US History notes Chapters 24-28
Chapter 24:
Effects of growth of business in California: The Los Angeles basin had become an extensive system of trains, trolleys, and buses.
Growth of the Suburbs and its Effects: Shopping shifted to suburban centers and old downtown business districts stagnated. Suburbs became “the center of freedom” promoting Americanization. It cut residents from ethnic communities and brought them fully into the world of mass consumption.
Eisenhower on the Korean War: The Korean War ending convinced him that rather than being blind zealots, the Soviets were reasonable and could be dealt with in conventional diplomatic terms. He wanted to end the Korean War, and it was his focus. He ended it in July 1953. He criticized the Truman administration’s handling of the war, and promised to visit Korea to gain a firsthand understanding. He believed in peace.
Social Contract: agreement hammered out between labor and management in leading industries; called a new “social contract.” Unions signed long-term agreements that left decisions regarding capital investment, plant location, and output in management’s hands, and they agreed to try to prevent unauthorized “wildcat” strikes. It did not apply to the majority of workers who did not belong in unions, although it did bring benefits to those who labored in nonunion jobs. Trade unions were able to use their political power to win a steady increase in minimum wage. The social contract weakened at the end of the 1950s due to the steel industry wanting to tighten work rules and limit wage increases.
50’s television: Television began to transform politics by allowing candidates to bring a carefully crafted image directly into Americans’ living rooms. The 1952 campaign became the first to make extensive use of TV ads. Television also replaced newspapers as the most common source of information about public events, and TV watching became the nation’s leading leisure activity. TV changed American’s eating habits such as the frozen TV dinner, heated and eating while watching a program. TV avoided controversy and projected a bland image of middle-class life. TV ads conveyed images of the good life based on endless consumption and was primarily targeted to middle-class suburban viewers.
US-Soviet Relations: The massive retaliation which declared that any Soviet attacks on an American ally would be countered by a nuclear assault on the Soviet Union itself. The Soviet Union strongly supported the dissolution of Europe’s overseas empires, and communists participated in movements for colonial independence. The Cold War began to shift to the Third World and the containment policies slid over into opposition to any government, whether communist or not, that seemed to threaten American strategic or economic interests. The space race, the success of the Soviets putting Sputnik (the first satellite) into orbit caused a space race. He warned that Republicans had allowed a missile gap to develop in which the Soviets had achieved technological and military superiority over the United States.
Housing Act of 1949: Authorized the construction of more than 800k units of public housing in order to provide a decent home for every American family. The law set an extremely low ceiling on the income of residents, a rule demanded by private contractors seeking to avoid competition from the government building homes for the middle class. This regulation limited housing projects to the very poor, since white urban and suburban neighborhoods successfully opposed the construction of public housing, it was confined to segregated neighborhoods in inner cities, reinforcing the concentration of poverty in urban non-white neighborhoods.
Levittown and who lived there
1950s automobiles: Dominated the domestic and world markets. The rapid expansion of oil production was a result of the tremendous increase in automobile ownership, which led to the explosive growth of urban centers. The automobile transformed the nation’s daily life, becoming the pivot around which a new suburban lifestyle emerged. Federal Aid Highway act, and the interstate system changed American’s’ living and travel habits It made it possible for long-distance vacationing by car, commuting to work, and decentralized suburban living. They had a financial stake in supporting highway construction regardless of any Soviet threat. They led to the building of motels, drive-in movie theaters, office complexes, and roadside eating establishments (such as McDonalds). It also caused increased concern with greater environmental consciousness later in the century.
NAACP: The LULAC was the counterpart of the NAACP, it had pressed legal challenges to separate but equal, at first it sought to gain admission to white institutions of higher learning for which no Black equivalent existed. Marshall launched a frontal assault on segregation and brought the NAACP’s support to local cases that had arisen when black parents challenged unfair school policies. Some made it illegal for the NAACP to operate within their border, state after state blocked it to prevent desegregation.
Brown v Board of Education: The segregation lawsuit. Marshall insisted that segregation was inherently unequal since it stigmatized one group of citizens as unfit to associate with others. He argued that segregation did lifelong damage to Black children, undermining their self-esteem. In its legal brief, the Eisenhower administration did not directly support Marshall’s position, but it urged the justices to consider the problem of racial discrimination in the context of the present world struggle between freedom and tyranny. The decision did not address segregation in institutions other than public schools or ban all racial classifications in the law, such as statutes prohibiting interracial marriage. It did not address school segregation of the north which lied on housing patterns and municipal school board practices rather than state law. It did not order immediate implementation but instead called for hearings as to how segregated schooling should be dismantled.
Montgomery Bus Boycott: Sparked by Rosa Parks’s arrest for refusing to surrender her seat to a white passenger, a successful yearlong boycott protesting segregation on city buses; led by MLK Jr. It was the beginning o the civil rights movement in the South. The is remembered today as a seamstress with tired feet, a symbol of ordinary Black’s determination to resist the daily injustices and indignities of the Jim Crow South.
Teenagers in the 1950s: teenagers danced to rock-and-roll music that brought the hard-driving rhythms and sexually provocative movements of Black musicians and dancers to enthusiastic young white audiences. Playboy magazine also contributed to this factor. It extended consumer culture into the most intimate realms of life, offering many men a fantasy world of sexual gratification outside the family’s confines. Juvenile delinquency and “Teenagers on the Rampage,” and a Senate committee held hearings in 1953 on whether violent comic books caused criminal behavior among young people.
MLK jr: arrived in Montgomery to become a pastor of a Baptist church, became the national symbol of the civil rights movement. King chose the title Stride Toward Freedom. He gave the I have a dream speech, beginning by invoking the unfulfilled promise of emancipation and ending with “free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty we are free at last!”. He was a master at appealing to the deep sense of injustice among Blacks and to the conscience of white America, King presented the case for Black rights in a vocabulary that merged the Black experience with that of the nation. King outlined a philosophy of struggle in which evil must be met with good, hate with Christian love, and violence with peaceful demands for change. King appealed to white America by stressing the protesters’ love of the country and devotion to national values. Southern Christian and Leadership conference were ways he took the lead.
Southern Manifesto: A document that repudiated the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education and supported the campaign against racial integration in public places. It denounced it as a clear abuse of judicial power and called for resistance to forced integration by any lawful means. State after state passed laws to block desegregation because of this. Said it encroached upon the ninth and tenth Amendments, the original constitution never mentioned education, and that there was never an intent that it should affect the system of education maintained by the States. The Court expressly declared that under the 14th Amendment no person was denied any rights if the States provided separate but equal facilities. It then called for southern states to begin closing public schools and offer vouchers to white students to attend segregated academies.
Arkansas after Brown v Board of Education: In Arkansas the Governer used the National Guard to prevent the court-ordered integration of Little Rock’s Central High School. Eisenhower dispatched federal troops to the city. Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division escorted nine Black children into the school. These students were constantly harassed and assaulted, and eight of the nine ended up graduating. It showed that the federal government would not allow the flagrant violation of court orders.
Consumer Culture: The measures of freedom became the ability to gratify market desires. Modern society may well have reduced freedom “in the workplace” by subjecting workers to stringent discipline on the job, but it offered a far greater range of “goods and services” and therefore “a greater scope of freedom” in Americans’ “personal lives” Consumerism replaced economic independence and democratic participation as central definitions of American freedom. Attitudes toward debt changed as well, low interest rates and the spread of credit cards encouraged Americans to borrow money to purchase consumer goods. Americans became comfortable living in never-ending debt. It became more than a way to acquire goods, it promoted as a Patriot Act, a defining feature of American identity, and one that would help the country win the cold war. American consumer goods were now marketed to customers across the globe. “The freedom offered by washing machines and dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, automobiles, and refrigerators” were the most powerful weapons in the Cold War.
Chapter 25:
JFK Inaugural Address: announced a watershed in American politics: “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans who would pay any price, bear any burden to assure the survival and success of liberty.” The speech urged Americans to move beyond the self-centered consumer culture, “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” The speech said nothing about segregation or race, on the outset of his presidency Kennedy regarded civil rights as a distraction from his main concern which was the conduct of the Cold War.
Civil Rights Act: Prohibited racial discrimination in employment, institutions like hospitals and schools, and privately owned public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels, and theaters. Many whites opposed the new law, “I think we delivered the South to the Republic Party.”
Great Society: Proposal for governmental action to promote the general welfare since the New Deal, Johnson’s initiatives of 1965-1967 were known collectively as the Great Society. It provided Medicaid and Medicare and poured federal funds into education and urban development. Departments of Transportation and of Housing and Urban development and the new agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Endowments for the Humanities and for the Arts, and a national public broadcasting network were created. This measure greatly expanded the powers of the federal government, and they completed and extended the social agenda that had been stalled in Congress since 1937. It was a response to prosperity as there was a rapid economic expansion, only fueled by increased government spending and a tax cut on individuals and business initially proposed by Kennedy. Crusades to eradicate poverty, food stamps were created. Additionally, the Great Society represented one of the most expensive efforts in the nation’s history to mobilize the powers of the national government to address the needs of the least-advantaged Americans. Social security was created as well.
Cuban Missile Crisis: The Cuban missile crisis, which was the tense confrontation caused when the U.S. discovered Soviet offensive missile sites in October, seemed to have lessened Kennedy’s passion for the Cold War. The Union was installing missiles in Cuba capable of reaching the U.S. Rejecting advice from military leaders that he authorize an attack on Cuba, which would almost certainly have triggered a Soviet response in Berlin, Kennedy imposed a blockade or “quarantine” of the island and demanded the missiles’ removal. For thirteen days the world teetered on the brink of all-out nuclear war. Kennedy pledged that the U.S. would not invade Cuba and secretly agreed to remove American Jupiter missiles from Turkey, from which they could reach the Soviet Union.
Gulf of Tonkin: North Vietnamese vessels encountered an American ship on a spy mission off its coast. When North Vietnamese patrol boats fired on the American vessel, Johnson proclaimed that the U.S. was a victim of “aggression”. In response, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, authorizing the president to take all needed measures to repel armed attack in Vietnam.
N.O.W.:
Malcolm X: Malcolm X had insisted that blacks must control the political and economic resources of their communities and rely on their own efforts rather than working with whites. He had committed a string of crimes in his youth, Malcolm Little was converted in jail to the teachings of the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, who preached a message of white evil and Black self-discipline. Malcolm dropped his slave surname in favor of X, symbolizing Blacks’ separation from their African ancestry. On release from prison, he became a spokesman for the Muslims and a sharp critic of the ideas of integration and nonviolence and of King’s practice of appealing to American values. He was the intellectual father of Black Power. His appeals to self-defense, community control, and Black nationalism struck a chord among the urban poor and young civil rights activists that resonated well after his death.
Abbie Hoffman: Hoffman was the founder of “yippie” (the youth international party). She showered dollar bills onto the floor, bringing trading to a halt as brokers scrambled to retrieve the money. The counterculture emphasized the ideal of community. Later on, Hoffman was found guilty after a tumultuous trial of conspiring to incite the violence of a police riot. However, the appeals court overturned the convictions because Judge Julius had been fragrantly biased against the defendants.
Feminine Mystique: A feminist consciousness publication that focused on college-educated women, arguing that they would find fulfillment by engaging in paid employment from outside the home. It wrote articles on pay discrimination against women workers and racism in the workplace for the newspaper. It took on themes of emptiness of the consumer culture and the discontents of the middle class. HeR opening chapter painted a devastating picture of talented, educated women trapped in a world of marriage and motherhood. It was to focus attention on yet another gap between American rhetoric and American reality by discussing these issues.
Stonewall Riot: The Stonewall Inn was a gathering place for NYs gay community, but in 1969 it was the target of a police raid. Rather than bowing to police harassment as in the past, gays fought back. Five days of rioting followed, and a militant movement was born. Gay men and lesbians stepped out the “closet” to insist that sexual orientation is a matter of rights, power, and identity. Prejudice against them persisted, but within a few years, “gay pride” marches were being held in numerous cities.
Silent Spring: Silent spring was a book by Rachel Carson about the destructive impact of the widely used insecticide DDT that launched the modern environmentalist movement. DDT was a widely used insecticide used by homeowners and farmers. Carson related how DDT killed birds and animals and caused sickness among humans. Chemical and pesticide companies launched a campaign to discredit her; some critics called the book part of a communist plot. Time magazine even condemned Carson as hysterical and emotional.
Miranda v Arizona: This trial held that an individual in police custody must be informed of the rights to remain silent and to confer with a lawyer before answering a question and must be told that any statements might be used in court. The decisions made “Miranda warnings” standard police practice. The Miranda warning is: “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions, you have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning, if you cannot afford a lawyer one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish, if you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time.
1968 Democratic Convention: it became infamous for the violent clashes between anti-Vietnam War protesters and police outside the convention hall. Inside, the Democratic Party was deeply divided, especially over the Vietnam War. After President Lyndon B. Johnson chose not to seek re-election, the nomination battle intensified. Vice President Hubert Humphrey ultimately secured the nomination without entering the primary contests, which angered many activists and party members. The chaos inside and outside the convention highlighted the deep national tensions of the era and damaged the Democratic Party's image heading into the 1968 presidential election.
“Bloody Sunday”: Bloody Sunday refers to a violent event on January 30, 1972, in Derry, Northern Ireland, when British soldiers shot and killed 13 unarmed civil rights protesters (a 14th person later died from injuries). The demonstrators were marching against internment without trial — a policy targeting suspected Irish nationalists.
The massacre deepened tensions during the Troubles (a conflict between unionists/loyalists and nationalists/republicans) and caused widespread outrage, fueling support for the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Counterculture Movement: Counterculture was the “hippie” youth culture of the 1960s, which rejected the values of the dominant culture in favor of illicit drugs, communes, free sex, and rock music. It extended into every realm of life, the definition of freedom as the right to individual choice, given the purchasing power of students and young adults, countercultural emblems—colorful clothing, rock music, images of sexual freedom, and even symbols of Black revolution and Native American resistance—were soon being mass-marketed as fashions of the day. Self-indulgence and self-destructive behavior were built into the counterculture. The counterculture emphasized the ideal of community, establishing quasi-independent neighborhoods.
Chapter 26:
Affirmative Action: policy efforts to promote greater employment opportunities for minorities. It was pursued by the Nixon administration.
Vietnamization: Nixon announced this place, and under this plan American troops would gradually be withdrawn while South Vietnamese soldier, backed by continued American bombing, did more and more of the fighting. But Vietnamization neither limited the war nor ended the antiwar movement.
Stagflation: Stagflation was a combination of stagnant economic growth and high inflation present during the 1970s. It happens when an economic situation is characterized by high inflation, slow economic growth, and high unemployment. It is a combination of two undesirable economic conditions, making it a challenging situation for policymakers.
3 – Mile Island: nuclear power plant near Harrisburg Pennsylvania, site of 1979 accident that released radioactive steam into the air; public reaction ended the nuclear power industry’s expansion. The rise of environmental movement had promoted public skepticism about scientific experts who touted the miraculous promise of technological innovations without concern for their social consequences. The three Mile Island mishap reinforced fears about the environmental hazards associated with nuclear energy and put a halt to the industry’s expansion.
Nixon and Détente: it was a period improving relations between the United States and Communist nations, particularly China and the Soviet Union, during the Nixon administration. In continuation of Nixon’s policy of detente, the U.S. and Soviets signed an agreement at Helsinki, Finland, that recognized the permanence of Europe’s post-WWII boundaries.
Phyllis Schlafly: helped organize the opposition to the ERA, he insisted that the free enterprise system was the real liberator of women, since labor-saving home appliances offered more genuine freedom than whining about past injustices or seeking fulfillment outside the home. Opponents claimed that the ERA would let men “off the hook” by denying their responsibility to provide for their wives and children.
Reaganomics: popular name for Reagan’s philosophy of “Supply-side” economics, which combined tax cuts with an unregulated marketplace. It initially produced the most severe recession since the 1930s; a long period of economic expansion, however, followed the downturn of. As companies downsized their workfaces, shifted production overseas, and took advantage of new technologies such as satellite communications, they became more profitable. At the same time inflation declined, partly because a period of expanded oil production that drove down prices succeeded the shortages of the 1970s. By the end of his presidency in 1989, the real gross domestic product had risen, and unemployment was down.
Moral Majority: an organization of evangelical religious conservatives founded in 1979 to promote conservative social values. Though disbanded, it helped to establish the Christian Right as an important force within the Republican Party. It was devoted to waging a “war against sin” and electing “pro-life, pro-family, pro-America candidates to office. Falwell identified supporters of abortion rights, easy divorce, and military unpreparedness” as of the forces of Satan. They were deeply agitated by the ongoing sexual revolution, the growing assertiveness of the new gay movement spurred an especially fierce reaction. In 1977 they televised orange juice commercials in Dade County Florida, passed an anti-gay ordinance under the banner “save our children.”
2nd Gilded Age: Buying out companies generated more profits than running them; making deals, not making products, became the way to get rich. Nabisco produced close to $1 billion in fees for layers, economic advisers, and stockbrokers in their close of the Tobacco Company. Greed is healthy, loosened government regulation facilitated irresponsible and risky financial practices. Taxpayers footed the bill for some of the consequences. The deregulation of savings and loan associations allowed these institutions to invest in unsound real-estate ventures and corporate mergers. Losses piled up, and the FSALIC faced bankruptcy. Supply-side advocates insisted that lowering taxes would enlarge government revenue by stimulating economic activity. It was spurred by large increases funds for the military, federal spending far outstripped income, producing large budget deficits despite assurances by supply-siders that this would not happen.
Iran-Contra Affair: Scandal of the second Reagan administration involving sales of arms to Iran in partial exchange for release of hostages in Lebanon and use of the arms money to aid the Contras in Nicaragua, which had been expressly forbidden by Congress. Congresses banned military aid to the contras, in 1985 Reagan secrretly authorized the sale of arms to Iran in order to secure the release of a number of American hostages.
Title IX: Part of the educational Amendments Act of 1972 that banned gender discrimination in higher education.
Kent State: Four antiwar protesters were killed by the Ohio National Guard, the student movement reached its high-water mark. The protests demonstrated how antiwar sentiment had spread far beyond elite campuses.
My Lai Massacre: Massacre of 347 Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai. U.S. army officers covered up the massacre for a year until an investigation uncovered the events. Eventually twenty-five army officers were charged with complicity in the massacre and its cover-up, but only Calley was convicted. My Lai further undermined public support for the war.
Pentagon Papers: Informal name for the defense department’s secret history of the Vietnam conflict; leaked to the press by former official Daniel Ellsberg and published in the New York Times. It had traced American involvement in Vietnam back to WWII and revealed how successive presidents had misled the American people about it. The War Powers act was passed because of this which reflected the opposition to American involvement, and required congressional approval before the president sent troops abroad.
Nixon’s New Federalism: Offered federal “block grants” to states to spend as they saw fit, rather than for specific purposes dictated by Washington. On the other hand, the Nixon administration created a host of new federal agencies. The Enviornmental Protection Agency, OSHA, and The National Transportation Safety Board were all established. Nixon spent lavishly on social services and environmental initiatives. He abolished the office of economic opportunity, but he sighed congressional measures that expanded the food stamp program and indexed social security benefits to inflation. He Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act were also other acts he passed.
Oil Embargo 1973: Prohibition on trade in oil declared by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, in response to the U.S. and western European support for Israel. The Rise in gas prices and fuel shortages resulted in a global economic recession and profoundly affected the American economy. Because the rapidly growing demand for fuel by cars and factories outstripped domestic supplies, the U.S. imported one-third of its oil. To promote energy conservation, Congress lowered the speed limit on interstate highways to fifty-five MPH, and many public buildings reduced heat and lighting. It drew increased attention to domestic energy resources like oil, coal, and natural gas.
Chapter 27:
Earned Income Tax Credit: A cash payment for low-income workers begun during the Ford administration. The most effective antipoverty policy since the Great Society. It raised more than 4mil Americans, half children, above the poverty line. The credit equals a fixed percentage of earnings from the first dollar of earnings until the credit reaches its maximum.
Globalization: Describes the rapid acceleration of international flows of commerce, financial resources, labor, and cultural products. It's the process by which people, investment, goods, information, and culture increasingly flow across national boundaries. It was hardly a new phenomenon. The scale and scope of this globalization was unprecedented. It was thanks to satellites and the Internet, information and popular culture flower instantaneously to every corner of the world. Manufacturers and financial institutions scoured the world for profitable investments. “Anti-globalization” sentiment rose soon after. They challenged not globalization itself but the social consequences. The demonstrators claimed that it accelerated the worldwide creation of wealth but widened gaps between rich and poor countries. The battle of Seattle placed on the national and international agendas a question about the relationship between globalization, economic justice, and freedom. Nation-states power declined from declining globalization unleashing ethnic and religious antagonisms.
Nelson Mandela: Head of the African National Congress. Four years later, Mandela became president, ending the system of state-sponsored racial inequality known as “apartheid” and white minority government.
Operation Desert Storm: Drove the Iraqi army from Kuwait. The UN ordered Iraq to disarm and imposed economic sanctions that produced widespread civilian suffering for the rest of the decade. But Hussein remained in place, so did a large American military in Saudi Arabia. This was to the outrage of Islamic fundamentalists who deemed its presence an affront to their faith. It was air and land conflict includng the ground offensive.
Ross Perot: The Third candidate of the election, he was an eccentric Texas billionaire. He had never held elected office but also entered the fray. He attacked Bush and Clinton as lacking the economic know-how to deal with the recession and the ever-increasing national debt. That millions of Americans considered Perot a credible candidate testified to widespread dissatisfaction with the major parties.
NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement, it created a free-trade zone composed of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Clinton asked Americans to accept economic globalization as inevitable form of progress, and the path to future and prosperity. He promised no job losses,
Internet: Helped in globalization majority, its defined as a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols.
Rodney King: An all-white suburban jury found four LA police officers not guilty in the beating of Black Motorist Rodney King, even though the assault had been captured on videotape. Caused the deadliest urban uprising, 52 people died and property damage approached $1 billion. Many latino youths joined in the violence. It revealed the limits of the civil rights revolution in addressing the grievances of poor Black Americans and suggested that a renewed racial reckoning was on the horizon
Bush v Gore: U.S. Supreme Court case that determined the winner of the disputed 2000 presidential election. The majority justified their decision by insisting that the “equal protection” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment required that all ballots within a state be counted in accordance with a single standard, something impossible given the wide variety of machines and paper ballots used in Florida. Perhaps recognizing that this new constitutional principle threatened to throw into question results throughout the country. The court added that it applied only in this single case.
September 11: A terrorist attack in which hijackers seized control of four jet airlines. They crashed two into the World Trade Center in NY, the third crashed into a wing of the Pentagon, and the Fourth attempted to overpower the hijackers after learning about them via cellphones and crashed in a field near Pittsburgh. There were nineteen hijackers. Bush quickly blamed Al Qaeda which was led by Osama bin Laden. After the Gulf War Laden had become angry towards the U.S., especially by the presence of American military bases in Saudi Arabia and by American support for Isreal in its ongoing conflict with Palestinians. Generally, Laden and his followers saw the U.S. with its religious pluralism, consumer culture & open sexual mores as the antithesis of the rigid values in which they believed. He feared that U.S. influence was corrupting Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda had also exploded a truck-bomb at the WTC, killing 6 people, and set off blasts at American embassies in Kenya. Rising terrorist threat was visible before 9/11, nonetheless the attack came as a complete surprise.
Operation Enduring Freedom: the official name for the U.S. military’s first stage of War in Afghanistan and the broader Global War on Terrorism. OEF initially targeted al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. It also included counterterrorism operations in other countries such as the Philippines and Trans-Saharan regions.
Disenfranchisement of African American Men: State laws disenfranchising persons with a felony conviction causing most Black men the inability to vote due to high crime rates. Florida voters approved a measure to restore this right to nearly all felons after they have served their prison terms, but the Republican legislature sharply restricted this right, requiring the payment of all outstanding court fees and fines to be eligible.
Additionally, BlackAdditionally, Black people convicted of crimes were more likely than whites to receive the death penalty.
1992 Election: Clinton won the Democratic nomination by combining social liberalism—he supported abortion rights, gay rights, and affirmative action for racial minorities—with elements of conservatism such as reducing government bureaucracy and end welfare. Bush seemed out of touch with ordinary Americans. He was weakened when conservative leader Pat Buchanan delivered a speech, declaring cultural war against gays, feminists, and supporters of abortion rights. This rallied social conservatives but confirmed the Democratic portrait of Republicans as intolerant and divisive. Ross Perot was the third candidate.
Contract with America: A list of conservatives’ promises in response to the supposed liberalism of the Clinton administration, that was drafted by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and other congressional Republicans as the GOP platform for the 1994 midterm elections. It was more a campaign tactic than a practical program; few of its proposed items ever became law. It promised to curtail the scope of government, cut back on taxes, and economic and environmental regulations, overhaul the welfare system, and end affirmative action. They embraced a newly confrontational style of politics favoring conflict over compromise. The house approved deep cuts in social, educational, and environmental programs, including the popular Medicare system.
Clinton Foreign Policy: Clinton spoke of an American mission to create a single global free market as the path to rising living standards, the spread of democracy, and greater worldwide freedom. He signed off on NAFTA.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union: It marked the end of the Cold War and resulted in the breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) into 15 independent countries. The dissolution came from economic stagnation, Gorbachev’s Reforms, the nationalist movements, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the failed august coup, and the declaration of independence by the republics.
US Job growth in the 1990s – 2000s: Apple employed 43k people. General Motors had been the largest corporate employer but was replaced by Walmart with 1.6mil workers.
AIDS Crisis: AIDS was a fatal disease spread by sexual contact, drug use, and transfusions of contaminated blood. AIDS first emerged in the early 1980s and quickly became an epidemic among gay men. The gay movement mobilized to promote “Safe sex,” prevent discrimination against people suffering from AIDS.
Chapter 28:
Hurricane Katrina: A 2005 hurricane that devastated much of the Gulf Coast. The federal government ignored the requests to strengthen its levee system, and when the storm hit the levees broke and the entire city was flooded. When the mayor ordered people to evacuate, only a day before, he neglected to provide for the thousands who did not own automobiles and were too poor to find other means of transportations. The FEMA had done almost no preparation, when the President finally visited the city he seemed unaware of the scope of devastation. It shone light on both the heroic and the less praiseworthy sides of American life. Government failed, individual citizens stepped into the breach. People with boats rescued people, and private donations gave aid to victims. The city’s rebuilding process also revealed the racial inequalities that structured American life. It proved more difficult for poor Black renters to return due to requirements for federal financing.
Goldman Sachs: A wall street banking investment firm. In 2010 they paid a fine of half a billion dollars to settle charges that it had knowingly marketed to client's mortgage-based securities it knew were bound to fail, and then in effect bet on their failure
Bank Crisis of 2008: Banks stopped making loans, business dried up, and the stock market collapsed. Leading banks seemed to be on the verge of failure. With the value of their homes and stock market accounts in the free fall, Americans cut back on spending, leading business failures and a rapid rise in unemployment.
Financial Regulatory Reform Law: Sought to place under increased federal oversight many of the transactions that had helped create the economic crisis. The law represented a reversal of the policies of the past fifty years that had given banks a free hand in their operations. But it did not require a breakup of banks deemed “too big to fail” and left open the possibility of future taxpayer bailouts of these institutions. Officials responsible for issuing new regulation watered them down when banks complained.
Obamacare: Sixteen million uninsured Americans had obtained medical coverage under its provisions, most of them less affluent Americans who received some sort of government subsidy. The number of uninsured would have been even lower except that twenty-three Republican-controlled states refused to expand Medicaid coverage for their poorest residents, as the new law made possible, even though nearly all government cost would have been covered by the federal government. The Supreme Court rejected challenges to the constitutionality of Obamacare. Trump attempted to repeal this but failed.
ISIS: An insurgency that emerged from the sectarian civil wars that destabilized Syria and post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. Beginning in 2014, ISIS forces attacked towns and cities in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, systematically murdering members of ethnic and religious minorities. It conducted campaigns of exceptional brutality, beheading prisoners of war and driving religious minorities out of territory it conquered. The videos of these acts posted by ISIS on social media horrified most of the world but also attracted recruits. Two followers of ISIS in the U.S. killed fourteen people in San Bernardino California. In 2018 ISIS surrendered.
Black Lives Matter Movement: Civil rights movement sparked by a series of incidents of police brutality and lethal force against people of color. It demanded that police practices be changed and officers who used excessive force be held accountable. It gave public voice to the countless African Americans who had experienced disrespect, harassment, or violence at the hands of police. The movement used social media to organize protests and disseminate videos of encounters between Black persons and the police. The BLM movement was less an articulation of specific policy demands than a broad claim to Black Humanity. In public opinion polls, over 80% of Blacks but just 30% of whites agreed with the statement that Blacks are victims of discriminatory treatment by the police showing a sharp divide between white and Black Americans.
Obama and Cuba: Obama announced the normalization of diplomatic relations with Cuba after over 50years of hostility. This led to the reopening of embassies, the easing of travel restrictions, and expanded commercial flights. Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba in 88years.
Tea Party: A conservative grassroot and political movement, reacting strongly against what it viewed as excessive government spending, taxation, and federal overreach, particularly after the financial crisis bailout of the ACA. It significantly influenced the Republican Party, pushing it further to the right and helping Republicans gain control of congress in 2010.
Trump and American Manufacturing: Donald Trump’s presidency emphasized bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. through tariffs, especially on Chinese goods, renegotiation of trade deals (e.g., replacing NAFTA with USMCA), and tax incentives. While some manufacturing jobs were retained or created, overall job growth in the sector was modest, and automation and global supply chains remained dominant challenges.
George Floyd: George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, sparking massive nationwide and global protests against police brutality and systemic racism. His death led to the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and calls for police reform, racial justice, and accountability. He was suspected of using a counterfeit 20 dollar bill.
COVID – 19 and minorities: The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected minority communities in the U.S., particularly Black, Latino, and Indigenous populations. These groups experienced higher infection and death rates due to systemic inequities in healthcare access, frontline job exposure, crowded living conditions, and preexisting health disparities. Asian hate was also despairingly high, especially against Chinese individuals who were blamed for the disease.
Bernie Sanders: Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont, became a prominent political figure with his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, promoting democratic socialism. He advocated for Medicare for All, free public college, a Green New Deal, and reducing income inequality. Sanders energized a large progressive base, especially among younger voters, influencing the Democratic Party’s platform.
January 6th – Capital: Storming of the U.S. Capitol was rooted in the 2020 election. Supporters of President Trump, fueled by false claims of election fraud, breached the Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s win. The event marked a significant challenge to U.S. democratic institutions and led to Trump’s second impeachment.
Kamala Harris: Kamala Harris rose from being California’s Attorney General to U.S. Senator in 2017. In 2020, she became the first woman, the first Black person, and the first person of South Asian descent elected Vice President of the United States. Her nomination and election were seen as landmark achievements in U.S. political history.