Social and Political Change 1973-80

Question 1

Watergate’s Impact on Policies

Answer 1

Nixon refused to turn the tapes over claiming Executive Privilege (National security reasons)

1st time in American history a President has been forced to resign

Nixon was moderate but policies discredited after instead more right-wing dominated e.g. Reagan – ‘imperial presidency’ came to an end for a while

Unpopularity of Vietnam and Watergate – Congress could decrease the power of the President to avoid another Watergate

War Powers Act of 1973 was designed to limit presidential power to take the nation into war.

The Ethics in Gov Act 1978 made it easier for special prosecutors to investigate alleged presidential wrongdoings.

Question 2

Ford successes

Answer 2

Peopled desired regular guy in the White House - relate to his family, wife pushed with fully clothes into the Camp David pool

Question 3

Ford failures

Answer 3

Ford was popular with Congrss, the public and the media but plummeted after pardoning Nixon in 1974

Ford was not elected which provided more reason for ridicule by the media

New Yorker magazine cover showed him as Bozo the Clown

Changed his position on taxation - New York Times ‘had not turned the economy around but at least he can turn himself around’

Defeated in the 1976 election by Ford confirming a crisis of political leadership

Question 4

Carter successes

Answer 4

Regular guy - rejected excessive formality, sold the presidential yatch and worse casual clothes on TV broadcasts

Question 5

Carter failures

Answer 5

Micromanaged - failed to establish a productive relationhip with Congress, some considered it to be join with his wife - 1979 in his first 6 months as president he reviewed all requests to use the White House tennis courts

1977 poll - only 18% of Americans had a lot of confidence in Carter commonly asking ‘Can Carter Cope?’. By 1980 he had the lowest ever approval rating of a president

By 1980 only 18% of Americans felt Carter was a very strong leader

The House Speaker said Carter ‘didn’t seem to understand the need to master the legilsative process’

Incapable of dealing with the most pressing contemproary issues - the enviornment, the economy and the Iranian Hostage crisis

Question 6

The Iranian Hostage Crisis

Answer 6

1973 Nixon signed the Paris pEace Accords ending the Vietnam War - fear the US was losing its international primacy seen in the hostage crisis

1979 Iranian militants stormed the US embassy and took 60 Americans hostage in protest of Carter allowing the Shah to recieve cancer treatment in the US

Carter tried but failed to negotitate the hostages release and then sent an unsuccessful helipcopter rescue in 1980

By 1980 presidential election, the fneral feeling was Carter was a poor leader who messed everything up contributing to his defeat to Regan

Question 7

Growing political disillusionment

Answer 7

Poll - 76% believed Ford lacked presidential quality and 80% said the same of Carter

In 1980 47% of registered voters simply stayed home - many were poo/ unemplyoed who would typically vote Democrat but had been disillusioned under Carter

Percent of Americans who agreed the people runnng the coutry don’t care about them rose by 34% from 1966-77

Election turnout - 54% in 1976, 53% in 1980 confirmed the alienation of a significant proprtion of the electorate

Question 8

Environmentalism’s political impact

Answer 8

1970s – became an important political issue due to publicity, increased awareness that the Earth’s resources were finite and the desire to experience wilderness and parks.

1969 – 1% felt the environment was the greatest domestic problem verses 25% in 1971. Membership of environmental organisations grew with middle-class liberals joining old organisations such as the Sierra Club or new ones such as the National Resource Defence Council.

Environmentalism was strengthened by the revelation that Love Canal, near Niagara Falls, was so full of industrial waste that it caused disproportionate numbers of miscarriages and birth defects in the local population, which was relocated en masse in 1978.

The political implications:
The environmentalist lobby gained such strength that many politicians were encouraged to pass environmental legislation
Industry and economic growth provided employment but could damage the environment.

Question 9

Environmentalism’s legislative impact

Answer 9

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), established by the Nixon administration in 1970, asked American car manufacturers to cut down on exhaust emissions. In compliance with the EPA regulations, the manufacturers introduced catalytic converters and unleaded gasoline in 1975, cutting car pollution by 75%. In 1976, Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Carter was the first successful presidential candidate to campaign on environmentalism. Obtained legislation to prevent chemicals from polluting the environment
Expand National Park and wilderness land (the 1980 Alaska Lands Act set aside one-third of the state as wilderness)
Renew the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and seek alternative sources of energy.

HOWEVER, Carter’s ambitious energy programme failed to get through Congress intact because Americans hated paying more for petrol.

Carter’s achievements were insufficient for environemtnalists and upset the traditional Democratic labour unions. Workers in industries that generated a great deal of pollution believed that environmentalists threatened their jobs. Many sported bumper stickers saying, ‘If you’re hungry and out of work, eat an environmentalist.’

Question 10

Effect of inflation on family income

Answer 10

The federal minimum wage rose in 1981

The average inflation rate in 1973 was just over 6.% and in 1980 just under 14%

Decline of the rust belt e.g. In the car manufacturing city, Detroit unemployment 24% 1980

Mothers had to work to maintain the usual income. 38% 1960 52% 1980

Difficult to find alternative work. 70% of jobs in 1980 were service

Question 11

Poverty and homelessness

Answer 11

Urban renewal policies - ‘inner-city skid row’ hotels housing the exceptionally poor were demolished and people struggled to find alternative accommodation.

Poverty increased in the 70s with more living below the poverty line. just under 13% 1976 including 50% of all black female heads of households.

1970s the number of institutions for the mentally ill decreased. Hospitals were struggling financially so had to be paid through unpaid labour. Former residents ended up on streets as they were forced to close. Conservatives wanted to cut expenditure.

Crack cocaine - saw an increased use in the inner-cities with addicts spending all their money so were unable to afford accommodation.

Women - the number of homeless women rose with a decline in marriage rates and more single mothers who lacked support from partners and authorities due to them being unsympathetic.

Positives
Food stamp progress eligibility rose - 20 million covered 1980

Question 12

Oil crisis

Answer 12

Nixon supported Yom Kippur War 1973 – Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries oil embargo on the US – end of the embargo was followed by a 387% hike in the cost of oil. Resulted in Americans paying 30% more for heating oil and petrol.

1974 strike by 100,000 independent truckers. Demanded lower fuel prices bringing the nation’s roads to a standstill for 11 days meant empty store shelves.

Harsh Winter 1976-77 – 165,000 United Mine Workers strikes for 3 months. Gas shortages forced school and factories to close especially in the East. Fuel stations closed or reduced hours led to queues.

1st riot in Pennsylvania (Levittown) – truckers barracked expressways, 100 injured, 170 arrested in the 2 nights of violence.

End of cheap energy

Insolvable problems for politicians, as voters wanted decreasing the energy consumption which meant raising oil tax – disliked – contributed to growing political disillusionment

1973 save fuel by reducing thermostats and join carpools. 1977 Carter suggested 18 degrees in winter and air con at 26 degrees. Gov led the way and factories reduced workers hours sometimes but oil consumption was still incredibly high

Question 13

Impact of foreign competition

Answer 13

The US economy was driven by automobiles but, in the 1970s had poor petrol consumption ‘Gas Guzzlers’

Japanese cars were inexpensive and well-made making them attractive to Americans. Japanese companies had 23% of the US automobile market by 1981.

General Motors Chrysler lost billions and needed a controversial $1.5 billion gov bailout in 1980.

The number of permanent jobs in the automobiles industry fell from 940,000 1978 to 500,000 1982

Resulted in production being moved abroad or buying finished products as manual labour was cheaper elsewhere. Also resulted in factory closures, downsizing companies and workers being made redundant.

Question 14

Government Response to economic challenges - Ford

Answer 14

Voters were unimpressed by the response

Ford had various ideas - asked to voluntarily cut their mileage by 5% and stop throwing out food. He distributed red-and- white WIN (Whip Inflation Now) buttons which America liked but rejected his suggestions.

Cut federal expenditure and asked Congress to approve a tax rise but made him unpopular, so proposed a tax cut, which the Democrat-controlled Congress made larger than he thought wise. In the long run, the tax cut and 1975 Omnibus Energy Act (domestic oil prices were allowed to rise slowly so consumption decreased) helped bring the economy out of recession.

Question 15

Government Response to economic challenges - Carter and the energy crisis

Answer 15

Tried harder than any other to solve it. Wanted to end dependence on the unstable Middle East.

1977 his energy programme suggested: Oil conservation- e.g. reduce travel, develop and use alternative sources (especially nuclear, coal and solar), higher taxes on large automobiles to encourage Americans to buy smaller models, greater insulation in homes and workplaces.

Proposed energy legislation which passed the House but met opposition in the Senate. Because:
Carter had drawn it up with insufficient consultation and lobbying.
States where automobiles and natural gas and oil were produced opposed the programme.
Voters did not want to pay higher taxes in a period of high inflation or change their lifestyles

In 1979 OPEC raised oil prices and Carter called again for actions to reduce dependence o foreign oil.

Congress responded to some: The Energy Security Act (1980) offered loans and incentives to promote the search for and use of alternative energy, including alcohol fuels and biomass energy.
However, Carter’s suggestion of nuclear power became particularly unpopular after a nuclear meltdown at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island reactor in 1979 mobilised environmentalists. Staged nationwide protest marches demanding that all nuclear facilities be shut down.

Overall, failed to get Americans to agree on how to solve the energy crisis, but contributed greatly to increased awareness of the importance of energy conservation

Question 16

Government Response to economic challenges - Carter and other problems

Answer 16

His measures to solve rocketing inflation, increasing unemployment and rising energy prices pleased no one.

Adopted standard methods for handling inflation e.g. decreasing gov expenditure (froze federal workers’ wages) and urged voluntary wage and price controls in the private sector.

Blue-collar workers who traditionally voted D disliked Carter’s focus on inflation rather than unemployment, his voluntary wage guidelines and his criticism of striking miners in 1977, and considered him unsupportive over the minimum wage.

The business community distrusted Carter; they feared his energy proposals would damage industry and worried about the impact of mounting trade deficits on the dollar, which had slumped on the world currency markets.

Question 17

Business interest in sport

Answer 17

Pre-1970s, many felt sport reflected the ‘American Way’- characterised by the capacity for hard work, equal opportunities for advancement and frequent success

Many argued that the over-commercialisation of sport encapsulated all that was bad in the American character, especially excessive greed.

1973 – colleges, teams and athletes earned vast sums from spectators, corporate sponsors and TV rights – increased further between 1973 and 1980.

Profits for the NFL for TV rights rose from $188 million in 1970-73 to $646 million in 1978-82. Corporate sponsorship increased dramatically in the 1970s because there was so much more sport on TV and corporate advertisers could target the increasing number of armchair spectators.

Question 18

Business Interest in Sport - Athletes and profits

Answer 18

John Mackey of the Baltimore Colts sued the NFL to gain greater bargaining power over salaries and movement from one club to another. Mackey and the NFL players’ union won their case in 1976.

Labour disputes, lawsuits, walkouts and strikes characterised team sports during the 1970s – the legacy of the 60s’ challenges to authority, as many players leading the fight against traditional labour practices were black Americans who drew on civil rights and Black Power movements.

Question 19

Business Interest in Sport - cheating and violence

Answer 19

1970s – rise in investigative journalism led to the exposure of increasing corruption.
An estimated 1/3 of the US Olympic team used steroids in 1968 and 68% by 1972.

1980 – the University of New Mexico coaches were found falsifying athletes’ grades to keep mediocre students who earned the university gate money.

1978 football game – New England Patriot bumped into Oakland Raider Jack Tatum and suffered two fractured vertebrae, leaving him a quadriplegic. Tatum said he did not feel guilty or sad about his opponent’s fate, because it was ‘what the owners expect when they give me my paycheck’.

Question 20

Fragmentation of pop music - commercialisation

Answer 20

Rock culture in the late 1960s rejected easy-listening and pop music. Although born in the mainstream and dominating it by the 1970s, rock claimed to be opposed to mass society; rock was serious, while pop was trivial.

Perceived itself as anti-mass culture, with superior, authentic music full of feeling and creativity and uncorrupted by commerce and fashion; pop had inferior, over-commercialised, unoriginal music, with its consumption manipulating buyers.

Rock was aware of the social implications of musical production and consumption; pop lacked awareness and was corrupted and conformist. Rock rejected the ethical compromise and capitulation that characterised pop.

Question 21

Fragmentation of pop music - heavy metal

Answer 21

Most successful American heavy metal band in the 70s was Grand Funk Railroad.

Ignored by radio and the press, which gave it the outsider status that perhaps explains its success. Lacking radio play, heavy metal performers focussed on live shows characterised by noise and the phallic guitar thrusts that provoked the nickname ‘cock rock’ (no women artists in heavy metal).

Associated with the occult, as demonstrated by Alice Cooper, a group that wore makeup and engaged in showy animal rituals. By 1976, the group had eight gold or platinum albums, including the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies, which reached number one in the charts. Although the members of Alice Cooper were ex-athletes, the spandex, high-heeled boots and makeup in which they performed challenged traditional gender roles.

Question 22

Fragmentation of pop music - punk

Answer 22

Developed in the mid-1970snd rejected the pretentious elements of the dominant rock culture and aimed to shock – The Ramones used Nazi symbols and played songs with titles like ‘I Don’t Wanna Be Tamed’ and ‘Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue’.

Believed commercialisation had destroyed American music and that the biggest and most popular bands had sold out to money and become corrupted.

The Dead Kennedys rejected elaborate instrumentation and their songs were often anti-establishment, with a political message. The band’s name was chosen to reflect the death of American idealism. Their aggressive realism and political radicalism attracted a loyal following among working-class young people and left-wing students.

End of the 1970s punk was changing into new kinds of music, such as no wave and new wave. No wave emerged in the underground clubs of downtown New York, where bands such as the Contortions and DNA flourished. Like punk, it rejected commercialism. Indeed, the influential no wave band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks refused to perform songs lasting more than 30 seconds in order to reject a commercial sound.

New wave bands took punk in a more commercial direction. Combining punk guitars with disco drum machines, the new wave band Blondie took the new sound into the mainstream, with their number-one single ‘Heart of Glass’ in 1979

Question 23

Fragmentation of pop music - hip hop

Answer 23

Began in New York City’s Harlem ghetto in the early 1970s. This black urban youth culture comprised rapping, DJing, graffiti, beatboxing and breakdancing – roots in the black tradition of talking to music.

While there had always been talking in soul music, Harlem Street poets such as Gil Scott-Heron were more politically conscious and lamented ghetto conditions – Rap sung by black Americans included topical themes; ‘How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise’ (1980) by Brother D and Collective Effort.

1970s – hip-hop had spread to urban centres across America. Many people consider The Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ (1979) the first hip-hop record; initially it just scraped into the pop Top 40, but eventually sold over 2 million copies. Purists criticised the group as prefabricated and felt that hip-hop lost some of its real character after ‘Rapper’s Delight’ made it mainstream

Question 24

Fragmentation of pop music - singer songwriters

Answer 24

Singer-songwriters gained great kudos in the 1970s because they were ‘authentic’; they wrote their own music. and were singing from the heart. The lyrics written and sung by artists such as Carole King and Carly Simon were frequently highly personal. Simon’s recordings sometimes suggested a feminist influence, while ‘Nobody Does It Better’ (1977) was a straightforward love song.

Although Bruce Springsteen wrote and sang romantic songs, in his appearance and lyrics he and his ‘heartland rock’ represented the forgotten man ‘born down in a dead man’s town’ in the old, declining industrial areas, where he cannot find a job. Springsteen was a native of New Jersey, a state where a high proportion of manufacturing jobs were lost. His songs frequently refer to Rust Belt unemployment and other aspects of working-class life.

Question 25

Contradictions in cinema - Blaxploitation

Answer 25

Between 1969 and 1974, independent Black filmmakers and studios made what became known as Blaxploitation films, with Black casts and action-packed adventures in the ghettos.

Blaxploitation movies were a result of black dismay about the bland Black characters in the mainstream, Hollywood’s awareness that, as Black people constituted 30% of the audience in city cinemas, Blaxploitation films would make money greater black awareness generated by Black Power.

Characterised by black heroes overcoming corrupt whites and by the depiction of black and white women as sex objects, suggesting that this genre owed much to feelings of emasculation in the ghettos.

Caused tensions within the black community. Some middle-class Black critics rejected the violence, drug dealing and gangsters of the 60 or so Blaxploitation films. Superfly (1972) contributed to a dramatic increase in cocaine use among ghetto youths, and that this glamourisation of ghetto life distracted Blacks from the collective political struggle.

Question 26

Contradictions in cinema - political issues

Answer 26

Many films of this time dealt with social disorder and political corruption.

Watergate itself was the subject of the highly popular All the President’s Men (1976), the story of the Washington Post reporters who exposed the scandal.

The China Syndrome (1979) focussed on the attempted cover-up of the near meltdown of a nuclear plant; current environmentalist debates were reflected in such explorations of the issue of public good versus private greed.

The Deer Hunter (1978) began with moving, authentic depictions of Pennsylvania steelworkers, and then traced the ruin of their lives through service in Vietnam.

Question 27

Contradictions in cinema - sex and violence

Answer 27

1968 - introduced a film rating system that guided moviegoers as to likely content of movies.

Contributed to more sexually graphic movies in the 1970s - most famously Last Tango in Paris (1973), which is explicit even by today’s standards

Question 28

Contradictions in cinema - escapism

Answer 28

American Graffiti (1973) and Grease (1978) looked back affectionately to teenage life in the 1950s and were box-office hits

Sci-fi films like Star Wars (1977) were optimistic in tone and very popular.

Some sci- fi was downbeat. Soylent Green (1973) was set in a future world of environmental disaster, mass poverty and ghettoisation, in which a small privileged male elite reduced women to the status of slaves – popular because they reflected contemporary concerns.

Fantasy Island (1977-84) - where one’s wishes came true - was classic escapist fare, reflecting how by the mid-1970s viewers were tiring of ‘social consciousness’.

This was when ‘jigglevision’ and crime shows such as Hawaii Five-0 (1968-80) and Starsky and Hutch (1975-79) became popular.

Idealised Families - The Waltons (1971-81) and Little House on the Prairie (1974-83), were favourites. Television followed the movies in presenting an idealised view of the 1950s, with the long-running sitcom Happy Days (1974-84).

Question 29

Contradictions in TV - social consciousness

Answer 29

All in the Family (1971-79). Its central character was Second World War veteran and blue-collar worker Archie Bunker who ranted at black people, feminists, homosexuals and hippies (meant to be a rather ridiculous bigot, but much of Middle America agreed). The show topped the ratings from 1971-76.

Two series on independent-minded women were very popular; Maude (1972-78) had a feminist central character, while the heroine of the popular Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77) was a 30-something, single, intelligent working woman facing invariably less intelligent and sexist males in the workplace.

Pressure from organisations such as the Gay Activist Alliance forced TV networks into more sympathetic portrayals of homosexuals; for example, the made-for- TV movie A Question of Love (1978) was about a lesbian mother’s child custody case.

Origins of America’s racial tensions were explored in ABC’s mini-series Roots (1977), Black American writer Alex Haley’s story of the enslavement of his ancestors. A record-breaking 100 million viewers tuned in for the last episode - nearly half the American population.

Question 30

Contradictions in TV - sex and violence

Answer 30

Several series were titillating rather than explicit - critics called them ‘jigglevision’ because breasts and buttocks could be seen moving.

Charlie’s Angels (1976-81), which had three private investigator heroines. One of the stars, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, said, ‘When the show was number three, I figured it was our acting. When it got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra.’

When citizen group campaigns against television violence led to a decrease in ‘hard action’, one network executive responded, ‘If violence goes down, sex will go up.’ It did. The most sexually explicit programme was ABC’s 1977 comedy series Soap.

Contemporary studies indicated a strong link between violence on TV and the rising crime rate; a group of youngsters who had seen the 1974 TV movie Born Innocent committed a rape identical to one in the movie. Contemporary anxieties about increasing crime help explain the popularity of the vigilante hero in Death Wish (1974) and its four sequels.

Question 31

Development of news media

Answer 31

Inspired by the Vietnam War credibility gap and Watergate.

Although the exposure of scandal and corruption was nothing new, the war and Watergate encouraged aspirational journalists to seek another career-making scandal.

Some believed journalists were essential in American democracy. Others feared that Watergate and Vietnam encouraged journalists to make big scandals out of mundanity and the press had an exaggerated sense of its own importance in politics.

Expansion of television news coverage.
1968 - CBS News programme 60 Minutes was fixed in the 7pm Sunday evening slot from 1976 and viewing figures rocketed and it led the way in investigative journalism innovations such as hidden cameras. Critics attacked the programme as breeding a cynical attitude to national life and politics.

Another much-criticised development was the increased incidence and popularity of ‘happy talk’ - additional and meaningless comments inserted into news programmes, usually in the form of a highly informal conversational style between journalists.

Allowed for more minorities on air - 1973 ‘Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match between Billie Jean King and 55-year-old former champion Bobby Riggs was televised)
NOW campaigned for more women on television and the development of the special reports on current issues in the 1970s increased opportunities for women such as Barbara Walters, who joined ABC Evening News in 1976. Finally, the news media paid far more attention to sexual issues in the 1970s.

Question 32

Political and social impact of Roe vs Wade

Answer 32

Abortion before Roe v Wade
Abortion crime in 30 states and legal in certain cases in 20
1967 – Colorado was the first state to legalise abortion in cases of rape, incest, or threat to a woman’s health – by 1972 13 other states had similar laws
Where abortion was illegal, women risked having backstreet abortions and by the 1960s college student could have safe abortions performed by sympathetic doctors, but poor women lacked access
1971 onwards – National Rights Action League lobbied state legislatures for legalisation of abortion

Roe v Wade ruling
Women could abort in the first 13 weeks when a foetus could not sustain life on its own
Feminists, women, liberals, and organisations were thrilled while the conservatives raged

Question 33

Opposition to Roe v Wade

Answer 33

1967 National Right to Life Committee (Catholic Church) - opposed abortion, campaigned against Roe v. Wade - anti-abortion activists did effective fundraisers and recruiters - methods such as mass mailings containing highly emotive language.

1978 mailing contained graphic pictures and pleaded to stop abortion

Phyllis Schlafly - representative of a resurgent social conservatism that was closely associated with the Republican Party.

Republican Henry Hyde - law that banned the use of federal funds for abortion and in1977 the Supreme Court ruled Hyde’s measure constitutional and extended the ban on federally funded abortions to military and Peace Corps personnel.

Question 34

Women’s Rights

Answer 34

Increased since the early 1960s with greater freedom in their sexual lives and the right to abortion and how attitudes towards women and work had changed

Over two-thirds of female college students agreed that ‘the idea that the woman’s place is in the home is nonsense’.

Failed to achieve economic equality – despite the 1963 Equal Pay Act, professional women still received 73% of the salaries paid to professional men and most women remained in the lowest- paid jobs. 66% of US adults classified as ‘poor’ were women.
Failed to obtain the Equal Rights Amendment and faced increasing conservative opposition.

Question 35

Women’s rights opposition

Answer 35

The advances in women’s rights mobilised conservative opposition.

70% of those contacted by the National Right to Life Committee turned out to vote in the congressional elections in 1978 (twice national average) and 50% of them donated at least $25 to the Committee.

The conservative campaign against abortion affected the 1980 congressional elections; several liberals were defeated, including George McGovern. The social conservatives continued to gain strength.

1979 – Beverly LaHaye established Concerned Women for America (CWA) to fight against the ERA and abortion – 500,000 members by the mid-1980s – wanted women to stay at home, look after the family and not deprive men of possible employment. Women’s rights were frequently challenged by conservatives, as were workers’ rights.

Question 36

Workers rights

Answer 36

By 1973, from the Wagner Act (1935) - unions had the collective bargaining rights and many members received the benefits won by unions in the late 1940s and 1950s, including health insurance, life insurance, paid vacations and pensions.

Non-union members had few such rights, but legislation gave minimum wage and maximum working hours.

Vulnerability to employer abuse increased if they were first-generation or illegal immigrants.

1970s sweatshops in clothing industry in NYC and LA where such people were employed. Many were women, and most women workers suffered discrimination (their wages were 61 per cent of men’s in 1960 and still only 65 per cent in 1985) and sexism (William Free penned ‘Cigarettes are like women. The best ones are thin and rich’ for the American Tobacco Company in 1970).

Over 19 million Americans belonged to unions in 1970 and there were many strikes: After the largest public employees strike in American history in 1970, when 200,000 postal workers went on strike, the federal government approved their collective bargaining rights, although not their right to strike. 1.8 million employees were affected by strikes and lockouts in 1974, when 31.8 million working days were lost. In 1977, the United Mine Workers’ 109-day strike led to a fuel shortage that caused lay-offs and school closures.

Labour unions declined – 19 million unionised Americans constituted only 27.4% of non-agricultural workers – way below than other industrialised nations, where workers often had more rights.

For example, the Supreme. Court had ruled common situs picketing illegal in 1951 and Congress (anti- union sentiment in the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act), rejected successive presidents’ call for legislation to make it legal. When President Ford introduced a bill to allow it but with restrictions in 1975, business opposition was so great that Ford vetoed his own bill in order to appease right-wing Republicans.

Question 37

Decline of Worker’s Rights

Answer 37

Public opinion was often anti-union because of anticommunism and corruption scandals (Teamsters Union leader jailed in 1967)

Postwar - white-collar and service workers increased. 1973-1980, 80% of new private-sector jobs were in low-paid service/retail areas and often temporary or part-time and harder to unionise.

1970s - businesses tried to lower costs due to increasing foreign competition and domestic high inflation. As jobs were hard to come by, businesses could squeeze unions. Employers threatened to move their plants to areas where costs were lower and employees amenable. 38 million industrial jobs were lost in the 1970s, mostly in the Rust Belt. Following 1965 immigration legislation, an influx of foreign workers willing to work for lower wages undermined American labour, including Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers.

Combination of economic problems and increasing conservatism in national politics decreased union power. Meant an average 2% yearly fall in workers’ real income between 1973 and 1981, so that by 1981 it was at 1961 levels.

Unions and minorities clashed over their rights, especially over affirmative action. President Nixon had ensured affirmative action in federal hiring and contracting, but people called it unfair.
1975 - federal judge ruled against the Detroit Police Department’s ‘last hired, first fired’ seniority principle. This ruling protected recently hired black officers. Faced with losing their jobs, some white officers protested in the streets

Question 38

Gay Rights

Answer 38

1973 – homosexuals suffered employment discrimination and public hostility and humiliation.

The authorities harassed bars and restaurants that served homosexual customers.

Stonewall riots generated growing gay pride and political militancy in the 1970s.

New York Gay Liberation Front (1970) urged gays to ‘come out’ proudly. Some did, and gay rights obtained several victories in 1973-80.

Public attitudes were changing and progress was made in noted centres of gay life:
San Francisco passed a law banning employment discrimination on sexual orientation in 1972.New York City followed in 1979.
1974 – American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of psychological disorders.
1978 – Californian voters resoundingly defeated Proposition 6, which would have rescinded a 1975 law that protected homosexual teachers from discrimination and given school districts authority to fire gay who publicly endorsed homosexuality. teachers
1980, the Democratic party platform supported equality for all, regardless of sexual orientation.

Question 39

Gay Rights opposition

Answer 39

1977-78, Baptist ministers Jerry Falwell and Tim LaHaye gained national attention in a successful battle against a Miami pro-gay rights ordinance – generated greater assertiveness among gay-rights activists in major cities, most famously in San Francisco. San Francisco’s Castro area was becoming a totally homosexual community, with bars, restaurants, political organisations and public celebrations for gay men and lesbian women.

Progress remained relatively slow.
In 1980, millions of homosexuals remained in the closet, fearing ridicule, harassment, job loss and losing custody of their children.

Politicians remained fearful of promoting gay rights, homosexuals were portrayed unsympathetically in the media and there were public debates over whether they were fit to be teachers or to hold positions of responsibility.
Homosexual activity remained illegal (although rarely prosecuted) in many states

Question 40

Native American rights in 1973

Answer 40

½ of the 700,00 population lived short, hard lives on reservations with unemployment that ranged from 20% to 80%, a 44-year life expectancy and high rates of suicide and alcoholism. Those living in cities invariably had low-paying jobs and poor housing and schooling.

Their historic land treaty rights were frequently ignored. Native Americans had been granted US citizenship after the First World War, but most wanted the right to tribal self- government in order to preserve their culture and identity. Under self-government, a tribe could regulate tribal land, taxation, resources and individual behaviour.

Inspired by Black Power, Red Power developed. The NCAI’s director defined Red Power as ‘the political and economic power to run our own lives in our own way’ and not wanting to be in the mainstream of American life.

Question 41

The Federal Government and Native Americans

Answer 41

Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Acts (1975) - gave tribes control over federal aid programmes and reservation education. Some felt the legislation promised more than it delivered, mainly due to underfunding. Others said it increased Native American influence over federal actions and Native American financial and organisational resources.

Some argue that the educational provisions were successful (especially in community colleges) and that the Educational Assistance Act paved the way for other helpful laws such as the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (1976), in which Congress granted $1.6 billion to help improve the availability and delivery of healthcare for Native Americans

Question 42

The Supreme Court and Native Americans

Answer 42

Mixed feelings about Supreme Court decisions:
In US v. Wheeler (1978), the Supreme Court affirmed the right of a federal court to try a Native American who had already been tried by his tribe. While the Court recognised the ‘unique’ sovereignty of Native American tribes, it said it was ‘limited’.

In Oliphant (1978), the Supreme Court limited tribal authority over non-Indians and Indians of other tribes on reservations.

American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978) recognised rights to practise Native American cultural traditions, such as the use of the hallucinatory drug peyote. HOWEVER,an increasingly conservative Supreme Court greatly weakened the Act in 1990.

Decisions in 1979 resulted in the restoration of 1,800 acres to Narrangansetts in Rhode Island and $100 million compensation to the Sioux for ‘dishonourable dealing’ in the acquisition of the Black Hills in South Dakota (rejected the money and demanded the land)

Question 43

The impact of Red Power - Organisation

Answer 43

AIM was est. in 1968 in Minneapolis-St Paul, the largest Native American ghetto. With 40 chapters across the USA and Canada, they worked to improve ghetto housing, education and employment and also attracted members from the reservations. The AIM’s methods included:

Monitoring police racism (the Native population in Minneapolis jails fell by 60%)

Establishing survival schools such as the Heart of the Earth Survival School in Minneapolis 1972, which told urban children of Native languages and culture

Organising marches to publicise the need for compensation for US government violations of 19th-century treaties with Native Americans, such as the 1972 “Trail of Broken Treaties’ from San Francisco to the BIA in Washington DC

Question 44

The impact of Red Power - Occupation

Answer 44

Gained great publicity - occupation of Wounded Knee (1973), where members of the Sioux tribe had been massacred in 1890.

In February 1973, around 300 Sioux occupied Wounded Knee to publicise reservation problems. The trigger event was the indictment for manslaughter of the white killer of Wesley Bad Heart Bull could have led to release within a decade, but when Wesley’s mother protested, she was arrested on a charge that could have led to 30 years’ incarceration.

The AIM-inspired occupation force demanded:
- Free elections of tribal leaders (many reservation residents disliked authoritarian tribal president Richard Wilson)
- Review of all treaties, especially the 1868 treaty concerning the tribe’s land rights.

When hostages were held at gunpoint, heavily armed federal forces quickly besieged Wounded Knee and two Native Americans were killed.

After 71 days, peace was agreed and the federal government promised an investigatory commission. The commission said that the 1868 treaty between the tribe and the federal government was superseded by the federal government’s power to take land, but the occupation generated some federal government sympathy

Question 45

The impact of Red Power - Litigation

Answer 45

Some successes in the law courts.

Federal government traditionally leased mining rights on reservations to private companies and Native Americans gained little, but in 1973 the Northern Cheyenne of Montana won a federal court victory enabling them to renegotiate mineral contracts. After 50 years of protest, controversy and litigation, coal mining on Navajo and Hopi reservation lands ceased in 2005.

The Indian Child Welfare Act(ICWA) was enacted in 1978 in response to a crisis affecting American Indian and Alaska Native children, families, and tribes. Studies revealed that large numbers of Native children were being separated from their parents, extended families, and communities by state child welfare and private adoption agencies. To protect the best interest of Indian Children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families, standards caseworkers had to follow were established to keep Native children within their culture and communities.

Question 46

Native American Rights in 1980

Answer 46

Red Power had contributed to a greater awareness of Native American rights to self-determination and land.

Treaty rights were still frequently ignored and, although reservation Native Americans had greater self-government, most remained economically disadvantaged.

Land rights lost over the centuries would never be restored and half the Native American population remained on unproductive reservation land.

The economic status of Native Americans, like that of black Americans, remained greatly inferior to that of white people.

Question 47

Status of Black Americans 1973-80 - Economic status

Answer 47

1/3 of Black Americans and 1/2 of Black American children lived below the poverty line.

1/3 of Black workers had low-status, low-skilled jobs in low-wage occupations.

Black Americans constituted 12% of the US population but 43% of arrested rapists, 55% of those accused of murder and 69% arrested for robbery

Ghetto crime, poverty and unemployment remained problems that even black mayors could not solve

HOWEVER
Black Americans benefited from Great Society programmes.

Social security and welfare payments doubled during Nixon’s presidency and he promoted affirmative action to end economic inequality. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of affirmative action (Griggs v. Duke Power Company, 1971), while Nixon ensured that over 250,000 companies with federal contracts employed a fair proportion of minority workers.

Nixon’s support for affirmative action encouraged universities to use positive discrimination on behalf of minority applicants. Affirmative action helped make one-third of black Americans middle class by 1980

Question 48

Status of Black Americans 1973-80 - Education

Answer 48

1971 - Supreme Court ruled it time for the full implementation of school desegregation (Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg), specifying the bussing of black and white children to each other’s schools as the way to achieve racially mixed schools.

When the US courts endorsed the bussing of children to schools that were often a long distance from the students’ homes, Nixon spoke out against wrenching children from their community. Despite Nixon’s opposition, the percentage of Southern black American children in segregated schools fell from 68 per cent to 8 per cent during his presidency

De facto segregation proved harder to combat in the North in Boston
Irish Americans staged protest marches and sit-ins to demonstrate their opposition to school integration in 1974. The pro-bussing Boston Globe employed sharpshooters to defend its building

Opposition to integrated schools caused private school numbers to rise across America (Boston’s public schools contained 45,000 whites in 1974 but only 16,000 by 1987) and white flight to accelerate (6% of the population moved to the suburbs in the 1970s).

After Nixon appointed four conservatives to the Supreme Court, it ruled that Detroit schoolchildren should not be integrated through bussing (Milliken v. Bradley, 1974) and the Democrat Congress legislated against bussing in the Education Act of 1975

Question 49

Status of Black Americans 1973-80 - Political

Answer 49

Supreme Court sometime acted to ensure equal status, ruling no redrawing of political boundaries should leave ethnic minorities worse off in political representation (Beer v. United States, 1976).

Some states went further, creating districts in which black American voters were grouped together to help ensure the election of black officials. More black Americans were elected mayors of major cities, such as Detroit (1973), Los Angeles (1973), Washington DC (1974) and Birmingham (1979), and over 20 black Americans representing congressional districts with predominantly black populations sat in the US House of Representatives from 1973 to 1980.

However, the limitations of black progress were demonstrated in that black candidates rarely won white votes; as a result, only 1% of elected officials were black in 1980. The sole black American Senator in the US Congress in this period was Edward William Brooke III, who represented the liberal state of Massachusetts from 1967 to 1979.