Crises of (Social) Citizenship and Civil Rights Lecture Notes

Vocabulary and key conceptual flashcards covering the struggles for civil and social citizenship, the Kennedy presidency, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Social Citizenship

The final stage in T.H. Marshall's historical unfolding of democratic citizenship that promises every member of a society basic economic security and access to material and cultural resources.

T.H. Marshall

The British sociologist who conceptualized citizenship as a historical progression from civil rights to political citizenship, and finally to social citizenship.

Recession of 1957-58

Recognized as the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, it significantly impacted coal mining regions like Appalachia and devastated Black workers.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

A labor organization that experienced a decline in the late 1950s as more people shifted from train travel to traveling by cars and planes.

The Peace Corps

An organization created by JFK to improve the United States' image abroad by sending dedicated men and women to join in a worldwide struggle against poverty, disease, and ignorance.

1959 Cuban Revolution

A rebellion led by Fidel Castro to oust dictator Fulgencio Batista, which led to the nationalization of landholdings where non-Cuban U.S. citizens owned about 75% of farmable land.

Berlin Wall

A structure constructed in 1961 to prevent emigrants from fleeing East Germany, which was allied with the USSR, to West Germany, which was allied with the U.S.

Cuban Missile Crisis

An October 1962 confrontation sparked by USSR nuclear missiles in Cuba; it was resolved when the USSR removed missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade and the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

An organization that emerged in 1960 from the student wing of the League for Industrial Democracy, focused on democratic alternatives and social experimentation.

Port Huron Statement

A June 1962 document by SDS that opposed the 'depersonalization' of human beings and called for an expansion of industrial democracy in the face of nuclear threats.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

A 1963 demonstration organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin to unite demands for economic justice and voting rights.

Proposed National Minimum Wage (1963)

A demand from the March on Washington Organizing Manual No. 1 seeking the establishment of a national minimum wage of not less than $2.00 per hour.

Civil Rights Act (1964)

Legislation signed on July 2, 1964, that prohibited discrimination in employment, hospitals, schools, and public accommodations, though it did not address Southern voting rights.

Title VII

A specific section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that makes it an unlawful employment practice to discriminate against individuals based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Freedom Summer

A 1964 project involving SNCC, CORE, and NAACP (forming COFO) where volunteers went to Mississippi for voter registration and education, facing massive repression and violence.

James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner

Three civil rights workers who went missing and were found killed in June 1964 during the Freedom Summer organizing efforts in Mississippi.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP)

The political group, featuring Fannie Lou Hamer, that challenged the official all-white Mississippi delegation at the Democratic Conference in Atlantic City.