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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