U7 Civil Rights

Housing convenants/housing discrimination

-Racially restrictive housing covenants were legal until 1948

-They were enforced throughout 1950s informally

-Levittown today: 53,000 residents, 266 are African American

-When you consider that home ownership is one of the primary ways, lower-middle, and middle class families accumulate wealth

>This practice goes a long way in at least partially explaining institutionalized discrimination (separate communities, schools, job opportunities, poverty)

Brown v. Board of Education

Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson on the grounds that the doctrine of "separate but equal" violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment

Dr. MLK Jr.

-African-American clergyman who advocated social change through non-violent means

-A powerful speaker and a man of great spiritual strength, he shaped the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s

Malcolm X

-Black Muslim who argued for separation, not integration

-He changed his views, but was assassinated in 1965

LBJ

-Former primary opponent of Kennedy - sworn in amidst chaos, loss, uncertainty of what he would do

-Promises to continue what his predecessor was committed to

-Senate leadership - Southern Democrat -> better at getting things done with Congress

-Built ties to leaders more than bullying small timers ("The Johnson Treatment")

-Unusually sympathetic toward Civil Rights for a Southern Democrat

-Becomes greatly concerned with fighting poverty

-Extremely crude and egotistic

Medicare

Mandated government-provided health insurance under Social Security for Americans over 65 (paid for by payroll tax matched by employers)

-2 major issues today:

>People living longer means receiving benefits for more years

>Costs of medical care increased dramatically

Medicaid

-Similar program to Medicare, but it is specifically applied to the poor

-Anyone can qualify if they lived in poverty - details/restrictions left up to the states

-One of the major was the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) expanded medical coverage was by dramatically increasing Medicaid

Great Society

-Johnson's reform programs aimed at social change

-A continuation of the New Deal - the spirit as well as the middle-of-the-road

-It included attempted reforms of healthcare, education, housing, transportation, new Civil Rights legislation, and job training programs

-All of these things working together brought 10 million people above the poverty line

-Improved healthcare for the most vulnerable Americans

-Significantly increased protection of Civil Rights

Problems:

-Job training programs didn't predict or keep up with changes in the economy

-Home ownership was still restricted on discriminatory grounds - prevents accumulation of wealth

-The Vietnam War was very expensive, LBJ was personally blamed

Civil Rights Act of 1964

-Prohibited discrimination in public accommodation

-Increased federal enforcement for school desegregation

-Title VII prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

-Civil Rights Act did not deal with state laws that limited voting access for people of color -> instigator for Selma

Voting Rights Act of 1965

-Prompted by the violent attack by police on marchers in Selma, AL

-As Kennedy had, Johnson appealed to Congress for sweeping Civil Rights legislation

-Direct federal oversight of elections in regions designated by Congress where prejudice was a problem

-As a direct result - voter regisration and turnout of African Americans went from 40-65%

-This act was effectively gutted in 2013 by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder which ruled it was no longer necessary - the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the VRA, the immediate result of which was implementation of voter ID laws (this argument is highly partisan and controversial)

The Draft

A law requiring people of a certain age to serve in the military

-It included people who had just graduated out of college

-Led to the antiwar movement which was out of self-preservation for the students and families

-Nixon turned it into a televised lottery system which made it more equitable and you were required to sign up for the draft for one year or you had to get exempted/defered

-Presidents' Bush and Clinton both evaded the Draft during the Vietnam War

Problems:

-Lots of people wre exempted from the draft or they served in non-combat ways -> most who were exempted were rich and White

-People of color were drafted much more and had much higher casaulty rates

-College students were drafted if their rank was to low - led to college students protesting

-Draftees were far more likely to face combat since infantry training took the shortest amount of time

-People with learning disabilities were usually drafted

Major Events of 1968

-Assassinations of MLK and RFK

-Vietnam War -> Tet Offensive

-Democratic National Convention Protests

-Apollo 8 orbits the Moon

-Antiwar and Human Rights Protests