The fall of McCarthy
- Mccarthy accused even president Eisenhower of having Communist sympathies. This upset many loyal republicans.
- McCarthys downfall came when he attacked firstly the American Boy scout Movement and then the US Army.
- In a series of televised hearings about Communists in the US Army Mccarthy was exposed as a bully and a liar.
- The distinguished journalist Edward R. Murrow publicly attacked Mccarthy and won popular support.
- Even Mccarthy’s own supportersd turned aginst him and he was centured by the US Senate in 1957 and died later the same year of alcohol poisoning.
- TV had exposed him for what he was a bully, a cheat and a liar.
The importance of McCarthyism
- McCarthy gave his name to an unhappy time for the USA
- McCarthyism stood for intollerance and smear-accustaions made without any proof.
- Mccarthyism destroyed the lives of many loyal Americans
- Liberals who wanted reform of the government, freedom of speech or civil rights reform were reluctant to speak up in case they too were labelled communist
- McCarthyism produced a climate of fear in the USA where people were reluctant to say what they believed if they were reformers.
- McCarthyism also placed a straight-jacket on future US Presidents, especially Democratic ones, who in future had to show that they were not ‘ soft on communism’ and that they could stand up to and take on the Communist world.
- In 1954 the Communist Control act made the Communist party illegal in the USA.
Key topic: President Kennedy & the New Frontier.
The New frontier was the name given to JFK’s political programme during his first 1000 days in government ( January 1961 – Nov 1963)
Hint: Know what the New frontier was, what it intended to do and why it failed.
- It was launched during his innaugural address in January 1961.
- Kennedy called it a set of challenges for the American people.
- Launching the New Frontier, JFK promised to improve economic growth in the USA,defeat racial discrimination, eliminate poverty get America moving forward again and meet head – on the challenge of the space race against the Russians.
The New Frontier programme
The New Frontier concentrated on…….
- Urban renewal
- Environmental protection
- Civil rights reform
- Educational improvement
- Free medical care for the elderly
- Elimination of poverty
- Retraining for the unemployed
- JFK established a minimum wage of $1.25 for 3 million workers and gave increased government funds to Americas poorest states eg Louisiana and Arkansas to tackle poverty and low literacy levels.
- His two key bills of 1961, the Medicare Bill and the Education Bill both failed to get through the Congress and never became law.
- These bills were blocked by Senators from JFK’s own Democratic Party, opposed to his civil rights reform and his ‘liberal’ attitude to education and medical care.
- Kennedy’s Housing Act (1962) was a success.It provided huge sums of money to urban states to knock down inner city slums and build new homes, preserve green open spaces in cities and build out of town low cost, low rent homes.
- The Manpower Development Act provided millions of $ to retrain and to relocate workers who had been unemployed.
- The Justice Department under Robert kennedy began to push for Civil Rights. They desegregated all government buildings including those in the deep south.
- Kennedy set up the Peace Corps in 1961 to send young Americans overseas to Third World countries to use their skills in local projects. This would spread the American way of life.
- Kennedy accelerated the US Space programme. In 1961 he set the USA the goal of landing a man on the moon before the 1960’s had ended. This would not only be a first for humans but show the American way was the best way; show that American technology was best; and fulfil an important part of human curiosity and adeventure.
How successful was Kennedy’s New Frontier?
- JFK’s New Frontier was a failure.
- He did not manage to win over the Congress or even Senators from his own party.
- He was more concerned with foreign affairs and proving he was not ‘soft on communism.’
- He only achieved two less important goals of his New Frontier.The New frontier became bogged down in Congress. Conservative Democrats and Republicans blocked it.
- It took the skill of his Vice president and successor LBJ to push the New Frontier through Congress in 1964 on a wave of sympathy following JFK’s assassination.
- Opponents, even in his own party, thought JFK too sympathetic to minority groups eg black Americans. Kennedy himslef was poor at dealing with Congress.
- The conservatives in Congress opposed Medicare and Kennedys Education spending plans. They believed that it was not the role of government to take responsibility for people’s needs eg the elderly. Kennedy’s plans went against the traditional view of American governments of laissez faire, where the government left such matters to the individual.
- Civil Rights: June 1963, JFK introduced a Civil Rights Bill into Congress. It tackled discrimination in housing, employment, voting rigths etc but it was blocked in Congress and would not become law until after JFK’s death.
- JFK’s best achievement was in tackling the spiraling inflation left by Pres. Eisenhower.
Key topic: Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society
The Great Society is the name given to LBJ’s domestic programme following his victory in the 1964 Presidential election. January 1965 (State of the Union Address), he outlined the goals for the USA.
The Great Society was intended to demonstrate US superiority in technology and ideas. LBJ hoped to eliminate poverty in the USA by 1970.
Hint: A favourite question in the essay section. Know what the Great Society was and why it failed.
- LBJ was an experienced domestic politician and the Great Society was his vision of a better America.
- One of LBJ’s first act was a $10 billion tax cut which resulted in an economic boom in the USA.
- The 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed racial discrimination by employers and trade unions. It created the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to enforce the law.
- He used the memory of the dead President to push through the Congress many of Kennedy’s New Frontier Bills, eg. Tax Cuts, A Civil Rights Law.
- Johnson was himself a southerner from Texas but he was sympathetic to the cause of civil rights. His years in the Senate and his skill in Congress meant could do deals with politicians in Congress to get his way.
- LBJ exploited the shocked mood of the USA following Kennedy’s assassination in Nov.1963.
- LBJ said that “..no memorial could honour JFK more than Congress passing the Civil Rights bill which he fought so hard for.”
- LBJ was a Democrat but he persuaded many of the Republicans in Congress to support him.
Aims of LBJ’s Great Society
- Aid to the most poor areas of the USA
- Medicare
- Civil Rights Reforms
- Anti-Pollution Laws
- Increased spending on Education
- Full desegregation of Schools
- Campaign to eliminate poverty completely by 1970
- Using the dead President’s memory and his skills as a Politician, LBJ was confident he could force through his Great Society.
- His was a tremendous personal victory in the Presidential Election of November 1964 defeating his Republican opponent Barry Goldwater. LBJ’s victory in 1964 was bigger than Franklin Rossevelt’s in 1936 and this landslide victory brought to the US Congress many Democrats prepared to bring reforms such as LBJ wanted.
- By 1968 the Great Society was in tatters, judged a failure. The reason for its failure was Vietnam.
- During 1965 LBJ had little difficulty getting some of his Great Society programme through the Congress, but as Vietnam became more and more of an issue, Congress got more and more unco-operative.
Some achievements of LBJ’s Great Society
Economic Opportunity Act 1964
Provided one billion US Dollars to fight war on poverty and to set up a Job Corps for people aged 16 - 21 to train them for a variety of occupations.
The Appalachian Development Act 1965
Spend one billion US Dollars on the economic depressed areas along the Appalachian Mountain range covering all States from Pennsylvania to Alabama
The Elementary Education Act 1965
Gave Government assistance to every single school in the USA.
The Medicare Act 1965
this proved one of the most controversial Acts ever introduced into Congress. It prompted bitter fights between Medical Insurance Companies, Doctors, etc. Such groups argued that the Federal Government in Washington had no right to provide free medical care for those unable to afford it - this they claimed was an infringement of the rights of the individual. Such groups vehemently opposed Medicare, but on 01 January 1965 it became Law.
Medicare, of course, only provided free medical care to people aged 65 and over.
Civil Rights
In 1965, evoking the dead President’s memory to force it through, the 24th Amendment to the Constitution became Law. It said that poll taxes (ie. making voters, usually black voters, pay to register to vote) were illegal.
The Civil Rights Act 1964 - Perhaps the single most important piece of Legislation of the LBJ Presidency. Despite opposition from southern Senators, it became Law in July 1965 (nb - Senator John Stennis from Mississippi read out the Washington telephone directory for 25 hours in an effort to block the Bill). Again LBJ used Kennedy’s memory to force it through.
The Civil Rights Act 1964 .........
- gave every citizen the right to vote, outlawing Literacy Tests and Grandfather Laws,etc.
- prohibited discrimination in public places, eg. theatres, shops, hotels, etc.
- outlawed segregation in private schools.
- prohibited discrimination in employment, etc.
- Getting the Law passed was one achievement of LBJ’s, but getting it accepted and enforced in the South was another matter.
- To pass Civil Rights Act was one thing, to get it enforced in the South where discrimination was rife was another matter.
- Black Civil Rights Leader, Martin Luther King decided to put it to the test in Selma, Alabama in 1965.
- Selma, was a small town community with 15,000 blacks of whom only 325 were registered voters, compared to the whole white population of 10,000. King’s Civil Rights workers moved into Selma to start Voter Registration drives.
- This was violently opposed by many militant whites in Selma. The Sheriff, Bull Connor blacks were killed and no one was brought to trial. The Governor of Alabama, George Wallace ordered a Civil Rights March to be suppressed with armed National Guards and Tear Gas.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
- The events Selma forced LBJ to address Congress in March 1965, where he put forward Legislation which he believed would allow the Federal Government to stop discrimination all elections. Congress passed this Bill into Law on 18 August 1965
a literacy tests were abolished
b examiners would be sent to check on all elections
c the Attorney General was given the power to prosecute
any State or area which kept poll taxes or literacy tests.
The Civil Rights Backlash
- LBJ succeeded in passing much Civil Rights Legislation,but many young blacks were disillusioned by the Black Civil Rights leadership of Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy
- Black militant organisations sprang up, eg. Black Muslims - advocated total separation of races and that there was a inherent superiority of the black race over the white race.
- Spiritual leader of the Black Muslims was Elijah Muhammad, although the leading spokesman of the Black Muslims was Malcolm X.
- Another leading society Black Panthers founded in California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.
- The assassination of Malcolm X sparked off race riots in America’ largest cities, eg. Chicago, Newark and Detroit. President Johnson seemed to many people to be unable to prevent these race riots in which many died, eg. For 6 days in August 1965 blacks rampaged through the streets of LA and California.
- In the South side Watts District 200 buildings was destroyed and a further 600 damaged by burning and looting. The Watts riots results in 34 deaths and 1,000+ injuries and almost 4,000 arrests. The cost was estimated at 140,000,000 US Dollars.
- The following summer brought major outbreaks in LA, San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago and NYC. All of these riots were merely a prelude to what occurred in 1967.
- In July 1967 terror struck in Newark, New Jersey where 200,000 lived in squalid slum conditions. When the riot ended, 26 were dead and 1,200 suffered injuries.
- Between 1965 and 1967 riots struck 76 cities caused 380 deaths and countless thousands of arrests.
- Vietnam became the reason for the failure of the Great Society
Why the Great Society failed?
LBJ believed that he could achieve both the Great Society reforms and win the war in Vietnam. He was wrong. The more the USA became involved in Vietnam the less $ there were to pay for the Great Society. The failure to deliver on his promises cost LBJ the victory he wanted in the 1968 Presidential election.
Key Topic:The Presidency of Richard Nixon 1969 - 1974
Hint: The most likely emphasis of the question will be on Watergate and the downfall of Richard Nixon.
In the Election of 1968, Nixon beat his opponent Hubert Humphry by 1%of the vote to become the 37th President of the USA.
Nixon began his Presidency by announcing that,“...History can bestow no greater accolade upon a person than that of peacemaker”.
He had been elected President on the promise that he would restore truth and openness to the White House ‘end the war in Vietnam and bring the USA together . and restore law, order and justice to America.’
Over the next 5 and a half years, unfortunately, he betrayed most of those promises. He pledged to end the war in Vietnam, then expanded it taking the fighting into neutral Cambodia. He promised to restore truth and openness to the White House and the Presidency then repeatedly lied to the American people.
He committed his Presidency to the principles of Justice Law and Order, only to have 25 of his top officials, all appointed by him, indicted for criminal activity. Nixon himself, resigned in disgrace, guilty of covering up a burglary at his opponents’ HQ in the Watergate building in Washington in June 1972.
Nixon and Civil Rights
- Nixon was opposed to the Civil Rights reforms of the late 1950’s and 1960’s. Upon becoming President he block the renewal of LBJ’s Voting Rights Act and he ordered the Federal Government in Washington to slow down programmes to integrate Government Offices and Projects.
- Nixon was against bussing of students to achieve racial balance in schools. He introduced anti-bussing Bill into Congress but his opponents blocked it.
Economic Polices of the Nixon Administration
- Nixon cut government spending, especially on Civil Rights Projects and he raised taxes and interest rates.
- During his Presidency, unemployment increased and industrial production in the USA fell.
- Nixon proposed that there be a minimum income for poor families, but then he failed to push the Project through Congress.
The Appeal of Richard Nixon
- From the death of JFK in 1963 until the watershed year of 1968, America had changed. Voters in 1968 were concerned about two main issues: the War (ie. the Vietnam War) and Law and Order.
- For five consecutive summers, American cities had been rocked by rioting in black ghettos; by violence on University Campuses; by a massive increase in the crime rate and by a rejection by American youth.
- Between 1966 and 1968, there was a huge increase in the number of young Americans taking drugs, reflected in ‘rock’ music culture of the time.
- In the first year of Nixon’s Presidency, this culminated in hundreds of thousands of young people attending a massive open air concert at Woodstock in New York State.It became a protest agaisnt the war in Vietnam
- The Nixon years also saw the emergence of the Womens’ Liberation Movement (and between 1966 and 1972 an 80% rise in the number of divorces in the USA).
- Nixon rejected such demands. He claimed he spoke for America’s Silent Majority the un-poor, the un-black, the ordinary middle class American who did not take drugs, did not riot, and who paid their taxes, and obeyed the Law.
- Nixon hated the Press. He blamed them for his defeat against JFK in 1960 and in the race for the Governorship of California in 1962. He had little time for reporters and had few words (most of them expletives) for any media person including TV.
- He had even less time for students. When students at Kent State University in Ohio demonstrated against Nixon explaining the Vietnam War in 1970, which resulted in National Guards opening fire killing four students, Nixon referred to the dead students as ‘campus bums’.
Nixon and the Presidential Election of 1972
Nixon had all the advantages for the 1972 Election. He used his Foreign Policy to pull off coups to his own advantage (and gain Press coverage):
- detente with Communist China and with the USSR (Spring 1972)
- a cease fire in Vietnam (October 1972)
- The Democrats, his opponents were in disarray
- They chose a Liberal Senator, George McGovern as their candidate who in turn chose another Liberal, Tom Eagleton as his Vice Presidential candidate.
- Press revelation showed Eagleton has been treated for mental illness and related psychological problems. McGovern said, that did not matter and he was 110% behind Eagleton. The next day he sacked him as the Vice Presidential candidate.
- Nixon was ahead in all of the polls and in the November election, he won by 521 electoral votes to 17 for McGovern. This became the biggest ever win in Presidential history.
- Nixon with 61% of the popular vote had been given a tremendous vote of confidence by the American people.
Watergate
What went down in history as ‘Watergate’ began early in the spring of 1972. It caused the downfall of Richard Nixon two years later.
- Nixon appointed some of his closest aides to run his campaign team,(CREEP) and its head was John Mitchell, who had been the Attorney General.
- Mitchell with three top Nixon officials, John Erlichman, Bob Haldeman and John Dean in June 1972 and they agreed that they needed to find out what tactics the Democrats were going to employ in the election.
- The four agreed that they should authorise a ‘surgical operation’ (ie. a burglary) of the Headquarters of the Democratic Party at the Watergate building in Washington
- Using an ex-CIA Howard Hunt and the Security Officer for the Campaign to Re-elect the President (called ‘Creep’) and three others, the break-in went ahead on the night of 17 June 1972.
- Unfortunately for Nixon, the six men were caught going through files and installing bugging equipment.
- On 22 June, Nixon announced that neither he nor anyone involved with his re-election campaign knew anything about the burglary.
- The trial of the ‘Watergate’ burglars began after the 1972 election victory.
- A Washington Judge, John Siricca and two reporters on the Washington Post began to uncover a trail that seemed to lead back to the White House.
- The US Senate set up a Special Investigation
- They questioned everyone connected with the burglary and a pattern begin to emerge.
- Nixon officials testified that they had known about the burglary.
- John Dean, Nixon’s own lawyer admitted that he had been present when the burglary was planned and testified that he had told Nixon of the burglary the day after, ie. 18 June 1972.
- Over the summer of 1973, it became evident that many key Nixon officials were involved both in the planning of the burglary and the subsequent cover-up.
- This involved destroying FBI records bribing officials, forgery and bugging as well as bribes to the six convicted burglars to buy their silence.
- The critical question, however, was, did Nixon know about the burglary and did he authorise the subsequent cove-up? Nixon for his part denied any involvement in the cover-up, blaming his lawyer, John Dean.
- Nixon fired many White House staff, including Dean, Haldeman and Erlichman, but refused to handover important documents, claiming they were vital to National Security.
- One minor witness Alexander Butterfield revealed that Nixon was the main man and that he intended to make a fortune after he left the Presidency, from writing his memoirs.
- He had voiced-activated tape recorders installed in every office the President used in the White House. This revelation was crucial.
- Nixon appointed a Special Prosecutor to investigate Watergate (Archibald Cox).
- Both Cox and Washington Judge Siricca, demanded Nixon hands over the tape recording for the period before and after the break-in, and especially for 18 June.
- Nixon refused, Siricca took the Government to court and won.
- Nixon issued edited transcripts and of the tapes, but this was not enough.
- With Cox still demanding Nixon hands over the tapes, Nixon ordered his new Attorney General to fire Cox, the Attorney General refused and resigned himself.
- So outraged were Congress, that they begin proceedings to impeach Nixon (put on trial for high crimes and misdemeanours.
- Meanwhile, Vice-President Spiro Agnew, who would replace Nixon if he was to resign s President, himself was forced to resign as Vice-President in October 1973 for accepting bribes whilst Governor of Maryland.
- Agnew was brought to trial for fraud was fined $10,000.00 and placed on probation.
- Never before had a Vice-President been forced to resign, but a change in the Constitution in 1967 (following JFK’s death) allowed Nixon to nominate a new Vice-President.
- He chose the popular and respected Republican leader Gerald Ford, who became the new Vice-President of the USA. Ford was a Conservative with few enemies, but he was not noted for his originality or his brains.
- It was symptomatic of how far things had got in the USA when such things that should have been taken for granted, as honesty and integrity were regarded as marks of distinction.
- The Internal Revenue Service began their own investigation into Nixon and found that between 1969 and 1972, Nixon had only paid £100.00 in income tax. This made support for Nixon’s impeachment grow, (he eventually had to re-pay $500,000.00).
- In March 1974, before Judge Siricca, Dean, Mitchell, Haldeman and Erlichman were indicted for criminal deception and conspiracy.
- In July 1974, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Nixon, this would mean that he would go on trial before the 100 Members of the US Senate, charged with betraying his Oath of Office, lying and obstructing the course of justice.
- The Supreme Court then ordered Nixon to hand over all taped material relating to ‘Watergate’. Nixon could not ignore a directive from the Supreme Court and so on 5 August 1974 he released all taped material from 18 June 1972 - 23 June 1972.
- These tapes revealed that Nixon had known about the break-in the day after it took place; that he, Dean, Haldeman, Erlichman and Mitchell had planned a cover-up; that Nixon had used the CIA to stop the FBI investigating the case.
- The following day, 8 August 1874, Nixon wrote a one-line note.....”I hereby resign the Office of President of the United States”. Nixon left Washington still adamant that he had done no wrong.
- Public outcry was further incensed when the following month, the new President, Gerald Ford gave a full pardon to Nixon for anything illegal he may have done whilst President. Nixon accepted the pardon but denied any wrong doing.
- The tenacity of Judge Sirica and of the two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the ‘Watergate’ story. The Senate investigation finished it off. The final legal battle served to prolong the inevitable for Richard Nixon.
Nixon’s Achievements
- Most, if indeed all, of Nixon’s achievements were related to Foreign Affairs. He cared little for domestic politics and it showed.
- He was a Conservative and he cared little for the Reforms of Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930’s, Truman’s Fair Deal in the 1940’s and JFK’s New Frontier or the Great Society of the 1960’s.
- Nixon was an arrogant politician, full of self-belief. In the end suffered what many politicians suffer, the arrogance of power: a belief that they were above the Law and indispensable.
- Nixon forged an electoral grouping to win in 1968 and 1972. This WASP, rural affluent grouping would collapse in the wake of ‘Watergate’ in 1976, but would re-emerge in 1980 - 1992 to allow first Ronald Regan and then George Bush to win the Presidency for the Republicans.
The importance of Watergate
- Nixon was forced to resign and replaced by Gerald Ford.
- The Congress dramatically reduced the powers of the president
- The War Powers Act of 1975 gave Congress the power to declare war in future.
- There were tighter controls on Presidential spending
- A Freedom of Information and privacy Act was passed 1977 to give people access to government files .
- Respect for politicians declined dramatically.
- Newspapers and the media no longer accepted what politicians told them There was a huge increase in investigative journalism.
- Ford lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter (Democrat)
When the USA celebrated their 200th anniversary 1976, the country appeared more divided than ever before.
The Women’s Movement in the 1960’s and 70’s.
Hint: A very popular question worth 10 marks in the exam.
- Kick-started by the book The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan 1963. NOW National Organisation for Women founded by Betty Fredian in 1964.
- Coming at the same time as the introduction of the contraceptive pill
- These two things encouraged and enabled women to gain greater freedom and independence
- The Women’s Movement in the USA was based on the feeling of injustice among women. They were stereotyped amongst the media as housewives and home keepers.
- Men had better opportunities than women in education and employment etc
- Men received higher wages than women in all walks of life in the USA.
- There were few important women to serve as role models the most famous women in the 1960’ s was the wife of JFK Jackie Kennedy who was admired for her looks rather than her brain.
- The growth of the Civil Rights Movement came to incorporate women as well as progress towards black civil rights during the 1960’s.
- The landmark case in the Supreme Court in 1970 gave women in the US the legal right to have an abortion.
Landmarks towards equality for women
1961: JFK set up a presidential Commission on the role of Women
1963: Congress agreed an Equal Pay Act
1964: The Civil Rights Act incorporated discrimination on the grounds
of gender as well as race.
1966: The National Organisation for Women ( NOW) was set up.
They campaigned for equality and fairness for women.
1970: The Supreme Court Roe v wade gave American women the
legal right to have an abortion
1972: The Education Act challenged the stereotyping of women in
books film etc.
1988. The first women was appointed as Cabinet Minister
1990: Sandra O’Day became the first female US Supreme Court
Judge.
Between 1961 and 1980 gradually more and more opportunities opened up for women and the gap in pay narrowed. Politically more and more women entered politics and key US businesses.
The Student Movement in the USA in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Hint: Know what the movement was and how it protested and how important student protest was.
- The main reason for its development was the Vietnam war.
- The students were the baby-boom generation.
- Male students wanted to avoid the draft ( conscription into the US army)
- Such student saw the Vietnam was as wrong and immoral. They didn’t want to die for something they saw as wrong.
- Students set up the SDS ( Students for a Democratic Society)to protest against the war.
- Other student protest was directed against
Censorship
Nuclear weapons
Racism
Capitalism
- Students occupied Universities all over America 1965 – 69 to protest against government policy.
- A distinctive popular culture grew up alongside student protest eg
The music of Bob Dylan
Janis Joplin
The Doors
Arlo Guthrie
- Young people began to develop an alternative lifestyle that rejected society as it existed in the late 1960’s. – Hippies
- The Hippie Culture became associated with ‘Flower power’ the use of hallucinogenic drugs eg LSD, free love and protest against the Vietnam War.
- The slogan of the Hippies was “ Make love not War.”
- Assassination caused pessimism amongst the young eg JFK RFK and MLK. They were seen as heroes who were challenging the boundaries of society.
- The feelings of the anti-war generation came to a head in 1970 when a peaceful anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio ended in tragedy when four students were shot dead by National Guard. Nixon called the dead students , “ Bums”.
Civil Rights 1941 – 1980
Hint: Try to see how the Civil Rights issue created divisions in American society. Expect a wide-ranging question on Civil Rights either as shorter answers questions or as a structured essay.
Expect this to be worth up to 25% of Paper 1.
- In the 1920’s and 30’s, racial prejudice was common in American society.
- In southern states such as Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama, Jim Crow laws discriminated against Black Americans
Definition: Jim Crow = local laws in southern states of the USA such as Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama, which discriminated against black Americans eg Grandfather Laws, Literacy Tests.segregated buses, theatres and drinking fountains.
During the Second World War significant steps were made in progress towards civil rights in employment and the armed forces, but much remained to be done. (see Section on the US in the Second World War)
- By the end of the war in 1945, racism was an everyday experience in the 13 southern states.
- Blacks were denied the vote even though many were legally entitled to it.
- Local police officers ignorned attacks on black Americans and sometimes were guilty of it themselves.
- White juries almost always acquitted whites accused of murdering a black person.
- Discrimination existed in most areas of employment in southern states.
- The best universities were closed to blacks.
- In 1958 Clemson King, a black teacher was committed to a mental institution for applying to the University of Mississippi.
What President Truman did about Civil Rights
- Although coming from a southern state himself, (Missouri) Truman favoured civil rights reform.
- As a politician he recognised the importance of the black vote in northern cities.
- In 1946 he set up a Civil Rights Commission to report on what needed to be done in the struggle for Civil Rights reform.
- The Commission’s report, entitled “ To Secure These Rights” was released in 1947.
- It demanded an end to discrimination in housing, education, employment, transport and health.
- Although no Civil Rights law followed, by supporting the Commission’s report Truman made civil rights an issue in subsequent Presidential elections.
- In 1948 he issued two Executive Orders. One was to desegregate the US Armed Forces and the second was to end discrimination in the US Civil service. Both met opposition from southern politicians.
- His Civil Rights Bill in 1948 failed to get through Congress. It intended to outlaw lynching and to guarantee voting rights.
- He became the first President to appoint a Black judge to a federal court in 1951.
- He set up a commission in 1951 to oversee government defence contracts to ensure that they went to companies which banned racial discrimination
NB:The order to desegregate the US Armed Forces was not put into effect until 1950 during the Korean war.
Civil Rights in Education
In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s black groups such as the NAACP used the courts to challenge segregation in education which had been unchallenged since the 1899 “Separate but equal” ruling by the Supreme Court . For example..
- In 1944 the Supreme Court declared all-white primary elections illegal.
- In 1950 the Supreme Court declared that the University of Texas was illegal when it refused a qualified black student entry into their Graduate Law school.
- In 1950 the Supreme Court declared that states had to provide equal education for black and white students ( note that they did not say that schools had to be integrated)
- In 1951 the Supreme Court declared segregated graduate education illegal after the University of Texas built a separate black-only Graduate Law School.
- In September 1952, the NAACP brought ten cases before the Supreme Court, each one of which challenged the Separate but Equal ruling.
- The most famous of these was Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
Facts of the Brown v Board of Education case
- Brought by the NAACP
- The father of Linda brown, aged 7, Oliver Brown, a welder from Topeka, wanted to send his daughter to an all-white school seven streets from his house.
- The Board of Education forced him to send Linda to a school 21 streets away , over 1 mile and across a dangerous railway line.
- The case was a test case for the “Separate but Equal” ruling.
The Importance of the Brown v Board of Education case
- The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren, declared that separate schools for blacks and whites were illegal.
- He ordered all schools to desegregate as quickly as possible.
- State Education Boards had to provide equal funding for all children.
- Six states defied the Court ruling and continued to have segregated schools until 1961.
- Southern politicians in the Congress in Washington tried to fight the decision.
- By 1957, only 12% of all schools in the south had desegregated.
- Warren had been the Governor of California in December 1941 responsible for interning the local Japanese Americans. The brown case was a shift in direction for him.
- President Eisenhower opposed the verdict and did as little as possible to enforce it.
- He called his appointment of Warren, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, “..the biggest damn – fool mistake I’ve ever made.”
Resistance at Little Rock Arkansas 1957
The Central High School at Little Rock Arkansas was one of the best schools in the south.
The state of Arkansas had resisted desegregating its schools following the order from the Supreme Court to do so.
- In 1957, the Supreme Court ordered the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Fabus, to admit nine black students to the Central High School.
- Fabus went on local TV to say that if black students enrolled at the school then, “…blood would run in the streets.”
- Fabus called out the local National Guard, claiming he could not guarantee the safety of the black students.
- 15 year-old Elizabeth Eckford and eight other attempted to enroll and were stopped by a white mob.
- President Eisenhower was forced to act to protect the students.
- He sent in 10,000 troops from northern states to protect local black people and allow the students to enrol.
- The troops stayed there for six weeks
- Fabus tried to shut down all Arkansas schools unless the government reversed the 1954 decision
- The Supreme Court replied by banning all segregation in schools and ordered all schools to reopen immediately with desegregated classes.
- It took until 1964 for all schools in the south to do this.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955
- The bus system in Montgomery was segregated
- Arrest of Rosa Parks, a local black activist for failing to give up her seat to a white passenger.
- The local civil rights group helped to set up the MIA ( Montgomery Improvement Association)
- The MIA decided to put economic pressure on the Bus Company to force them to desegregate the buses.
- President of the MIA was the local Minister Martin Luther King.he was aided by Rev. Ralph Abernathy
- King and others held nightly meeting to keep up morale amongst the local black population.
- The bus boycott was a huge success. Local black people used car-sharing to beat the boycott.
- The bus company lost 65% of its income in nine months.
- Civil Rights lawyers fought Rosa Park’s case in the courts and by December 1956, the Supreme Court declared segregation on public transport was illegal.
- Throughout the boycott the local black leaders were subjected to harassment and intimidation.
- MLK was arrested twice. Local police tried to stop the car sharing.
- Churches and homes were fire-bombed. Snipers shot at people walking to work.
- The Montgomery Bus Boycott was the first important example of direct non-violent action and civil disobedience – ie challenging racial discrimination by refusing to have anything to do with it.
- It showed how powerful black people could be in challenging the law if they worked together.
- The Bus boycott brought MLK to national attention as a major force in the Civil Rights struggle.
- The bus boycott achieved success beyond Montgomery forcing other bus companies to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.
The success of Direct Non-Violent Action 1956 – 61
The success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott increased the demand for Civil rights reform and increased the pace of reform.
- MLK formed the SCLC. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference. This trained civil rights activists in non – violent protest, how to handle the police and the media.
- Black and White students set up a Student non-violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC) to bring about civil rights reform.
- James Farmer formed CORE ( Congress of Racial Equality) to used protest and the law to bring about change.
- Together, young people in these groups staged many protests eg
- In 1960, in Greensboro, North Carolina, SNCC students began a series of sit – ins in segregated restaurants in an attempt to desegregate them. Within a week students all over the south were organising similar sit – ins. Eg in Jackson, Raleigh, Richmond and seventy seven other towns.
- In May 1961 CORE student began a series of Freedom Rides to protest against segregation on transport between the different states ( Greyhound buses and trains)
- The Freedom riders wanted to get themselves arrested to test the illegality of segregated transport in the Courts.
- They faced some of the worst violence in the struggle for civil rights.
- The Governor of Alabama, John Patterson had 200 student arrested for loitering and they remained in gaol for 40 days.
- The new Attorney General Robert Kennedy put pressure on Patterson and he eventually gave in and released the Freedom Riders.
- Robert Kennedy sent US Marshals into southern cities to give protect to Freedom Riders.
- In Birmingham Alabama, the local Sheriff Bull Connor organised the attacks on the students.
Civil Rights during the Kennedy Presidency
Hint: This can and does form part of the New frontier but also it can be asked as a discreet question on its own.
Kennedy was lukewarm towards progress for civil rights, fearing he may upset southern Democrat Congressmen in his own party, whose help he needed to get the New Frontier through Congress.
- In September 1961, following Robert Kennedy’s action to support the Freedom Riders, all railways and airlines voluntarily desegregated their facilities.
- In September 1962, James Merredith a black ex-soldier was refused admittance to the University of Mississippi. The Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett publicly barred his way.
- BUT….Barnett had secretly done a deal with Robert Kennedy to put on a show of stopping Merredith and then allowing Federal Marshals in to allow Merredith to enrol.
- When white rioting followed, Kennedy sent in government troops.two people died in the rioting.
- In Birmingham Alabama, the SCLC under MLK attempted to break local Jim Crow laws on housing, transport, education and in public buildings.
- Birmingham was one of the most heavily segregated cities in the south.
- 1963: King and his followers arranged petitions, boycotts, sit-ins, and public demonstrations, all non-violent.
- But these non-violent protest quickly became violent when mobs and the local police attacked the demonstrators.
- The local Police Chief, Bull Connor set police dogs and water cannons on the demonstrators in the full view of TV cameras.
- Connor had MLK arrested and whilst in gaol King wrote his “ Letter from Birmingham Gaol” which justified his non violent direct action.
- Pres. Kennedy intervened and ordered all local services to be desegregated. This took the Birmingham authorities four years.
- King decided to repeat A.P.Randolph’s threat during 1941 to March on Washington to force Kennedy to introduce a Civil Rights Act. (nb: the year )
- The March was for freedom and jobs. It would end at the Lincoln Memorial ( Think of the year!!!!!!!)
- MLK’s moving speech “ I have a dream,” ended the march of 250,000 Americans. King looked forward to a better future when discrimination and segregation had ended.
- JFK responded by introducing a Civil Right Bill into Congress. But southern Democrats in his own party blocked it.
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was forced through Congress by JFK’s successor as President Lyndon B Johnson.
Civil Rights during the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson (LBJ)
Johnson was himself a southerner from Texas but he was sympathetic to the cause of civil rights. His years in the Senate and his skill in Congress meant could do deals with politicians in Congress to get his way.
LBJ exploited the shocked mood of the USA following Kennedy’s assassination in Nov.1963.
LBJ said that “..no memorial could honour JFK more than Congress passing the Civil Rights bill which he fought so hard for.”
LBJ was a Democrat but he persuaded many of the Republicans in Congress to support him.
The Civil Rights Act 1964 - Perhaps the single most important piece of Legislation of the LBJ Presidency. Despite opposition from southern Senators, it became Law in July 1965 (nb - Senator John Stennis from Mississippi read out the Washington telephone directory for 25 hours in an effort to block the Bill).
Again LBJ used Kennedy’s memory to force it through.
The Civil Rights Act 1964 .........
- gave every citizen the right to vote, outlawing Literacy Tests and Grandfather Laws,etc.
- prohibited discrimination in public places, eg. theatres, shops, hotels, etc.
- outlawed segregation in private schools.
- prohibited discrimination in employment, etc.
- Getting the Law passed was one achievement of LBJ’s, but getting it accepted and enforced in the South was another matter.
- Set up a Fair Employment Practices Commission.
- Black Civil Rights Leader, Martin Luther King decided to put the Civil Rights Act to the test in Selma, Alabama in 1965.
- Selma, was a small town community with 15,000 blacks of whom only 325 were registered voters, compared to the whole white population of 10,000. King’s Civil Rights workers moved into Selma to start Voter Registration drives.
- This was violently opposed by many militant whites in Selma. The Sheriff, Bull Connor blacks were killed and no one was brought to trial. The Governor of Alabama, George Wallace ordered a Civil Rights March to be suppressed with armed National Guards and Tear Gas.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The events Selma forced LBJ to address Congress in March 1965, where he put forward Legislation which he believed would allow the Federal Government to stop discrimination all elections. Congress passed this Bill into Law on 18 August 1965
a literacy tests were abolished
b examiners would be sent to check on all elections
c the Attorney General was given the power to prosecute
any State or area which kept poll taxes or literacy tests.
The Voting Rights Act was a key part of LBJ’s Great Society programme.I t succeeded in getting 2.7 million black citizens to register to vote by 1967.
The Civil Rights Backlash
LBJ succeeded in passing much Civil Rights Legislation,but many young blacks were disillusioned by the Black Civil Rights leadership of Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy
Black Power:
- term coined by Stokley Carmichael
- Rejected non-violence
- Saw Martin Luther King as a tool of the White-
- dominated government.
- White people were no longer wanted in the Civil
- Rights Movement
- Black Supremacy- Black people in chage of and in
- control of their own destiny
- Radical social change in employment, housing and education
- Black militant organisations sprang up, eg. Black Muslims - advocated total separation of races and that there was a inherent superiority of the black race over the white race.
- Another Black militant organisation was the Nation of Islam. They believed that White society was evil and therefore black Americans should not live alongside them.
- Both wanted separate segregated communities where blacks and whites could run their own affairs without mixing.
- Spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam was Elijah Muhammad, although the leading spokesman of the Black Muslims became Malcolm X.
- Another leading society Black Panthers founded in California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.
- The assassination of Malcolm X sparked off race riots in America’ largest cities, eg. Chicago, Newark and Detroit. President Johnson seemed to many people to be unable to prevent these race riots in which many died, eg. For 6 days in August 1965 blacks rampaged through the streets of LA and California.
- In the South side Watts District 200 buildings was destroyed and a further 600 damaged by burning and looting. The Watts riots results in 34 deaths and 1,000+ injuries and almost 4,000 arrests. The cost was estimated at 140,000,000 US Dollars.
- The following summer brought major outbreaks in LA, San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago and NYC. All of these riots were merely a prelude to what occurred in 1967.
- In July 1967 terror struck in Newark, New Jersey where 200,000 lived in squalid slum conditions. When the riot ended, 26 were dead and 1,200 suffered injuries.
- Between 1965 and 1967 riots struck 76 cities caused 380 deaths and countless thousands of arrests.
- Vietnam became the reason for the failure of the Great Societyand for further progress in Civil Rights reform.
- Nixon when he became President had little enthusiam for civil rights and ordered a slow-down in degsegregation in government buildings and offices
The Black Power Movement in the 1960’s
- Black militant organisations sprang up, eg. Black Muslims - advocated total separation of races and that there was a inherent superiority of the black race over the white race.
- Another Black militant organisation was the Nation of Islam. They believed that White society was evil and therefore black Americans should not live alongside them.
- Both wanted separate segregated communities where blacks and whites could run their own affairs without mixing.
- Spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam was Elijah Muhammad, although the leading spokesman of the Black Muslims became Malcolm X.
- Unlike the non-violent passive resistance preached by Martin Luther King, the Nation of Islam and the Black Muslims encouraged the use of violence as a means of forcing change in American society.
- The Nation of Islam encouraged blacks to convert from Christianity as well as abandoning their Christian slave name. One famous convert was the boxer Cassius Clay who became Muhammad Ali in 1964.
- By 1965 there were divisions in the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X split with the group to form his own Organisation of Afro American Unity.
The Black Panthers
Another leading anti-government society the Black Panthers was founded in California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.
- They were a radical group who wished to use force to achieve their goal of black domination of local ciry society.
-
The Black Panthers took their name from the 761st Black Panther Tank Unit which had been so effective for General Patton during the D Day assault in World War II.
- The Black Panthers were not just a political force but also a private army. At their height in 1969 they numbered over 2000 members.
- There were repeated clashes with police and law enforcement agencies between 1967 and 1969 with nine police and 47 Panthers left dead.
- The leaders were gaoled in 1969 and Huey Newton went on the write a Pulitzer prize best selling book ‘Seize the Time
- Bobby Seale became the Democratic mayor of Oakland in 1992.