Unit 8: Civil Rights and the Vietnam War
I. The Struggle for Civil Rights (Chap. 13 p.338-344)
A. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954 – Supreme Court reversed the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson by
ruling that sending black children to “separate but equal” schools denied them equal treatment under the
Constitution.
1. Getting to the Supreme Court:
a. Charles Hamilton, 1930s – dean of Howard University law school, trained a corps of civil rights lawyers
1) Working on behalf of the NAACP – they hoped to erode Plessy
b. 1938 – Thurgood Marshall: lawyer who argued the Brown case before the Court
2. 1955 – Supreme Court allowed segregated states to carry out the 1954 decision “with all deliberate speed”
rather than immediately
B. Southern Manifesto – A document signed by 101 members of Congress from Southern states in 1956 that
argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka itself contradicted that
Constitution
1. Little Rock, Arkansas (1957) – Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to prevent 9 African
American students from being admitted to a white school
a. President Eisenhower – nationalized the National Guard and sent in the 101st Airborne Division to keep
order.
b. breakthrough in school integration didn’t come until the end of the 1960’s
1) 1968 – only 6% of African American children in the South attended integrated schools
2) by 1973 – the number increased to 90%
C. Public Accommodations
1. 1955, Rosa Parks – challenged segregated buses by refusing to move to the back of the bus when a white
passenger demanded her seat
a. Triggered a mass boycott of buses in Montgomery, Alabama
b. the movement was galvanized by a young pastor – Martin Luther King Jr.
1) “We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and
righteousness like a mighty stream.”
c. Montgomery boycott won a local victory & made King famous
2. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) – Black civil rights organization founded in 1957 by Martin
Luther King Jr., and other clergy
a. Feb, 1, 1960 – four African American college students in Greensboro, N.C. – sat down at the segregated
lunch counter where they were refused service
1) resulted in nonviolent sit-ins throughout the South
3. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) – Black civil rights organization founded in 1960 and
drawing heavily on younger activists and college students
a. conducted mass nonviolent sit-ins across the South
4. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
a. James Farmer: “Freedom rides” – integrated buses used to test segregation of interstate bus terminals
1) Bus was burned and the passengers were violently attacked by a mob in Alabama
2) The Governor and police refused to protect the freedom riders
D. March on Washington, 1963
1. SCLC concentrated on the rigidly segregated Birmingham, Alabama in 1963
a. Sit-ins and marches focused on integrated lunch counters, restrooms, and stores – Birmingham
commissioner of public safety, Bull Connor used violence and mass arrest to break up protest.
b. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” stated the case for protest: “We have not
made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure… Freedom is never
voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
c. President Kennedy responded to the event in Alabama by giving a speech from a freedom train on June,
11th and sent a civil rights bill to Congress
2. August 28, 1963 – quarter of a million black and white people marched to the Lincoln Memorial
a. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech
b. the march demonstrated that mass appeal of civil rights and its identification with national values
II. Assassination of President Kennedy
A. November 22, 1963 – Kennedy’s visit to Texas to patch up feuds between Democrats.
1. Lee Harvey Oswald – Texas School Book Depository
B. President Lyndon B. Johnson
1. Took the oath of office on Air Force One
a. Oswald is killed by Jack Ruby as he was being transported
b. Warren Commission – Federal Investigation of the assassination determined Oswald acted alone
C. Johnson’s War on Poverty
1. “Let us continue” – Kennedy’s policies
a. Education and Job Training
2. Michael Harrington’s The Other America
a. poverty captured public attention
3. “Unconditional War on Poverty”
a. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO)
1) Job Corps, Neighborhood Youth Corps, Head Start, VISTA, Domestic Peace Corps
D. Civil Rights, 1964-1965
1. Civil Rights Act of 1964: outlawed segregation in public accommodations and employment
a. hotels, restaurants, gas stations, theaters, parks
b. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC) – included gender in protection against
discrimination
E. Freedom Summer
1. SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee)– voter registration drive in the South
2. MFDP(Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party) – biracial coalition who sent delegates to the 1964 Democratic
Convention
3. Selma to Montgomery March, 1965 – peaceful marchers were attacked by law enforcement to prevent
them from marching into the State capital of Montgomery, Alabama
F. Voting Rights Act, 1965
1. Outlawed literacy test and provided for federal voting registrars – goal was to get rid of remaining
discriminatory acts against non-white voters
G. War, Peace and the Landslide of 1964
1. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
a. Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the U.S. destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin
b. Johnson received Congressional approval to escalate U.S. involvement in Vietnam (Police Action)
2. Election of 1964
a. Barry Goldwater – Republican candidate
1) “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice” – pro war in Vietnam
b. Johnson – pledged not “to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles from home to do what Asian
boys ought to be doing for themselves”
c. Johnson won in a landslide victory (61% of the popular vote)
1) Democrats won control of Congress
3. The Great Society
a. Freedom and opportunity for all
1) Legislation focused on poverty, education, and civil rights
a) Elementary and Secondary Education Act –$1.3 billion for text books & special ed.
b) Medical Care Act
* Medicare -federally funded health insurance for the elderly
* Medicaid – medical insurance for the poor
b. poor population dropped from 22% to 13% by 1970
Chapter 14 (1965-1980) pg. 349-371
I. The End of Consensus
A. Deeper into Vietnam: President Lyndon B. Johnson – escalated U.S. military involvement in South Vietnam
1. Controlled military escalation could secure Vietnam – advisors of Johnson
a. Johnson ordered full scale air offensive against North Vietnam in 1965
b. war strategy: middle-course between withdrawal and all-out war
c. failure: to understand the extent of popular opposition to the official government in Saigon and the
willingness of North Vietnam to sacrifice to achieve national unity
2. “Search & destroy” strategy on the ground
a. General Westmoreland, 1966 – increased troops to 275,000 via draft
b. Military strategy: sophisticated surveillance and heavily armed patrols locate enemy detachments –then
destroy them with air strikes, artillery, and reinforcements by helicopter
1) difficult to determine civilians from Vietcong
c. Ho Chi Minh Trail: network of supply routes from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through the
mountains of neighboring Laos
B. Voices of Dissent
1. The realists: Senator William Fulbright – argued the war was a dangerous distraction from the country’s vital
interests in regions such as Europe, and the waste of American lives and resources
a. “economic imperialism that revealed the power of multinational corporations to control American
foreign policy”
2. Draft resistance
a. Focus of anti-war movement – directed anger at the Selective Service System
b. Draft deferral (exemption) criteria favored white middle class and helped make Vietnam a working-class
conflict (most drafted soldiers were from poor to lower middle class blue collar working families)
c. military service deepened the racial gap (higher percentage of African American soldiers Killed In Action)
C. New Left and Community Activism
1. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) – Port Huron Statement: university based “grass-roots” action and
“participatory democracy”
a. tried to harness youthful disillusionment about consumerism, racism, and imperialism
b. saw itself as the “new left” free from doctrinal squabbles
c. radical activist committed terrorist acts against the government, including bombings
2. The Free Speech Movement – founder, Mario Savio at Cal Berkley in 1964
a. “community of protest” around the idea of “a free university in a free society”
3. The Model Cities Program – 1966, encouraged community involvement in urban planning
a. invited residents of poor neighborhoods to write their own plans for using federal funds to improve local
housing, education, health services, and job opportunities
D. The Feminist Critique – Betty Friedan (NOW) National Organization of Women
1. The fight for equal economic opportunity: “glass ceilings” and job discrimination
a. battled for equal pay for everyone with equal qualifications and responsibilities
2. The sexual revolution
a. birth control pill introduced in 1960’s – gave women greater control over child bearing
b. consequence: development of a single culture that accepted sexual activity between unmarried people
c. women’s movement addressed rape laws and sexual harassment in the workplace
E. Youth Culture and Counterculture
1. The youth culture – young Americans in the 1960’s and 70’s who expressed their alienation from society by
experimented with drugs, sexual freedom, rock music, and communal living.
2. The counterculture – smaller more intense element of youth culture who added Eastern religion, social
radicalism, and evangelistic belief in the drug LSD
a. Timothy Leary – LSD would “swing open the doors of perception”, “tune in, turn on, and drop out”
b. “hippie” culture centered in San Francisco: Haight-Ashbury district
F.
Sounds of Change
1. Music became more provocative – musicians were increasingly self-conscious of themselves as artists and
social critics
a. Bob Dylan, Beatles, The Who, Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane
G. Communes and Cults
1. Communes – “international communities” members attempted to combine individual freedom and
spontaneity with cooperative living
2. Religious communities or Cults – exotic religious communities
a. Unification Church “Moonies” – brought from Korea to the U.S. by Sun Myung Moon in 1973
b. Jim Jones – The People’s Temple which committed mass suicide in 1978 (900 members drank poisoned
punch)
II. Cities under stress
A. Diagnosing an Urban Crisis
1. The “second ghettos” created by the migration of 2.5 million African Americans from Southern farms to
northern and western cities in the 1950s and 60s.
a. layoffs and plant closure of American industries in 1970s and declining, aging infrastructure made cities
into sprawling ghettos
B. Racial Rioting
1. The Watts riot: Aug. 11, 1965 – Black man arrested for drunk driving triggered racial riots that consumed Los
Angeles
a. National Guard occupied LA Aug. 14 and 15.
2. Discontent based on rising expectations
a. the riots were protests about the problems of ghetto life
b. violent riots in Chicago, New jersey, Detroit in summer of 1966
c. Civil Rights gains but increased unemployment and racial profiling by police limited gains
C. Minority Separatism
1. Black Power – challenged the central goal of the civil rights movement, celebrated African heritage, political
activism
a. Stokely Carmichael, 1966
b. Nation of Islam – Black Muslims who combined a version of Islam with radical separatism
1) Malcolm X: emphasized African cultural heritage and economic self-help
a) assassinated by rivals in 1965
c. Black Panthers – Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, 1966
1) shadowed police, promoted community self-help efforts, ran candidates for office
2) political and social movement among black Americans, founded in Oakland in 1966
2. Hispanic activism in the Southwest
a. Brown power
b. Cesar Chavez – organized the multiracial United Farm Workers (UFW) among Mexican-American
agricultural workers who demanded better wages and working conditions
3. Native Americans assert their identity
a. fought for equal access to American society and to preserve cultural traditions
b. AIM – American Indian Movement: est. in 1968 to increase economic opportunity, stop police
mistreatment, and to insert their distinctiveness within American society
D. Suburban Independence: the Outer City – detachment from inner-cities and their problems
1. Baker v. Carr – Court said that legislative seats should be apportioned on the basis of population
a. by 1975, suburbanites held the largest block of seats in the House of Representatives
2. The challenges of suburban school desegregation
a. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Ed. 1971 – Court approved of cross-town busing to achieve
the racial integration of public schools
III. The Year of the Gun, 1968
A. The Tet Offensive
1. The “living room” war – television coverage that appeared to show a Viet Cong victory, countered 1967
claim by U.S. officials overconfidently predicting victory.
a. Psychological blow that convinced the American public that the war was quicksand
2. The advice of twenty “wise men” – led by Clark Clifford (Sec. of Defense) and 20 big name men of the Cold
War – advised the president that the war was unwinnable & the best option was disengagement.
B. LBJ’s Exit
1. Eugene McCarthy and the New Hampshire primary – Liberal Senator who decided to challenge Johnson in
the Presidential primaries
2. Robert Kennedy – Democratic candidate in the 1968 primary
3. Johnson’s withdrawal from the 1968 presidential election due to the Tet Offensive in Vietnam
C. Red Spring – grass roots rebellions
1. Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, 1968 – Alexander Dubcek, the new leader of the Czech Communist party
a. Socialism with a human face – new government attempted to establish a moderate Socialist State
b. Soviets sent tanks to crush reforms and bring Czechoslovakia back into line
2. Red Spring in France – student anti-Vietnam War protest, attacks on the university system and the French
Government under Charles de Gaulle.
3. The “Battle of Morningside Heights” – Columbia students occupied university buildings giving Americans a
glimpse of the gap that divided radicalized students from national institutions
D. Violence and Politics
1. The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4, 1968) by James Earl ray
a. triggered black riots in major cities
2. The assassination of Robert Kennedy (June 5, 1968) by Sirhan Sirhan
3. The presidential election of 1968
a. Kennedy’s death cleared the way for the Democratic nomination for Hubert Humphrey
b. Richard Nixon (Republican candidate) – candidate of the political middle and claimed he had a secret
plan for winning the war
c. George Wallace (Independent) – appealed to white southerners and working class northerners
4. Democratic Party National Convention in Chicago, 1968 – clashes between Yippies and pro-war conservative
Democrats further damaged party unity
a. Nixon defeated Humphrey & Wallace for the Presidency
IV. Nixon & Watergate
A. Getting out of Vietnam, 1969-1973
1. Vietnamization and the Nixon Doctrine
a. increased anti-war protest in 1969, low troop morale and discipline
b. President Nixon and VP Spiro Agnew – tried to isolate antiwar opposition, reduced ground troops
c. the Weather Underground – SDS stepped up violence of protest and attacks
1) Vietnamization – withdrawing U.S. troops as fast as possible without undermining the South
Vietnamese government
2) Nixon Doctrine – The policy substituted weapons and money for men.
2. The secret war against Cambodia
a. bombing of Communist bases in neutral Cambodian
b. American invasion of Cambodia in 1970 led to protest on college campuses
1) Kent State University – 4 nonviolent students shot dead by national guardsmen used to establish
Order
2) Jackson State University – 2 students killed by national guardsmen
c. Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution – prohibited us of troops outside of South Vietnam
d. 1973 – cease fire agreement, U.S. promise to not increase military aid to South Vietnam
1) Nixon suspended the draft for an all voluntary military
B. Nixon and the Wider World
1. The 1st walk on the moon: July 20, 1969 – Neil Armstrong became first man to walk on the moon
2. Playing the China card – Nixon wanted to take advantage of growing tension between China and the USSR
who nearly went to war in 1969
a. April, 1971 – secret talks led to an easing of the American trade embargo set on China since 1950
b. President Nixon and Sec. of State Henry Kissinger visited Mao Zedong in China in 1972
3. Détente – easing of tensions in the relations between the U.S., U.S.S.R., and China
a. SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) – agreement blocked the creation of extensive antiballistic
missiles (ABMs) but failed to limit bombers, cruise missiles, multiple independently targeted warheads
on single missiles
C. Courting Middle America – Nixon’s reelection campaign focused on “Middle America”
1. General Revenue Sharing
a. New Federalism: shifted federal spending to suburbs ending the urban initiatives of Johnson’s Great
Society ($18 billion to States / $36 Billion to local governments)
2. Courting Southern Whites by nominating Southern Judges to the Supreme Court – both nominations were
rejected by the senate as unqualified.
a. Nixon gained reputation as a champion of the White South
b. Sec. of Labor George Shultz – carried out substantial desegregation in the South
D. Oil, OPEC, and Stagflation
1. Inflation in 1972 due to a sharp increase in the cost of energy
2. The Arab oil embargo – imposed by Arab States upset with the U.S. for its support of Israel in the ArabIsraeli War of 1973.
a. OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) – control of oil challenged the ability of the
industrial nations to dictate world economic policy.
3. Stagflation – used to describe the painful combination of inflation, high unemployment, and flat economic
growth.
E. Americans as Environmentalists – American consciousness of the damage that advanced technologies and
industrial production did to natural systems
1. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring – 1962, described the side effects of DDT and other pesticides on animal life
2. Earth day – April 22, 1969
3. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – Federal agency created in 1970 to oversee environmental
monitoring and cleanup programs
a. clean air, water, pesticides, hazardous chemicals, and endangered species
b. made environmental management and protection part of government routine
F. From Dirty Tricks to Watergate
1. The Pentagon Papers – Classified Defense Department documents on the history of the United States
involvement in Vietnam, prepared in 1968 and leaked to the press in 1971.
2. The role of the “plumbers” – to prevent leaks of information, they cooked up schemes to embarrass political
opponents
3. The Watergate break-in and Nixon’s cover-up
a. CREEP (Committee to Re Elect the President)
b. break in at the Watergate Democratic National Committee office by burglars hired by CREEP funds
1) Nixon coverup
2) Washington Post: Woodward & Berstein
4. The 1972 presidential election – easily defeated liberal George McGovern, attempted assassination of
George Wallace
5. The hearings of the Senate’s Select Committee of Presidential Campaign Activities – investigation of the
Watergate break in that led to President Nixon and a coverup.
a. Nixon made tape recordings of his White house conversations
1) Nixon refused to give tapes to Congress – Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Nixon, Nixon had to
deliver sixty-four tapes to the new special prosecutor.
b. Bi-Partisan Congress voted for articles of impeachment
c. Nixon delivered the tapes which contained direct evidence that Nixon had participated in a coverup
6. Nixon’s resignation – August 8, 1973
7. The lessons of Watergate: political corruption, separation of powers allowed Congress and the courts to
reign in a president who had spun out of control.
G. The Ford Footnote – appointed VP in 1973 when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned to face charges of bribery
and income tax evasion.
1. Ford’s presidential pardon – Sept. 8, 1973 President Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for “any and all crimes”
committed while president
2. The Helsinki Accords- U.S., Soviet Union and most European nations agreed to increased commerce
between the eastern and western blocs and human rights guarantees, and to post war borders.
3. Economy of the 1970’s – slid into recession, unemployment climbed above 10% & inflation diminished the
value of savings and wages
V. Jimmy Carter: Idealism and Frustration in the White House – Jimmy Carter defeated Ford in 1976 election
A. Carter, Energy, and the Economy
1. Carter’s political style – analytical, logical, and given to breaking a problem into its component parts
2. Economic recession – 1978 increase in unemployment
3. The energy crisis – jump in petroleum prices 1979 & 1980
B. Closed factories and failed farms
1. The emergence of the Rustbelt – Industrial decay of urban centers out dated by new technologies
2. The Department of Energy – Carter asked Americans to make energy conservation the moral equivalent of
war
a. refused to raise taxes on oil and natural gas to reduce consumption
b. EPCA Energy policy and Conservation Act, 1978 – encouraged alternative energy sources to replace
foreign petroleum
C. Building a Cooperative World
1. A moral approach to foreign relations – Carter’s moral convictions were responsible for a new concern with
human rights around the globe
2. The Camp David Agreement, Sept. 1978 – Egypt and Israel peace talks that normalized relations between
Israel and Egypt and led to Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula
D. The Crisis Abroad
1. The failure of SALT II – met resistance in senate who claimed it would create a “window of vulnerability”
that would invite the Soviets to launch a nuclear first strike
2. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan – hopes for SALT II failed when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979
3. The Iranian hostage crisis (444 Days)
a. Revolution toppled the Shah at the start of 1979
b. Ayatollah Khomeini, Muslim cleric who hated the U.S. held the real power in the Iranian democracy
c. When the U.S. allowed the Shah to get cancer treatment in the United States – Iranian students overran
the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took more than 60 Americans hostage
1) failed U.S. rescue when helicopters malfunctioned led to national embarrassment
d. Hostages were set free when President Ronald Reagan took office