Study Guide BFI - History Theme 3: 1970-1991

US presidents from 1933 to 2000:

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt “FDR” 1933-1945

• Harry S Truman 1945-1953

• Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961

• John Kennedy 1961-1963

• Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-1969

• Richard Nixon “Tricky Dick” 1969-1974

• Gerald R. Ford 1974-1977

• Jimmy Carter 1977-1981

• Ronald Reagan 1981-1989

• George H.W. Bush 1989-1993

• William “Bill” Clinton 1993-2001

Civil rights 

1865

• 13th amendment - abolishes slavery 

• 14th - life, liberty, property, cant lose their rights without process of law 

• 15th - right to vote for everyone → black were too poor to vote at first 

Jim Crow laws 1875 —> Legalised the segregation of public facilities 

Plessy v. Ferguson = Separate but equal 1896 —> Black people can be equal and separated at the same time (black towns, universities) = made segregation LEGAL —> failure of reconstruction, white south has its way, segregation never been resolved

Why Civil Rights took off in the 1950s

Before 1950s, black people are in poverty, disproportionate to white 

• African Americans demanded change→ educated ones (growth of black urban working class), want real equality, voting blacks in the North mobilised, grassroots movement

• Liberalism starts to happen, WW2 fought for the Free world but blacks fought for a country that does not treat them well —> growing frustration, receive no recognition

• Nazi scientific racism out of fashion → US racist, shows hypocrisy of liberalism 

• Embarrassing image for the US, how can they convince it is the champion of the free when racist + cold war, “look at the imperialists, the racists” vs Communism where everyone is equal 

• NAACP, founded in 1909 (National Association for the advancement of coloured people)

  • Kissing case, 1958, Monroe NC —> two black boys, 7 and 9 years old, were convicted of molestation and sent to a juvenile facility when a white girl (7 to 8 yo) told her mother she had kissed both of them on the cheek. NAACP members and other Civil Rights org. protested the charges, trial, and sentencing, and demonstrations/protests happened all over the country. The Judge’s decision was overturned in 1959.

  • Photos of demonstrations and reports of the case publicly embarrassed the US

    • Doll test - little black girl presented with 2 white, 2 black dolls, choses white → segregation is taught

    • Black lawyers → leading movement 

• Media - becomes very visible, contradict belief in liberalism

Brown v. Board of Education 1954 —> Makes Jim Crow society ILLEGAL, Argued that white schools were better equipped than black school, separate but NOT equal, EQUALITY WAS BROKEN —> Segregation isn't healthy for society but US, especially in the South, does not want to desegregate 

Earl Warren Court significance 1954  (Earl Warren - moderate republican supreme court chief justice) —> Says that separate but equal has no place = unconstitutional, ordered states to create public schools free of racial discrimination —> resistance especially in the South

Led the “rights revolution” → guaranteed right to legal counsel, required Miranda rights (“ You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney.”)

= "Massive resistance"  by white people  —> United white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation, Grassroots movement in the S. to resist desegregation 

Rosa Parks —> Becomes a test case, has the power to fight, fought for civil rights, wanted to sit in front because segregation was illegal

Bus Boycott 1955-1956 strategy of protest —> 381 days, start walking out of solidarity, it works, grassroots rev who forced change on the system 

Martin Luther King Jr. - nonviolent direct action and deeply spiritual man 

• Appears in response of boycott and rosa parks, leads boycott and gets famous, catapulted into fame

• Ghandi was his role model - against the caste system, oppressive internal system, anti imperialist

• Peaceful resistance 

• Disruption of institutions - go into segregated institutions and stay - break cultural norms, don't respond with violence, give moral high ground to blacks on TV where they are beaten by whites, the world sees the racial state, not ideal during cold war 

• Refusal to respond to abuse 

• Role of black church → christian response central to leadership 

• MLK starts southern christian leadership conference

Emmett Till 1955 —> 14 years old boy gets drowned / lynched / mutilated by white mobs because he whistled at a white girl

• Drew attention to plight of African Americans 

• 14 years old boy gets drowned / lynched because he whistled at a white girl, gets shot, cut, dragged by a man, drowned in 1955 

• Open casket = mom shows it publicly, political advertisement to show the injustice

• Case goes to trial, jury said not guilty to people who did that to him —> African Americans outraged

Little Rock Arkansas 1957 —> Pick 9 outstanding black students to go to white high school to break segregation, blocked on their first day, Governor deployed national guard to stop the kids from entering —> Have to call US military to stop this to allow kids to come in, kept there for a while until mobs die down 

SNCC - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee —> "Sit-ins" - strategy of protest, lunch counter sit-in 1960 at a Woolworths (eventually desegregates)

Kennedy’s role in Civil Rights

• “New Frontier” : vision for progress and change in the United States during Kennedy’s presidency (1961-1963) —> address domestic issues such as economic inequality, education, healthcare, and civil rights + emphasising space exploration and technological advancement

• Wanted to inspire a sense of national purpose and unity, calling on Americans to embrace innovation and work together to tackle societal challenges

• Social Security benefits increased→ retirement, Minimum wage raised→ helps working class

• Focus on white problems that affected black communities indirectly because MLK in his ear

• First 2 years in office→ Kennedy ignores Civil Rights, after MLK walk 1963→ Kennedy proposed the CR legislation, then killed in 1963

Freedom riders→ people from North went to the south to register people to vote

Birmingham Jail and civil disobedience - 1963 strategy of protest. People rioted very aggressively for Civil Rights and police responded with lots of force —> “Disobey unjust laws”, “jail no Bail” MLK —> protesters were filling up the jails and not paying bail so the money would not go to the police department and no more people could get arrested since the jails where full

Children marched, and then KKK bombed a church 1963

"Freedom Summer" 1964 

• THE VOTE, people went to go register black people in the south to vote

• Teach in “freedom schools” → helps with the inferior educational opportunities of blacks in the South

• LBJ gets elected

• White people would help Black people → 2 whites were beaten to death in a protest and the US finally saw the violence that was going on in the South

LBJ - Lyndon B. Johnson - Great society —> big government to help the people

• Became president in 1963 after K. death and then gets elected in 1964, looked like FDR, left democrat 

• Was a huge win, had both houses of Congress

• Passed Kennedy’s legislation in 1964 —> Civil Rights Act

• Ends legal racism with:

  • Civil rights act→ July 2nd 1964 —> Finally after 100 years since Civil war, addressed problems of civil rights correctly.

  • Voting Rights Act → 1965 (federal protection to vote)

  • Started blacks on long road to greater equality, more and more black people became the middle class, caused whites in the south to leave dem party and become rep (these Whites are called ‘Dixiecrats’)

  • Fair housing Act→ 1968 (prohibited discrimantion when buying or renting a house)

  • Affirmative action → 1965 (prioritize minorities) 

  • Immigration and Nationality Act → 1965

  • Thurgood Marshall and Abe Fortas→ first black men supreme court

• Institutional racism illegal but systemic racism still present, institutionalised

• Keynesian economics 1964 —> Tax cut, wanted to help economic growth and increased consumer spending, business investments and tax revenue —> 10 B tax cut, GNP soared, gov increased its revenue→ very good, K. Economics accepted

• LBJ and the Great Society (Welfare State)

  • Most ambitious plan of government action / gov spending in a time of non-crisis

  • Like FDR big government, most liberal president

  • War on Poverty→ community Action Program (to help the poor), Economic Opportunity Act (job training), model cities Act (urban dev, reinvest in urban center, white flight to suburbs), legal Aid (guaranteed attorney if go to court)

  • Education→ head start program, higher education act, elementary and secondary schools act, more educational opportunities offered to lower classes

    Provide food stamps

  • Medicare and Medicaid→ Welfare State created by LBJ, Medicaid→ for poor, Medicare→ for old

  • Everyone in the middle won’t get help from this, requires people to work because will get healthcare if you work full time somewhere

• Why the Great Society was defended

  • Poverty reduced from 20 to 12 %

  • Infant mortality lowered

  • Housing the poor improved

  • Backlash: white middle class doesn’t vote for it because does not do anything for them

  • Problems: with the cost of the Vietnam War, can’t afford welfare programs anymore→ need to cut some out, only medicare/aid stay. 

The Nation of Islam

• Another Black movement, Nationalist response to white majority, believe in black superiority over “white devils”, Islamic religion tells them they are a good pop 

• Founded in 1930 to improve status of AfA→ wore suits everywhere, looked clean, grew to 300 000 members in 1960s

• Brought pride and dignity to black people because could clean up the neighborhoods

• Anti: gay, semitic, white

• Advocated for self-defence→ get a gun, not supported by MLK

Malcolm X —> Was a criminal then joined the N. Islam, becomes most famous member / spokesman, scared the white people because of violence and was amazing public speaker

• Abandoned the NoI to go preach racial cooperation → gets assassinated In 1965 by NoI

Main message: discrimination led many black American to despise themselves, he said that this self-hatred cause black Americans to lose their identity, start to straighten their hair and become involved in crime/ drugs/alcoholism

Black Power

• Urban movement - Intimidation of police, sit on the streets with guns when they were arresting someone black - Oakland, Cali and Berkeley at the heart of movement

• Black Panther Party —> militias in Black neighbourhoods to protect Black communities from White aggression

• Urban ghetto riots→ related to them, fighting against police brutality, intimidate the police

• Philosophy of self-defence→ get guns, rejected nonviolent actions → scared Americans 

• Armed revolutionary socialist organisation advocating self-determination of black ghettos

Race riots of 1968

• Wanted to make America ashamed of what they where doing→ athletes lifted up their fists and lowered their head at the olympics to shame US

• Race riots started in LA and then spread, were very violent

• After MLK death in 1968→ race riots exploded in more than 100 US cities, black communities were outraged

• Chicago riots → buildings destroyed, US looked very bad to rest of the world, needed to change
  
  

Nixon and the ‘New Right’

• To the middle/ blue collar white society, looks like the US society is going downhill → see the black and feminist movement going on, do not identify with these causes, all they see is the chaos and riots —> Rejection of liberalism

• ‘New Right’ - American politics shift to conservatism in the 70s and 80s, advocating for limited government intervention in the economy, traditional social values, strong national defence, and individual freedom (libertarianism, individual autonomy rather than big government).

• All these people with those who support the Vietnam war→ VOTE NIXON who was against the rights revolution→ thought it was to help the criminals, needed to be through with them

• Nixon is elected president in 1969. Stays president until 1974 (re-elected in 1973, resigns in 74) because of Watergate scandal. Big moments of his presidency include:

  • Ending the Vietnam War: policy of Vietnamization, gradually withdrawing American troops from Vietnam while increasing support for South Vietnamese forces —> ceasefire in 1973

  • Opening relations with China: Nixon visits China in 1972, diplomatic efforts —> normalisation of relations between the United States and the PRC

  • Détente with the Soviet Union: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) reduces the risk of nuclear conflict between the superpowers

  • Economic policies: wage and price controls to address inflation and stabilise the economy + ended the gold standard = "Nixon Shock"

New Left / Counterculture 

New Left - broad political movement that emerges from Counterculture in the 1960s and continues through the 1970s - progressive values, social justice

• Student movement - used to be upper class now middle class, education more accessible 

• Anti-war movement 

• 1968 Democratic Convention —> Goal was to determine who would run for president on behalf of the Democratic party. Issues such as removing American troops from Vietnam and increasing the voting age for draft soldiers (who were 18 but could not vote until 21) were discussed.

Counterculture - cultural movement that emerged in the mid-20th century as a response to the dominant social norms and values of the time.

• Emerged in the 1950s and gained momentum throughout the 1960s —> reaction against the conformity and materialism of post-World War II society

• Embraced values that challenged mainstream society: anti-authoritarianism, individualism, experimentation with alternative lifestyles, and a rejection of traditional social norms (gender roles, sexuality, and consumerism)

• Intertwined with social and political activism (civil rights, women's rights, environmentalism, opposition to war especially Vietnam)

• Music, art, literature, etc. —> Genres such as rock and roll, folk, psychedelic music + avant-garde art, experimental literature

• Drug Use: use of psychedelic drugs, such as LSD and marijuana, as a means of expanding consciousness

Free Speech Movement —> began in 1964 at UC Berkeley where students protested the school’s restrictions of political activities on campus → students went more and more to universities (to avoid war), started editing newspapers = free speech, talk / protested against teachers (came from conseil de classe / délégués)

Feminist Movement:

• First Wave Feminism (late 19th to early 20th century): The first wave primarily focused on legal issues, particularly women's suffrage and property rights. It aimed to achieve basic political equality for women.

• Second Wave Feminism (1960s to 1980s): reproductive rights (such as access to contraception and abortion), workplace equality, and challenging traditional gender roles and expectations ALSO domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sexual liberation

  • THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE by Betty Friedan, published in 1964 - emancipate from loneliness from being a housewife, less and less get married, more divorces since women work more 

  • 1963 equal pay act - part of Kennedy’s new frontier program 

  • Title VII of the 1964 civil rights act - equal treatment in the office 

  • Title IX 1972 - made sexual discrimination illegal in education and workplace, includes pregnancy and sexual orientation 

  • Roe v Wade 1973 - abortion legalised → starts CULTURE WAR - conservatives will use religion to have more votes 

  • National organisation for women NOW - help start fem movement 

• Third Wave Feminism (1990s to present): emphasised intersectionality, recognising that feminism should address the experiences of women from diverse backgrounds + body positivity, reproductive justice, transgender rights, and combating systemic oppression in various forms.
  

Chicano movement - MX - American In Cali, underpaid, fought for better rights and treatment 

• Immigration reform act by Reagan 1986

Native American power - growing in number

• 1972 Indian education act 

• 1976 Indian child welfare act
  

Gay liberation - 1969 stonewall riots: biggest even in gay rights, 1st time, pride marches, reason : police raid in the Stonewall Inn, NY, illegal to be gay, 1973 : removed it from being a mental disorder, 2015 gay marriage legal

• AIDS - declared to be an epidemic in 1981, said to be only by gays but wrong, according to WHO, 35 million died and 70 million infected since 70s —> Government reaction was very slow. In 1983, an article in the NYT refers to the disease as “GRID” (Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease) —> worsens stereotypes about the disease
  

Environnement : 1970 EPA envir. Protection agency, endangered species act

France 

1975 Veil law on abortion - holocaust survivor, french health minister, under Valery Gistarg d’Estein 

March for Equality (1983) - march for issues of racism and immigration, first time like this in FR, racist muder of a black 13 yo in Marseille, police brutality 

SOS Racisme (1984) - association founded to fight racism in France, still exists today, Slogan: “ touche pas a mon pote”, founded by PS, help victim legally in trials about racism

PACS 1999 - equivalent to marriage, legal union between 2 people, allows same sex 

May / June 1968

Large population of children born in good times with high expectations → came with baby boom, generation of economic growth, no wars, youth culture started to be created (schools, consumer market as they were working), ignored old tastes and old customs 

Had no clear policy change just don't like it

Inequalities still there → labor groups wanting better working conditions

• Universities → overcrowded, no co-ed dorms, poor facilities, gray (Nanterre, shanty towns and immigrants) vs the grandes écoles that were elitist hierarchical institution in the middle of democratic society → more worried about getting a job, too many social studies students 

• Poor leadership conditions, radicalisation in the university through marxist pov, anti-materialist arguments, anti-vietnam protests in US, civil rights, environment  

Want a better and more equal society, more democracy - 10 million go on strike - get wages increase, easier to unionise by Pompidou 

Protests were very violent, 150 police injured 

Loss of support with de gaulle (failed to bring peace, too old couldn't understand them) and vandalism → pompidou afterwards, ended with middle class frightened bc business and grocery stores shut down

Right turns to neoliberalism but culture turned to New Left (civil rights, feminism) 

Political right won, protests did nothing but cultural left won 

→ REPRESENTED MALAISE OF MODERN LIFE AND DESIRE TO REJECT THE STATUS QUO 

→ CREATIVITY AND LIFE VS CONFORMITY AND CONSUMER SOCIETY, GRAY LIFE

Youth started to become involved in politics

Kinda fails because students left for vacation 

Nanterre bidonville 1960s / context 

Grown up with humanistic rhetoric of the enlightenment → university full of faculty with same beliefs and marxism → helped RADICALIZE the student pop 

Algerian war 

Students groups of the time reject old left but have marxist, che ideas 

Vietnam war protest in Nanterre and created domino effect, everybody joined 

Government didn’t fight for order when Sorbonne closed because of Occident (violent far right group fighting left), unconcerned about mass protests in the streets 

Conservative ascendance and the end of the liberal consensus 

Liberalising: China under Deng privatising properties and business ; UK : Thatcher, denationalising industries and resists unions ; US : Reagan - deregulation and cut gov spending 

1964 Reagan Speech→ ‘The Speech’ / “A Time for Choosing" - says big gov is the problem, outlined goals of modern conservative movement: small gov, lower taxes, personal autonomy, more aggressive policy for comm states, problem in US with stagflation and Vietnam (confidence prbl, JAP growing fast, US scared on world competition.

= Reagan Revolution : rejection of 60s and big gov, NATIONALISTIC US, appeal to people not for civil rights, are for V war and reject big gov

Continuation of the ‘New Right’ with Reagan —> conservative Christianity, traditional values

• oIssues: prayer removed from school 1962, legalisation of abortion 1973

• Christian right - people enthusiastic to go back to christianity - televangelism - christian priests on TV

• United christians against abortion

• Culture War→ cultural revolution towards the right 

• Phyllis Schlafly, founder of the STOP ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) anti-feminist movement (1970s) - women who didn't want to change constitution to help women, felt insulted in her jobs of housewives 

Broken Gov: tax burden, gov regulation too excessive, massive social spending programsedf

Reagan is elected in 1981 : 

• Ascendance of conservatism in 1980s can be partially attributed to the economic “stagflation” of the Carter years (describes an economy characterised by high inflation, low economic growth and high unemployment)

• Reaganomics —> widespread tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased military spending, deregulation of domestic markets

• Reagan adopted the supply-side economic theory

  • Supply siders favoured simultaneous tax cuts and reduction in spending to encourage investors and entrepreneurs TO END INFLATION and ESCAPE STAGFLATION → tax cuts helps economy but not inequality 

• If we cut taxes and gov programs, we will put $ in hands, spend it and invest it, will employ people and you get more taxes since more people are working → doesn't give gov a lot of $ 

  • 1981 - cut taxes 5%, 1982 10%, if too much tx people don't want to pay

  • Reduced tax rates of the wealthiest Americans, 28%

  • Tax revolt - rich expands constituency → gets larger spending base and sell it as voting tool

• TRICKLE DOWN economics, tax reduction, federal spending reduction, deregulation of business, weakening unions (have too much power), rebuild US military => deep recession in 1981, 82, 83 but end stagflation, does not work, higher interest rates, cuts spending → wants to beat the commu, space race, outspend USSR until they drop  

• Unions ignored→ 1981→ workers went on strike, Reagan told them to go back to work or else would be fired, did not so fired 15 000→ raised his popularity ratings

• Military spending: increased by over 50% between 1981 and 1988→ high budget and not at war→ said would not spend a lot and cut bg government but did…

• Deregulate: Got rid of environmental regulations and drilled for more oil

• Welfare (War on poverty→ LBJ claimed to end poverty→ was down from before but was growing→ where is the $, not effective to end poverty)

  • End of welfare→ claimed that there were welfare mothers that didn't want to get married because they could lose welfare→ Reagan cuts welfare and make them go to work, conservative wants everyone to work

  • conservatives condemn theses welfare programs→ helped propel reagan into the presidency in 1980

  • Reagan cut all welfare programs (child nutrition, mental health services,...)except for Medicare and Medicaid→some claimed it raised poverty

  •  Reagan left→ the economy was in the middle of expansion after WWII, growing faster with less expansion, inflation fell, disposable personal income rose, unemployment was down.

• Recession and Rebound 

  • Production levels go down, stock market is unhealthy, unemployment rises, consumer spendings decline

  • Oil crisis 1973,79→ oil $ went down so maybe why we got out of stagflation and Reagan looked good  

• Problems : competition with JAP, rising trade deficit because of deficit 

  • Reagan failed to balance budget by 84→ keeps on spending militarily (kept going up form 1980-1988),

  • Raising inequality: poverty, pressure on middle class, new jobs not paid well, rising poverty → we don't share at all in our economy, elites benefited most, got rich and banks too due to deregulation even through recessions 

• NEOLIBERALISM 

  • Refers to market-oriented reform policies such as: "eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets, lowering trade barriers" and reducing, especially through privatisation and austerity, state influence in the economy.

  • Massive tax cuts for the rich, the crushing of trade unions, deregulation, privatization, outsourcing and competition in public services. Through the IMF, the World Bank, the Maastricht treaty and the World Trade Organization, neoliberal policies were imposed – often without democratic consent – on much of the world.

Key terms : 

• Civil Rights   

• March for Equality (1983) 

• SOS Racisme (1984)

• Counterculture

• Title IX (1972)

• Roe vs. Wade (1973)

• Veil Law on abortion (1975)

• Stonewall (1969)

• Pride Marches

• AIDS

• PACS (1999)

• ‘The New Right’

• Systemic Racism (US)