[APUSH 2] 50's Life Vocabulary

Marion Motley

first famous African-American football player

• Racist white people could tackle people in football if they wanted to

• Motley had an insane build and basically ran over people when playing

Jackie Robinson

first African-American to play major league baseball

• “A life is not important except on the impact it has on other lives” -Jackie Robinson

• General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers asks Robinson to be a part of the team on the condition that he doesn’t respond to any racist comments in order to not perpetuate the stereotype that African-Americans were aggressive

• Jackie Robinson is subject to death threats and a lot or racist comments/treatment to the point where his hair was falling out due to the stress of everything

  • Manager of NY Giants screams racial epitaphs at Jackie Robinson

• April 15th: every major league player wears the retired number 42 to honor Jackie Robinson’s legacy

• Died in the early 70s due to cancer

Brown v. BoE of Topeka (1954)

Supreme Court case that said segregation in public schools is illegal because “separate… is inherently unequal”

• Earl Warren’s  “signature” Supreme Court Case

• White school & colored schools in Kansas shared teachers & books

• NAACP lawyers couldn’t just show up with a bunch of pictures showing that white & colored facilities were “unequal” because the court would just say to “make it equal”

• Court must overturn Plessy v. Ferguson (established “separate but equal”)

• The minute you separate, you have put forth unequal circumstances

Thurgood Marshall

Brown’s lawyer in Brown v. BoE of Topeka and the first African-American Justice on the Supreme Court

• Wasn’t appointed to the Supreme Court until a decade later

• Served for roughly 25 years, and was replaced by Clarence Thomas

Emmett Till

14-year-old boy murdered in Mississippi in 1955 that launched the modern civil rights movement

• His family moved to Chicago during the Great Migration, and they would visit Mississippi to visit their family over the summer

• Till & his cousins are walking around town, and what allegedly happened was that Till catcalled the cashier

• The cashier and her husband showed up to Till’s home, beat him, and mutilated him

• Till’s body was found in Tallahatchie River

• Case: Mississippi v. Till—the cashier is found not guilty

• Open casket funeral is held for Till (as insisted by his mother)

• The people guilty of murder were paid to write down a story for how they committed the murder for a magazine

• A grand total of 4 signs for Till’s memory were put on the Tallahatchie Riveras one was stolen, one was burnt, and one was shot with bullet holes

Rosa Parks

woman from Montgomery, Alabama who famously refused to give up her seat on a bus in 1955

• Sat in the colored section and refused to give up her seat when a white man asked her to move, as she was expected to give up her seats when a white person needed to sit down

Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)

civil rights group led by MLK that organized a successful bus boycott in 1955

• This would hurt the government’s “wallet”

Little Rock 9

refers to 9 honors students who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas

• These kids voluntarily dealt with extreme racism when being integrated into white schools

• First day of school, an angry mob and the lit rock 9 come in with an NAACP lawyer, saying that they were allowed to be let in, and the mayor says that they’re not allowed

• This happens for the entire first week

• Television cameras are showing this to the public, and Northern schools had integrated years ago, causing Northerners to find this all insane

• Governor of Arkansas (Orville Faubus) shows up in the second week, and says that the kids are not allowed to go into the school

• State Police and the governor of NY are also present here

• Faubus goes on TV and asks for Little Rock, Arkansas to vote

• It was hard for black people to vote because you need to give your address to vote, which was dangerous for them

• Eisenhower advocated for the kids to be allowed into the school and told Faubus to let it in

• Arkansas National Guard was also eventually brought to Central High School

• 101st Airborne would go to Arkansas if Faubus didn’t allow the kids into the school

• Eisenhower was never on top of Civil Rights but was a firm advocate for the law

• End of Redemption in the South

Orville Faubus

governor of Arkansas during the Little Rock 9

Suez Crisis

when Egypt seized the Suez Canal, Britain & France invaded, the Soviets threatened, and the US backed down

• Suez Canal is between Africa and the Middle East

• Egypt wants to build a dam on the Nile River and asks

• Toll placed on Suez Canal, blocking Europe from Middle East oil

• Britain & France end up invading Egypt, and the Soviets have to protect their money so they end up going into Egypt

• US is called up by Britain & France to help them out, but Eisenhower says that he didn’t authorize Britain & France to invade Egypt

Sputnik (October 1957)

first Soviet satellite launched into space, and the US responds by increasing STEM funding

• If the Soviets had Sputnik, they had satellites, and the US feared they would reach the moon before them (moon was a cover-up to garner public support)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

US Space Program

Explorer I

first US satellite launched into space

Elvis Presley

King of Rock and Roll

• Elvis was born in Mississippi, but lived in Nashville

• Elvis & his family moved to the poorer side of Nashville when his dad got put in jail

• Elvis hears Soul music for the first time, and combines both Soul & Country Western into Rock & Roll (blends both black & white aspects of music together)

• White America wouldn’t buy records from black people, but they would buy from Elvis since he was white, and his records would sell out in an instant

• Elvis used white backup singers and black musicians

• Although not generally considered a Civil Rights figure, Elvis unintentionally brought both races together as the music he made together was appealing to both

• Michael Jackson is inspired by Frankie Lymon

Richard Nixon

Eisenhower’s Vice President that lost to JFK in 1960

• Eisenhower would’ve won a 3rd term, but wasn’t allowed to due to the 22nd Amendment

New Frontier

JFK’s plan that included an increase in Foreign Aid, Social Spending, and the Space Program

• Foreign Aid: to spread democracy & stop Communism

• Space Program: JFK genuinely wanted to go to the Moon, and not use it as a cover-up

Fidel Castro

Communist dictator of Cuba from 1959 to 2008

• “The only thing I want from America is your friendship” -Fidel Castro

  • At this point, no one knew he was a Communist

• Under a new dictatorship, Cuba was being funded by the Soviet Union, which threatened the US greatly as Cuba was extremely close in proximity to to the US (roughly 90 miles)

• Operation Ortsac: remove Castro from power (Ortsac = Castro backwards), as this is supposed to look like a revolution, and the US would assist this “revolution”

  • Use Cuban refugees

  • Arm refugees + Castro haters

  • Use US air & sea power

• Eisenhower waited for the next president to deal with this crisis (JFK)

• JFK asks for 2 weeks to make a decision because he’s unsure of what to do, and he asks RFK about what he should do

• Decision made to execute plan w/o the US sea & air power (this goes horribly wrong)

  • Cuban refugees were taken hostage, and their weapons were traced back to where they were manufactured, which was in the US

• This results in beef between JFK & the CIA

Bay of Pigs

JFK’s failed attempt to remove Castro that humiliated the US

• This was so bad that JFK went on national television and apologized, saying that intelligence messed up and took accountability for everything

• Soviets start building the Berlin Wall after they see how JFK screwed up as they see weakness in the US now after Eisenhower’s presidency

Cuban Missile Crisis

when the Soviet Union put missiles in Cuba aimed at the United States, JFK blockaded Cuba, and Khrushchev backed down

• After the Bay of Pigs fails, Khrushchev puts missile sites in Cuba with each missile being aimed at a major city on the East Coast of the US all the way up to Boston

  • The US also had missiles in Turkey aimed at the Soviet Union (prior to this)

• The UN is told about these missile sites due to US spy plane photos, but since the Soviets can veto any UN action, the UN does nothing about this crisis

• This lasts 2 weeks in October 1962

• JFK gets a letter handwritten in broken English from Khrushchev saying that the Soviets wanted peace and for WWIII to not happen

• Second letter is received by the US typed in perfect English also signed by Khrushchev essentially saying that the Soviets would destroy the US

• Soviet Union government found out about first letter written by Khrushchev and

• JFK sends back letter pretending the 2nd letter never existed and only responds to the first letter, saying that he agrees and doesn’t want war

• JFK blockades Cuba, calling it a “quarantine” and said that if the Soviets tried to go through blockade, Kennedy would open fire on Soviet ships

  • Khrushchev is notified of this, as if war had started, it would be due to the Soviets

• JFK is unable to openly negotiate with Khrushchev as it would make him look weak to the American public, as Democrats were known for being “soft” on Communism

• RFK (since JFK trusted him) was asked to negotiate with one of Khrushchev’s diplomats through back channels, agreeing to the USSR would remove its missiles ASAP and the US would remove their missiles in Turkey in 6 months to make it seem like the US and USSR didn’t secretly negotiate with each other

James Meredith

first African-American to attend the University of Mississippi in 1963

• Extremely smart that he could go to Yale or Harvard, but decides to attend a regular university to open up this university to more colored people

• Couldn’t be restricted from going to University of Mississippi due to Brown v. BoE of Topeka

• Meredith is allowed to register during half-time of a Friday night football game in order for students on campus to not see this happening

• Governor explains during half time that Meredith has been admitted, and he said that the federal government has invaded

• Football ends up desegregating the south, as people that didn’t care much about civil rights but they needed good African-American football players, leading to integration

16th Street Bombing

refers to the bombing of the 16th street church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed 4 African-American girls

• Emmett Till happened 8 years prior to this, and MLK was growing more impatient with his move for civil rights

Medgar Evers

NAACP lawyer murdered in Mississippi in 1963 with his killer convicted in 1988

• Shot in the face from across the street as he innocently tried to pick up a newspaper at his home in front of his house

• His killer was connected to the KKK and bragged about it and was initially found not guilty until new evidence was presented through an additional examination of Evers’ body 25 years later

George Wallace

governor of Alabama and supporter of segregation that was shot while running for president in 1972

• Shot in stomach at point-blank range and was handicapped for the rest of his life due to the bullet hitting his spine

• His best friend was African-American, and he helped him out for the rest of his life

Lee Harvey Oswald

man who allegedly murdered JFK

• Never convicted of the murder of JFK

• Dallas police beat him up because he beat up a cop