Chapter 36: American Zenith (1952-1963)

Betty Friedan

Feminist writer and activist → author of The Feminine Mystique

• exposed dissatisfaction of middle-class suburban women

  • limits of their personal growth

• formation of National Organization for Women (NOW)

• Equal Pay Act and Title IX to combat gender discrimination

Dwight D. Eisenhower

34th President of the US and former five-star general → Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe during WWII

• moderate Republican (Cold War + domestic stability)

  • bipartisan support

• Eisenhower Doctrine → aid Middle Eastern nations resisting communist influence

Rosa Parks

Civil Rights activist who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama leading to her arrest

• sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott (yearlong protest of segregation)

  • symbol of resistance

Brown v Board of Education

Supreme Court decision that ruled racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional

• Plessy v Ferguson violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment

  • helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

One of the most influential grassroots organizations in the Civil Rights struggle

• over time became radial → Black power ideology

  • pressuring the federal government into key civil rights legislation

Operation Wetback

Controversial immigration enforcement to address illegal immigration from Mexico

• mass deportation of thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants

  • harsh treatment, family separations, Civil Rights violations (some even mistakenly expelled)

Suez Crisis

Major geopolitical conflict involving Egypt, Britain, France, and Israel

• Egyptian President Nassar nationalized Suez Canal (key waterway for Britain nd France)

  • Britain, France, and Israel launch military intervention

    • surprisingly, both US and USSR said to cut it out

• decline of European colonial influence → rise of US and USSR

  • UN was deployed to keep peace

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries

Organization founded in Middle East to coordinate oil policies and regulate production to stabilize prices

• Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela

  • led to the Oil Embargo in response to America supporting Israel during Yom Kippur War

Kitchen Debate

Exchange between US VP Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at American National Exhibition in Moscow

• Nixon used setting to argue superiority of capitalism and consumerism over Soviet communism

  • Khrushchev countered USSR would surpass US economics and scientific progress

    • Cold War Ideological Rivalry

New Frontier

John F. Kennedy’s vision for progressive domestic policies

• aimed to address social and economic challenges

  • civil rights, anti-poverty, space exploration

• generation of activism and political engagement

Southern Renaissance

Cultural movement where Southern writers, artists, and intellectuals redefined the cultural identity of the American South

• rejected stereotypes of the South

  • integrate Southern culture into broader American literary canon

NASA

the centerpiece of the US Space Race against the Soviet Union during the Cold War

• Initiated the Apollo Program, aiming to land a man on the moon and safely return him

  • advancements in material science, computing, telecommunications

Cuban Missile Crisis

13-day standoff in Cuba between US and USSR

• US discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba prompting JFK to demand them to be removed

  • Soviet Premier Khrushchev agreed to move them if the US pledged not to invade Cuba and remove missiles from Turkey

• signaled the dangers of nuclear proliferation

Freedom Riders

Civil Rights activists who challenged segregation on interstate buses riding through the South

• both Black and white individuals

  • attacked by violent white mobs

    • national attention prompted Kennedy administration to take stronger action

    • eventually ICC enforces desegregation in bus stations

Martin Luther King Jr.

One of the most important civil rights leaders, advocating racial equality, economic justice, and the end of segregation

• Civil Rights Act of 1964 came out of his work

  • demonstrated strength of civil rights movement