Fifth Party System [1933–1972] VII Flashcards
Review - Timeline: Post-War Prosperity and Cold War Fears, 1945-1960
1946: George Kennan sends Long Telegram from Moscow. 1947: Truman Doctrine announced; first Levittown house sold. 1948: Berlin Airlift begins. 1950: North Korean troops cross 38th parallel. 1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president. 1953: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for espionage. 1954: Supreme Court rules on Brown v. Board of Education; Bill Haley and ‘His Comets’ record “Rock Around the Clock”. 1955: Montgomery bus boycott begins. 1957: Little Rock’s Central High School integrates; USSR launches Sputnik.
Review - Timeline: Contesting Futures - America in the 1960s
1960: Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins inspire student-led demonstrations. 1961: CIA orchestrates ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion. 1962: ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’. 1963: John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas. 1964: Congress passes ‘Gulf of Tonkin’ resolution. 1965: Congress passes ‘Voting Rights Act of 1965’. 1966: ‘National Organization for Women’ (NOW) founded. 1968: ‘Tet Offensive’ launched; Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated in Memphis. 1969: Apollo 11 lands first humans on Moon.
Review - Timeline: Political Storms at Home and Abroad, 1968-1980
1968: Vietnamese massacred at My Lai; Richard Nixon elected president. 1969: Woodstock festival held. 1970: National Guard fires on students at Kent State University. 1972: Nixon goes to China. 1973: ‘Roe vs. Wade’ legalizes abortion nationally; ‘Paris Peace Accords’ end U.S. role in Vietnam; OAPEC proclaims oil embargo. 1974: Nixon resigns due to Watergate scandal. 1976: Jimmy Carter elected president. 1978: ‘Camp David Accords’ signed. 1979: Iranian protesters storm U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take hostages.
The Civil Rights Movement Marches On (A)
The African American civil rights movement made significant progress in the 1960s. While Congress played a role by passing the ‘Civil Rights Act of 1964’, the ‘Voting Rights Act of 1965’, and the ‘Civil Rights Act of 1968’, the actions of civil rights groups such as the ‘Congress of Racial Equality’ (CORE), the ‘Southern Christian Leadership Conference’ (SCLC), and the ‘Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee’ (SNCC) were instrumental in forging new paths, pioneering new techniques and strategies, and achieving breakthrough successes. Civil rights activists engaged in sit-ins, freedom rides, and protest marches, and registered African American voters.
The Civil Rights Movement Marches On (B)
Despite the movement’s many achievements, however, many grew frustrated with the slow pace of change, the failure of the ‘Great Society’ to alleviate poverty, and the persistence of violence against African Americans, particularly the tragic 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Many African Americans in the mid-to-late 1960s adopted the ideology of ‘Black Power’, which promoted their work within their own communities to redress problems without the aid of whites.
The Civil Rights Movement Marches On (C)
The Mexican American civil rights movement, led largely by Cesar Chavez (1927-1993), also made significant progress at this time. The emergence of the ‘Chicano Movement’ signaled Mexican Americans’ determination to seize their political power, celebrate their cultural heritage, and demand their citizenship rights.
Challenging the Status Quo
During the 1960s, many people rejected traditional roles and expectations. Influenced and inspired by the civil rights movement, college students of the baby boomer generation and women of all ages began to fight to secure a stronger role in American society. As members of groups like ‘Students for a Democratic Society’ (SDS) and ‘National Organization for Women’ (NOW) asserted their rights and strove for equality for themselves and others, they upended many accepted norms and set groundbreaking social and legal changes in motion. Many of their successes continue to be felt today, while other goals remain unfulfilled.
The Civil Rights Movement During the 1950s
The American civil rights movement was revitalized during the Second World War. Early accomplishments for civil rights included the desegregation of the armed services, Major League Baseball, and white universities. The 1950s witnessed several important turning points for the civil rights movement, including the decision in ‘Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 1954’, which argued that “segregation violated the constitutional right of equal protection under the law”, the desegregation of busing led by Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. (1955-56), the integration of Little Rock High School (1957), and the ‘Civil Rights Act of 1957’.
The Civil Rights Movement - 1950s - Jim Crow Laws
‘Plessy v. Ferguson’ (1896) allowed “separate but equal”, also known as segregation, to become law in the United States. After this, Jim Crow laws, which were a system of laws meant to discriminate against African Americans, spread across the U.S. For decades, any type of public facility could be legally separated into ‘whites only’ and ‘blacks only’. That meant that buses, water fountains, lunch counters, restrooms, movie theaters, schools, courtrooms, and even the United States Army could all be segregated.
The Civil Rights Movement - Revitalizing the Movement
The American civil rights movement was revitalized during the Second World War. The war exposed the plight of African Americans in the United States as no better than the tactics used by that of Adolf Hitler. This was still the ‘Jim Crow Era’, which was a period where blacks were segregated from whites under the concept of ‘separate, but equal’. Therefore, many American leaders had to tread carefully to prevent causing social and political backlash from white Southerners.
The Civil Rights Movement - Revitalizing the Movement - Jackie Robinson
Branch Rickey, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, successfully introduced Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player, into Major League Baseball in 1947. || Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. When the Dodgers signed Robinson, they heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. Robinson was inducted into the ‘Baseball Hall of Fame’ in 1962.
The Civil Rights Movement - Revitalizing the Movement - U.S. Military Desegregation
Faced with a difficult political battle, President Harry Truman successfully desegregated the armed services in 1948. || ‘Executive Order 9981’ is an executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished discrimination “on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin” in the United States Armed Forces. The executive order eventually led to the end of segregation in the services.
The Civil Rights Movement - Revitalizing the Movement - Sweatt v. Painter, 1950
Yet the largest accomplishment, and maybe most significant in terms of jump starting the civil rights movement, was the Supreme Court decision in ‘Sweatt v. Painter, 1950’. The ruling nullified the notion of ‘separate, but equal’ when the Court ordered the University of Texas to admit a black law student into an all-white law school. Unfortunately, as you will see, the Sweatt v. Painter decision does not receive the same attention as future landmark civil rights cases. This is largely due to the issue being regional in nature as compared to national. Nonetheless, the civil rights movement was full steam ahead.
The Civil Rights Movement - 1950s - Catalysts: Warren and Baton Rouge bus boycott.
Eisenhower’s appointment of pro-civil rights advocate Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, as well as a massive bus boycott in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, both in 1953 were catalysts in the movement. The Warren Court became synonymous with the civil rights movement, while the bus boycott in Louisiana set the precedent for future non-violent protest and was the first bus boycott in civil rights history.
The Civil Rights Movement - 1950s - Earl Warren (Chief Justice)
Earl Warren (1891-1974) was an American jurist and politician who served as the 30th Governor of California (1943–1953) and later the 14th Chief Justice of the United States (1953–1969). He was involved in landmark decisions Supreme Court decisions, such as ‘Brown v. Board of Education’ (1954), ‘Gideon v. Wainwright’ (1963), ‘Reynolds v. Sims’ (1964), and ‘Miranda v. Arizona’ (1966).
The Civil Rights Movement - 1950s - Brown v. Board of Education
One example of judicial activism is ‘Brown v. Board of Education’. This 1954 United States Supreme Court ruling ordered the desegregation of public schools. This was an example of judicial activism because it ignored the doctrine of stare decisis, which is the doctrine the courts follow to stick with the prior decisions and rulings of a court. The U.S. Supreme Court in this case overturned the long-accepted separate-but-equal standard and reinterpreted the 13th and 14th Constitutional Amendments regarding African Americans’ civil rights. (1954)
The Civil Rights Movement - 1950s - Brown v. Board of Education - Understand what some states believed what was left to interpretation.
The Court encouraged states that enforced Jim Crow laws to begin integration at an “all deliberate speed”. Unfortunately, at the time, the Court could only encourage segregationists to abide by the federal ruling, and states believed that an “all deliberate speed” was left to interpretation.
The Civil Rights Movement - 1950s - ‘Little Rock Nine’
The ‘Little Rock Nine’ were a group of nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Their attendance at the school was a test of ‘Brown v. Board of Education’, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students’ entry into the high school. Later that month, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine into the school.
The Civil Rights Movement - 1950s - Rosa Parks
1955 was another pivotal year for the civil rights movement for two reasons. First, Rosa Parks challenged segregation on public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama when she refused to vacate her seat to a white rider. Parks was eventually arrested for her defiance, which touched off a major bus boycott. Eventually, in June 1956, the Supreme Court ruled in ‘Browder v. Gale’ that bus segregation was unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Civil Rights Movement - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a social activist and Baptist minister who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. King sought equality and human rights for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged, and all victims of injustice through peaceful protest. He was the driving force behind watershed events such as the ‘Montgomery Bus Boycott’ (1956) and the 1963 ‘March on Washington’, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the ‘Civil Rights Act’ (1964) and the ‘Voting Rights Act’ (1965). King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986.
The Civil Rights Movement - 1950s - Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. gained national notoriety as a prominent voice and leader within the civil rights movement. This was largely attributed to his assistance in creating the ‘Montgomery Improvement Association’, which encouraged a massive bus boycott in Alabama following the Rosa Parks incident in 1955-56. The formation of the ‘Southern Christian Leadership Conference’ (SCLC) under the leadership of Martin Luther King in 1957 was a nationally important organization that focused on desegregation and registering black votes.
The Civil Rights Movement - 1950s - Martin Luther King Jr. - Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil-rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system, and one of the leaders of the boycott, a young pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr., emerged as a prominent leader of the American civil rights movement.
The Civil Rights Movement - NAACP
The NAACP or ‘National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’ was established in 1909 and is America’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. It was formed in New York City by white and black activists, partially in response to the ongoing violence against African Americans around the country. In the NAACP’s early decades, its anti-lynching campaign was central to its agenda. During the civil rights era in the 1950s and 1960s, the group won major legal victories, and today the NAACP has more than 2,200 branches and some half a million members worldwide.
The Civil Rights Movement - 1950s - Civil Rights Act of 1957
Another hallmark to the movement in the 1950s was the ‘Civil Rights Act of 1957’. This was the first piece of federal civil rights legislation since the ‘Civil Rights Act of 1875’ (that is over 80 years!). The legislation expedited African American claims of voter abridgment and established the ‘Commission on Civil Rights’, which investigated voter violations and recommended remedies to the federal government.
