1Jackie Robinson

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1. Postwar Policies and Prosperity

After the war in 1945 many American veterans returned home from war. Experts were worried that the veterans returning home would not find jobs. If the unemployment rose experts were afraid the economy would tumble. Congress passed the G.I. Bill of Rights to help returning veterans. The G.I. Bill provided loans for veterans to pay for college or a new home.

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Inflation, or rising prices was the major postwar problem. After the war prices of merchandise rose. Workers demanded higher wages for the price increases. When employers refused, labor unions called strikes. President Harry Truman told workers to go back to work and do not strike.

President Harry Truman the 33rd President of the United States

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With the election of 1948 President Truman defeated Governor Thomas Dewey. It was a surprise victory.

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During hid presidency, Truman produced a new reform called the Fair Deal. He wanted to extend the liberal policies of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Only a few proposals passes: a higher minimum wage, extended Social Security benefits, and loans for buying low cost houses.

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In 1952, President Truman decided not to run for reelection. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, known as “honest Ike,” promised to end the conflict in Korea and lead Americans through the Cold War.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower 34th President of the United States

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After the Great Depression many Americans put off having families. When the war ended prosperity returned, and the number of births soared. Population experts called this phenomenon a baby boom.

In addition to the baby boom, their was an economic boom. The economy rapidly expanded. More good were produced and sold and more jobs were created. New technology added to the boom, by promoting steady rises in productivity, or the average output per worker.

Birthrate Chart

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The economic boom raised Americans’ standard of living, and index based on the amount of goods, services, and leisure time people have. Americans bought washing machines, vacuum cleaners , television sets, automobiles, and many other consumer goods.

washing machines vacuum cleanerstelevision sets

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With their newfound wealth, many people bought homes in the suburbs, or communities outside the cities. Builder William Levitt pioneered a new way of building suburban houses. He bought large tracts of land and divided them into small lots. He build identical homes on each lot. Because these homes were mass produced, they were cheaper to buy. This eventually led to the building of shopping centers. Levitt called the project Levittown. African Americans were barred from owning or renting in Levittown. Levitt feared that if he sold to blacks, whites would not buy the homes.

William Levitt

Levittown

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Many Americans flocked to the Sunbelt, a region stretching across the southern rim of the country. People were lured there due to the warm climate and good jobs. Automobiles became very important to people in the 1950’s. By 1969, 9 of 10 Americans living in the suburbs owned a car and a television set.

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In the mid 1950’s Rock-and-Roll combined sounds or rhythm, blues, country, and gospel with a hard driving beat. Teenagers liked rock and roll because it provided an opportunity to show their independence. A small group of writers and artists criticized the materialism in American society. Novelist, Jack Kerouac termed these people beatniks in his book.

beatnik cartoon

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2. The Civil rights Movement

Throughout the nation, discrimination limited the lives of millions of Americans. Qualified African Americans found themselves barred From good jobs and decent housing in the north. In the south, laws enforced strict separation, or segregation, of the races in schools, but the users, restaurants, and other public places. The facilities for blacks were inferior to those of whites.

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The discrimination also limited Mexican Americans and other Latinos. They were not subject to strict segregation laws. However, the laws as well as traditions worked against them.

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For most African Americans, the NAACP or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People led the drive against discrimination during World War II. Thurgood Marshall, and as a legal defense fund of mounted several court battles against segregation. Marshall also helped blacks of register to vote and fought for equal opportunities in housing and employment.

Thurgood Marshall

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Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the major league baseball in 1947 when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was even named the rookie of the year. Under pressure from civil rights groups, President Truman ordered integration, or the mixing of different racial groups, in the armed forces in 1948.

Jackie Robinson integration

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in 1896 in Plessey v. Ferguson that “separate but equal” facilities for backs and whites were constitutional. the NAACP argued that separate white and black schools were not equal in the 1950’s.In the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of education of Topeka, Thurgood Marshall challenged the whole idea of “ separate but equal.”

George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit, 1954

Thurgood Marshall

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The Supreme Court ruled in Brown's favor in 1954. Chief Justice Earl Warren noted that segregation affected the “hearts and minds” of black students in a way unlikely to be ever be undone.” “We conclude that in the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal, has no place. Separate educational facilities are always unequal.”

Chief Justice Earl Warren

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One year later, the Court ordered the schools to be desegregated. Some schools had trouble with the integration. In Arkansas in 1957, the Governor Orval Faubus, called the National Guard to keep African American students out of classes. President Eisenhower sent Federal troops because the Governor was defying the federal law.

Governor Orval Faubus

Little Rock Nine

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The Montgomery Bus Boycott

In Montgomery, Alabama Rosa Parks was ordered to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus so a white man could have her seat, as the Alabama segregation laws required. Parks, a well known activist and a secretary for the NAACP, refused to give up her seat. She was then arrested and put in jail. That night several women, from the NAACP, wrote a letter asking African Americans to boycott, or refuse to use the busses. To support the protest, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a nonviolent bus boycott of the busses. King insisted that protesters limit their actions of civil disobedience, or non violent protests against unjust laws. The boycott lasted from December 5th to December 20th of the next year. The Montgomery improvement Association, led by Dr. King, filed a federal lawsuit to end bus segregation. The Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. The Montgomery bus company then agreed to integrate busses and hire black bus drivers.

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Rosa Parks arrested

Rosa Parks and walking to work

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested and the bus boycott has a successful end

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Following the Montgomery victory, King and other African American Leaders founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to carry on the crusade for civil rights. Dr. King became the president and Reverend Ralph Abernathy became the treasurer. The SCLC urged African Americans to fight injustice by using civil disobedience.

Reverend Ralph Abernathy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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John F. Kennedy took the presidential oath of office on January 20, 1961 at the age of 43. The 1960’s and 1970’s were years of idealism. They also turned out to be a time of uncertainty, tragedy, and turmoil for Americans of all ages.

3. Protest, Reform, and Doubt

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In the election of 1960 television was used for the first time for a presidential debate. Can be debated against Nixon in the debate . Kennedy won the election by a narrow margin. Kennedy’s election he urged Congress to pass laws to help millions of Americans living in poverty. Congress blocked all the president’s poverty programs. Congress did fund the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps were volunteers sent to teach or provide technical help and developing nations.

Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy before the debate.

Peace Corps

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On November 22, 1963, Kennedy traveled to Dallas, Texas, on a political tour. As his convertible past cheering crowds, gun shots rang out. The present slumped in his seat. Later, John F. Kennedy died. That afternoon, Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President. Chief justice Earl Warren later concluded that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, had murdered the President. Lee Harvey Oswald was killed by another gunman. Today most historians agree with the Warren commission blaming Lee Harvey Oswald for the murder. President Johnson steered many of Kennedy’s proposals through Congress. In November, 1964, voters returned him to the White House in a landslide victory as President

The 36th president of the United States

President Lyndon Johnson

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The Great SocietyPresident Johnson began Medicare in which the government would help hospital costs for senior citizens. The President began Medicaid which gave money to help or citizens with their medical bills. A new office of economic opportunity created job training programs for the unemployed. It gave loans to needy farmers and to the businesses and poor sections of cities. Programs to build housing for low income and middle income families were also part of the president’s Great Society. President Johnson also started Head Start programs to help of children in our schools.

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Despite these social reforms, protest movements grew in the 1960’sThe civil rights movement expanded. Opposition to the War in Vietnam grew. Some people began to reject the lifestyles of their parents. Many Americans joined the counterculture movement. They criticized the drive for personnel success. Instead of going to college they “dropped out” and joined communes. Inspired by the civil rights movement, counterculture called for peace, justice, and social equality.

A burning Viet Cong base

People from communes in the 1960’s

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As more and more young men were sent to fight in Vietnam, the antiwar movement gained strength. Protesters staged rallies, burned draft cards. And refused to serve in the military. President Johnson’s popularity plummeted so he did not run again for reelection. In the election of 1968, Nixon won the presidency by a narrow victory.

Milton L. Olive III fought and died in the Vietnam War

A soldier in the Vietnam War

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President Nixon reduced the funds for the Great Society programs during his presidency, including job training, low income housing, and education. He called this transfer of power the “New Federalism.” During his campaign he said he wanted to help the “silent majority.” These were the people who were disturbed by the unrest in the 1960’s but did not protest publically. Nixon began a “law and order program,” in which Federal funds were used to aid local police departments. He also named four conservative justices to the Supreme Court.

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Nixon inherited the space program from Kennedy and Johnson. Its greatest triumph came in 1969 just as Nixon took office. Two astronauts landed a small craft on the moon’s surface. Millions of people watched this event on the television. Neil Armstrong became the first person to step on the moon.

First moon walk

Neil Armstrong

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During the Nixon years, the economy suffered from stagflation, a combination of rising prices, high unemployment, and slow economic growth. To halt inflation Nixon froze wages and prices. To stimulate growth Nixon increase federal spending. Still the economic problems would no go away.

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In Nixon’s second term in office a scandal forced the president to resign from office. President Nixon had made several secret tape recordings of conversations in his office. This became known as the Watergate Affair. It showed that the President tried to cover up the break in at the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate Apartment. During the scandal Vice President Spiro Agnew was accused of taking bribes so he resigned. When the impeachment hearings against the president began, Nixon resigned from office.

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Gerald Ford became the new President amid the ending political scandal. President Ford granted Nixon a full pardon. He did it one month after Nixon resigned. In 1976, Jimmy Carter won the election as the new President. Carter was a strong defender of human rights. He was unable to stop rising prices and inflation.

Gerald Ford the 38th President

Jimmy Carter became the 39th President

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Across the South, segregation limited the rights of black Americans not only in lunch counters but also in bus stations, restrooms, and other public facilities. Many African Americans began using a form of protest called a sit-in, in which people sit in and refuse to leave. The first sit-in took place in a Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, north Carolina.

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Anne Moody and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized “freedom rides,” in which busloads of young Freedom Riders (black and white) rode from town to town to integrate bus terminals in the South. The early civil rights groups held firmly to the tactics of what Martin Luther King Jr. called “nonviolent action.”

freedom rides

Freedom Riders organized by the Congress of Racial Equality evacuate a bus set afire by a mob outside of Anniston, Alabama, in 1961.

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Police sometimes responded by using attack dogs and water hoses against protestors. Civil rights leaders were hurt or sometimes killed. In August in 1963 more than 200,000 Americans marched to Washington, D.C. They wanted congress to pass laws to end discrimination.

During a protest against segregation practices in 1963, demonstrators brace themselves against the force of water sprayed by riot police in Birmingham,

Alabama.

Attack dogs were used against civil rights activists

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Among the speakers was Martin Luther King Jr. In his I Have A Dream Speech he called for an end to racial discrimination.

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President Kennedy failed to pass federal civil rights laws. Lyndon Johnson was successful in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protected the rights of all citizens to vote. It outlawed discrimination in hiring and ended segregation in public places.

President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Among the guests behind him is Martin Luther King Jr.

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In 1965, the Voting Rights Act allowed federal officials to register voters in states practicing discrimination. It ended literacy tests used to keep African Americans from voting.

President Johnson with Dr. Martin Luther King celebrating the signing of the Voting Rights Act of

1965.

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The Black Panthers was a radical group to told African Americans to arm themselves to end segregation. Black Muslims, such as Malcolm X. argued that African Americans could succeed only if they separated from white society. Before he was assassinated, Malcolm X began to change his views.

Malcolm X

Black Panthers

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Many angry protesters turned violent In August of 1965 in Los Angles. The rioters, in Watts, a black neighborhood, set fire to buildings and looted stores. Some 4,000 people were arrested an 34 people were killed, and 1,000 people injured. Chicago and Detroit also had similar violent protests.

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In April 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee. King’s life has continued to inspire Americans to work for a peaceful change. To honor his memory, his birthday was declared a national holiday.

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In the 1970’s many African Americans won public offices in small towns and large cities. Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, New Orleans, and Los Angles had all elected black mayors by 1979. President Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. Many Universities adopted affirmative action programs. These programs sought to hire and promote minorities.

Thurgood Marshall

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The Women’s Rights MovementWomen have long fought inequality. Since the 1960’s, their drive for equal rights has been known as the Women’s Rights Movement. In the workplace qualified women found male employers were unwilling to hire them for certain jobs. They were usually paid less then men. In 1966, writer Betty Friedman helped set up the National Organization for Women (NOW), which worked or equal rights for women in jobs and education.

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New laws helped women. Make some gains. The Equal Rights Act of 1964 required equal pay for equal work. It outlawed discrimination in hiring based on gender and race.

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In the 1970’s Latino’s worked for equal Rights. More than 10 million Latino’s lived in the United States. Mexican Americans are the largest group of Latino's Living in the United States from 1960-1980. Many were migrant workers from Mexico. A migrant worker traveled from farm to farm looking for work. The were paid low wages and worked in harsh conditions. Many Latino’s from Puerto Rico came to the United States to work in factories. They faced job and house discrimination. Cuban Americans fled from Fidel Castro when he set up a communist government in Cuba. The first wave of Cuban immigrants from 1959-1962 were mostly educated individuals. The second wave of immigrants from Cuba in the 1980’s were mostly unskilled workers. Many settled in Miami, Florida and were subject to discrimination.

Hispanic Flag

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Cesar Chavez formed a union of migrant workers, the United Farm Workers. When the workers were mistreated Chavez called for a national boycott of farm products. This led to higher wages and better working conditions. By the mid 1960’s Latino’s began taking pride in their history and culture. Latino’s became registered voters and they elected many Latino officials to represent their own interests. One result of the Voting Rights Act of 1975 was bilingual elections. Bilingual means in to languages.

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Native Americans also worked for their rights. The American Indian Movement (AIM) protested the treatment of Indians. The Native Americans wanted to remind Americans of the governments failure to deal fairly with American Indians.

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