KENNEDY, JOHNSON, &
ACTIVISM
THE 1960 ELECTION
A NEW T YPE OF CANDIDATE
 John F. Kennedy, 43
 Young and Catholic
 Promised to help slow the economy
TV’S ROLE
 September 26, 1960
 1 st televised presidential debate
 JFK – young, tan, relaxed, fit
 Nixon – sick, underweight, loose shirt, no shave
 Saw on TV: JFK won
 Heard on Radio: Nixon won
A NARROW KENNEDY WIN
 VP Lyndon Baines Johnson
 Won popular vote by only 19,000 votes
 Entered into office without a mandate
 Mandate – public endorsement
COMBATING POVERT Y & INEQUALIT Y
 1963 – wrote book “The Other America”
 1/5 th of Americans were living below the poverty line
 1961 – Housing Act for urban renewal
 24 th Amendment – no poll tax
 Equal Pay Act – Same work = same pay
THE SPACE PROGRAM
 April 1961 – USSR sent man to space
 May 25, 1961 – JFK challenges NASA to do same
 Said they had 10 years
 Changed school systems – emphasis on math and
science
ASSASSINATION
 November 22, 1963
 Campaign swing though Texas
 Texas School Book Depository, 6 th floor
 3 shots
 1:00pm JFK pronounced dead
 Lee Harvey Oswald arrested
 On T V, LHO was transferred jails
 Shot by Jack Ruby on T V
 November 29 th - Warren Commission
 Investigated assassination, LHO acted alone
JOHNSON BECOMES PRESIDENT
 LBJ sworn in on JFK’s death
 Democrat from Texas
 Won his seat by 87 votes
 Took offer from JFK for VP after failed nomination
 Hated VP – no real power
 As President, kept JFK’s agenda and added to it
THE GREAT SOCIET Y
 Series of Legislation by Johnson
Economic Opportunity Act
1964 Combat poverty
Volunteers in Service to America
1964 Volunteers sent to help poor communities
Medicare
1965 Provide medical insurance for Americans 65 and older
Medicaid
1965 Provide medical insurance for poor Americans
Elementary and Secondary
Education Act
1965 Educational aid to states based on number of low income
children
Immigration Act
1965 Eliminate quotas
Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD)
1965 Oversee housing needs, rent supplements, low-income
housing
National Foundation of the Arts
and Humanities
1965 Grants to artists and scholars
Water Quality Act & Clean Water
Restoration Act
1965 Water and air quality standards, funding for environmental
research
National Traffic and Motor
Vehicle Safety Act
1966 Established safety standards for all vehicles
THE WARREN COURT
Case
Date
Outcome
Roth v. US
1957
Banned obscene materials
Engel v. Vitale
1962
Banned prayer in school
Gideon v. Wainwright
1963
Free legal aid for arrested people
Escobedo v. Illinois
1964
Lawyer during questioning
Miranda v. Arizona
1966
Rights read upon arrest
BAY OF PIGS INVASION
Plan to Overthrow Castro
 Cuba 90 miles from Florida
 JFK took office with plan already in motion
 CIA training Cubans to overthrow
Military Catastrophe
 April 17, 1961
 Airstrike failed to take out Cuba’s Air Force
 Cuba’s troops were better than anticipated
 US looked like failures
BERLIN CRISIS
Tensions in Germany
 After WWII, Berlin divided
 Berlin Airlift made USSR angry
 Wanted permanent division
 Khrushchev made public ultimatum
 JFK felt bullied
JFK TAKES ACTION
 JFK added $3 Billion to defense
 Built up armed forces
 Soviets built Berlin Wall
 Standoff but not war
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
KENNEDY’S OPTIONS
 Spy plane showed USSR missile base in
Cuba
 Had 4 options
 Further negotiate with Khrushchev
 Invade Cuba
 Blockade Cuba
 Bomb middle sites
 October 22 on T V JFK confirms nukes in
Cuba
 Public – fear and anger, not panic
THE WORLD WAITS
 JFK put in blockade
 2 nations on brink of nuclear war
 People huddled in shelters
 Soviet ships ran at blockade
 Turned at last minute
DISASTER AVOIDED
Middle base construction continued
Deal made:
 Soviet missiles out of Cuba
 US stays out of Cuba
 US takes missile out of Turkey
JFK is a hero
AFTER EFFECTS
 Efforts made to reduce nuclear war
 Red Phone “Hotline” USSR to USA
 Limited Test Ban Treaty
 No above ground testing
 Underground still ok
ACTIVISM
WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
 Feminism – equality for females
Education and Employment
 1970 – 43% of college degrees went to women
 Companies didn’t want to train women
 Assumed they’d leave for families
 1963 – women made 59 cents per $1 a man made
 Wanted equal pay
IMPACT OF CIVIL RIGHTS
 Used techniques from Civil Rights
 Title VII – prohibited discrimination
 Used to sue for rights
WOMEN’S GROUPS ORGANIZE
 1963 –The Feminine Mystique
 Talked of dissatisfied housewives
 Some women felt betrayed
 Happy with their roles in the home
 1966 – National Organization for Women
(NOW)
 Goal to get equality for women
IMPACT OF FEMINISM
 A shift in attitude toward women
 Explored new careers
 Roe vs. Wade
 1973
 Right to choose
 Legalized abortion
 Still a controversial ruling
 ERA
 Equal Rights Amendment
 Proposed in 1972
 Had to have 38 states to ratify
 In 1977, 35 states had
 Amendment died in 1982
OPPOSITION TO WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
 Some women fought the ERA
 Said it wouldn’t help
 Some said they wanted to be wives and mothers
 AA women felt that race was more important
 Slow change overall
ETHNIC MINORITIES SEEK EQUALIT Y
Latinos
 60s and 70s saw increase in immigration
 Chicano Movement
 Wanted to keep culture and dual heritage
 Unequal schools, jobs, pay
 Cesar Chavez
 Migrant farm worker’s rights
 United Farm Workers (UFW)
 Better pay, conditions, treatment
ASIAN AMERICANS
 Prejudice during WWII continued
 Put in camps for duration of war
 Created Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
 Fought for losses from time in camps
 Wanted equal pay as whites
 Made gains faster than any other minority
NATIVE AMERICANS
 Always looked down upon
 1871 – US didn’t recognize as independent nations
 Didn’t give NA citizenship until 1924
 Suffer unemployment, suicide, poverty, alcoholism
 Still claimed old lands
 American Indian Movement (AIM)
 Fight for NA nation’s autonomy
 Sue government for land and rights
 70s – laws passed for gov. money, programs, help
COUNTERCULTURE:
A TIME OF CHANGE
 Hippies – peace, love, and freedom
 Felt “generation gap” with parents
 1960’s saw the Baby Boomers in school
 Baby Boomers – children born in the 10 years after
WWII
 New clothes and music
SIXTIES ST YLE
 Gave up structured styles of the 1950’s
 Loose hair and clothes
 Lots of colors and patterns
 Pop Art grew out of the loud clothes
 Andy Warhol “Campbell’s Soup”
SEXUAL REVOLUTION
 Freedom in both lives and partners
 Experimented with living patters
 Communes and co-habitation
 Fewer marriages
DRUGS AND THE 1960S
 Freedom to expand minds
 Hallucinations and altered perceptions
 Universities developed and tested drugs on hippies
 Number of overdoses skyrocketed
 Famous: Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendricks
 Their deaths slowed down usage
 Left lasting impact on health
of baby boomers
MUSIC
 1964 – The Beatles come to America
 Change the way we listen
 Folk Rock became trendy
 Protest songs, guitars and tambourines
WOODSTOCK
 August 1969
 400,000 people in Bethel, NY
 Police kept the peace, did not enforce drug laws
 Music, Love, Drugs, Freedom
 End of a generation
ALTAMONT
 December 1969
 Altamont Speedway in California
 Tried to be like Woodstock
 Rolling Stones hired Hells Angels for security
 Violence erupted
 Changed the pace of hippie culture
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT
 Silent Spring
 1958 by Rachel Carson
 DDT – pesticide sprayed over much of US
 Would kill everything – plants and animals
 Need to change environmental policy
 Outcome
 DDT banned in US
 Eagles put on endangered species list
 People began to notice pollution
 EPA founded
 Clear Air and Water Act