Protest and React 1963-72

Question 1

Civil Rights Act

Answer 1

1964
Racial discrimination was no longer enshrined in law and public places desegregated by 1965 and forbade discrimination in employment and established an Equal Employment Commission.

Passed due to - civil rights organisations, sympathy from Northern whites, and as a Kennedy tribute

Revolutionised the South – 68% black schoolchildren attended segregated schools in 1968 vs 1/2 of black children attended mostly white schools in 1973, but re-segregation began after that year.

Weakness - did little to facilitate black voting in the Deep South leading to protests later

Question 2

The Selma Campaign

Answer 2

1965
Selma, Alabama had a black population of 23/14,500 registered to vote.

MLK did non-violent protests to provoke white violence to demonstrate racism at its worst. He wanted to force Congress to respond with voting rights legislation – knew Sheriff Jim Clark would react violently to protest.

MLK led black people – a trooper shot a youth shielding his mother and Sheriff Clark clubbed a black woman.

Selma authorities jailed MLK – he wrote a letter where he said, “There are more Blacks in jail with me than there are on the voting rolls’ published in the New York Times.

SCLC+SNCC organised a march from Selma to Montgomery to publicise their cause. State troopers attacked the marchers with clubs and tear gas making worldwide headlines . Resulted in the Voting Rights Act (1965)

Question 3

Voting Rights Act

Answer 3

1965
Outlawed literacy and constitutional tests Southern white registrars used to stop Black voter registration – registrars’ powers decreased with the establishment of federal registrars.

Successes
1968 - Mississippi had 59% of its black population registered –gain a voice to represent them in all governments

1965-69 Black Americans that were elected increased sixfold – doubled from 1969 to 1980.
1969 – Charles Evers was the first black mayor of Fayette, Mississippi
1973 – two major Southern cities elected black mayors

Ensured from 1965 onwards, elected officials would pay attention to needs of the black population. King’s campaign had contributed to great and positive change in the South.

Question 4

Watts Riots

Answer 4

Problem: Black people made 11% of Americans but 46% of the unemployed – less jobs for unskilled workers due to automation. Chicago –50-70% black youth unemployment.

1965 black mobs crying ‘Long live Malcolm X’ set fire to several blocks of stores in Watts - the violent approach alienated white supporters so little achieved

Had a great impact on MLK.
He told the press this had been ‘a class revolt of underprivileged against privileged … The main issue is economics.
Began defining ‘freedom’ in terms of economic equality, called for ‘a better distribution of the wealth’ of America and planned his Chicago campaign.

Question 5

Chicago campaign

Answer 5

1966
Chicago’s population of 3 million included 700,000 black Americans who suffered unemployment, housing and education problems in the ghetto.

MLK wanted to campaign – ghetto residents said that moderates didn’t understand or solve their problems – many turned to radicalism and violence which alienated whites and would prevent further federal support

Drew attention to the living conditions and the difficulties faced moving out. Led reporters around apartments with poor conditions
Marches into white districts where Blacks couldn’t buy or rent - met with violence and abuse from the white residents

After 2 months Mayor Daley agreed so MLK left- backtracked when MLK left Chicago

Question 6

Chicago Campaign significance

Answer 6

Northern whites sympathised with Chicago whites – if Blacks moved to white working-class areas, property values would fall, and schools decline, and it costs taxpayers money that white Americans were unwilling to pay for

$4 million federal government grant for Chicago housing – many Black Chicagoans lapsed into apathy or turned to the Black Power movement

MLK – sought to broaden the movement by uniting all the impoverished groups in his Poor People’s Campaign - wanted Black, Hispanic and, Native Americans and poor Appalachian whites together to camp out in Washington DC in a civil disobedience campaign that would draw national attention to their poverty - unsuccessful

Question 7

MLK’s achievements

Answer 7

Played a vital role in the demise of de jure segregation in the South by protests, inspiration and organisation. His rhetorical ability to inspire ensured the success of the Montgomery boycott

His belief in the effectiveness of mass protest and his manipulation of white violence switched the emphasis of black activism from the NAACP’s litigation strategy to mass action

Influence peaked in 1963 after the March on Washington and his Birmingham campaign, which played a big part in encouraging Kennedy to support the 1964 Civil Rights Act. His Selma campaign was key in the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Nixon’s Philadelphia Plan (1969), the federal gov pressed companies with federal government contracts to ensure non-discriminatory employment practices, while universities gave ethnic minority students places even if their test scores were lower than those of white candidates

Question 8

MLK’s failures

Answer 8

Failed to achieve anything significant in Chicago, but ghetto problems were great and long-standing.

After 1965 Congress did little more to help black people, but Presidents Johnson and Nixon supported affirmative action programmes designed to remedy the effects of past discrimination and to combat current discrimination in employment and higher education.

Question 9

The impact of King’s assassination

Answer 9

Congress was shamed into passing the Fair Housing Act of 1968

SNCC feared that MLK’s ‘top-down leadership’ distracted from the need to empower black communities at a grassroots level. While the CRM seemed leaderless at the national level, black activists continued effectively at local levels.

Immediate - provoked major riots in over 100 cities.
46 died, 3,000 were injured and 27,000 were arrested.
21,000 federal troops and 34,000 National Guardsmen restored order following $45 million of property damage

Encouraged followers of Black Power in their belief that King’s non-violent protest was not the best way forward.

Question 10

Nation of Islam impact

Answer 10

Estimates of committed members vary from 25,000 to 250,000, the NOI had widespread influence by 1969,

Increased racial divisions

Contributed to the rise of Black Power, the achievements of which are controversial.
Often had a transformational impact

Transformed Malcolm X, but left in 1964 due to Elijah Muhammad’s corruption and refusal to allow him to join the Birmingham campaign

Question 11

Malcolm X

Answer 11

Methods - Favoured separatism as believed blacks could regain their self-confidence through contorl of their own social, economic and political lives (opposite to MLK)
Rejected MLK’s non-violence as it diarmed the oppressed.
Rejected chrisitan teachings mocking ‘turn the other cheek’ as it encouraged white violence against submissive blacks

Achievements - drew early attention to the Northern ghetto problems leading to the increase in riots 1964-68
Contributed to the growing pride in being Black
Inspired a new assertive generation of black americans e.g. Stockley Carmichael

Question 12

Black Power and Black Panthers - what it meant

Answer 12

Developed mid-60s

Most associate it with black violence but for many, it meant social and political independence and racial pride

MLK believed it was a result of ghetto problems, influence of Malcolm X, orgnaisation like the NAACP and SCLC were too slow to help and insufficiently focused on ghetto issues, SNCC and CORE became disillusioned with the slow progress towards equality and lack of federal protection in the Missippi Freedom Summer

Question 13

Meredith March

Answer 13

1966
James Meredith began the March Against Fear from Memphis to Mississippi, to encourage African Americans to register and vote after the 1965 Act.

Meredeith was shot so Carmichael’s SNCC and SCLC took up the March. SNCC chanted ‘Black Power’ while the SCLC chanted ‘Freedom Now’

Significant - drew attention to the deep divsion in the CRM, Carmichael wanted the exlcusions of whites from the march but King had refused. The phrase Black Power gained national prominence.

Question 14

Stokely Carmichael

Answer 14

Book “Black Power” (1967), set out what he saw as the characteristics of the Black Power movement.

Non-violence was foolish when faced with ‘someone [white] bent on destroying you’.

Urged black Americans to ‘close ranks’ and reject interracial protest.

Envisaged eventual integration, but only when black Americans could be accepted as real equals.

However, it was the Black Panthers rather than Carmichael who were the most famous advocates of Black Power.

Question 15

Context of Black Panthers

Answer 15

Founded 1966

Ten-point platform - full employment, decent housing, education that teaches true black hisotry, reparation, self-determination, an end to police brutality and improvements in the ghetto

5,000 members roughly in 30 loosely affiliated urban chapters

Their newsletter had a circulation of around 250,000 by 1969

Question 16

Black Panthers ghetto problems

Answer 16

Won support among ghetto residents with their practical help

Over 40 clinics advising on health, welfare and legal rights

Ran breakfast programmes for thousand of poor black school children, raised awareness of sickle cell anaemia- disproportionately affect black people

1969 first Liberation School - a summer school, designed to generate knowledge and pride of black culture and history, in Berkeley with more following in New York and Philadelphia

Question 17

Black Panthers police brutality

Answer 17

Stockpiled weapons for self-defence and tailed the police in the hope of exposing their brutality

1976 surrounded and entered the California state legislature to protest repressive legislation. Their parliamentary uniforms, weapons and rhetoric gave an appearance of strength and fearlessness

Antagonised white authroities -targeted by the Police and FBI

Most famous court case “Chicago Eight” - arrested for conspiring to incite a riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago 1968. Bobby Seale was charged in 1969 and jailed- left the group in 1974 after release becoming a media celebrity in 1988. Newton fled to Cuba to avoid frequent arrest in 1974 but was shot dead in 1989 by a drug-dealing member of a rival gang

Question 18

The Black Rights movement became disunited

Answer 18

Weeks after the Meredith March the SNCC and CORE publicly declared they were giving up on non-violence and embracing militant separatism with Black Power slogan.

Whereas, the SCLC and NAACP rejected the adoption of Black Power

Additioanly, SNCC removed white people in 1966 and CORE followed in 1968 while the SCLC and NAACP took no such measures.

Question 19

The decline of Black Power and Black Panthers

Answer 19

Early 1970s the Black Power movement had fizzled out.

Ill-defined and poorly organised

Unrealistic in thinking America was ripe for revolution

Sexist and alienated its female supporters

Lost the white liberal funding that supported the SNCC and the CORE before their switch to radicalism

Attracted the hostility of the white authorities, who pursued and silenced Black Power leaders

Question 20

Significane of Black Power - impact

Answer 20

Had a lasting impact despite fizzling out

Contributed to growing black pride raising black morale

Encouraged college courses on black history and culture.

Failed to solve ghetto problems- insolvable given white unwillingness to fund (similar to Johnson’s problems)

Some suggest that self-defence and/or violence alienated whites and damaged the previously effective CRM so that it was unable to achieve much after 1965

Helped inspire radical Native Americans, women and Hispanic Americans

Question 21

Cesar Chavez - Mexican Americans

Answer 21

By 1968, around 80% lived in urban ghettos

In the 1st half of the 20th century, established the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

Early 1960s- had some important local victories on segregation, police brutality and voter registration but failed to gain large support, attention or political clout.

Issue was Mexican farmworkers could be exploited as were often illegal immigrants
E.g. California’s San Joaquin Valley paid minimum wage or less for planting and harvesting the vegetables jeopariding their health with powerful disinfectants. This groups failed to have protection from fed or state authorities- not voters, so politicians ignored them.

Question 22

Chavez’s United Farm Workers

Answer 22

In 1962, former migrant labourer and veteran CR activist, formed the 1st labour union of farmers since the Depression and the sole union controlled by Mexican Americans.

1965 United Farm Workers joined a strike started by Filipino farmworkers against San Joaquin Valley grape growers. Non-violent- marched to the state capital, with banners showing pride in Aztec and Catholic culture.

1966, with the help of white middle-class liberals such as Senator Robert Kennedy, they organised a national boycott, supported at its peak by 17 million Americans.

In 1970 they agreed to sign union contracts- somewhat short-lived as mechanisation and rising immigration weakened the cause as by the late 1980s, members harvested only 10% of the grapes.

For many Chavez was a hero and Time magazine likened him to MLK. Gave ethnic Mexican workers their first positive and successful American role model.

Question 23

UFW Inspiring young Mexican-American activists

Answer 23

1968 east Los Angeles

Demanded more: bilingual lessons, Mexican-American history lessons, Mexican food in the canteen and Mexican-American teachers

Ignored so over 10,000 students walked out in protest which soon spread to other schools in the Southwest

Organised the First National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in 1969 which was followed by the establishment of the La Raza United Party (LRUP) in Texas 1969 but was short-lived as only had electoral victories where there was a large, concentrated Mexican-American population. Although, it won representation on school boards and city councils in several Texas towns. Most importantly demonstrated the increase in Mexican-American activism

Question 24

Successes of Chavez United Farm Workers

Answer 24

Contributed to the eventual passage of exceptionally worker-friendly legislation in California

Galvanised Mexican Americans and immigrants into activists

Important part in stimulating a CRM that inspired Mexican Americans throughout the Southwest to a greater ethnic pride and purposefulness.

Led local and national gov to pay greater attention to Mexican-American needs.

Question 25

Johnson Education success

Answer 25

Persuaded Congress to double federal expenditure on education to $8 billion.

1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Defenders responded that 6.7 million poor children benefited, and assistance to those above the poverty line was essential to making the measure politically acceptable

1965 Higher Education Act
11 million benefited from the $650 million it provided.
By 1970, 25% of college students received some financial aid from the HEA, helping the number of students rise from 15% of 18- to 22-year-olds 1950 to 52%1990.

End of his presidency, millions of children had benefited from federal aid to education and the accessibility of a college education had increased.

Question 26

Johnson Education failure

Answer 26

1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act
An antipoverty programme, local officials made sure it never was
In 1985, the National Institute of Education estimated that ½ the expenditure went to children living above the poverty line.

The President paid little attention to how the legislation worked in practice. Difficult for the federal gov to extend its reach into local school districts.

Question 27

Johnson poverty and unemployment success

Answer 27

Passed the Economic opportunity act in 1964
Established an Office of economic opportunity (OEO)
In 1965 Johnson proudly informed Congress of progress:
44 states had anti-poverty programmes and 6 would soon
53 Job Corps Centers provided job training and had thousands of applications daily.
90,000 adults were enrolled in basic education programmes

OEO:
Head Start - poor preschool children could catch up with others before beginning school. Nearly 1 million disadvantaged children enrolled during Johnson’s presidency.

Upward Bound - linked higher-education institutions to poorer students with college potential. Around 50,000 disadvantaged students participated each year under Johnson

Extended Kennedy’s Food Stamp Programme 1964 and a 35% rise in the minimum wage.

Question 28

Johnson poverty and unemployment failures

Answer 28

Critics said this level of fed expenditure was excessive and pointed out that it cost more to put a ghetto youth into the Job Corps than Harvard. Whereas, liberals complained it was underfunded (unrealistic); Congress and taxpayers would not go further

Failed to eradicate poverty. 1/3 of non-white families lived below the poverty line, with unemployment and infant mortality rates nearly twice of whites but deserves credit for drawing attention to poverty

Question 29

Medicare and Medicaid successes

Answer 29

4 successive Congresses refused to help over-65s who had no private health insurance but both houses wer Democrat allowing him to make progress..

Social Security Act of 1965 - established Medicare and Medicaid which allowed for federally funded health insurance for those over 65s and those with disabilities, regardless of income or existing medical conditions.

1966, 19 million Americans enrolled in Medicare which helped lift millions of elderly out of poverty and within a decade became so popular that no president dared to oppose

Question 30

Medicare and Medicaid failures

Answer 30

Within a single year, Medicaid increased the amount spent by the federal and state govs on healthcare for poorer citizens from $1.3 billion to over $2 billion.

Gaps in coverage (e.g. glasses)

Far more expensive than anticipated- allowed hospitals and doctors to set the fees, and total Medicare costs rocketed from $3.5 billion in 1966 to $144 billion by 1993

Question 31

Civil rights/inner cities successes

Answer 31

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965

Fair Housing Act 1968 - Prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of housing but difficult to enforce in the face of determined white opposition.

The Executive Order of 1965 required any institution receiving federal funding to employ more non-whites (rise of affirmative action)

Liberals praised it as helping minorities in education and employment

Question 32

Civil Rights and inner cities failures

Answer 32

Whites opposed integrated housing, sometimes because of racism but mostly because black movement into white neighbourhoods made property values fall.

Conservatives criticised it as discriminating against whites and demeaning blacks.

Although the situation of many black Americans remained dire, Johnson had helped improve their social, political and eco status.

Question 33

Housing successes

Answer 33

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 1965 co-ordinated the various programmes to combat housing shortages and decay in the urban areas where over 2/3 of Americans lived.

Demonstration Cities Act (1966) created model cities’ - Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington DC

Omnibus Housing Act 1965 financed rent supplements and $8 billion worth of low- and moderate-income housing in the ghettos.

Result of MLK’s death - Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited racial discrimination in the sale or rental and required the Department of Housing and Urban Development to further the purposes of fair housing.

Question 34

Housing failures

Answer 34

Model cities - $1.2 billion insufficient, the New York Times said New York City needed $6 billion. The New York Times claimed the model cities failed as members of Congress demanded something for their constituents so the 6 cities became 150 cities.

Omnibus Housing Act - Ghettos remained dire and white taxpayers remained unwilling to help.

Fair Housing Act - white resistance made it difficult to enforce and discrimination in housing continued

Taxpayers didn’t want to fund large scale improvements and opposed integrated housing

The problems were too great for one president to solve. Since 1968, no one has ever attempted the same scale of spending

Question 35

Reasons for student protests

Answer 35

President Kennedy encouraged idealism and face the challenges posed by issues such as peace and prejudice. Many students took up his challenge and demanded peace in Vietnam and an end to prejudice against ethnic minorities

The CRM gave practice and inspiration to many student protesters

Students resented college authorities who treated them as children and supported an unjust war in Vietnam

The rocketing student population decided it could protests without risk because everyone else seemed to be protesting - safety in numbers with little to lose (no families or jobs)

Question 36

The SDS and the New Left

Answer 36

The Student Democratic Society was established in 1960 and was one of the most influential. Inspired by the socialists of the 1930s, the beat generation and student participation in the CRM

In 1962 representatives of SDS, SNCC and CORE and the Student Peace Union met calling upon students to change the political and social system, liberate the poor, the ethnic minorities and all enslaved by conformity and support peaceful foreign policy.

SDS emphasised the potential of the individual currently stifled by the impersonal nature of big unis, bureaucracy and the centralisation of all power - awaken from national apathy

Question 37

Student protest - freedom of speech

Answer 37

Berkley’s Free Speech Movement (1964). Had wanted to raise funds for the SNCC but the Uni of California did not allow fundraising and political activity on campus. Prompted thousands of Berkley students to protest for freedom of speech. Slogan ‘You can’t trust anyone over 30’. Occupied the administration building until the police ejected them and made 800 arrests. The students received support from the staff resulting in the uni backing down allowing political discussion and activities on campus.

“Round 2”. In 1965 a student was arrested for displaying the word ‘fuck’. The FSM triggered nationwide student protests.

Question 38

Student protests - anti-war

Answer 38

Student antiwar sentiment pre-dated the escalation of Vietnam. Established in 1959, the Student Peace Union staged a protest outside the White House in 1961 against the testing of nuclear weapons. It had 3,000 members by 1962.

SDS first gained national attention in its 1965 anti-Vietnam War. Possibly as many as 25,000 took part but it failed to stop Johnson escalate the war

The Vietnam War led tens of thousands more into antiwar activism. During 1965, many unis held ‘teach-ins’ with antiwar lectures and debates which frequently led to disorder. For example, in 1965, 8,000 marchers clashed with the police and vandalised cars and buildings.

In 1967, the New Left’s National Mobilization Committee to End the War organised demonstrations in Washington as part of Stop the Draft Week. Over 100,000 attended, chanting ‘Hell no, we won’t go’. Draft cards were publicly burned across America. Several thousand Berkeley radicals tried to close down the Oakland draft headquarters resulting in violence with 2,000 police who attacked them. Also, high on drugs vandalised cars, newsstands and trees.

By 1968, many other protests were violent; the main targets were campus administration buildings and the offices of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Students resented the military attempting to recruit promising graduates through these. Across the nation, many were burned or bombed.

Question 39

Student protests - University of Columbia

Answer 39

In 1968, students had multiple grievances. They opposed the unis involvement in weapons research (felt they were supporting the War). There was also controversy about the relationship between the uni and adjacent Harlem and its black and Hispanic populations.

Since 1958, Columbia uni’s expansion programmes had led to the eviction of several thousand Harlem residents from properties owned by the uni. In 1968 the uni planned to construct a gym in a public park. The Harlem population would be able to access the gym but through a separate door. Students interpreted this as segregationist and opposed the construction of ‘Gym Crow’, although defenders said that the separate door was necessary because the gym was situated on a hill.

Generated protests where 1,000/17,000 students participated. Seized 5 uni buildings and covered the walls with pictures of Malcolm X and communist heroes such as Karl Marx. The police made 692 arrests. The uni shut down for that term and abandoned the gym and many defence contracts. Hundreds of similar occupations followed across the USA.

Question 40

Assessment of student protest

Answer 40

Student CR activists played an important part in dismantling the Jim Crow laws and in establishing courses on black history and culture in the unis.

Student complaints about the uni authorities were redressed as seen with the relaxation of the controls on free speech and political activism in Berkley and the ending of the defence contracts at Columbia.

Many believe that the antiwar protests helped persuade Johnson to halt escalation and Nixon to end the war.

Some protesters failed to achieve their aims. The opposition of SDS and the New Left to American materialism provided ineffective. Veterans of SDS and the New Left complained that their worthwhile ideas about the consumer culture were discredited by the counterculture’s selfishness and excess

Some believe they promoted violence, offered little that was constructive and damaged the great American liberal tradition with many disliking the counter-culture contributing to Nixon’s election in 1968

Question 41

Women movement successes

Answer 41

The Feminine Mystique (1963) urged women to fulfil their potential through education and work which tapped a reservoir of discontent, especially among college students

Weeks v. Southern Bell (1966-9) -NOW represented Lorena Weeks, who said that the Southern Bell company had violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act when denying her application for promotion to switchman because a woman would not be able to lift a weight of 30 pounds. Weeks and the NOW lost the initial case but were victorious in 1969 after many appeals.

1970 the NOW organised a national women’s strike for equality. An estimated 100,000 women gave the strike active support. Thousands marched with ‘Don’t iron while the strike is hot’ banners. Some protesters dumped their children on their husbands’ desks.
From women’s rights to women’s liberation

1966 - Friedan and others formed the National Organization for Women (NOW) - unhappy when EEOC refused to enforce 1964 Civil Rights Act. NOW aimed to monitor the enforcement of the legislation and to demand an amendment to the Constitution that affirmed women’s right to equality in all areas

Question 42

Women movements failures

Answer 42

Early 1960s - women constituted 80% of teachers but 10% of principals, and only 7% of doctors and 3% of lawyers. Gender inequality was often enshrined in law and practice.

18 states refused to allow female jurors, and 6 said women could not enter into financial agreements without a male co-signatory. Schools expelled pregnant girls and fired pregnant teachers. Some states prohibited married women from accessing contraception.

1968 - around 100 women disrupted the swimsuit parade at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City with a stink bomb and crowned a live sheep ‘Miss America’. They threw bras, girdles, curlers, false eyelashes, wigs and other ‘women’s garbage into a ‘freedom trash can’. Some disagreed over the demand for legalised abortion. Breakaway groups such as the Radicalesbians resented the lack of support from the NOW for lesbian women. HOWEVER, despite the disunity, the women’s movement proved more lasting than most 1960s protest movements

Question 43

Radical Women in the movement - Jo Freeman, Shulasmith Firestone and Ti-Grace Atkinson

Answer 43

Jo Freeman made a newsletter, Voice of the Women’s Liberation Movement, which encouraged the formation of women’s liberation groups nationwide. She saw the women’s liberation movement as complementary to the older organisations such as the NOW and used ‘consciousness-raising’ meetings in colleges and communities to raise awareness of inequality and to encourage activism
Successful - 1960, 1/4 of women polled said they felt discriminated against, but after consciousness-raising, it had reached 2/3 by 1974.

The experience at the National Conference of New Politics inspired Shulasmith Firestone to establish a women’s liberation group in New York City, the New York Radical Feminists, which held consciousness-raising meetings focussed upon the issue of male subordination of females.

Ti-Grace Atkinson was an early member of the NOW, but left the organisation in 1968 because she considered it insufficiently radical. She set up a group called The Feminists in New York City. Atkinson argued that the sexual revolution had benefited men more than women as it had given them easier access to women’s bodies. She was critical of marriage and pornography.

Question 44

Government Response to Women’s movements

Answer 44

1967 executive order banning gender discrimination by federal contractors.

NOW fought over 1,000 discrimination cases and won $13 million in backpay for women by 1971.

Education Amendments 1972 - prohibited sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funds.

1972 Equal Rights Amendment

Nixon recognised gender equality was an increasingly important political issue, worried that only 3.5% of the people whom he appointed to office were women, and did nothing to stop the EEOC taking enforcement increasingly seriously.

HOWEVER, Nixon vetoed the 1971 Child Development Act, which would have established the national system of childcare centres for poor working mothers that feminists had long sought

Question 45

Gay successes

Answer 45

The Stonewall riots 1969
Gay men had long suffered entrapment at the hands of the New York City police.
Homosexuals at the Stonewall Inn fought back against police harassment, triggering five days of rioting in which hundreds participated.
Although gay life in America did not begin with the Stonewall riots, what was new in the late 1960s was increased gay group consciousness and assertiveness and slowly changing public attitudes.

Kate Millett participated in CORE activism, then joined the NOW committee in 1966 then moved to more militant groups such as the Radicalesbians and the New York Radical Women.
Sexual Politics (1970) - she criticised the patriarchal nature of American society and argued that the traditional family upheld sex-based oppression.
The relationship between the NOW and vociferous lesbians was initially tense. Many NOW members feared that equating women’s rights with lesbianism would damage their cause, but from 1971 the NOW began to acknowledge lesbian rights as a feminist issue

Question 46

Gay failures

Answer 46

Gay men had been involved in nationwide community building, lobbying, publishing and networking since WW2 but had struggled to gain acceptance.
1951 - first Mattachine Society to promote greater tolerance - in the 1960s there was discussion of emulating the CRM and Black Power movement but the authorities remained intolerant.

Stonewall - while it increased gay group consciousness, gay rights like the legalisation of homosexual acts and freedom from discrimination had not yet been attained.

It was only in 1974 when the American Psychiatric Institute declassified homosexuality as a mental illness

Question 47

Counterculture successes

Answer 47

Two events in San Francisco in 1967 gained national attention.
‘Human Be-in’ that took place in Golden Gate Park in January. Thousands of young people met to celebrate personal freedom, communal living and environmentalism

‘Summer of Love’ - attracted tens of thousands of followers of the counter-culture from all over America. Time magazine noted that every major city had ‘hippie enclaves’ and estimated that there might be around 300,000 hippies

Woodstock - New York State 1969,
Attended by 400,000 people
Its favourite slogan was ‘Make love not war’ and it was characterised by its copious use of drugs
The acts were led by Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix’s performance of the American national anthem, ‘Star Spangled Banner’, attracted criticism from those who interpreted his use of amplifier feedback and distortion to make a sound like exploding bombs as an anti-war statement

The Diggers of San Francisco
Sought a social revolution and the end of capitalism - organised free music concerts and distributed free food, medical care and transportation.
In a happening in December 1966, they paraded a coffin through the streets of San Francisco, carrying signs saying The Death of Money’.
In October 1967, they proclaimed the ‘Death of Hippie’ and rejected the counter-culture, which they said had been taken over by the media

Question 48

Counterculture failures

Answer 48

Hippies faded out by the mid-1970s, but it had influenced American society.
Drew attention to and popularised Eastern philosophy and religion, health foods and environmentalism, and contributed to the liberalisation of attitudes towards sex and drugs.

This helped trigger the conservative reaction that brought Richard Nixon to the White House.
Their impact and significance of the hippies was of less importance than that of those who protested against the Vietnam War and racial and gender inequality

Question 49

Sexual liberation successes

Answer 49

Conservatism, birth control and abortion
1965 – the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that married couples could not be refused contraception
1974 – doctors could no longer refuse birth control to unmarried adults for ‘moral reasons’.

The Kinsey Reports (1948-52) generated greater and more open discussion of sex. Americans learned from Kinsey that:
68% of American males and 50% of American females had engaged in sex before marriage
37% of males and 13% of women had had at least one homosexual experience
8% of males and 4% of females had some kind of sex with animals

Kinsey’s report reflected and hastened the liberalisation of sexual behaviour. The pace sped up even more after 1960, when the widespread availability of the first oral contraceptive for women (‘the pill’) liberated many women from fears of pregnancy at a time when many groups were demanding greater freedom and change.
Armed with the pill and influenced by the rights revolution and the counter- culture, women began to insist upon their right to express their sexuality as they saw fit, unrestricted by old conventions

The proportion of unmarried couples living together increased dramatically. Cohabiting with couples rose dramatically:
1955- around 250,000, 1960 - 500,000, 1970 - nearly 750,000, 1980- around 2 million.

Question 50

Sexual liberation failures

Answer 50

Conservatism, birth control and abortion
Abortion was illegal until 1973, so women sought backstreet practitioners, or used bleach douches or inserted coat hangers.
Early 1960s, one Chicago hospital treated over 5,000 women patients for abortion-related complications.

Question 51

The rise of the silent majority

Answer 51

Popularised it in his speech in 1969 in which he asked ‘the great silent majority of my fellow Americans’ to support his Vietnam policies

Clear his silent majority was those who did not protest against the war and spoke out against the minority who did

The increase was due to the exasperation with the riots and protests and to events during 1968 that suggested that the US was a nation in crisis: The Tet Offensive 1968 (the Vietnamese Communists launched an offensive on South Vietnam and although America and South Vietnamese forces eventually retook the cities America media images showed Communists overrunning the capital suggesting a credibility gap)
The assassination of MLK and the riots that followed
The Miss America Pagent
The Democratic National Convention Chicago 1968

Question 52

The Democratic National Convention Chicago

Answer 52

The Mobe and the Yippies called on young people to go to Chicago to demonstrate contempt of the US political process through disruption

3,000 members of the new left arrived spreading rumours that would put LSD in the water. The Yippies candidate was a pig

Mayor Daley mobilised 12,000 police and band marches. The media showed students having sex in public and provoking the police by blowing Majiuanna smoke in their faces. The police removed their badges and name plates retaliating with clubs and gas

Polls recorded 56% approval for police action against the protesters

Question 53

Nixon’s appeals

Answer 53

People wanted law and order and to return to the good old days. Attracting voters tried of radicalism, change and Great Society programmes especially ending the Vietnam War. He won in 1969 on a narrow win and a landslide in 1972.

Events in 1969 and 1970 alienated conservatives.

Woodstock and counter-culture - middle America saw anarchy and were worried about the influence of rockstars like Jimmy Hendrix after 3 idols died from drug overdoses within a 10-month period in 19770-71

Student radicalism and violence - in the 1960s some became more militant and violent. In 1969-70 there were over 2,000 bombings or attempted bombings with 56% by students and 19% by black extremists. E.g. radical students blew up the University of Colorado buildings because scholarship funds for black students were frozen

Question 54

The impact of events in Vietnam and Kent State

Answer 54

Vietnam - his 1st term was dominated by the ongoing war. Anti-war protests continued despite withdrawing troops while also increasing bombings to ensure a strong negotiating position. In 1960 ten thousand of protesters joined the nation’s largest-ever anti-war protest, the Moratorium. However, many Americans disliked protesters with polls showing 84% thought student protesters and black militants were treated too leniently.

Kent State - rioted in the central business district and firebombed the ROTC building. Some held a peaceful protest rally which panicked National Guardsmen firing indiscriminately killing 4 and wounding 11. Days later two more were killed and 12 wounded when police opened fire. After, some Americans felt the gov was deliberately murdering dissenters but Middle America agreed with Nixon with 1/2 the population blaming the students for what happened.

Question 55

Nixon’s attack on the Great Society - welfare and antipoverty programme

Answer 55

During the 1968 presidential campaign, Nixon said he wanted to save taxpayers’ money by eliminating the more wasteful, inefficient Great Society programmes and reofrming the welfare mess

After the Great Society raised awareness of entitlements, the number of Americans receiving Aid for Dependent Children (AFDC) rose from 3 million in 1960 to 8.4 million by 1970.

President Nixon attacked the programmes and principles from several angles:

Successfully shrank the OEO, closed 59 Job Corps centres and cut federal housing programmes.

Tried to reform the welfare system as polls showed that 80% of Americans believed over half of those on welfare could get a job if they wanted. Nixon hoped to make welfare recipients work through his Family Assistance Plan (FAP).

Conservatives liked that welfare recipients would only have received $1,600 per annum and that there were work requirements

Liberals disliked those, but were pleased 13 million more Americans would be eligible for federal aid which alienated conservatives. There were so many criticisms of Nixon’s FAP that Congress rejected it.

Nixon vetoed the 1971 Child Development Act, which would have provided free childcare to enable poor mothers to work - too expensive and smacked of communism.

However, as brought up in poverty Nixon was sympathetic.
Despite his campaign, he increased federal expenditure on education, private healthcare, social security, Medicare and Medicaid, and actually spent more on social programmes than Johnson.

Question 56

Nixon’s attack on the Great Society - school desegregation and affirmative action

Answer 56

Supreme Court rulings in 1971 and 1973 supported bussing students from one neighbourhood to a school in another in order to end de facto segregation of schools, However, Americans opposed bussing by 8 to 1, and Nixon attacked it as ‘wrenching’ children from their families.
Nixon was initially unsuccessful in his attempts to slow down school desegregation, but his appointment of conservative justices led to rulings that eventually ended bussing.

Nixon claimed to dislike affirmative action, which he described as reverse discrimination, but in practice his administration gave minorities considerable help. E.g. put pressure on federal contractors to employ more minority workers. His promotion of affirmative action helped ensure its entrenchment in federal gov agencies and contractors for many years.

Question 57

The role of the media in influencing attitudes - film and TV

Answer 57

Promoted conservative values The Green Berets (1968) supported the war and did well at the box office, suggesting silent majority supported US efforts in Vietnam.

MAS*H (1970) - about the Korean War, was clearly critical of militarism and the Vietnam War and it too was very popular.

Family-friendly - The Sound of Music (1965) was incredibly popular, while Easy Rider (1969), which celebrated drug taking, sexual liberalisation and counter-culture, was not.

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) traced sexual liberation in LA and was critical but a commercial hit.

Question 58

The role of the media in influencing attitudes - the news media and civil rights

Answer 58

Coverage of the CRM and white mistreatment in Birmingham helped change Northern white attitudes to South segregation and helped pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Similarly, repeated showings of the violence of Bloody Sunday (Selma Campaign) helped ensure the passage of the Voting Rights Act 1965.

However, media coverage did not always promote a positive change in attitudes; images of ghetto riots helped turn many against further aid for black Americans after 1965.

Question 59

The role of the media in influencing attitudes - the news media on the impact of events in Vietnam

Answer 59

Challenged the government’s position and increased anti war sentiment

The Tet Offensive - 1968
Increased the ‘credibility gap’ which made the media more critical and confrontational towards the gov.
Vietnam made a significant number of reporters keen to challenge ‘official’ sources, which helped generate a more cynical public attitude toward politics and politicians.

My Lai massacre - 347 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians were beaten and killed by American soldiers. The army wanted to cover up such atrocities to protect the reputation and morale.
Investigative journalist exposure increased in late 1969. Polls suggested the extensive coverage did not change people’s attitude; while it shocked those who were already antiwar, others felt this was simply how war was. Some people’s attitudes as it made them think the war was turning American boys into killers of civilians.

The Pentagon Papers - in 1971, the New York Times further challenged the reputation of the gov by publishing the papers, leaked Defence Department documents that revealed American leaders misleading Congress and the public over the escalation of US involvement in the Vietnam War.

Question 60

The role of the media in influencing attitudes - the news media and other protests

Answer 60

Protests and the counter-culture made interesting news and the media covered them at length.

While some were ridiculed but it gave them a national platform and araised awareness. For example, television coverage of the chemical-saturated Cuyahoga River in Ohio spontaneously bursting into flames in 1969 helped increase environmental awareness and generate legislation

Media coverage reaffirmed existing positions (My Lai)

Sometimes it provoked countervailing attitudes. The media gave hippies coverage as reporters covered happenings in San Francisco in 1967 and there was disproportionate coverage of the roughly 10,000 counter-cultural communes established between 1965 and 1975. That coverage helped convince Middle America that the time had come to challenge the counter-culture