8.9 - 8.12

New Frontier

President John F. Kennedy’s domestic agenda. Kennedy promised to battle “tyranny, poverty, disease, and war,” but, lacking strong majorities in Congress, he achieved relatively modest results.

Great Society

President Lyndon Johnson’s vision of social, economic, and cultural progress in the United States. The size and scope of Johnson’s Great Society programs were rivaled only by Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Freedom Rides

Integrated bus rides through the South organized by CORE in 1961 to test compliance with Supreme Court rulings on segregation.

March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom

August 28, 1963 rally by civil rights organizations in Washington, D.C. that brought increased national attention to the movement.

Commission on the Status of Women

Commission appointed by President Kennedy in 1961. The commission’s 1963 report, American Women, highlighted employment discrimination against women and recommended legislation requiring equal pay for equal work regardless of sex.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Wide-ranging civil rights act that, among other things, prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and employment and increased federal enforcement of school desegregation.

Freedom Summer

1964 civil rights project in Mississippi launched by SNCC, CORE, the SCLC, and the NAACP. Some eight hundred volunteers, mainly white college students, worked on voter registration drives and in freedom schools to improve education for rural black youngsters.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Summer

Political party formed in 1964 to challenge the all-white state Democratic Party for seats at the 1964 Democratic presidential convention and run candidates for public office. Although unsuccessful in 1964, MFDP efforts led to subsequent reform of the Democratic Party and the seating of an interracial convention delegation from Mississippi in 1968.

Voting Rights Act

1965 act that eliminated many of the obstacles to African American voting in the South and resulted in dramatic increases in black participation in the electoral process

Black Panther Party

Organization founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale to advance the black power movement in black communities.

Affirmative Action

Programs meant to overcome historical patterns of discrimination against minorities and women in education and employment. By establishing guidelines for hiring and college admissions, the government sought to advance equal opportunities for minorities and women.

School Busing

Mandatory nationwide initiative to integrate schools, begun in 1971 to comply with the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board. The practice of school busing continued in the U.S. well into the 1990s. Also known as “busing” or “desegregation busing.

Students for a Democratic Society

Student activist organization formed in the early 1960s that advocated the formation of a “New Left” that would overturn the social and political status quo.

National Organization for Women

Feminist organization formed in 1966 by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and other like-minded activists.

Equal Rights Amendment

A proposed amendment mandating the “equality of rights under law … by the United States or any State on the basis of sex.” Not enough states had ratified the amendment by 1982, when the ratification period expired, so it was not adopted.

Roe v. Wade

The 1973 Supreme Court decision that affirmed a woman’s constitutional right to abortion.

La Raza Unida

A Chicano political party, formed in 1969, that advocated job opportunities for Chicanos, bilingual education, and Chicano cultural studies programs in universities.

American Indian Movement

An American Indian group, formed in 1968, that promoted “red power” and condemned the United States for its continued mistreatment of American Indians.

McCarran-Walter Immigration Act

1952 legislation that made it possible for Japanese non-citizens to become U.S. citizens. However, the act still maintained a race-based system of discriminatory national-origin quotas.

Stonewall Riots

1969 uprising after New York City police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gathering place for gay men, and tried to arrest patrons. This uprising helped inspire the gay liberation movement of the 1970s.

Port Huron Statement

Students for a Democratic Society manifesto written in 1962 that condemned liberal politics, Cold War foreign policy, racism, and provided needed services to the urban poor, but they also fostered corruption, crime, and inefficiency.

Free Speech Movement

Movement protesting policies instituted by the University of California at Berkeley that restricted free speech. In 1964 students at Berkeley conducted sit-ins and held rallies against these policies.

Counterculture

Young cultural rebels of the 1960s who rejected conventional moral and sexual values and used drugs to reach a higher consciousness.