Lyndon Johnson’s talents
Born in Texas, LBJ becomes a public school teacher out of college, becomes a well-known political leader, and is praised as an effective senator
Senate majority leader
“Master of the Senate”
Conservatism
Citizens should be self-efficient and the role of the government should be smaller
Barry Goldwater
Candidate in the Republican Party 1964 Election; sets conservative vs. republican debate
Modern conservative movement in politics
A movement in politics led by Barry Goldwater with conservative principles
Great Society
LBJ’s platform to make a difference and honor JFK by pushing through legislation that JFK would’ve wanted
Push through new laws to help people who have been ignored by the government
The New Deal is a big change in government, but this is a bigger platform
Aided poor people in impoverished areas and provided them with educational opportunities
Created the Department of Transportation (highway oversight and safety regulations) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (fair housing practices)
1964 Economic Opportunity Act
Created Head Start, a free nursery school program, to help low income families by giving their kids a head start on their education
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibits discrimination based on race and gives the government the right to sue schools for not desegregating
War on Poverty
A set of social welfare programs and policies introduced by LBJ
Reducing poverty and improving the economic opportunities of low-income Americans
VISTA: Volunteers in Service to America
Money to volunteers who worked in deprived domestic communities
Conservatives v. Liberals in 1960s
Liberals: problems of poverty warranted federal government intervention
Conservatives: citizens need to take responsibility for the welfare of the people
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Protects voting rights for everyone based on pace and prohibits literacy tests
Immigration Act of 1965
Abolishes the quota system and makes it easier for refugees to come to America
Medicare/Medicaid
Medicare: health insurance for old people
Medicaid: health insurance for kids living in poverty
Brown v. Board of Education
Happening in 1954, it was a collection of 5 lawsuits about racial segregation in schools
Charles Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and Oliver Hill were big names with the NAACP
Chief Justice Earl Warren declared separate but equal inherently unequal, striking down Plessy and demanding that all schools be integrated with “all deliberate speed”
Massive Resistance
Southern states deciding to ignore the decision of Brown, saying it is a state’s right to control education (federalism)
Southern Manifesto
The Supreme Court overreached, so the Southern states condemned this decision and wanted the states to resist
Citizen Councils
Used economic oppression to push back on integration of public schools
Similar to KKK
If in support of the Brown decision, you could be fired, not hired, denied loans, etc.
Prince Edward County, Virginia
Closed public schools for all from 1959-1964 instead of integrating schools
A private academy opened up, but only rich white people could attend
Harry Flood Byrd was a powerful VA senator that loves massive resistance
Little Rock Nine
Happening in 1957, 9 high schoolers try to integrate schools
Governor Orval Faubas used the national guard to keep the students out of school
Eisenhower sends troops to protect the 9
Faubas closes the schools in 1958
self-purification
Accepting hate and not retaliating, putting the movement before your ego
Emmitt Till
A 14-year-old boy from Chicago is kidnapped, beaten, shot, and dumbed in a river while visiting family in Mississippi 1955 after a grocery store employee claims the boy whistled at her
Funeral with an open casket awakens Americans to the true extent of racism in the South
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks and MLK encourage people to stop riding the buses, rather walking, carpooling, and hitching rides so the bus lines were forced to change their policies
SCLC: Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Group and network of black ministers created by MLK
Sit-ins
Starts in Greensboro, NC when students sit at lunch counters for white people and order food
54 demonstrations across the country
SNCC: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
College students coordinate lunch counter events
With “kneal-ins” (church) and “wade-ins” (pool) too
Freedom Riders
Testing the desegregated buses to see if the policies are true by riding the buses through deep South depots
Get attacked and pulled out of buses
Birmingham Boycott
Happening in 1963, MLK went after Eugene “Bull” Connor, a white supremacist threatening activists
Encourages a boycott of businesses
Encourages a march with students
Met with police brutality
MLK arrested, wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Medgar Evers
A growing activist and close collaborator with MLK who gets assassinated 1963
Selma March
MLK led a march for voting from Selma to Montgomery in March of 1965, but when crossing a bridge, they were met with violent outburts from citizens and police
Bloody Sunday
For the third try, LBJ sneds in troops to help the marchers
Leads to the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Watts Riots
Happening in 1965, these were race riots with looting and violence from both races
In California, showing the racial tension in the U.S.
Kerner Commission
Happening in 1968, this was an investigation into why the riots occured
Obviously because of systemic racism, lack of educational opportunities, and segregation
Black power
The movement that shifts from nonviolence to more radical ideas, coined after Malcomn X
Black Nationalism
Violence is okay if it is for self-defense, actually, it is intelligence
Pride of racial heritage
Some think superiority or intentionally staying separate to create a better society
Malcolm X
A minister with the Nation of Islam who was an engaging public speaker who said that violence is okay if it is self-defense
Assassinated in 1965
Nation of Islam
Religious organization about Black superiority with Islam, also antisemetic
Stokely Carmichael
Advocated for violent retaliation with Malcomn X
Huey Newton/Eldridge Cleaver
Led the Black Panther Party
Black Panthers
Political organization about racial pride and equity, fighting violence with violence, and free breakfast programs
MLK
A minister and activist who advocated for racial equality and nonviolent resistance, leading the Civil Rights Movement until his assassination in 1968
Domino Theory
One communist country, Vietnam, will cause all countries to fall to communism
Difference in civil rights from 1950-1964 to 1964-1970
1950-1964: Focused on the South and a nonviolent approach
Seeing the calm activists with angry pushbacks creates support for the activists
1964-1970: New voices willing to retaliate
Ho Chi Minh
Starts a communist revolution in 1941 in Vietnam
Wanting government control of industry and agriculture
Declared Vietnam as an independent communist country, previously French Indo-China
The U.S. sends economic and military help to France
France surrenders 1954
Geneva Accords
Splits Vietnam at the 17th parallel
North Vietnam: communist
South Vietnam: democratic but still oppressive
Advisors
The U.S. sends 16,000 American troops to watch the 17th parallel and North Vietnam
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Incident: U.S. naval vessels attacked after spying on North Vietnamese territory
Resolution: gives the president the power to take all necessary measures to fight North Vietnamese attacks
Vietcong
“National Liberation Front” or the North Vietnamese communist guerillas
Drop and go
Helicopters fly close to the ground to deploy American troops
Bomb and burn
Goal: to break North Vietnam’s motive for fighting
Dropping burning chemical (napalm) from helicopters on land for physical destruction
Agent Orange released to kill plants
Operation Rolling Thunder
Destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail with bombs as it is a supply line for the Vietcong
Tet Offensive
January 31, 1968 was seen as a truce for the New Years Holiday in Vietnam
Vietcong disregard truce and coordinate series of attacks on more than 100 towns
General Westmoreland helps push back Vietcong further than offensive
Credibility Gap
Public doesn’t believe or trust the government anymore
Anti-War Movement
Civil rights leaders, students, and political liberals who believed that America’s actions in Vietnam were morally wrong
Students for a Democratic Society
SDS: voiced objections of the Vietnam War
Free Speech Movement
Students at UC Berkley who voiced objections of the Vietnam War
Port Huron Statement
Student activist Tom Hayden issued this statement to condemn the war and chastise LBJ administration for pushing young American men to serve against their will
Draft Protest
MLK led anti-war protesters in a march from Central Park to the United Nations building in opposition to the Vietnam War
Counterculture
Young adults against mainstream culture in the 1960s
Sex outside marriage, drugs, alternative music, communal living experiments
1968 Democratic National Convention
August 1968 event to determine the democratic nomination for president
Yippies protest for anti-war sentiment and Mayor Daley increases political presence
Eugene McCarthy
A senator from Minnesota, with anti-war sentiment
Robert F. Kennedy
JFK’s brother who was an advocate for civil rights and expected to be the next president was assassinated in 1968
Hubert Humphrey
LBJ’s VP, believes in the war involvement
Richard Nixon
Runs on the promise of “peace with honor” by slowly removing troops from Vietnam
Expanded air war
Bombs Cambodia, which destabilizes country and leads to the rise of Khmer Rouge
George Wallace/American Independent Party
Prevents Black students from applying to college; white supremacist
Vietnamization
Turn all fighting to South Vietnam army
Four years of negotiation and ceasefires
Nixon Doctrine
No combat troops but continued financial aid to South Vietnam
My Lai Massacre
The U.S. troops burned and murdered families in the Vietcong stronghold village of My Lai in 1968, not publically known until two years later
Kent State Massacre
A protest by students on the issue of Cambodia leads to an open fire by the national guard in 1970
Pentagon Papers
Papers published by the New York Times in 1971, revealing that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scope of its actions in the Vietnam War
Had documents of all U.S. involvement