“Courtpacking”
controversy
February 1937
Congress soundly defeats Roosevelt’s
proposal to expand the Supreme Court
by adding as many as six new justices
and appointing new federal judges to
supplement sitting justices (known as
the “court-packing plan”). The plan is
widely seen as a ruse to advance the
New Deal through an appointed
judiciary.
Case Study: Roosevelt’s New Deal, 1932-1941
Social
Security
Act
Passed
August 14, 1935
The Social Security Act establishes
pensions for retirees, as well as
unemployment insurance and benefits
for children and the handicapped. Social
Security is paid for by payroll taxes.
Case Study: Roosevelt’s New Deal, 1932-1941
“Four
Freedoms”
Speech
January 6, 1941
In his State of the Union message,
Roosevelt spells out four essential
freedoms that distinguish democratic
governments from the fascist states
promulgating war in Europe: freedom
of speech, freedom of religion, freedom
from want, and freedom from fear.
Case Study: Roosevelt’s New Deal, 1932-1941
Women in
the
workplace
December 1944
At its peak, about six million women
enter the wartime workforce. During
the war, women make up about a
quarter of the workplace in the
automobile industry, and nearly half in
electrical manufacturing. “Rosie the
Riveter” (immortalized in a popular
song of the day) becomes a symbol of
women’s contribution to wartime
productivity.
Case Study: America Goes to War, 1939-1945
America
First
Committee
organized
September 1, 1940
A coalition of lawmakers and
businessmen from the America First
Committee, characterizing World War II
as a “European War.” Before the attack
on Pearl Harbor, the committee has
about 450 local chapters. Admired
public figures such as Charles
Lindbergh are at the forefront of the
isolationist movement.
Case Study: World War II, 1933-1945
Atomic
bomb
detonated
over
Nagasaki
August 9, 1945
The U.S. Air Force drops an atomic
bomb over Nagasaki; the plutonium
bomb (nicknamed “Fat Man”) has a
greater force than the uranium bomb
used in the mission over the Hiroshima.
Deaths from the initial blast are about
40,000; an equal number are estimated
to have perished from burns, injuries,
and exposure to radiation.
Case Study: World War II, 1933-1945
“Code
Talkers”
enlisted
May 1942
Twenty-nine “code talkers,” Navajo men
enlisted to transmit secret information
over radios in their native language,
begin boot camp. About four hundred
Navajo code talkers serve as marines,
while the army enlists Choctaws and
Comanches. Their language baffles
Japanese codebreakers and helps win
such key battles as two Jima.
Case Study: World War II, 1933-1945
United
Nations
charter
ratified
October 24, 1945
Like its predecessor, the League of
Nations, the United Nations is founded
on the principles of international
cooperation and peace. The United
States takes a major role in the United
Nations, headquartered in New York.
Case Study: World War II, 1933-1945
SS St.
Louis
May-June, 1939
On board the SS St. Louis, 937
German refugees from the Nazi regime
are turned away from both Cuba and
the United States. In June, groups of
refugees find sanctuary in the
Netherlands, France, Great Britain, and
Belgium.
Case Study: Holocaust and Genocide, 1939- Present
Nuremberg
Trials
convene
November 20, 1945
Twenty-four former Nazi officials are
brought to trial in Nuremburg under
international law for war crimes and
“crimes against humanity.” The
unprecedented trials conclude on
October 1, 1948; twenty-one officials
are found guilty and either imprisoned
or executed, and one is acquitted.
Case Study: Holocaust and Genocide, 1939- Present
Steel
Seizure
Case
June 2, 1952
In April 1952, President Truman
ordered the seizure and takeover of
steel mills in anticipation of a labor
strike that could possibly harm the
defense industry during the Korean
War. In the resulting Supreme Court
case Youngstown Sheet and Tube
Co. v. Sawyer, the Court rules that the
president has no such power over
private property.
Case Study: The Cold War Begins, 1945-1960
Declaration
of
Conscience
June 1, 1950
The opposition to Senator McCarthy’s
relentless Communist-hunting includes
Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s
Declaration of Conscience on the
Senate floor in 1950. Her speech
chastises those who resort to
implications and “character
assassinations” in senate hearings.
Case Study: The Cold War Begins, 1945-1960
Interstate
Highway
Act
June 29, 1956
President Eisenhower signs the
interstate Highway Act, initiating the
most extensive public works projec tin
U.S. history. Federal and state
governments plan to build 42,000 miles
of highway at a cost of $27 billion. The
system is designed to accommodate
the movement of military troops and
equipment, while linking urban and
rural areas.
Case Study: Suburbia, 1945-1965
Suburbs
and “white
flight”
December 1960
The continuing move to the suburbs
demonstrates overall U.S. economic
growth while exposing ongoing class
and race divisions. Studies show a
“white flight” of middle-class whites
away from many American cities.
Consequently, the lower tax bases in
cities lead to fewer services and
improvements in urban areas.
Case Study: Suburbia, 1945-1965
“A Vast
Wasteland”
May 9, 1961
Addressing a convention of
broadcasters, Federal Communications
Commission chairman Newton Minow
blasts television programming as “a
vast wasteland.” Similar critics of
television view the medium as
advertisement-driven and fixated on
mindless entertainment, rather than
serving the public interest.
Case Study: Suburbia, 1945-1965
Desegregation
of the U.S.
military
July 26, 1948
Due in large part to the contributions
made by African Americans to war
effort, abroad and at home (where over
two million African Americans were
employed in defense-related
industries), President Harry S. Truman
officially desegregates the military.
Case Study: The Civil Rights Movement, 1948-1968
Brown v.
Board of
Education
May 17, 1954
Future justice Thurgood Marshall
successfully argues to the U.S.
Supreme Court that the 1896 ruling of
Plessy v. Ferguson is unconstitutional.
The Court unanimously rules that
segregated schools are “inherently
unequal.”
Case Study: The Civil Rights Movement, 1948-1968
“Massive
resistance”
February 24, 1956
A coalition of white southern
congressmen calls for massive
resistance to the Supreme Court’s
desegregation rulings.
Case Study: The Civil Rights Movement, 1948-1968
“Letter from
Birmingham
Jail”
April 1963
Arrested for protesting segregation, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., writes “Letter
from Birmingham Jail,” a statement of
principal civil disobedience, during his
eight-day prison stay. In May students
in Birmingham respond with the
Children’s March to protest his
incarceration.
Case Study: The Civil Rights Movement, 1948-1968
Loving v.
Virginia
June 12, 1967
The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down
a Virginia law banning interracial
marriage in the case of Loving v.
Virginia. The Court unanimously rules
that any such law passed by a state
violates citizens’ Equal Protection rights
under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Case Study: The Civil Rights Movement, 1948-1968
Voting
Rights Act
signed
August 6, 1965
President Johnson signs the Voting
Rights Act into law, outlawing literacy
requirements for voting and enforcing
equal opportunities to vote.
Case Study: The Civil Rights Movement, 1948-1968
Civil Rights
Act of 1964
July 2, 1964
Congress passes the sweeping Civil
Rights Act of 1964, setting the stage for
desegregating schools, banning
discrimination in public accommodation
and businesses, and creating the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission.
Case Study: The Civil Rights Movement, 1948-1968
Freedom
Summer
Begins
June 1964
The Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE), an interracial civil rights group,
launches Freedom Summer, an effort to
register black voters in Mississippi.
CORE members often face violent
opposition during their campaign.
Case Study: Civil Rights at a Crossroads, 1968-1979
Bus
controversy
begins in
Boston
August 1965
A new Massachusetts law requires
Boston public schools to achieve racial
balance in their schools or give up state
funding. Backlash grows among those
anticipating “forced busing.” Boston
becomes the site of the nation’s most
contentious battles over busing in the
1960s and 1970s.
Case Study: Civil Rights at a Crossroads, 1968-1979
Black
Panthers
form
October 1966
The Black Panther Party forms in
Oakland, California, founded by Huey
Newton and Bobby Seale. The Black
Panthers’ stated intention is to promote
black self-defense. At their peak, the
Black Panthers boast about two
thousand members and sponsor
educational free-food programs in inner
cities.
Case Study: Civil Rights at a Crossroads, 1968-1979
“Black
power”
salute at
Olympics
October 17, 1968
At the Olympics in Mexico City, U.S.
track-and field athletes Tommie Smith
and John Carlos raise their fists in a
“Black Power” salute as the National
Anthem plays during the medals
ceremony. The two athletes are
expelled from the Games for their
protest.
Case Study: Civil Rights at a Crossroads, 1968-1979
National
Defense
Education
Act
September 2, 1958
Congress passes the National Defense
Education Act, which increases funding
for training in mathematics and science.
The act is designed to keep the United
States competitive engineering.
Case Study: Kennedy & the Communist Threat,1957-2004
Bay of Pigs
invasion
April 17, 1961
CIA-trained Cuban exiles attempt to
overthrow the Castro regime, landing at
two beaches on the Bay of Pigs. The
Cuban army puts down the rebellion by
April 19. The failure of the invasion is
an embarrassment to the Kennedy
administration.
Case Study: Kennedy & the Communist Threat,1957-2004
Gulf of
Tonkin
incident
August 2, 1964
The USS Maddox is attacked with
torpedoes while conducting
surveillance in the Gulf of Tonkin, thirty
miles off the North Vietnamese coast.
President Johnson orders air strikes in
retaliation, and seeks wider military
powers from Congress.
Case Study: The Vietnam War , 1950-1979
Antiwar
protest at
Pentagon
October 21, 1967
Thirty-five thousand people gather at
the Pentagon to protest the war. By the
end of the year, for the first time, a
majority of Americans believe the
commitment of U.S. troops in Vietnam
was a mistake.
Case Study: The Vietnam War , 1950-1979
“Secret”
bombing of
Cambodia
begins
March 1969
The United States begins an extensive
bombing campaign in Cambodia, with
the aim of stopping the influx of
supplies and reinforcements to North
Vietnam. The American public is left
uninformed of these actions.
Case Study: The Vietnam War , 1950-1979
“Pentagon
Papers”
released
June 13, 1971
The New York Times begins the
publication of leaked documents
concerning the Vietnam War. The
classified “Pentagon Papers” are
leaked by Daniel Elisberg, a
government research associate who
opposes the war. Though largely an
expose of the past actions, the
Pentagon Papers fuel criticism of
Nixon’s current handling of the war.
Case Study: The Vietnam War , 1950-1979