Unit 7: Contemporary American
Society
Chapter 19
Essential Question:
How did the end of WWII transform
America’s economy and social
culture?
Postwar Boom
Redefining the Family
•
During the 1950s, the economy booms
and many Americans enjoy material
comfort
•
In 1945-1964 a baby boom happens
creating a need for more housing
•
In the United States, approximately 79
million babies were born during the
Baby Boom.
•
85% of new homes are built in the
suburbs
•
Middle class expands
•
However, tensions from changed
gender roles during the war increases
divorce rates
• 40% of mother work outside the home
Postwar Boom
Mass Media
• In the 1950s the television
becomes the most
important means of
communication
Stereotypes
• Women and minorities on
TV are stereotyped
• There are very few Latinos
and African-Americans
Postwar Boom
Rock ‘N’ Roll
• Rock ‘N’ Roll is originated in
the US during the 1950s
• It’s a mix of rhythm and blues,
country and pop
• Lyrics were about teenage
issues
Jazz
• Jazz is a musical tradition and
style of music that originated in
African American communities
in the US
• It joins together both African
and European music traditions
Unit 7: Contemporary American
Society
Chapter 21
Essential Question:
What kind of advances in federal civil
rights and voting rights happened
during the 1950s and 1960s in
America?
Civil Rights
Segregation continues into the
20th Century
• African-Americans go North to escape
racism (Great Migration)
• In the north African-Americans face
segregated areas
• White Americans in the north resent
African-Americans for job competition
A Developing Civil Rights
Movement
• FDR ends government and war
industries discrimination
• Returning African-American veterans
fight for civil rights at home
Civil Rights
Brown v. Board of Education
• In 1951, Linda Brown was an AfricanAmerican girl attending the third grade
at a public school in Topeka, Kansas
• Linda Brown lived a few blocks from a
White elementary school, but when
her father, Oliver Brown, attempted to
enroll her at the neighborhood school,
his request was denied, so he decided
to sue the district
Civil Rights
Brown v. Board of
Education continued
• A lawyer named Thurgood
Marshall took the case; he
would later become the first
African-American supreme
court judge
• In 1954 the Supreme Court
ruled that “separate but equal”
education for AfricanAmericans and white students
was unconstitutional
• This court ruling overturned
Plessy v. Ferguson, which
created segregation in
schools
Civil Rights
Boycotting Segregation
• On March 2, 1955, 15 year old
Claudette Colvin was the first person
to be arrested for resisting bus
segregation in Montgomery,
Alabama, preceding the more
publicized Rosa Parks incident by
nine months.
• In 1955 the NAACP officer, Rosa
Parks was arrested for not giving up
her seat on a bus
• In response to this action The
Montgomery Improvement
Association was formed to organize
a boycott of public buses
• The association elected a 26 year
old Baptist pastor by the name of
Martin Luther King, Jr. as their leader
Civil Rights
Changing the World with
Soul Force
• Martin Luther King, Jr. called his
brand of nonviolence resistance
“soul force”
• He based his ideas on the
teachings of several people:
–
–
–
–
Jesus
Henry David Thoreau
A. Philip Randolph
Mohandas Gandhi
Civil Rights
Emmett Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955)
• An African-American boy who was
murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14
after reportedly whistling to a white woman.
• He was beaten and one of his eyes was
gouged out. He then was shot through the
head. His body was disposed of in the
Tallahatchie River and retrieved from the
river three days later.
• Till's murder is noted as a pivotal event
motivating the African-American Civil Rights
Movement.
Civil Rights
Crisis in Little Rock
• The school desegregation
issue reached a crisis in 1957
in Little Rock, Arkansas
• The state’s governor, Orval
Faubus, refused to let nine
African-American students
attend Little Rock’s Central
High School
• President Eisenhower sent in
federal troops to allow the
students to enter the school
Civil Rights
Ruby Bridges
• In 1960, she was first AfricanAmerican child to attend an all-white
elementary school in the South. She
attended William Frantz Elementary
School in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• She was 6 years old when her parents
volunteered her to participate in the
integration of the New Orleans School
system.
Civil Rights
Integrating Ole Miss
• In September 1962, a federal
court allowed James Meredith
to attend the all-white
University of Mississippi
• The Kennedy administration
sent in U.S. marshals and
forced the governor to let
Meredith attend the school
Civil Rights
Medgar Evers (July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963)
• An African-American civil rights activist from
Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn
segregation at the University of Mississippi.
• He organized voter-registration efforts,
demonstrations, and economic boycotts of
companies that practiced discrimination.
• Evers was shot in the back in the driveway
of his home in Jackson. He died less than a
hour later at a nearby hospital.
• His murder and the resulting trials inspired
civil rights protests, as well as numerous
works of art, music, and film.
Civil Rights
Civil Rights Act of 1964
• On August 28, 1963, more than
250,000 AAs and whites marched
into the nation’s capital
• They demanded the immediate
passage of the Civil Rights Act
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke to
the crowd and gave his famous “I
Have a Dream” speech
• The act was passed and banned
discrimination on the basis of race,
sex, national origin, or religion in
public places and most workplaces
Civil Rights
New Leaders Voice
Discontent
• During the 1960s, new AA
leaders emerged that wanted a
more aggressive tactic in
fighting racism
Malcolm X
• Malcolm X was a part of the
Nation of Islam, or Black
Muslims
• He declared that whites were
responsible for AAs’ misery
• He urged AAs to fight back if
attacked
Civil Rights
Watts Riots
• During August of 1965,
clashes between white
authorities and AA civilians
escalated during the Watts
Riots when a man was
arrested by LAPD on charges
of drunk driving
• When it was over, it left 36
dead, 900 reported injured,
over 4,000 arrested and at
least $200 million of property
damage
Civil Rights
Black Panthers
• The Black Panther Party was the
creation of Huey Newton and
Bobby Seale and was formed
due to:
– The assassination of Malcolm X, the
Watts Riots in California, and the
civil rights movement led by Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Black Panthers goals were to
fight police brutality and promote
black self-sufficiency, provide
social services to the ghettos
Civil Rights
The assassinations of
1968
• On April 4th, Martin Luther King
Jr. was shot to death by James
Earl Ray at the Lorraine Motel,
in Memphis, Tennessee
• Following a brief victory
speech delivered on June 5th
at The Ambassador Hotel in
Los Angeles, Robert Kennedy
was assassinated by Sirhan
Sirhan
• Mortally wounded, he survived
for nearly 26 hours, dying early
in the morning of June 6th
Civil Rights
Civil Rights Gains
• The Civil Rights Act of 1968 was
passed by President Johnson
• The act prohibited discrimination in
housing
The Great Society
• President Johnson also created a
program called the Great Society
• The program reduced poverty,
reduced racial injustice, and
promoted a better quality of life in the
US
Unit 7: Contemporary American
Society
Chapter 23
Essential Question:
What were the best ways for a group
to achieve equality in America in the
1960s?
Civil Rights
Mexicans Seek Employment
• Many Southwest Mexicans become
US citizens after the MexicanAmerican War
• During WWII, there was a shortage
of laborers to harvest crops, so the
US hired braceros, or hired hands
from Mexico
• Mexican-Americans suffered
prejudice and discrimination as
citizens of the US, so they formed
organization to protest injustices
Civil Rights
César Chávez
• César Chávez, an American farm
worker, labor leader, and civil
rights activist who, co-founded the
National Farm Workers
Association (NFWA) with
Dolores Huerta
• Chávez became the best known
for his public-relations approach to
unionism
• His aggressive but nonviolent
tactics made the farm workers'
struggle a moral cause with
nationwide support
Civil Rights
La Raza Unida
•
•
(National United Peoples Party) or
United Race Party was an American
political party centered on Chicano
nationalism.
During the 1970s the Party
campaigned for better housing,
work, and educational opportunities
for Mexican-Americans.
Brown Berets
•
•
The Brown Berets are a pro-Mexico
secessionist organization that
emerged during the Chicano
Movement in the late 1960s
They have also organized against
police brutality and advocate for
educational equality.
Civil Rights
American Indian
Movement (AIM)
• A Native American activist
organization in the United States,
founded in 1968 in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, with an agenda that
focuses on spirituality, leadership,
and sovereignty.
Civil Rights
Asian American
Movement
• In the 1960s and ’70s, Asian
Americans mobilized for a slew of
political causes, including the
development of ethnic studies
programs in universities, the end
of the Vietnam War and
reparations for Japanese
Americans placed in internment
camps during World War II.
Postwar Boom
The Feminine Mystique
• Betty Friedan wrote a book called
“Feminine Mystique” because she thought
women were victims of a false belief
system that required them to find identity
and meaning in their lives through their
husbands and children
• Energized the women’s rights movement
National Organization for
Women (NOW)
• The largest feminist organization in the
United States. It was founded in 1966
• Formed when grievances of women were
not addressed by the Civil Rights Act of
1964
Civil Rights
Counter-Culture
•
•
An anti-establishment cultural
phenomenon that developed first in the
United States and spread throughout
much of the Western world between the
early 1960s and the early 1970s.
As the 1960s progressed, widespread
tensions developed in society that tended
to flow along generational lines regarding
the war in Vietnam, race relations, human
sexuality, women's rights, traditional
modes of authority, experimentation with
psychoactive drugs, and differing
interpretations of the American Dream.
New cultural forms emerged, including
pop music and the concurrent rise of the
hippie culture.
Unit 7: Contemporary American
Society
Chapter 24
Essential Question:
How did the varying domestic and
foreign policies of presidents Nixon
through Carter change American
society?
Contemporary Society
Richard Milhous Nixon
• Richard Nixon was the 37th President
of the United States (1969-1974)
• He was also the 36th Vice President
of the United States (1953-1961)
• He was the only President to resign
the office as well as the only person
to be elected twice to both the
Presidency and the Vice Presidency
• Nixon tried to steer the country in a
conservative direction and away from
federal control
Contemporary Society
Nixon’s Domestic Policies
• Nixon decreased the size and
influence of the federal government
• He increased some social spending to
win Democratic support
• But tried to attract white voters in the
South by slowing down desegregation
• Nixon opposed the extension of the
Voting Rights Act
Contemporary Society
Nixon’s Foreign Policies
• Nixon moved aggressively to
end the Vietnam War and
mend the country
• Henry Kissinger, the secretary
of state, created the foreign
policy called Realpolitik
• Realpolitik “Realistic Politics”
called for the US to confront
powerful nations, but ignore
weak ones
• Nixon and Kissinger also used
another foreign policy known
as "Détente," a French word
meaning "release of tensions."
The policy aimed at ceasing
Cold War tensions
Contemporary Society
Nixon’s Foreign Policies
in China
• In 1971 Nixon visited China to
establish a relationship with
the US
• The trip opened diplomatic
relations with communist
China
Nixon’s Foreign Policies
in Moscow
• In 1972 Nixon visited Moscow
to limit missiles and to sign the
SALT(Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks) I Treaty
Contemporary Society
War Powers Act
• An act enacted in 1973 that limited a
president’s right to send troops into
battle without consulting Congress
• The act’s main goal was to prevent
"future Vietnams"
• President Nixon tried to veto it
Contemporary Society
An Imperial Presidency
• The Great Depression, WWII, and
Cold War made the executive
office the most powerful branch
• President Nixon expanded the
presidential powers and ignored
Congress
Contemporary Society
A Bungled Burglary
• The Committee to Reelect the
President broke into the
Democratic headquarters
• The Nixon administration
attempted to cover it up by
destroying documents,
stopping the investigation and
buying the burglars’ silence
• Washington Post reporters
(Carl Bernstein and Bob
Woodard) link the Nixon
administration to the break-in
• The White House denied the
allegation
Contemporary Society
The Senate Investigates
Watergate
• Judge John Sirica presided
over the burglars’ trial and he
did not think they acted alone
• It came out in court that some
of Nixon’s advisers were
involved with the burglary
• Nixon dismissed White House
counsel John Dean
Startling Testimony
• Dean declared Nixon was
involved in the cover-up and
he had proof Nixon taped his
presidential conversations
about the Watergate burglary
Contemporary Society
The Saturday Night
Massacre
• The dismissal of special
prosecutors by U.S. President
Richard Nixon during the
Watergate scandal on the night of
Saturday, October 20, 1973
• Vice-president Spiro Agnew later
resigned when it was revealed he
accepted bribes
• He was replaced by Gerald Ford,
who was 40th Vice President of
the United States serving from
1973 to 1974 and the 38th
President of the United States,
serving from 1974 to 1977
Contemporary Society
Nixon Releases the
Tapes
• In March 1974, the grand jury
charged 7 presidential aides
with conspiracy, obstruction of
justice, and perjury
• Nixon wanted to release edited
transcripts of the tapes
• However, the Supreme Court
ruled that Nixon must
surrender the un-edited
transcripts
Contemporary Society
President Resigns
• The House Judiciary
Committee formal accused
Nixon of: obstruction of justice,
abuse of power, and contempt
of Congress
• Nixon released the tapes,
which showed he knew of the
administration role in the
cover-up
• Nixon resigned from the office
of the presidency before he
could be impeached
Contemporary Society
Resolution Watergate
Affair
• After the Watergate scandal the
US learned that no one is above
the constitution, not even the
president
• The US has a government based
on laws not individual
Contemporary Society
James "Jimmy" Earl Carter, Jr
• He served as the 39th President of the
United States (1977-1981)
• He was the recipient of the 2002
Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S.
President to have received the Prize
after leaving office
Camp David Accords
• During 1978, Carter mediated historic
peace agreements between Israel and
Egypt at Camp David, Maryland
Contemporary Society
Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries(OPEC)
•
An economic association made of 12
oil-producing nations that is able to set
oil prices
•
On December 16, 1979,OPEC raised oil
prices . America faced "oil shock": long
lines and short tempers at gas pumps,
panics over gasoline and heating oil
shortages, and frustration with the
inefficient, gas-guzzling vehicles
Silent Spring
• Rachel Carson, a marine biologist,
published a book entitled Silent
Spring, which exposed the effects
of pesticides on the environment,
and triggered the environmental
movement in US
Contemporary Society
Iranian Hostage Crisis
•
A diplomatic crisis between Iran and
the United States. Fifty-two
American diplomats and citizens
were held hostage for 444 days
(November 4, 1979, to January 20,
1981), after a group of Iranian
students supporting the Iranian
Revolution took over the US
Embassy in Tehran
•
The hostages were formally
released into United States custody,
just minutes after the new American
president, Ronald Reagan, was
sworn into office
•
The crisis also marked the beginning
of weakened ties between Iran and
the United States
Contemporary Society
Ronald Wilson Reagan
• Ronald Reagan was the 40th
President of the United States
(1981–1989)
The New Right
• A late 20th century alliance of
conservative special-interest groups
concerned with cultural, social, and
moral issue
• These groups assisted Reagan in
winning the Presidential election in
1980
Unit 7: Contemporary American
Society
Chapter 25 and Chapter 26
Essential Question:
How did the domestic and foreign
policies of presidents Reagan through
Obama change American society?
Contemporary Society
End of the Cold War
•
The period of 1985–1991 began
with the rise of Mikhail
Gorbachev as leader of the
Soviet Union. The fall of the
Berlin Wall and the end of the
Cold War
•
President Reagan was the last
president during the Cold War
Contemporary Society
George Herbert Walker Bush
•
•
41st President of the United
States (1989–1993)
43rd Vice President of the United
States (1981–1989)
Gulf War
•
•
The Gulf War (2 August 1990 –
28 February 1991), codenamed
Operation Desert Storm was a
war waged by coalition forces
from 34 nations led by the United
States against Iraq in response
to Iraq's invasion and annexation
of Kuwait
This war would lead to the
outbreak of another war 12 years
later
Contemporary Society
Riots in Los Angeles After the
Rodney King Verdict
•
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots, were a
series of riots, lootings, arsons and
civil disturbance that occurred in Los
Angeles County, California in 1992,
following the acquittal of police officers
on trial regarding a videotaped, and
widely covered police brutality incident
of Rodney King
•
They were the largest riots seen in the
United States since the 1960s
•
The riots over five days in the spring of
1992 left more than 50 people dead,
and more than 2,000 injured
•
The rioting destroyed or damaged over
1,000 buildings in the Los Angeles
area. The estimated cost of the
damages was over $1 billion
Contemporary Society
William "Bill" Jefferson
Clinton
• Bill Clinton served as the 42nd
President of the United States
(1993-2001)
• At 46 he was the third-youngest
president and the first baby
boomer president
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA)
• A 1994 treaty that removed tariffs
and brought Mexico into the freetrade zone established by the US
and Canada
Contemporary Society
World Trade Center Bombed
•
The World Trade Center bombing
occurred on February 26, 1993, when
a truck bomb was detonated below the
North Tower of the World Trade Center
in New York, NY. The blast was
intended to knock the North Tower
(Tower One) into the South Tower
(Tower Two), bringing both towers
down and killing tens of thousands of
people. It failed to do so, but did kill six
people and injured more than a
thousand.
•
In November 1997, two more were
convicted: Ramzi Yousef, the
mastermind behind the bombings, and
Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck
carrying the bomb
Contemporary Society
President Clinton Impeached
• Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of
the United States, was impeached
by the House of Representatives
on two charges, one of perjury and
one of obstruction of justice, on
December 19, 1998
• Two other impeachment articles, a
second perjury charge and a
charge of abuse of power, failed in
the House. He was acquitted of
both charges by the Senate on
February 12, 1999
Contemporary Society
USS Cole Bombing
• The USS Cole was traveling through
the Red Sea to a port in Bahrain
when it stopped in Aden, Yemen on
October 12, 2000 to refuel. At 11:18
a.m., a 35-foot craft that was carrying
explosives sidled up to the destroyer
and exploded.
• The explosion ripped an
approximately 40 by 40 foot hole in
the Cole, killing 17 members of the
crew. The bombing of the USS Cole
was a terrorist attack organized by alQaida. The man who organized the
bombing, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri,
was found and arrested in October
2002 in the United Arab Emirates.
and injuring another 39.
Contemporary Society
Unclear Winner in 2000
U.S. Presidential Election
•
Although some thought the
election between Vice President Al
Gore (Democrat) and Texas
Governor George W. Bush
(Republican) would be close, no
one imagined that it would be that
close
•
The election results hinged on a
difference of just a few hundred
votes in Florida (537 to be exact),
A recount of the votes in Florida
was ordered and begun
•
Bush was declared President even
though Gore had won the popular
vote (Gore received 50,999,897 to
Bush's 50,456,002)
Contemporary Society
George Walker Bush
• He was the 43rd
President of the United
States (2001-2008)
• However, controversy
surrounded his
presidency because he
did not clearly win the first
term
Contemporary Society
911 Attacks
• A series of four coordinated
terrorist attacks launched by
the Islamic terrorist group alQaeda upon the United States
in New York City,
Pennsylvania, and the
Pentagon on Tuesday,
September 11, 2001
• 2,977 lost their lives in these
attacks
• The attacks resulted in the
Afghanistan war
Iraq War
Contemporary Society
•
The governments of the United States and
the United Kingdom claimed that Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that
posed a threat to their security and that of
their coalition/regional allies
•
On 20 March 2003, the United States led an
invasion into Iraq. It was followed by a longer
phase of fighting, in which an insurgency
emerged to oppose the occupying forces and
the newly formed Iraqi government
•
The invasion led to an occupation and the
eventual capture of President Sadam
Hussein, who was later tried in an Iraqi court
of law and executed by the new Iraqi
government
•
No (WMDs) were ever found in Iraq
Contemporary Society
Hurricane Katrina
• Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest
and most destructive Atlantic tropical
cyclone of 2005. It was the costliest
natural disaster, as well as one of
the five deadliest hurricanes, in the
history of the United States.
• An estimated 1,836 people died in
the hurricane and the flooding that
followed in late August 2005, and
millions of others were left homeless
along the Gulf Coast and in New
Orleans.
• The federal government and FEMA
received widespread criticism for a
slow and ineffective response to
Hurricane Katrina victims.
Contemporary Society
The Economy Collapses
(Great Recession)
• The Great Recession, which
officially lasted from December
2007 to June 2009, began with
the bursting of an 8 trillion dollar
housing bubble
• The resulting loss of wealth led to
sharp cutbacks in consumer
spending
• As consumer spending and
business investment dried up,
massive job loss followed.
Approximately 10% of the
population was unemployed
Contemporary Society
Barack Hussein Obama II
He is the 44th President of the United
States (2009-present)
• He is the first African American to hold
the office
• Obama appointed the first Latina to the
Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor
• He ended U.S. military involvement in
the Iraq War on October 21 2011,
bringing the U.S. mission in Iraq to an
end. (A total of 4,486 U.S. soldiers were
killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2012.)
• He ended Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT)
in the military
Contemporary Society
Death of Osama Bin Laden
• On May 2, 2011, Al Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S.
Special Forces with the order of
President Obama during an early
morning raid in Abbottabad,
Pakistan
• After the raid, U.S. forces took bin
Laden's body to Afghanistan for
identification, then buried it at sea
within 24 hours of his death
• Bin Laden claimed responsibility of
the 911 terrorist attacks. He was the
FBIs most wanted fugitive
Contemporary Society
Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
•
The Affordable Care Act was signed into law to
reform the health care industry by President
Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 and upheld
by the supreme court on June 28, 2012
•
It represents the most significant regulatory
overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system since
the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965
•
The law also requires insurance companies to
cover all applicants within new minimum
standards and offer the same rates regardless
of pre-existing conditions or gender
•
Conservative groups believe the law will lead to
disruption of existing health plans, increased
costs from new insurance standards, and that it
will increase the deficit