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Civil Rights Act of 1964
Federal law that banned racial discrimination in public facilities and strengthened the federal government's power to fight segregation in schools. Title VII of the act prohibited employers from discriminating based on race in their hiring practices, and empowered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to regulate fair employment.
affirmative action
Program designed to redress historic racial and gender imbalances in jobs and education through measures to improve their economic and educational opportunities The term grew from an executive order issued by John F. Kennedy in 1961 mandating that projects paid for with federal funds could not discriminate based on race in their hiring practices. In the late 1960s, President Nixon's Philadelphia Plan changed the meaning of affirmative action to require attention to certain groups, rather than protect individuals against discrimination.
Great Society
President Lyndon Johnson's term for his domestic policy agenda. Billed as a successor to the New Deal, it aimed to extend the postwar prosperity to all people in American society by promoting civil rights and fighting poverty. The programs included the War on Poverty, which expanded the Social Security system by creating Medicare and Medicaid to provide health care for the aged and the poor. Johnson also signed laws protecting consumers and empowering community organizations to combat poverty at grassroots levels.
Freedom Summer
a voter registration drive in Mississippi spearheaded by the collaboration of civil rights groups, the campaign drew the activism of thousands of black and white civil rights workers, many of whom were students from the north. It was marred by the abduction and murder of three such workers at the hands of white racists
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Political Party organized by civil rights activitists to challenge Mississppi's delegation to the Democratic National Convention, who opposed the civil rights planks in the party's platform. Claiming a mandate to represent the true voice of Mississippi, where almost no black citznes could vote, they demanded to be seated at the convention but were denied by party bosses. The effort was both a setback to civ rights activism in the South and a motivation to continue to struggle for black voting rights.
Voting Rights Act 1965
Legislation pushed through Congress by President Johnson that prohibited ballot-denying tactics, such as literary tests and intimidation. It was a successor to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and sought to make racial disenfranchisement explicitly illegal.
Black Panther Party
Organization of armed black militants formed in Oakland, California, in 1966 to protect black rights. The Panthers represented a growing dissatisfaction with the non-violent wing of the civil rights movement, and signaled a new direction to that movement after the legislative victories of 1964 and 1965.
Black Power
Doctrine of militancy and separatism that rose in prominence after 1965. These activists rejected Martin Luther King's pacifism and desire for integration. Rather, they promoted pride in African heritage and an often militant position in defense of their rights.
Six-Day War
Military conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. The war ended with an Israeli victory and territorial expansion into the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. The 1967 war was a humiliation for several Arab states, and the territorial disputes it created formed the basis for continued conflict in the region.
Stonewall Rebellion
Uprising in support of equal rights for gay people sparked by an assault by off-duty police officers at a gay bar in New York. The rebellion led to rise in activism and militancy within the gay community and furthered the sexual revolution of the late 1960s.
Students for a Democratic Society
A campus-based political organization founded in 1961 by Tom Hayden that became an iconic representation of the New Left. Originally geared toward the intellectual promise of "participatory democracy," It emerged at the forefront of the civil rights, antipoverty, and anitwar movements during the 1960s
Vietnamization
Military strategy launched by Richard Nixon in 1969. The plan reduced the number of American combat troops in Vietnam and left more of the fighting to the South Vietnamese, who were supplied with American armor, tanks, and weaponry.
Nixon Doctrine
President Nixon's plan for "peace with honor" in Vietnam. Stated that the US would honor its exisiting defense commitments but, in the future, countries would have to fight their own wars.
silent majority
Nixon Administration's term to describe generally content, law-abiding middle-class Americans who supported both the Vietnam War and America's institutions. As a political tool, the concept attempted to make a subtle distinction between believers in "traditional" values and the vocal minority of civil rights agitators, student protesters, counter-culturalists, and other seeming disruptors of the social fabric.
My Lai
Vietnamese village that was the scene of a military assault on March 16, 1968, in which American soldiers under the command of 2nd Lieutenant William Calley murdered hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children. The atrocity produced outrage and reduced support for the war in America and around the world when details of the massacre and an attempted cover-up were revealed in November 1969.
Kent State University
Scene of massacre of four college students by National Guardsmen on May 4, 1970, in Ohio. In response to Nixon's announcement that he had expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia, college campuses across the country exploded in violence. On May 14 and 15, students at historically black Jackson State College in Mississippi were protesting the war as well as the shooting when highway patrolmen fired into a student dormitory, killing two students.
Pentagon Papers
Secret U.S. government report detailing early planning and policy decisions regarding the Vietnam War under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Leaked to the New York Times in 1971, it revealed instances of governmental secrecy, lies, and incompetence in the prosecution of the war.
Detente
From the French for "reduced tension," the period of Cold War thawing when the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated reduced armament treaties under Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter. As a policy prescription, it marked a departure from the policies of proportional response, mutually assured destruction, and containment that had defined the earlier years of the Cold War.
Miranda warning
A statement of an arrested person's constitutional rights, which police officers must read during an arrest. The warning came out of the Supreme Court's decision in Miranda v. Arizona in 1966 that accused people have the right to remain silent, consult an attorney, and enjoy other protections. The Court declared that law enforcement officers must make sure suspects understand their constitutional rights, thus creating a safeguard against forced confessions and self-implication.
Philadelphia Plan
Program established by Richard Nixon to require construction trade unions to work toward hiring more black apprentices. The plan altered Lyndon Johnson's concept of "affirmative action" to focus on groups rather than individuals.
Environmental Protection Agency
A governmental organization signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1970 designed to regulate pollution, emissions, and other factors that negatively influence the natural environment. The creation of it marked a newfound commitment by the federal government to actively combat environmental risks and was a significant triumph for the environmentalist movement.
Earth Day
International day of celebration and awareness of global environmental issues launched by conservationists on April 22, 1970
Southern Strategy
Nixon reelection campaign strategy designed to appeal to conservative whites in the historically democratic south. The president stressed law and order issues and remained noncommittal on civil rights. This strategy typified the regional split between the two parties as white southners became increasingly attracted to the Republican party in the aftermath of the civil rights movement.
War Powers Act
Law passed by Congress limiting the president's ability to wage war without congressional approval. The act required the president to notify Congress within forty-eight hours of committing troops to a foreign conflict. An important consequence of the Vietnam War, this piece of legislation sought to reduce the president's unilateral authority in military matters.
Malcolm X
Black militant, radical minister, and spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964. He preached a doctrine of no compromise with white society. Believed in seperatism and black power. He was assassinated in New York City in 1965.
Eugene McCarthy
Liberal anti-war senator from Minnesota who rallied a large youth movement behind his presidential campaign in 1968. Challenging sitting president Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, he captured 41 percent of the vote and helped ensure that Johnson would quit the race.
George C. Wallace
Southern populist and segregationist, as governor of Alabama, he famously defended his state's policies of racial segregation. He ran for president several times as a Democrat, but achieved his greatest influence when he ran as a third-party candidate in 1968, winning five states.
Henry A. Kissinger
National Security Advisor and Secretary of State during the Nixon Administration. He was German and jewish. He was responsible for negotiating an end to the Yom Kippur War as well as the Treaty of Paris that led to a ceasefire in Vietnam in 1973.
Warren E. Burger
the Supreme Court justice during the Nixon administration. He was chosen by Nixon because of his strict interpretation of the Constitution. He presided over the extremely controversial case of abortion in Roe vs. Wade.
Rachel Carson
American conservationist whose book Silent Spring (1962) galvanized the modern environmental movement (clean air and water acts) that gained significant traction in the 1970s
George McGovern
A Senator from South Dakota who ran for President in 1972 on the Democrat ticket. His promise was to pull the remaining American troops out of Vietnam in ninety days which earned him the support of the Anti-war party, and the working-class supported him, also. He lost however to Nixon.
