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Fair Deal

Truman's legislative program; it was largely an extension of the New Deal of the 1930s, and Truman had little success convincing Congress to enact it.

Taft-Hartley Act (1946)

Anti-labor law passed over Truman's veto; it provided a 'cooling off' period wherein the president could force striking workers back to work for 80 days. It also outlawed closed shops and allowed states to pass right-to-work laws.

Federal Highway Act (1956)

Largest public works project in United States history; Eisenhower signed the law, which built over 40,000 miles of highways in the United States at a cost of $25 billion and created the interstate highway system.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Supreme Court decision that overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision (1896); led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court ruled that 'separate but equal' schools for blacks were inherently unequal and thus unconstitutional.

Thurgood Marshall

Leading attorney for NAACP in 1940s and 1950s, who headed the team in Brown vs. the Board of Education case; later, Lyndon Johnson appointed him the first black justice on the United States Supreme Court.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

America's greatest civil rights leader, 1955-1968; his nonviolent protests gained national attention and resulted in government protection of African American rights. He was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Rosa Parks

NAACP member who initiated the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 when she was arrested for violating Jim Crow rules on a bus; her action and the long boycott that followed became an icon of the quest for civil rights.

Malcolm X

Militant black leader associated with the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims); he questioned Martin Luther King's strategy of nonviolence and called on blacks to make an aggressive defense of their rights. He was assassinated by fellow Muslims in 1965.

Sit-ins

Protests by black college students, 1960-1961, who took seats at 'whites only' lunch counters and refused to leave until served; in 1960 over 50,000 participated in sit-ins across the South.

Freedom rides

Civil rights campaign of the Congress of Racial Equality in which protesters traveled by bus through the South to desegregate bus stations; white violence against them prompted the Kennedy administration to protect them.

John Lewis

American civil rights activist. He participated in the 1960 Nashville sit-ins and the Freedom Rides, was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966, and was one of the 'Big Six' leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington.

Liberalism

Political ideology in the United States that endorses a regulated market economy and the expansion of civil and political rights, with the common good considered as compatible with or superior to the freedom of the individual.

Great Society

President Lyndon Johnson's social and economic program that helped the poor, the aged, and the young.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Proposed by John Kennedy and signed by Lyndon Johnson; it desegregated public accommodations, libraries, parks, and amusements and broadened the powers of federal government to protect individual rights and prevent job discrimination.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

It expanded the federal government's protection of voters and voter registration; it also increased federal authority to investigate voter irregularities and outlawed literacy tests.

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act)

Abolished the National Origins Formula, which had been the basis of U.S. immigration policy since the 1920s, formally removing de facto discrimination against Southern and Eastern Europeans as well as Asians.

Black Power

Rallying cry for many black militants in the 1960s and 1970s; it called for blacks to stand up for their rights, to reject integration, to demand political power, to seek their roots, and to embrace their blackness.

Betty Friedan

Author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), which raised the issue of a woman's place in society and how deadening suburban 'happiness' could be for women; her ideas sparked the women's movement to life in the 1960s.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed by Congress and submitted to the states for ratification in 1971; it outlawed discrimination based on gender.

Stonewall riots

Series of violent confrontations that began in the early hours of June 28, 1969, between police and gay rights activists outside the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City.

Cesar Chavez

American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union. Ideologically, His worldview combined left-wing politics with Catholic social teachings, advocating for the rights of farm workers through nonviolent protests and strikes.

John Kennedy

President from 1961-1963, the youngest president ever elected, and the first Catholic to serve.

Fidel Castro

Communist leader of Cuba who took power in 1959 and was targeted by the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Bay of Pigs

U.S.-supported invasion of Cuba in April 1961 intended to overthrow Fidel Castro, which failed.

Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet leader from 1954-1964, known for his aggressive revolutionary stance and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Confrontation between the U.S. and USSR over Soviet missiles in Cuba in October 1962.

Vietnam War

Conflict between North Vietnam and its allies against South Vietnam and the U.S., part of the Cold War.

Dien Bien Phu

French fortress that surrendered in 1954, leading to the Geneva Conference and U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of North Vietnam who fought against French and American forces from 1946-1973.

Ngo Dinh Diem

American ally in South Vietnam from 1954 to 1963, whose regime caused the Viet Cong to thrive.

Lyndon Johnson

President from 1963-1969 who created the Great Society but faced division over Vietnam policy.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Authorization by Congress in 1964 empowering President Johnson to protect U.S. forces in Vietnam.

Tet Offensive

A series of Communist attacks in January 1968 that ended the American view of a winnable war in Vietnam.

New Left

Label for the political radicals of the 1960s who supported civil rights and opposed American foreign policy.

Robert Kennedy

John Kennedy's brother who served as attorney general and was assassinated during his presidential campaign.

Hubert Humphrey

Liberal senator and vice president who tried to unite the Democratic party after the 1968 convention.

Silent Majority

Label Nixon gave to middle-class Americans who supported him and wanted 'peace with honor' in Vietnam.

Richard Nixon

President from 1969-1974 known for his anticommunist stance and resignation during the Watergate scandal.

Henry Kissinger

Advisor to Presidents Nixon and Ford, architect of the Vietnam settlement and détente with the Soviet Union.

Detente

Period of easing Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1979.

Watergate scandal

Series of events involving Nixon's obstruction of justice after illegal phone taps on Democrats in 1972.

Gerald Ford

President from 1974-1977 who served without being elected, assuming office after Nixon's resignation.