Demobilization post-WWII

 At the end of WWII, the US military demobilized and dropped troop strength from 12

million to 1.5 million by 1947. Defense spending dropped from $76 billion in 1945 to

$20 billion in 1946.

2. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act—1944

 Popularly known as the GI Bill of Rights, this provided money for college and loans to

help purchase homes.

 The primary intent was to avoid a postwar recession. It did so in part by taking a large

number of veterans out of the labor market and sending them to college (where they

gained the skills to drive America’s postwar boom) and by expanding the demand for

new home construction.

3. The Employment Act of 1946 (NOT in OpenStax)

 This committed the federal government to ensuring economic growth. It established the

president’s Council of Economic Advisors to help reach this goal. A conservative

Congress stripped from the original bill the goal of full employment and the enhanced

executive powers Truman wanted to achieve that objective.

4. The Postwar Economic Boom—1945-1970

 National income doubled in the 1950s and nearly doubled again in the 1960s. Almost

60% of American families owned their own homes in 1960 compared with less than 40%

in the 1920s.

 Causes of the Boom: 1) an industrial base untouched by WWII, 2) a high level of

government spending, especially for defense, 3) cheap energy, 4) increased industrial

productivity resulting in part from a better-educated workforce, 5) increased farm

productivity (15% of the nation farmed in 1945; 2% in 1990).

5. The Election of 1948 (NOT in OpenStax)

 Truman faced a daunting challenge in 1948. Republicans had won control of Congress in

1946 and appeared to be ready to win back the White House with their nominee Thomas

Dewey. The Democrats hoped to dump Truman and draft Eisenhower (who declined to

run). Then the Democrats split three ways: Strom Thurmond led a walkout of Southern

Democrats offended by Truman’s support for civil rights (Thurmond won four Southern

states.) Henry Wallace, opposed to Truman’s strong Cold War position, led the left wing

of the Democratic Party into the new Progressive Party.

 Truman, however, refused to concede. He ran an aggressive whistle-stop campaign,

giving the “Do-Nothing” Republican Congress “hell” for its passage of the Taft-Hartley

Act and speaking in favor of civil rights and health insurance. He won.

6. Truman’s Point Four Program (NOT in OpenStax)

 The fourth point of Truman’s inaugural address dealt with a plan to lend money to poor

countries for economic development. Truman hoped that economic development would

help these nations resist communism.

7. The Fair Deal

 Truman’s Fair Deal sought to continue and extend FDR’s New Deal. Truman managed to

win a minimum wage increase, a public housing bill, and an extension of Social Security

to more beneficiaries.

 He was unsuccessful in his call for national health insurance, aid to education, civil rights

legislation, and the repeal of Taft-Hartley.

8. Taft-Hartley Act—1947

 Although World War II had brought full employment to the American worker, wages had

generally not risen. When inflation hit 25% in 1946, increasing numbers of unions, freed

from the wartime ban on strikes imposed by patriotism, struck for higher wages. A record

number of strikes in many industries hit the nation. In particular, a railroad strike

paralyzed the economy.

 The congressional sentiment that made the Wagner Act possible in 1935 began to shift

after World War II. The damaging strikes of 1946 set the stage for the Taft-Hartley Act in

1947. This act 1) banned the closed shop, 2) allowed states to pass right-to-work laws

banning union shops, 3) prohibited secondary boycotts, 4) required a sixty-day cooling

off period before a strike, and 5) allowed the federal government to impose an eighty-day

injunction on strikes affecting the national welfare. President Truman vetoed the Taft-

Hartley Act, calling it a slave-labor bill. Congress passed the bill over the president’s

veto.

9. Landrum-Griffin Act—1959 (NOT in OpenStax)

 Congress passed the Landrum-Griffin Act in l959 with the intent of policing the internal

affairs of labor unions. The act called for regular union elections and secret ballots and

required union leaders to report on their unions’ finances. It also prohibited ex-convicts

and communists from holding union office. The Landrum-Griffin Act was passed

because during the late l950’s the American public became concerned over reports that

some labor union leaders had misappropriated funds and were involved in corruption.

The Cold War and McCarthyism

10. Cold War

11. The Policy of Containment

 In 1946 Stalin announced that there could be no peace between communism and

capitalism. US diplomat George F. Kennan wrote a long memo in which he described the

inexorable Soviet tendency to expand unless it was contained by an overwhelming force.

 Kennan recommended a US policy of using economic, diplomatic, and military pressure

to contain the Soviet Union and prevent it from gaining control of any new territory.

12. Domino Theory

 Truman, as well as later US presidents, subscribed to the domino theory. This was the

belief that once one country fell to communism, its neighbors would be likely to topple

like a row of dominoes. With the fall of China in 1949, the first domino had fallen.

American presidents were determined to stop the process there.

 This was part of the doctrine of containment.

13. Iron Curtain

 In a 1946 speech, Winston Churchill used the phrase “iron curtain” to describe the line of

Soviet control over Eastern Europe. Countries behind the Iron Curtain were described as

satellites of the USSR.

14. National Security Act—1947

 As a response to the Cold War, Congress passed the National Security Act, unifying the

armed forces in one Department of Defense and creating the Central Intelligence Agency

(CIA) to coordinate the gathering of foreign intelligence and the National Security

Council to advise the president.

15. The Truman Doctrine—1947

 When Greece and Turkey were threatened by communist subversion, Britain announced

that it was broke and could not aid them.

 Truman pledged the US to provide economic and military aid to nations threatened by

armed minorities or outside groups. Congress sent $400 million to Turkey and Greece to

help them resist communism. Truman’s view was that it would be cheaper in lives and

dollars to strengthen allies when they were threatened than to fight a war to free them

after they fell to communism.

16. The Marshall Plan—1947

 With the economy of Europe still struggling after WWII and with several Western

European nations facing the threat of communist takeover, Secretary of State George

Marshall proposed a massive program of aid to rebuild Europe.

 Republicans in Congress were committed to a return to isolationism, but when

communists took over Czechoslovakia in February 1948, Congress quickly approved the

Marshall Plan.

 Although the aid was offered to all European nations, the Soviet bloc rejected it as a US

attempt to gain economic control of Europe.

 Western Europe’s economy improved with Marshall Plan aid. The US also benefited

from Marshall Plan-financed purchases by Europe as well as having stronger European

economies to trade with.

17. The Selective Service System—1948 (NOT in OpenStax)

 In another response to the Cold War, Congress brought back the draft to provide the

military with sufficient forces for containment.

18. Cold War Germany and Berlin

 At Potsdam Conference, the Big Three decided to split up Germany and Berlin after they

unconditionally surrendered. Both the nation and its capital city would be split up four

ways. Western Germany and Western Berlin would be split into three zones,

administered by France, England, and the US. Eastern Germany and Eastern Berlin

would be administered by the Soviet Union. NOTE: Berlin is located in Eastern

Germany. Germany reunified in 1990.

19. Berlin Airlift—1948-1949

 In an attempt to dislodge the Allies from West Berlin, Stalin cut off access by road and

rail. Truman refused to bow to Soviet intimidation and yet did not want to go to war.

 Instead, American and British air crews brought in 2.5 million tons of supplies (food,

fuel, medicine, even coal) by air for almost a year.

 Stalin eventually backed down. This episode made clear the US determination to resist

Soviet aggression during the Cold War.

20. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—1949

 This was an attempt to use collective security to contain Soviet expansion. Member states

agreed that an attack on one would be regarded as an attack on them all and pledged to

use armed force if necessary to defend NATO members.

 Original members included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland,

Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States. Later on,

Greece, Turkey, and West Germany joined.

21. Soviet Atomic and Nuclear Arms

 In 1949 the Soviets exploded an atomic bomb, several years before US experts thought

they would be able to do so. No longer did the US have a monopoly on atomic weapons

with which to control the Soviets.

 In response, Truman ordered the development of the hydrogen bomb or H-bomb (fusion),

a weapon many times more powerful than the atomic bomb (fission). The US first

exploded a hydrogen bomb in 1952, but the Soviets tested theirs in 1953.

 Americans assumed that the Soviet spies must have stolen US atomic secrets in order for

the Russians to develop weapons so quickly, another element in the Red Scare of the

1940s and ’50s.

22. China Falls to Communism…

 The US had for years been supporting nationalist Chiang Kai-shek against communist

Mao Zedong. But corruption and a reluctance to engage in land reform doomed the

nationalist effort. In 1949 Mao triumphed and Chiang and his supporters fled to the island

of Taiwan (Formosa).

 The communist triumph led to much debate and recrimination in the US as to who lost

China, one element in the Red Scare of the 1940s and ’50s.

23. America in Japan - 1940s (NOT explicitly in OpenStax)

 Under General Douglas MacArthur, the US enjoyed strong success in the

democratization of Japan. MacArthur dictated to the Japanese a new parliamentary

constitution renouncing militarism. The Japanese cooperated fully, and the US

occupation was relatively brief and successful.

24. Smith Act—1940 (NOT in OpenStax)

 The Smith Act was the first peacetime anti-sedition law since 1798. It banned any

advocacy of the violent overthrow of the government. In 1949 eleven leaders of the

American Communist Party were convicted under the Smith Act. The Supreme Court

upheld the convictions in Dennis v. US, ruling that communism presented a clear and

present danger to the US.

25. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy—1950-1954

 McCarthy originally focused on anti-communism as a re-election tactic; it proved

successful. McCarthy was noted for his sensational charges and lack of solid evidence; he

did not uncover a single spy or case of subversion.

 Army-McCarthy Hearings: In 1954 McCarthy accused the US Army of being soft on

communism. In a dramatic series of televised hearings, McCarthy exposed himself to the

country as a bully and a blowhard. His influence waned, and he was censured by

Congress for contemptuous behavior. But for a period of time, he was the most feared

man in America.

26. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

 In 1950, the British arrested Klaus Fuchs, a scientist who worked on the Manhattan

Project. Fuchs confessed to passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during WWII. Named

among his associates were the Rosenbergs. Despite their protests of innocence, they were

convicted of espionage in 1951 and executed in 1953, the only Americans ever executed

in peacetime for espionage, another element in the Red Scare of the 1940s and ’50s. (In

the 1990s, Soviet documents were uncovered that implicated Julius but not Ethel in

espionage.)

27. Truman’s Loyalty Review Board—1947

 In order to demonstrate the administration’s anticommunist fervor, Truman set up a

Loyalty Review Board to check government employees for signs of communism. After a

list was drawn up by the Attorney General of “subversive” organizations, 3.2 million

government employees were investigated. No employees were formally charged, but

around 200 were dismissed as to security risks and 2,900 resigned or withdrew their

applications.

28. House Un-American Activities Committee

 In 1947 HUAC began a series of hearings on the influence of communism on American

life. One set of investigations looked into communist influence in film; the Hollywood

Ten were blacklisted for refusing to testify about their past political activity or associates.

 Richard Nixon rose to national prominence with the HUAC investigation of Alger Hiss,

State Department official who had been an advisor at Yalta and who had helped organize

founding of the UN. Though Hiss was not convicted of espionage, he was convicted of

perjury, spreading concerns that highly placed officials were aiding communists, another

element in the Red Scare of the 1940s and ’50s. (In the 1990s, Soviet documents were

uncovered that implicated Hiss in espionage.)

29. The United Nations—1945

 Intended to be a more robust version of the League of Nations, the UN has a general

assembly and a Security Council with five permanent members (US, USSR, Britain,

France, and China) who can veto Security Council actions.

30. NSC-68 (NOT in OpenStax)

 National Security Council Memorandum 68 recommended that the US quadruple defense

spending to meet the challenges of the Cold War. Initially, this recommendation was

ignored, but the Korean War cleared the way for its implementation. By 1953 defense

spending took up two-thirds of the federal budget.

 Remember, at the end of WWII, the US military demobilized and dropped troop strength

from 12 million to 1.5 million by 1947. Defense spending dropped from $76 billion in

1945 to $20 billion in 1946.

31. The Korean War—1950-1953

 After WWII, Korea, a colony of Japan since 1910, had been divided into two areas

occupied by the USSR and the US. In June of 1950, North Korean communist forces

invaded South Korea. With UN approval, President Truman ordered US troops to

respond.

 The communist forces nearly pushed the UN troops off the Korean peninsula. But a

dramatic counteroffensive led by General Douglas MacArthur at Inchon reversed the tide.

MacArthur drove the communist forces back across the 38th parallel and close to the

Chinese border.

 MacArthur wanted to extend the war into China to eliminate communism in Asia.

Truman wanted to fight a limited war, fearing an invasion of China would lead to WWIII

and would leave Western Europe without US protection. The dispute escalated with

MacArthur making his disagreements with his commander-in-chief public. Truman

finally relieved MacArthur of his command.

 Chinese forces entered the war in November of 1950 and pushed the UN forces back to

the 38th parallel. There the war remained stalemated for two years while treaty

negotiators haggled over terms.

32. Voice of America—1948

 This government agency was created to make radio (and later TV) broadcasts of news

and entertainment into foreign countries, especially into those controlled by communists.

 McCarthy investigated this agency in 1953.

33. Arthur Miller

 Author of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, Miller based his works off widespread

investigations and subservice activities accompanying the era of McCarthyism.

 In 1956, Miller was called before HUAC to name people he had seen 10 years ago at a

communist writers’ meeting. He refused, was convicted of contempt, appealed, and won.

34. The Twenty-Second Amendment

 Ratified in 1951, the 22 nd Amendment set term limits for the POTUS. If elected, the

President can only serve two terms. It also sets the maximum time the POTUS can serve

at 10 years if the person is to succeed to the office.

35. Election of 1952

 Truman did not run for a second term in office. Instead, the 1952 election was the first

major election where someone new would enter the White House. The Republicans chose

Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower (WWII Supreme Allied Commander) and the Democrats

chose Adlai Stevenson (an FDR New Dealer). Eisenhower defeated Stevenson in a

landslide election.

 The Election of 1952 is significant for several reasons: We see Nixon continuing to

obtain political power as Eisenhower’s Vice President. This was the first election to use a

computer to predict the election. CBS Studies used the Universal Automatic Computer I

(UNIVAC I) to crunch the numbers on Election Day. It predicted Eisenhower’s landslide

victory and we have used computers to poll ever since.

36. Military-Industrial Complex

 In 1961 just before he left office, Eisenhower, a former five-star general, warned the

country against the combined power of the military and defense contractors to influence

public policy. Said Eisenhower, “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power

exists and will persist.”

37. Massive Retaliation

 Massive retaliation was the US doctrine that any Soviet aggression would be countered

with the full force of the American nuclear arsenal.

 This works on the same principles as Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). If one

country launches its nukes, the other side will respond. Both will be mutually destroyed,

along with most of the world’s population.

 The sequel to Fallen.io discusses the close calls we came to a nuclear war…

38. Sputnik—1957

 When the Soviets launched the first satellite into earth orbit, it led to fears of Soviet

technological superiority. Americans feared that this could give the Soviets a space

platform for launching nuclear missiles.

 The American response included increased spending on science education and the

creation of NASA to coordinate the US space program.

39. Missile Gap (NOT in OpenStax)

 After Sputnik, Democrats charged that the Eisenhower administration had allowed

America to fall behind in the space race. In his 1960 presidential campaign, John

Kennedy blamed Republicans for a missile gap. In reality, the Soviets trailed the

Americans in intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

40. National Defense and Education Act—1958

 At the time of Sputnik, the USSR produced twice as many scientists and engineers as did

the US. Congress passed the NDEA to close this real gap. The NDEA provided loans to

students and funds for teacher training and for the development of new instructional

material for science, math, and foreign languages.

41. Ho Chi Minh

 Ho Chi Minh was living in France during the Versailles Peace Conference (1919) under

the name Nguyen Ai Quoc (“Nguyen the Patriot”). He asked to see Wilson and the Big

Three (Britain and France), but Wilson refused. Ho Chi Minh wanted the Big Three to

recognize Vietnamese people with equal rights to with the French rulers. Obviously,

France was not going to let that happen.

 From 1919 to 1945, Ho Chi Minh’s popularity would grow. During WWII, with French

Indochina (Vietnam) under Japanese control, Ho would infuse the ideas of Communism

with Vietnamese Nationalism. This resulted in the Viet Minh. Directly after WWII, on

September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared independence for the Democratic Republic of

Vietnam from the French colonial powers.

 The US opposed this, since Ho was a communist, and supported the French war to

defeat Ho. By 1954 the US was paying 80% of the cost of the French fight to retain

its colony.

 His declaration of independence started off with, “‘All men are created equal. They are

endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty,

and the pursuit of Happiness.’ This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of

Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means:

All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be

happy and free. The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of

Man and the Citizen also states: ‘All men are born free and with equal rights, and must

always remain free and have equal rights.’ Those are undeniable truths” (“Declaration of

Independence of the DRV”) Why did Ho Chi Minh quote both the American Declaration

of Independence and the Declaration of the French Revolution?

42. Geneva Summit Meeting—1955 (NOT in OpenStax)

 This was the first US-Soviet summit since WWII. Though no agreements were reached,

the US was encouraged by the friendly nature of the talks.

43. Hungarian Revolt—1956

 When the government of Hungary announced its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw

Pact, the Soviet Union sent troops and tanks to crush the revolt. The US declined to

intervene.

44. Suez Crisis—1956

 President Nasser of Egypt needed foreign aid to build the Aswan Dam on the Nile. The

US offered the money but refused to sell him the weapons he wanted. So Nasser turned to

the USSR for aid and nationalized the Suez Canal. Israel invaded Egypt, along with

Britain and France, trying to seize the canal by force. The US forced the allies to

withdraw their troops.

 This included one of the rare times when an American president went against the wishes

of Israel: Eisenhower demanded that Israel return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.

 The Suez Crisis is also known as the Second Arab-Israeli War.

45. Eisenhower Doctrine (NOT mentioned in OpenStax)

 This focused on the strategically important Middle East, which President Eisenhower saw

as vulnerable to communism. Eisenhower offered Middle East nations economic and

military aid and promised armed support to repel communist aggression.

 Egypt and Syria rejected the Eisenhower Doctrine as a US plot to dominate the Arab

world.

46. U-2 Incident—1960 (NOT mentioned in OpenStax)

 Shortly before President Eisenhower was to meet with Soviet Premier Khrushchev in

Paris, the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane deep in Soviet territory.

Eisenhower at first tried to cover up, claiming that the plane was a weather plane that had

flown off course. But eventually, he had to admit to spying on Russia (which, of course,

was spying on the US). This soured already bad relations with the USSR. The Paris

summit accomplished nothing.

The American Dream (if you’re white)

47. Suburbs

 With GI Bill home loans, federal tax deductions for home mortgage payments, and

increasing prosperity, home ownership in the suburbs became more attractive than

apartment life in the cities. By 1960 one American in four lived in a suburb.

 One effect of this was that cities increasingly became enclaves of minorities and the poor.

Urban problems became more concentrated and intense as the middle and upper class

moved out in a phenomenon known as white flight.

48. Levittown

 In 1946 William Levitt built the first post-war planned suburb on a former potato field on

Long Island, New York. Every house was identical with trees placed every twenty-eight

feet; critics saw these cookie-cutter housing developments as evidence of social

conformity. However, residents were delighted with the sturdy, inexpensive ($7,990)

houses. Levitt held down prices by using assembly-line techniques to build entire

communities; crews finished a house every fifteen minutes.

49. American Mobility

 Always a restless people, Americans became more mobile after WWII with at least 30

million people changing residences every year. In particular, Americans moved from the

old industrial Northeast to the Sunbelt, the South, and Southwest. This was in part due to

heavy federal spending in Sunbelt states.

 One effect of this was to shift the political center of the nation from the Northeast to the

Sunbelt. For example, between 1952 and 2012, all presidents except Kennedy, Obama,

and Trump came from Sunbelt states.

50. Federal Aid Highway Act (1956) (NOT in OpenStax)

 In 1919, Eisenhower participated in the first US Army Transcontinental Convoy. The

convoy left the White House on July 7, 1919 and followed the Lincoln Highway from

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Despite traveling along the first transcontinental highway in

the US, Eisenhower and the Convoy reached San Francisco on September 6, 1919.

 After this experience, and his extensive observation of the Autobahn in Germany,

Eisenhower signed the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act in 1956. This

allocated $25 billion to construct 41,000 miles of interstate highway (the largest public

works project in US history).

 The addition of Defense in the actual law’s name was for two reasons: 1). Eisenhower

diverted defense funds, 2). It would allow the US military to quickly mobilize if there

was an attack or foreign invasion.

51. The Affluent Society—1958 (NOT in OpenStax)

 This book by economist John Kenneth Galbraith took a critical look at the American

economy. His view was that the emphasis on continual production led to the creation of

artificial wants through advertising and to an eventual condition of private wealth and

overconsumption while public goods (roads, schools, hospitals) are neglected.

52. Social Conformity and Rebellion

 Related to this move to the suburbs was an increase in social conformity. Critics noted

adherence to stereotyped gender roles, subordination of individuality to careerism, and

the supplanting of spiritual values with consumerism.

 One reaction to this conformity was the Beat Movement. Writers such as Allen Ginsburg

(whose poem “Howl” excoriated the mechanization and materialism of society) and Jack

Kerouac (whose novel On the Road glorified a life of spontaneity and freedom from

cultural norms) provided an alternative vision.

 A second reaction was rock-and-roll music. Originating in the field hollers of plantation

slaves, spirituals of the black church, and blues of the Mississippi Delta, rock crossed

over to white teen audiences in the 1950s. Southern conservatives saw it as part of a plot

to foul the purity of white blood. Others were convinced that rock would unleash the

animal instinct in teenagers, leading to sexual promiscuity. Not surprisingly, these

condemnations by adult authority figures only enhanced the popularity of rock music.

53. The Baby Boom

 Between 1946 and 1964, Americans cranked out tons of babies. By 1957, there was an

American baby born every seven seconds.

 The huge size of this generation (76 million) ensured that it would have disproportionate

effect on society (emphasis on child rearing the 1950’s, the youth culture of the 1960’s, a

home construction boom in the 1970’s, etc.).

 As the baby boomers aged, the size of this generation created challenges of funding

entitlement programs for the elderly including Social Security and Medicare. These

programs caused a ballooning of the national debt.

54. Rock and Roll (the 1950s version of “It’s the Devil’s music!!”)

 The single greatest genre of lyrical music.

 Although country music somewhat symbolizes US history, largely due to the problematic

ideology of Manifest Destiny (remember, it is designed to maintain conformity amongst

cows), rock and roll provides a greater symbolism of American history with respect to its

musical roots, its economic segregation, and its rebellious identity. See what I did there?

55. Segregation in Music

 As mentioned above, music was also segregated. For example, “Hound Dog” by Elvis is

a cover song! The original song was written and sung by Big Mama Thornton. The same

with Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” covered by Pat Boone and The Chord’s “Sh-Boom,”

covered by The Crew Cuts. If you listen to these, how do these sound? Which one sounds

“cleaner?” Which one sounds more “organized” and less improvised?

 Music was segregated because the radio stations and music labels were segregated! Little

Richard, Fats Domino, The Chords, and Big Mama Thornton would appear on black

record labels and only be played on black-owned radio stations. The vice versa for the

white covers. Even the music ratings were separated! Black artists, regardless of the

genre, were rated via the R&B charts, while white music would appear on the Pop charts.

 Of course, the white covers were more popular than the originals.

56. United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. – 1948

 Despite previous court challenges, the Big 5 movie studies controlled the movie industry.

Each studio had its own “vertical integration” of directors, actors, and writers, which led

to smaller movie makers and theater owners to pursue legal action.

 The case dismantled the Hollywood studio system, which greatly boosted the growth of

television into the 1950s.

57. Hollywood Ten

 These were ten motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who testified

before HUAC and refused to answer questions regarding their possible communist

affiliations. After serving jail time for being in contempt of Congress, the ten were

blacklisted by Hollywood studios.

The Beginning of the Civil Rights Movement

58. Desegregation of the Military—1948

 Prior to the War of 1812, blacks fought in integrated military units. But from 1812

through WWII, US military units were segregated.

 Following WWII, President Truman was appalled by the killing of several black veterans.

 Because he feared legislation in Congress would be blocked by Southerners, Truman

decided to desegregate the military through an executive order. Executive Order 9981,

signed on July 26, 1948, barred discrimination against military personnel on the basis of

race, color, religion, or national origin.

59. Brown v. Board of Education—1954

 Linda Brown had been denied permission to attend her neighborhood school in Topeka, a

school reserved for whites. This unanimous decision by the Supreme Court ruled that

segregated schools “are inherently unequal” and that they should be desegregated with

“all deliberate speed.”

 This, perhaps the most significant Supreme Court decision of the century, overturned the

1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that had allowed “separate but equal” facilities.

 One significant figure in the desegregation fight was attorney Thurgood Marshall. For

many years the chief counsel for the NAACP, Marshall successfully argued the Brown

case before the Supreme Court and in 1967 became the first African American justice on

the Supreme Court.

60. The Warren Court

 Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court in the 1950s and 1960s issued a

number of landmark rulings. In response, conservatives demanded the impeachment of

Warren (never a realistic option in Warren’s case). The Warren Court rulings in several

areas contributed to a widening cultural divide between liberals and conservatives.

 Civil Rights—Brown v. Board of Education desegregated public schools.

 Rights of the Accused—Miranda v. Arizona required that suspects be informed of their

rights. Gideon v. Wainwright ensured that attorneys would be provided to defendants too

poor to afford them.

 Right to Privacy—Griswold v. Connecticut overturned a state law banning the use of

contraceptives, ruling that the Constitution does protect privacy, in this case, the right to

marital privacy.

 School Prayer—Engle v. Vitale ended school-sponsored prayer in public schools.

61. Thurgood Marshall

 Marshall was the lawyer who successfully argued before the Supreme Court in the Brown

v. Board of Education decision. He used to psychological, sociological, and historical

data to show how “separate but equal” negatively impacted both black and white schools.

 Marshall would later become the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court

(1961-1991).

62. White Citizens’ Councils

 Eighty percent of Southern whites opposed the Brown decision. President Eisenhower’s

refusal to publicly endorse Brown encouraged white resistance. The KKK was

revitalized, and groups such as the White Citizens’ Councils, more respectable than the

Klan but just as opposed to integration, sprang up.

63. Central High School—1957 (Little Rock Nine)

 When Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called out the National Guard to block the

integration of Little Rock’s Central High by nine black students, Eisenhower was forced

to act. He sent federal troops (the 101 st Airborne Division – D-Day, Market Garden,

Battle of the Bulge, etc. – Band of Brothers?!) to protect the students from mob violence.

 After that school year, Faubus shut down Little Rock’s public high schools for a year

rather than cooperate with integration, a tactic that was copied in many areas of the

South.

64. Civil Rights Act of 1957 (NOT in OpenStax)

 This was the first federal civil rights law since Reconstruction. It established a permanent

federal commission to investigate violations of civil rights. Eisenhower reassured

Southerners that it was “the mildest civil rights bill possible.”

65. “The Southern Manifesto” – 1956

 The Declaration of Constitutional Principles was a formal rebuke to the Brown decision,

sharply rejecting integration. There was 101 congressmen who signed the document (99

Democrat and 2 Republicans). All members were from the South.

 Three Southern Senate Democrats refused to sign the declaration. The most notable non-

signatory was Lyndon B. Johnson from Texas.

 Notable quote: “This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the

Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the States principally affected. It is

destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been

created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It has planted

hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding.”

66. Emmett Till

 Till was an African American 14-year-old when he was kidnapped and brutally

murdered in Mississippi. Till was supposedly dared by his friends to talk to a girl and

after buying some candy, said “Bye, baby,” to the white woman behind the cashier. She

alleged Till did more than that (which she later stated were false claims), and her

husband and step-brother kidnapped Till, beat him to death, and drowned him. When

Till’s brother was recovered three days later, his uncle could not even identify the corpse

(Till was wearing an initialed ring).

 Rather than burying Till’s disfigured corpse, his mother had the body sent back to

Chicago to hold an open-casket funeral. Till’s body was photographed for the whole

world to see. It is considered to be the most heinous act of racial violence in the South,

as well as the direct catalyst to the Civil Rights Movement.

67. Rosa Parks—1955

 In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white man on a

city bus. Her arrest led to a year-long boycott led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Eventually,

the Supreme Court affirmed a decision outlawing segregation on the buses.

 This boycott brought Martin Luther King to national prominence. It also demonstrated

the power of nonviolent protest.

68. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (NOT in OpenStax)

 Formed by Martin Luther King in 1957, this organization of black preachers helped to

guide the civil rights movement. The SCLC was a force for nonviolent change.