Early 1960s study guide

Early 1960’s - Study Guide


Terms to Know:


Cuban Missile Crisis- the standoff between the US against Cuba and Russia in an attempt by America to extinguish communism from Cuba, but Cuba was handed missiles by Russia. This transaction would be the standoff and brink of nuclear war.


John F. Kennedy- 35th president, assassinated 1963 in Texas, helped the US avoid a nuclear war with the USSR, lurked over the Soviets weapons in Cuba.


Nikita Khrushchev- Soviet leader, placed missiles in Cuba


Greensboro Sit-Ins- These were African Americans who peacefully protested the segregation of dinners and other establishments by peacefully sitting in white only section of the dinner.


Freedom Rides- A form of protest, rode busses through segregated towns/states, challenged state segregation 


John Lewis- co-founder and chairman of SNCC, Lewis led and helped organize many of the seminal moments in the Civil Rights movement, including the Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, and the Selma to Montgomery Marches


March on Washington- “I have a dream” speech by MLK; was for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or the Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans


Civil Rights Act of 1964- The act would be the end to discrimination and racism by law, but even so the discrimination would not stop.


Voting Rights Act of 1965- This act would give the right to vote to black males, but the resistance to let African males to vote would be astronomical.


Lyndon B. Johnson-Took over after Kennedy's assassination, signed civil rights bill, created his own agenda in order to carry out the civil rights plans


March on Selma- A march from Selma Alabama to the capital (Montgomery), The march was to fight for equal voting rights for African Americans, faced with several obstacles along the way.


Civil Disobedience- This is the action of disobeying unconstitutional laws and reform the laws into a better world. Example: sit ins


Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)- Made up of mainly college students, important in filling the void of the lack of protestors after MLK’s arrest, protested peacefully


Be sure to review some of the Cold War PSA’s - understand the tension and paranoia that was felt in everyday life regarding some of the Cold War threats. 

People were scared of Nuclear war, it was an active fear 

(pretty sure this is with those uh OH twilight zone episodes)- shows like public paranoia and fear


Think about our discussions about the diplomatic approach to easing Cold War tensions taken by John F. Kennedy.

  • United states was lurking over Cuba spying on their missiles

  • JFK agreed to take the missiles out of Turkey (since that was next to Russia) as long as Krushgcuz took the ones in Cuba down (it was an agreement but the US took them down later so the public eye wouldn't see the US making deals with communism, it was all hidden) 

  • It was suggested to Kennedy to arm the spy planes with weapons to fight back when shot down as happened, but Kennedy said no, “But if we start to fire in response- a chain reaction will quickly start that will be very hard to stop. The same thing in regard to the essence of the issue of the missile bases in Cuba.”

 


Examples of civil disobedience as well as the violent resistance southern cities fought the peaceful protestors with. 

  • Sit-ins: it started in Greensboro, NC when 4 people of color decided to sit at a lunch counter since they were refused service. They were not allowed to sit there since that counter was for whites only. This protest spread awareness across the country and encouraged more sit-ins across the southern states. Whites standing behind waiting could be seen angry and mistreating the protestors pouring things ontop of them 

  • Freedom Rides: rode interstate buses as a form of peaceful protest against segregation. They also stopped at bus stations along the way and used the facilities for white people. Evnetually at the end after a large mob of angrey southerners attacked the bus, one threw a bomb into the bus.

  • March on Selma: first illegal since they didn’t have authorization to actually do the march from Selma to Montgomery. Then got permission to do so


John Lewis and MLK’s calls for ‘dramatizing the issue’ and what that means in the context of nonviolent resistance. 

Dramatizing the issue- meaning making the situation look worse than it is to draw attention and promote change towards the underlying issue. 

In terms of nonviolent resistance - Sit-ins would need to be more widespread across the South to further emphasize the problem of segregation and discrimination in the South.