The Stormy Sixties
(Domestic)
By: Student 1
Student 2
Student 3
Video
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bViDpsjKq
uo
• Stop at 1:40
What was Kennedy's New
Frontier?
How was that Philosophy played
out, domestically within the first
few years of Kennedy’s
administration?
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John F. Kennedys New Frontier program was intended to boost the economy, provide
international aid, provide for national defense, and to boost the space program.
Kennedy made
a point to control monopoly prices, and although this made him unpopular with large
companies, it prevented consumers from being forced to pay more than a product was
worth. He
also was an advocate of civil rights, and although he was unsuccessful at passing
legislation during his lifetime, he paved the way for the reform that would come later.
He
also managed to increase the minimum wage.
On the international scale he accomplished two major things. The first of these was the
Peace Corps. The Peace Corps sent teachers to poorer nations to help increase
education
levels and bolster their economies. The second was the Alliance for Progress, which
provided aid in health and education in Latin America. John F. Kennedy also built up the
armed forces ground troops and signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet
Union. This treaty agreed that both countries would stop all nuclear testing in the
atmosphere
and limit it to underground. The space program was another thing strongly advocated
by Kennedy. After the Soviet Union launched a cosmonaut into space in 1961, Kennedy
challenged the US to put a man on the Moon by 1970.
Overall, Kennedys New Frontier Program was successful in boosting the economy, as
well as paving the way for many political, international and social reforms.
2. How did Kennedy and
Johnson deal with the civil rights
issue? What were their goals
and were these goals actualized
by the end of the decade?
• Kennedy put political realism before any form of beliefs when he voted
against Eisenhower’s 1957 Civil Rights Act. The route from bill to act nearly
served to tear apart the Republicans and the. Kennedy had aspirations to
be the Democrats next presidential candidate in the 1960 election. If he
was seen to be taking the party line and demonstrating strong leadership
with regards to opposing the bill, this would do his chances no harm
whatsoever. This proved to be the case and Kennedy lead the Democrats
to victory over Richard Nixon in 1960.
• However, during the presidential campaign and after he was nominated
for the Democrats, Kennedy made it clear in his speeches that he was a
supporter of civil rights. Historians are divided as to why he was ‘suddenly’
converted. Some saw the opposition to the 1957 Act as understandable
from a political point of view. Others have adopted a more cynical view
which is that Kennedy recognized that he needed the ‘Black Vote’ if he
was to beat Nixon. Hence why he said in his campaign speeches that
discrimination stained America as it lead the west’s stance against the
Soviet Union during the Cold War. He also said that a decent president
could end unacceptable housing conditions by using federal power. His
call of sympathy to Martin Luther King’s wife, Coretta, when King was in
prison was well publicized by the Democrats.
Scary Statistics
• 57% of African American housing was judged to
be unacceptable
• African American life expectancy was 7 years less
than whites
• African American infant mortality was twice as
great as whites
• African Americans found it all but impossible to
get mortgages from mortgage lenders.
• Property values would drop a great deal if an
African American family moved into a
neighborhood that was not a ghetto.
What did Kennedy do about it?
• he put pressure on federal government organizations to employ more
African Americans in America’s equivalent of Britain’s Civil Service.
• Kennedy appointed his brother (Robert) as Attorney General which put him
at the head of the Justice Department. Their tactic was to use the law courts
as a way of enforcing already passed civil rights legislation.
• Kennedy was very good at what would appear to be small gestures. In
American football, the Washington Redskins were the last of the big teams
to refuse to sign African Americans. Their stadium was federally funded
and Kennedy ordered that they were no longer allowed to use the stadium
and would have to find a new one. The team very quickly signed up
African American players.
• Kennedy created the CEEO (Commission on Equal Employment
Opportunity). Its job was to ensure that all people employed with the
federal government had equal employment opportunities; it also required
all those firms that had contracts with the federal government to do the
same if they were to win further federal contracts
3. Describe LBJ’s Great
Society. What were the major
goals of it? How successful
were they?
• The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United
States promoted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and fellow
Democrats in Congress in the 1960s. Two main goals of the Great
Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial
injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education,
medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched
during this period. The Great Society in scope and sweep resembled
the New Deal domestic agenda of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but
differed sharply in types of programs enacted.
• Some Great Society proposals were stalled initiatives from John F.
Kennedy's New Frontier. Johnson's success depended on his skills of
persuasion, coupled with the Democratic landslide in the 1964
election that brought in many new liberals to Congress, making the
House of Representatives in 1965 the most liberal House since
1938. Anti-war Democrats complained that spending on the
Vietnam War choked off the Great Society. While some of the
programs have been eliminated or had their funding reduced, many
of them, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Older Americans Act
and federal education funding, continue to the present. The Great
Society's programs expanded under the administrations of Richard
Nixon and Gerald Ford.
4.
Examine the black movements of the
sixties, from civil rights to black power,
perhaps focusing on the fact that the
nonviolent movement’s (ie. Sit-ins, SNCC,
marches, Freedom Riders) great successes
in integration and voting rights were not
considered adequate by those trapped in
northern black ghettos.
• The struggle for civil rights had defined the ‘60s ever since four black
students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, North
Carolina, in February 1960 and refused to leave. Their movement spread:
Hundreds of demonstrators went back to that lunch counter every day,
and tens of thousands clogged segregated restaurants and shops across
the upper South.
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The protesters drew the nation’s attention to the injustice, brutality and
capriciousness that characterized Jim Crow. In general, the federal
government stayed out of the civil rights struggle until 1964, when
President Johnson pushed a Civil Rights Act through Congress that
prohibited discrimination in public places, gave the Justice Department
permission to sue states that discriminated against women and minorities
and promised equal opportunities in the workplace to all. The next year,
the Voting Rights Act eliminated poll taxes, literacy requirements and
other tools that southern whites had traditionally used to keep blacks
from voting.
• But these laws did not solve the problems facing African Americans: They
did not eliminate racism or poverty and they did not improve the
conditions in many black urban neighborhoods. Many black leaders began
to rethink their goals, and some embraced a more militant ideology of
separatism and self-defense.
5.
Examine the domestic political and
social turmoil of the sixties, brought on
by social and cultural upheavals as well
as Vietnam. Point out the deep
polarization of American society, as
evidenced by the turbulent events of 1968.
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Cold War (Cuban missile crisis Oct. 1962)
The Vietnam War
The Civil Rights Movement
Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated
The Civil Rights Act of 1968
Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated
Debut of the Apollo Program
Richard Nixon elected as President of the
United States
• Hijacking of Pan Am Flight 281 ( No casualties)
• The Zodiac Killer( Claimed 37, Confirmed 7)
6.
Focus on the Kennedy image.
Compare the vision of Camelot with the
historical realities of Kennedy’s
performance as president and
controversies over his private behavior
and character.
Extra Credit for showing this?
I think so!!!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjEcj8KpuJw
The Story
• The term "Camelot" was applied to the presidency of John
F. Kennedy (1917–1963) by his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier
Kennedy (1929–1994). Camelot refers to the seat of the
court of the legendary King Arthur and the Knights of the
Round Table; it has come to mean a place or time of idyllic
happiness. (Arthur was a British king; the Round Table was
the name for his knights.) Shortly after John F. Kennedy was
assassinated on November 22, 1963, the former first lady
was talking with a journalist. She described the years of her
husband's presidency (1960–63) as an American Camelot, a
period of hope and optimism in U. S. history, and asked that
his memory be preserved. She had shown fortitude (ability
to deal with adversity or pain) and grace as she guided her
family and the country through the president's funeral and
was one of America's most beloved first ladies. So when
she suggested that her husband's brief presidency was
reminiscent of the legends of Camelot, journalists took up
the idea.
7.
Use Martin Luther King Jr.’s
life and work to explain the
principles of the nonviolent civil
rights movement. Perhaps show
how King came under assault
from some whites and blacks
during his lifetime for being
either too militant or not militant
enough.
• During the less than 13 years of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s
leadership of the modern American Civil Rights Movement, from
December, 1955 until April 4, 1968, African Americans achieved
more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the
previous 350 years had produced. Dr. King is widely regarded as
America’s pre-eminent advocate of nonviolence and one of the
greatest nonviolent leaders in world history.
• Drawing inspiration from both his Christian faith and the peaceful
teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King led a nonviolent movement
in the late 1950’s and ‘60s to achieve legal equality for AfricanAmericans in the United States. While others were advocating for
freedom by “any means necessary,” including violence, Martin
Luther King, Jr. used the power of words and acts of nonviolent
resistance, such as protests, grassroots organizing, and civil
disobedience to achieve seemingly-impossible goals. He went on to
lead similar campaigns against poverty and international conflict,
always maintaining fidelity to his principles that men and women
everywhere, regardless of color or creed, are equal members of the
human family.
• A large number of blacks felt that the only way
to get something done was through means of
action often through violent means of action.
• Some blacks felt that he was not militant
enough.
• Conservative whites especially in the south
felt threatened and considered him to be a
threat.
• Not all whites were racist and hated blacks
during this time.
• Ex. Churches, public housing areas, soup
kitchens.
8.
Examine the cultural rebellions of
the 1960s (i.e. SDS/The Weathermen) in
relation to traditional American values
such as distrust of authority and
individualism. Examine the sexual
revolution and the changes in the family
as they impacted broader issues of public
authority and the role of institutions like
the school and church.
SDS ( Students for a Democratic
society)
• SDS was, historically, a student activist movement
in the United States that was one of the main
iconic representations of the country's New Left.
The organization developed and expanded rapidly
in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last
convention in 1969.
• It was the organizational high point for student
radicalism in the United States and has been an
important influence on student organizing in the
decades since its collapse
The Weathermen
• The Weather Underground was an American
radical left organization. Originally called
Weatherman, the group became known
colloquially as the Weathermen although its full
name, as given in official communiques, was the
Weather Underground Organization or WUO.
• Weatherman first organized in 1969 as a faction
of Students for a Democratic Society
(SDS)composed for the most part of the national
office leadership of SDS and their supporters.
Their goal was to create a clandestine
revolutionary party for the violent overthrow of
the US government.
Actions of the Weathermen
• One of the first acts of the Weathermen after
splitting from SDS was to announce they would
hold the "Days of Rage" that autumn. This was
advertised to "Bring the war home!" Hoping to
cause sufficient chaos to "wake" the American
public out of what they saw as complacency
toward the role of the US in the Vietnam War, the
Weathermen meant it to be the largest protest of
the decade.
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Ended up rioting.
Smashing bank windows and cars.
Took police half hour to get under control
28 policemen were injured
Acts of Weathermen Cont.
• Shortly before the Days of Rage demonstrations on
October 7, 1969, the Weatherman planted a bomb that
blew up a statue in Chicago built to commemorate
police casualties incurred in the 1886 Haymarket Riot.
The blast broke nearly 100 windows and scattered
pieces of the statue onto the Kennedy Expressway
below. The statue was rebuilt and unveiled on May 4,
1970 (coincidentally, the same day as the Kent State
massacre), only to be blown up by the Weathermen a
second time on October 6, 1970.
• The statue was rebuilt once again and Mayor Richard J.
Daley posted a 24-hour police guard to protect it,[49]
however the statue was later destroyed again a third
time. The vandalized pedestal that remained has since
been removed by the city, and the monument was
never replaced.
Sexual Revolution
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The 1960s in the United States are often perceived today as a period of profound
societal change, one in which a great many politically minded individuals, who on
the whole were young and educated, sought to influence the status quo.
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Attitudes to a variety of issues changed, sometimes radically, throughout the
decade. The urge to 'find oneself', the activism of the 1960s, and the quest for
autonomy were characterized by changes towards sexual attitudes at the time.
These changes to sexual attitudes and behavior during the period are often today
referred to generally under the blanket metaphor of 'sexual revolution'.
Whilst the term 'revolution' implies radical and widespread change, this was not
necessarily the case. Even in the 'liberal' sixties, conservative, traditionalist views
were widely held, and many modern historians and social scientists are beginning
to think that 'revolution' is too much of an overstatement.
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Most of the empirical data pertinent to the area only dates back to 1965,
somewhat muddying the waters. Despite this, there were changes in sexual
attitudes and practices, particularly among the young. Like much of the radicalism
from the 1960s, the sexual revolution was often seen to have been centered
around the university campus, amongst students.
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With its roots in the first perceived sexual revolution in the 1920s, this 'revolution'
in 1960s America encompassed many groups who are now synonymous with the
era. Feminists, gay rights campaigners, hippies and many other political
movements were all important components and facilitators of change.
Quiz!!!!!!!!!!
What was the name of the President that
was assassinated during the 60’s?
A) Ty Nevith
B) Nick Saban
C) Kennedy
D) Blair Roberts
• 2. What was Kennedy’s New
Frontier plan?
A) To boost the economy, provide international
aid, provide for national defense, and to boost
the space program.
B) Eat a Taco
C) Do absolutely nothing
D) Make Ty the new Director of the Secret
Service
• 3. What was the last football
team that refused to sign
African Americans?
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A) Alabama
B) Auburn
C) Washington Redskins
D) Scam Newton
• 4. What group of people had
a civil rights movement?
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A) White People
B) African Americans
C) Ty Nevith
D) Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly
• 5. What crisis occurred in
October of 1962?
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A) The Cuban Missile Crisis
B) The Ty Nevith assassination
C) The Ty Nevith civil rights movement
D) The Ty Nevith Zodiac Killer Crisis
• 6. Kennedy was compared to Camelot
during the 60’s. Therefore with that in
mind name the movie title of the clip
that was shown dealing with Camelot.
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A) Big
B) The Notebook
C) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
D) The Life and Story of Ty Nevith
• 7. What was the name of the
man who headed the Civil
Rights Movement?
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A) Bill Murray
B) Miley Cyrus
C) Zac Efron
D) Martin Luther King Junior
• 8. What does SDS stand
for?
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A) Stupid Dumb Squirrels
B) Students for a Democratic Society
C) Smelly Doritos Stink
D) Ty Nevith
• 9. How many times did
the Weathermen blow up
the memorial statue?
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A) 0
B) 2
C) 3.14
D) 3
• 10. Of the many Social
revolutions what was the last
one we discussed?
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A) Bob Marley Revolution
B) Democratic Revolution
C) The Sexual Revolution
D) The Supermodel Revolution
Answer Key
1. C
2. A
3. C
4. B
5. A
6. C
7. D
8. B
9. D
10. C