Eisenhower Era and Civil Rights Lecture Notes

Vocabulary terms and historical figures from the lecture covering Eisenhower's domestic and foreign policy, the Space Race, Cold War interventions, and the early Civil Rights Movement.

National Interstate and Defense Highway Act

A massive infrastructure program under Eisenhower to build an interstate system, modeled after the German autobahn, intended to create jobs and facilitate the evacuation of cities during a nuclear war.

Sputnik

The first Russian satellite launched into space by the Soviet Union, which took the United States by surprise and initiated the space race.

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration; a civilian organization created by the United States a year after Sputnik to catch up in the space race through basic research and peaceful use of space.

Yuri Gagarin

The first human being to travel into space, representing the Soviet Union.

Neil Armstrong

The first American man to walk on the moon, effectively moving the goalposts of the space race for the United States.

Barry Goldwater

A Republican figure in the 1960s who redefined the party platform as being explicitly against the New Deal, calling Eisenhower's approach a "dimester deal."

Nikita Khrushchev

The Secretary of the Soviet Party who succeeded Stalin and advocated for "peaceful coexistence" while continuing to build nuclear arsenals.

SALT II

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks; agreements where both the U.S. and Soviet Union agreed to limit their nuclear arsenals.

1953 Iranian Intervention

A CIA operation that toppled the democratically elected Iranian government after it nationalized oil, leading to the installation of the dictator Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Jacobo Árbenz

The President of Guatemala who was toppled by the CIA after attempting land reforms that affected the United Fruit Company (Chiquita).

Domino Theory

The strategic theory that if one country (such as South Vietnam) fell to communism, all surrounding countries would also fall, leading to increased U.S. resource commitments.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

The President of Egypt who nationalized the Suez Canal and played the United States and the Soviet Union against each other to get the best deals for his country.

Military-industrial complex

A term from Eisenhower's farewell address describing the dangerous cycle of lobbying and spending between the government, the military, and private arms factories.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The 1896 Supreme Court case that established the "separate but equal" doctrine, which was later overturned in the 1950s.

GI Bill

A law providing affordable mortgages and tuition assistance to veterans, which predominantly benefited white men and contributed to the growth of the suburbs.

Brown v. Board of Education

A 1954 Supreme Court ruling involving five cases (including Linda Brown) that determined separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson.

Thurgood Marshall

The lead attorney for the NAACP in the Brown v. Board of Education case who used photographic evidence to prove that segregated schools were not equal.

Rosa Parks

A member of the NAACP who intentionally violated bus segregation laws in Montgomery, Alabama, to serve as the perfect victim for testing and overturning the law.

Libertarian

A political philosophy characterized by a fear of big government and an advocacy for small government to protect individual freedoms.

Little Rock Nine

A group of nine African American students who integrated Central High School in Arkansas under the protection of federal paratroopers sent by Eisenhower.

SNCC

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; a civil rights group focused on social justice and equality rather than religious elements.

Election of 1960

The presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, won by Kennedy by a margin of 0.2 points, highlighting the new influence of television over radio.