A divided union: civil rights in the USA, 1945–74 Date Event 1947 'Hollywood Ten': House Committee on Un-American activities (HUAC) investigates the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry 1948 Harry S. Truman re-elected President in the November election 1951 Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were eventually convicted of spying for the USSR Senator Joseph McCarthy as head of HUAC investigates Communist activity in the government with huge publicity (known as McCarthyism) Brown versus Topeka Board of Education-a landmark case which opened the door for the integration of schools 19501954 1954 1955 1957 1957 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1968 1973 1974 The arrest of Rosa Parks for violating local bus segregation order leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott Dr Martin Luther King Junior became President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), adopting the method of non-violent direct action Death of Emmett Till- while visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman four days earlier The case of the ‘Little Rock Nine’ and the matter of racial integration in schools at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas The Civil Rights Act (1957) authorized the prosecution of those who violated the right to vote for all United States citizens Students for a Democratic Society formed- It became an American student organization that flourished in the midto-late 1960s and known for its activism against the Vietnam War First student sit-ins as an act of civil disobedience against segregation in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960 John F. Kennedy (JFK) defeated Richard Nixon in the closest ever presidential election, winning by 118,000 votes thanks largely to the power of television ‘Freedom riders’ went out in integrated buses to continue challenging segregated transport in the Southern states. They were sometimes met with violence e.g. the Anniston fire-bombing Meredith Case in which James Meredith gained admission to the segregated University of Mississippi with legal help for Meredith from the NAACP The March on Birmingham and the March on Washington (where Dr King made the famous I have a Dream’ speech. Equal Pay Act made it illegal to pay men and women working in the same place different salaries for similar work JFK assassinated. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson ( popularly known by his initials LBJ) takes over Mississippi Freedom Summer –a voter registration drive aimed at increasing the number of registered Black voters in Mississippi Civil Rights Act (1964) ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin The Berkeley Free Speech movement refers to a group of college students who, during the 1960s, challenged many campus regulations limiting their free-speech rights Anti-Vietnam War movement mostly led by university students picked up pace and continued to early 1970s The March on Selma-a campaign for voter freedom and registration in which protestors were violently attacked by police (‘Bloody Sunday’). Led to President Johnson declaring support for a new Voting Rights Act Malcom X-a radical Muslim leader and orator who was formerly associated with the Nation of Islam assassinated Race riots in the Watts District, Los Angeles –a series of violent confrontations between Los Angeles police and residents of Watts and other predominantly African American neighbourhoods of South-Central Los Angeles. Main issue stemmed from police brutality against African American citizens Stokely Carmichael becomes chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a group formed to give younger Black people more of a voice in the civil rights movement The National Organization for Women (NOW) founded as an activist organization promoting equal rights for women The Black Panthers were formed by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. The party’s original purpose under its Ten Point Program was to patrol African American neighbourhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality Martin Luther King Junior assassinated Olympic Games-During their medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City on October 16, 1968, two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, each raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the US national anthem in protest at the lack of civil rights in the USA Roe v. Wade-U.S. Supreme Court ruled (7–2) that state regulation of abortion was unconstitutional Watergate scandal-President Nixon found to have used government resources to carry out illegal surveillance of his political opponents in the 1972 election. After initially denying, Nixon admitted and resigned Phyllis Schafly and other women opposed to the feminist agenda launch the STOP ERA campaign War Powers Act limited the powers of the US President to declare war against other countries After the Watergate scandal, more laws to limit presidential power such as: Election Campaign Act The Privacy Act Congressional Budget Control Act President Gerald Ford issued Nixon with a presidential pardon