Unit 10 America in the Cold War and Civil Rights Years (2.5 weeks)
Big Picture Questions:
To what extent did the actions by the Soviet Union and the United states at the end of WWII and
shortly thereafter lead to the “descending of an iron curtain”?
Cold War
Compare Soviet v. American Ideals
Joseph Stalin
Yalta Conference
United Nations
Potsdam Conference
Winston Churchill
Iron Curtain
Soviet Satellites
Containment
To what extent did the policies of the U.S. government in the 1945-1961 period successfully
address the communist threat?
Truman Doctrine
Marshall Plan
George C. Marshall
Division of Germany
Berlin Airlift
Containment Policy
NATO
Warsaw Pact
Collective security
Hungarian Uprising 1956
Berlin Wall
Fall of China to Communism 1949
Eisenhower Doctrine
Korean War 1950-53
General Douglas Macarthur
Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower
Demilitarized zone
Arms Race
Hydrogen bomb
Deterrent
Massive retaliation
Sputnik 1957
Space race
Was HUAC and McCarthyism primarily a product of demagoguery or a real domestic communist
threat?
(Soldiers return home – GI Bill, housing Boom, suburbs, Jonas Salk, Interstate Highway Act)
Fear of communist threat
Loyalty Review Boards
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
Blacklisted
Alger Hiss
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Verona Papers
The McCarthy Hearings
Joseph McCarthy
McCarthyism
To what extent did the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s successfully address the
failures of Reconstruction?
Plessy v. Ferguson
Separate but Equal
Segregation
Truman orders integration of the Armed Forces
Jackie Robinson
Litigation
Sweat v. Painter 1950
Brown v. Board of Education
Thurgood Marshall
Earl Warren
Resistance by Southern Governors – George Wallace, Orval Faubus, Lester Maddox
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks
Dr. Martin Luther King and his beliefs
“Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Integration of Little Rock High School
Sit-ins
Freedom Rides
March on Washington
“I have a dream speech”
John F. Kennedy
Civil Rights Act 1964
24th amendment
Selma Alabama March
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Affirmative Action
Billy Graham
Instructional Focus: In this unit students will learn about America during the period post-WWII. Much of
the unit will focus on U.S. foreign policy and the United States global struggle to stop the spread of
communism. Specifically we will begin the unit examining the roots of the cold war, and then discuss how
the Cold War was fought in Europe and Asia. Focus will then shift to domestic issues in the post-WWII
period; first we will examine the effects of the Cold War at home and then the key development in the
1950s of the Civil Rights movement.
Suggested Resources:
I have a dream speech. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nFcbpGK9_aw Cold War- Dr. Seuss “Butter
Battle” Book
Cold War and WWII- Dr. Seuss Political Cartoon
The Children’s March (DVD - Teaching Tolerance)