The Civil Rights Movement and the Great Society

1
The Civil Rights Movement and the Great Society

• Ms. Weston
• APUSH
• 4/9/08

2
Roots of the Civil Rights Movement

• WWII
• Frustrations of blacks during war
• Double Victory campaign and increased activism
  (Ex. A. Philip Randolph Washington March)
• Some post-war victories for blacks in North
• End of public segregation
• Jackie Robinson in Major leagues
• Gunner Myrdal An American Dilemma increased
  awareness of problem of racism
• --Truman ends segregation in federal civil
  service and military

3
Key Victories of the Civil Rights Movement

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• Chief Justice Earl Warren and Supreme Court ruled
  that segregation in schools was unequal and
  therefore unconstitutional
• Reversed Plessy v. Ferguson
• Massive Resistance in Deep South (Ex. Little
  Rocks Central High SchoolEisenhower sends
  National Guard)
• 1957 Congress passed first Civil Rights Act since
  Reconstruction

4
Eisenhowers Domestic Policy

• Main goal To make government small, combat
  socialism here in US (Ex. considered free vaccine
  socialized medicine)
• Operation Wetback Eisenhower forced many
  undocumented Mexicans out of USsupposedly to
  save bracero program
• Attacked Indian New Deal
• Did increase government spending with Interstate
  Highway Act (spent more than entire New Deal!)

5
Intellectual Developments

• Fiction Hemmingway, more surrealist works from
  Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut
• Poetry Critical of American lifeSylvia Plath
  and Anne Sexton
• Playwrights Dealt with social issuesTennessee
  Williams and Arthur Miller
• Black writers Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison,
  James Baldwin
• Beat Movement (1950s)Jack Kerouac, Allen
  Ginsberg criticized materialism and conformity of
  50s culture

6
Kennedy and the New Frontier

• Glamour of Kennedy
• Very qualified cabinetRFK and McNamara
• New Frontier Inspiring people to do for America
  and the world (Ex. Peace Corps)
• Difficulties getting his medical and educational
  bills passed
• Tax cuts
• Much government money into space program!

7
Civil Rights Under Kennedy

• Reluctant to get involved
• Took awhile to give government aid to Freedom
  Riders
• Developed relationship with MLKalthough FBI was
  tapping his phone
• Used federal troops to help integrate Ole Miss
• Before he died, called for passage of Civil
  Rights Bill

8
JFKs Assasination

• Nov. 22, 1963, Dallas
• Alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, shot to
  death by Jack Ruby
• Warren Commission still couldnt figure out
  exactly what happened
• Shocked and saddened nation
• Inspirational figure more for promise and image
  (Camelot) than for what he really accomplished

9
LBJ takes over

• Senator from Texas
• Supported New Deal programs, wanted to expand
  them
• Passes Civil Rights Act of 1964banned
  discrimination in public facilities, strengthened
  government power to end segregation in schools,
  created Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
  provision for gender equality.

10
Johnsons Great Society

• Saw as a War on Poverty
• Economic and welfare measures inspired by New
  Deal
• Flood of legislation after LBJs victory in 1964

11
Great Society Reforms

• Expanded Office of Economic Opportunity
• Created Dept. of Transportation and Dept. of
  Housing and Urban Dev., National Endowment for
  Arts
• Aid to educationfederal money to students, Head
  Start program
• Medical care for elderlyMedicare and Medicaid
• Immigration reform1965 law abolished quota
  system, provisions for family unification

12
Voting Rights Act (1965)

• 24th Amendment had abolished poll tax
• Johnson passes this through after brutal attacks
  against civil rights workers and Selma campaign
• Political victory for blacks
• Now had political power
• Whites began to court black vote
• Did nothing to deal with economic conditions of
  African Americans

13
The Shift to Black Power

• Increased focus on economic racism
• Watts Riots (1965)highlights segregation,
  poverty and police brutality in ghetto
• Increased focus on economic racism
• Rise of militant black leaders
• Goal is separatism, not integration

14
Malcolm X

• Symbolizes radical shift in the movement
• Leader in the Nation of Islam
• Radical message of black separatism
• Willingness to use violence against violent
  whites
• Focused on structural racism
• At end of his life, did move to more inter-racial
  cooperation
• Killed in 1965

15
Black Panther Party

• Founded in Oakland, CA
• Inspired by Stokely Carmichaels call for Black
  Power
• Original focus was police brutality in community
• Became a political/social organizationdevoted to
  empowering blacks, also giving community
  important servicesbreakfast programs
• Targeted by FBI, COINTELPRO

16
Racial Violence

• Series of uprisings in 1967showed discontent and
  frustrations of African-Americans
• Whites reacted with more fear and withdrawal
• 1968 Martin Luther King assassinated
• Violence and rioting again in inner city

17
Legacies of Civil Rights Movement

• Many more voters and black government officials
• School integration
• More blacks in middle class
• Still much room for improvement
• No more de jure segregation, but de facto
  persists!

18
The Chicano Movement

• Desegregation of schools
• Mendez v. Westminster (1946)
• Cesar Chavez and foundation of UFW
• Adoption of term Chicano
• Fight for ethnic studies and Chicano studies at
  universities
• Brown Berets
• 1968 Walkouts to protest biased curriculum and
  tracking
• 1970 Chicano Moratorium against Vietnam

19
Other Movements

• Native American Movement
• 1968 Founded American Indian Movement (AIM)
• 1969 Occupied Alcatraz to unify Native Americans,
  voice discontent
• 1973 Occupied Wounded Knee
• Some victories more control over reservation
  schools, some land
• Asian American Movement
• LGBT Movement