Brown versus Board of Education, 1954

Overturns Plessy v. Ferguson

Unanimously rules that “separate facilities are inherently unequal”

and therefore in violation of the 14th amendment

The Baby Boom . . . 20 percent

increase in marriage rate between 1945 and 1948

Average marriage age drops to 20 for women and 22 for men

Huge birth rate increase in late 1940s and early 1950s

“This crusade has to be for more than a hamburger.”

-- Ella Baker of the SCLC

Civil Rights Organizations in the early 1960s

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

King’s civil rights strategy

black and white protestors bare their throats in the South

whites respond with vicious violence media rushes to the scene northern public opinion explodes the president is forced to bring in federal

protection

the civil rights act of 1964

If you take federal money, your institution is defined by law as a public institution

Thus it must obey the 14th amendment . . . . . . “equal protection under the laws” . . . Congress established an Equal Opportunity

Employment Commission (EEOC) in 1965 to further the act

but it did not ban discrimination in state and local elections . . .

Born Malcolm Little, 1925

Converted to the Nation of Islam (NOI)

in 1950s Minister of Mosque

#7 in Harlem Left the NOI just

before his assassination in

1965

Sixties era demographics

Before World War II: no public universities with more than 15,000 students

1970: 50 colleges with more than 15,000 students

1970: eight campus with 30,000 students 1970: number of college age Americans

soars to 25 million 1973: ten million college students

Opposed federal programs for the poor

Opposed federal desegregation

Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater

Young Americans for Freedom

Student organization founded in 1960

1965: 250 college chapters and 20,000 members

Sponsored by John Wayne and Ronald Reagan

Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 11 of the United States Constitution

“Congress shall have the Power . . . To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.”

Gulf of Tonkin ResolutionAugust 7, 1964 Section 2. . . . the United

States is, therefore, prepared, as the President determines, to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

Abolished literacy tests Abolished poll taxes Placed federal monitors

in states with a history of discrimination

By 1967, half of African-Americans in the south had registered to vote

Police attack protestors in Selma to Montgomery march, 1965

34 people killed in the riot

1,000 injured 107,000

participants 16,000 police

and National Guardsmen

intervene

Race Riot in Watts, California

Martin Luther King Jr. in Los Angeles, 1965

the Vietnam era

1965: 375,000 men and women in Vietnam

1968: U.S. involvement peaks at 543,000

only 11 percent of the country opposed the war in 1965

Vietnam war statistics 9 million men and women served in active duty during

the Vietnam war era over 7,000 women served in

Vietnam 58,000 U.S. military

personnel died, 47,000 of those in combat

Another 75,000 “severely disabled”

2,338 Missing in Action 766 Prisoners of War

Total Vietnamese killed in their post-World War II war for independence: 3,800,000 Vietnamese killed One out of ten Vietnamese This includes all wars with France,

Cambodia, the United States, China and Japan . . .

and all political murders committed by Ho Chi Minh, Diem, and other political leaders

Vietnamese killed in the U.S./Vietnam War: 1,719,000

Source: R.J. Rummel, “Statistics of Vietnamese Democide,” http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM

The Great Society Programs, 1965-1967 Project Head Start: federal money for poor

schools Medicare Act: health insurance for the elderly Medicaid: federal aid to pay for medical

expenses of the poor The Omnibus Housing Act: rent subsidies for

the poor Public Broadcasting: Federal aid for non-

commercial radio and television

Napalm gasoline,

napthenic acid and palm oil

burns the flesh off of its victims sucks oxygen

from the area and suffocates

people

1967: support for the war begins to wane 71 percent of

U.S. public support the war

August it drops to 61 percent

October it slips to 58 percent

The Fair Housing Act, 1968

Federal law prohibits discrimination because of . . . Race or color National origin Religion Sex (gender) Familial status (including children under the age of

18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregant women)

Disability

The Presidential Election of 1968

Richard Nixon, 43.42% (301 electoral votes)

Hubert Humphrey, 42.72% (191)

George Wallace, 8.55% (46)

Richard Nixon

Women enter the workforce, 1950-1980 (numbers on right in thousands)

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

1950 1960 1970 1980

20-2425-4445-64

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act(a) It shall be an unlawful employment practice

for an employer - (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin . . .”

The Patriarchy State

Newspaper jobs divided into male and female Government manuals used “he” and “she” to

describe managers and secretaries Women could not establish businesses without a

male consigner Quotas for women in professional schools Higher university admission standards for women Laws permitting husbands to beat their wives Employers could fire women for weighing too much

1967-1979: insurgent Second Wave Feminism Legal actions sex discrimination against

women on the job Lawsuits against separate want ads for

women and men EEOC suits against discrimination in wages

and promotions Actions against separate standards for

women and men in university admissions