american history

Birmingham Campaign

• Goal is to draw public attention to protests to publicize the Civil rights movement and pressure President Kennedy on civil rights

• Birmingham Police, led by Commissioner Bull Connor, reacts violently

• Context of MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

Black Panther Party

• Black Power organization founded in Oakland, CA by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966

• Sought revolutionary decolonization of Black people worldwide — including Black Americans

• Focused on community aid in Black neighborhoods

  • Community social programs

  • Community defense programs (particularly against police)

• Embraced optics of carrying guns and other self-defense imagery

Brown v. Board of Education

• Supreme Court decision ruling that the “separate but equal” doctrine was unconstitutional in the case of public education

• Culmination of legal efforts of NAACP Legal Defense Fund

• “We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.” - Chief Justice Earl Warren

Containment Doctrine

• Develops out of analysis of Soviet aims in “Long Telegram”

  • Written by George Kennan, diplomat posted to US embassy in Moscow

• Recommendation is that the US counters the Soviets forcefully by containing Soviet expansionism without resorting to outright war

• Kennan argues that internal contradictions of Soviet system and competition with US will eventually lead to Soviet collapse

• Kennan’s analysis becomes doctrine of “containment” involving use of political, diplomatic, economic, and military pressure to stop Soviet expansion

Détente

• Larger strategy of Nixon to ease tensions between United States, Soviet Union, and PRC

  • Secondarily seeks to get Soviet and Chinese support for end to war

• Leads to US normalizing relations with PRC (and ending recognition of modern-day Taiwan as legitimate government of China)

• Does decrease tensions in larger context of Cold War, but fails to end war in Vietnam

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• Resolution passed by Congress after Gulf of Tonkin Incident

• Gives the President wide latitude “to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States” in Southeast Asia

• Allows Johnson to escalate conflict in region without Congressional declaration of war

Joseph McCarthy

• Republican Senator from Wisconsin

• Decides in 1950 to make communists in government his political focus

• Claims extensive infiltration of the US government by communists and holds hearings accusing departments and agencies for not taking issues seriously

• Campaign falls apart when he unsuccessfully tries to investigate communists in the US army

Kennedy Assassination

• Kennedy assassinated on November 22nd, 1963 during his trip to Dallas

• Investigation finds Lee Harvey Oswald responsible

• Lack of in-depth investigation leads to growing distrust, both in the specific conclusions and government in general

Lavender Scare

• Extension of Red Scare

• Targeting of gay and lesbian federal employees on belief that they were

  • Security risks

  • Dangerous to American social and moral values

• Thousands lose their jobs

• Helps encourage formation of early gay rights organizations

Malcolm X

• Black activist arguing for Black self-defense and Black nationalism

  • Skeptical about effectiveness of non-violence and desirability of racial integration

• Spokesman for Nation of Islam for a time, before break with organization and subsequent shift towards more conciliatory stance

• Assassinated in 1965 by unclear perpetrators

Manhattan Project

• Secret US military research project during WWII to develop atomic bomb

• Involved research sites across country, led by Los Alamos Laboratory

• Leads to first atomic test at Los Alamos on July 16, 1945

March on Washington (1963)

• Coordinated rally in Washington DC on August 28th, 1963

• Organized by variety of civil rights organizations

• March demands passage of

  • Comprehensive civil rights legislation

  • Protection of the right to vote

  • Desegregation of all public schools

  • Federal works program to train and place unemployed workers

  • Passage of Federal Fair Employment Practices barring discrimination in employment

• Draws an estimated 250,000 participants

National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933

• Establishes National Recovery Administration

• Suspends antitrust laws, allowing industries to fix prices to avoid collapse

• Establishes labor protections of wages, hours, and guaranteed right to unionize

• Ultimately ruled unconstitutional by Supreme Court in 1953, but Wagner Act (1935) continues union protections

New Deal Coalition

• Political Coalition that Roosevelt is able to fashion together in support of his Presidency

  • People living in cities

  • Traditional Southern Democrats

  • Unionized workers

  • Marginalized Groups (Especially African Americans)

• Becomes increasingly fragile after death of Roosevelt

Port Huron Statement

• 1962 publication by Students for Democratic Society

• Expresses what “young people” saw as wrong in society

  • Ongoing discrimination and segregation

  • Cold War and threat of nuclear annihilation

  • Environmental degradation

• Calls for participatory where all people are able to take part in democratic decision-making, guiding national, state, and local policy

Santa Barbara Oil Spill (1969)

• 3-million gallon oil spill from oil platform off coast of Santa Barbara, CA in early 1969

• Causes massive ecological devastation in the local marine environment

• Publicity surrounding spill (and particularly impacts on wildlife) provides impetus for growing environmental movement

Silent Spring (1962)

• 1962 book by marine biologist and science writer Rachel Carson

• Discusses ecological impacts of DDT, a widely used pesticide

  • Accumulation of chemical in the food chain

  • Die offs of birds

  • Eventual threat to human health

• Argues humans should be careful of how they treat nature because they can never know the full impact until it actually takes place

Social Security Act of 1935

• Major social insurance program proposed by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins

• Includes both public pension program for retired workers and unemployment insurance

• Massively popular to present

• Doesn’t include farm workers and domestic

Tet Offensive

• Coordinated military campaign launched by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong coinciding with Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet)

• Offensive ultimately fails, but momentarily sees significant successes including fighting within the US embassy in Saigon

• News coverage of the Offensive is broadcast to Americans and reveals how out-of-control the war really is

The Election of 1960

• Reflection of 1950s “liberal consensus”

• Republican Richard Nixon and Democrat John F. Kennedy both run on maintenance of welfare state and anti-communism

The Feminine Mystique

• Book published by journalist Betty Friedan in 1963

• Argues that there was a growing sense of dissatisfaction among women against social norms that dictated they should occupy domestic roles — she calls these social norms the “feminine mystique”

• Friedan argues that women should be able to work outside the home and not face discrimination in doing so

• Book resonates with women across the country — but is limited in it’s analysis of working class women and women of color

The Great Society

• Support for Arts & Public Media

  • National Endowment for the Humanities

  • National Endowment for the Arts

  • Corporation for Public Broadcasting

• Environmental Protections

  • Wilderness Act

  • Environmental Protection Laws

  • Urban Mass Transit

• Consumer Protection Laws

  • Truth in Packaging

  • Truth in Lending

  • Child Safety (Pill bottles, inflammable sleepwear)

  • Auto and Highway safety (Seat Belts

• Good Government Reforms

  • Freedom of Information Act, 1966

• Healthcare

  • Eradication of Smallpox

Vietnamization

• Strategy of newly-elected President Nixon

• Emphasizing transferring ground operations to South Vietnamese military while US escalates air operations

• Begins slow withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam

• Also involves replacement of military draft with all-volunteer army

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Expansion of protections of Civil Rights Act to cover voting rights specifically

  • Bans state actions that “result” in voting discrimination against minorities even if that is not the explicit goal of the law

  • Bans literacy/understanding tests

  • Places strict oversight rules and enforcement where offending states must get changes to voting laws approved by Federal Government or Federal courts

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

• Does smaller projects requiring less skilled workers (roads, sidewalks, etc.)

• Hired directly by Federal Government from people recieving federal relief payments

• Includes programs for youth, writers, artists, etc.

• Provides jobs to 8.5 million Americans from 1935 to 1943