facilitiesGoal was to counter the

influence of communism in the region

Kennedy Assassination November 22, 1963 Dallas, Texas Lee Harvey Oswald – shoots

from Texas School Book Depository

November 24, 1963 – Jack Ruby shot Oswald

Warren Commission Oswald acted alone

Many other ideas Conspiracies

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/route.htm

Johnson’s Great Society Domestic programs for country Idol was FDR – had been an

administrator in a New Deal agency for Texas

Believed in govt’s role in improving people’s lives

Great concern for poor/underprivileged

Focused on many of Kennedy’s ideas

“the Great Society demands an end to poverty and racial injustice” War on Poverty, VISTA, Job Corps,

Civil & Equal Rights, Medicaid, Medicare, Environment

“You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea.”Medgar Evers, civil rights activist

What do you know?

How would you define the term civil rights?

What civil rights are Americans entitled to?

How would the loss of one or more of these rights affect your life?

The United States

1955 Montgomery bus boycott begins.

1963 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers “I Have a Dream” speech at March on Washington. Medgar Evers is assassinated.

1964 Congress passes Civil Rights Act.

1965 Civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, begins. Congress passes Voting Rights Act. Malcolm X is assassinated.

1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision orders desegregation of public schools.

1957 School desegregation crisis occurs in Little Rock, Arkansas.

1968 Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated.

1967 Race riots erupt in major U.S. cities.

Timeline

Causes of the Civil Rights Movement

Developments during World War II challenge segregation

African-Americans demand end to de jure segregation (law)

African-American churches promote non-violent protests

African-Americans protest de facto segregation (custom)

Television brings protests into homes

Effects of the Civil Rights Movement

Constitutional and legal changes end de jure segregationCivil Rights Acts of 1964 & 1968Voting Rights Act of 1965

Government promotes affirmative-action programs

Economic, educational, and political opportunities increase for African-Americans

Definitions Discrimination

the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently

the quality or power of finely distinguishing categorically rather than individually

Prejudice injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of

another in disregard of one’s rights; detrimental to one’s legal rights or claims

preconceived judgment or opinion an opinion or leaning adverse to anything without just

grounds or before sufficient knowledge an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual,

a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics

Civil Rights Organizations NAACP – 1909;

fought to secure African-Americans legal rights & end racial violence

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) – 1942; organization dedicated to nonviolent protest

Civil Rights Organizations Southern Christian Leadership Conference

(SCLC) – 1957; organization formed to coordinate and organize protest activities occurring throughout US; committed to mass nonviolent action

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) – 1960; student

organization to coordinate

sit-ins and other nonviolent

protests

Steps Toward Equal Rights

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

13th Amendment (1865) Civil Rights Act (1866) 14th Amendment (1868) 15th Amendment (1870) Civil Rights Act (1875) NAACP is founded (1909) Brown v. Board (1954) SCLC is founded (1957) Civil Rights Act (1964) Voting Rights Act (1965) Civil Rights Act (1968)

Define/explain. Why is it considered a

step towards equal rights?

Was it successful? Why/why not?

How does it affect us today?

Readings

Read “Race Hatred Personified” & “We Were Just Ordinary People” and answer the following questions.

Write down 5 words/phrases that apply to both selections.

Why were people so afraid of change? Why were they willing to resort to violence? Do these attitudes still exist in American society? Have we progressed? Have we regressed?

Native American Civil Rights Issues

Highest unemployment rates in country Average income < half of white income Poor health/high disease rates Lower life expectancy Higher infant mortality

Termination Policy – 1950s US govt policy to end N.A. status as govt wards, remove from isolated reservations and integrate into society 200,000 N.A. relocated to cities, no resources to

support their adjustment to new life Policy = failure

Native American Civil Rights 1961 Document of Indian Purpose – condemns

termination, declares N.A. intent to control own lives and Indian policy (aka self-determination) Supported by LBJ Establishes National Council on Indian Opportunity to

help achieve this

Alcatraz Occupation 1969 Abandoned federal prison, N.A. claimed Treaty of Fort

Laramie (1868) gave them right to reclaim surplus federal territory

Lasts 18 months, forcefully removed in end Prompts return of other lands in NM, WA, ME, & CT

due to publicity

Native American Civil Rights American Indian Movement – organization

calling for renewal of traditional cultures, economic independence, better education for N.A. childrenDriving force of N.A. civil rightsNot always committed to nonviolent action

Wounded Knee Stand-off Site of last major Indian War conflict (massacre) AIM members take control of Sioux reservation, want

tribal govt investigated for misconduct 71 day stand-off with federal agents

Native American Civil Rights

Gains for N.A.Higher standards of livingGreater economic opportunities (tourism, N.A.

owned businesses)Enhanced education, healthcare, voting rights, &

religious freedomGreater self-pride Improved appreciation for N.A. culture

Latino Rights Movement Latinos also seek social justice – fair

distribution of advantages & disadvantages in society

First effort = farm fields of CAworkers get low wages, tough conditionsCA farm workers go on strike in 1965 joined by National Farm Workers Association, led

by Cesar Chavez take demands by protesting at grocery stores

nationwidestrike is successful, Chavez is national figure