Brown versus Board of Education, 1954



Overturns Plessy v.
Ferguson
Unanimously rules that
“separate facilities are
inherently unequal”
and therefore in
violation of the 14th
amendment
The Baby Boom . . .



20 percent
increase in
marriage rate
between 1945
and 1948
Average marriage
age drops to 20
for women and 22
for men
Huge birth rate
increase in late
1940s and early
1950s
Civil Rights Organizations in the early
1960s



National Association for
the Advancement of
Colored People
(NAACP)
The Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE)
The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
(SCLC)
“This crusade has to be
for more than a
hamburger.”
-- Ella Baker of the
SCLC
King’s civil rights strategy





black and white protestors bare their throats
in the South
whites respond with vicious violence
media rushes to the scene
northern public opinion explodes
the president is forced to bring in federal
protection
the civil rights act of 1964





If you take federal money, your institution is
defined by law as a public institution
Thus it must obey the 14th amendment . . .
. . . “equal protection under the laws” . . .
Congress established an Equal Opportunity
Employment Commission (EEOC) in 1965 to
further the act
but it did not ban discrimination in state and
local elections . . .
Born Malcolm Little,
1925
 Converted to the
Nation of Islam (NOI)
in 1950s
 Minister of Mosque
#7 in Harlem
 Left the NOI just
before his
assassination in
1965

Sixties era demographics





Before World War II: no public universities
with more than 15,000 students
1970: 50 colleges with more than 15,000
students
1970: eight campus with 30,000 students
1970: number of college age Americans
soars to 25 million
1973: ten million college students
Arizona Senator
Barry Goldwater


Opposed
federal
programs for
the poor
Opposed
federal
desegregation
Young Americans for Freedom



Student organization
founded in 1960
1965: 250 college
chapters and 20,000
members
Sponsored by John
Wayne and Ronald
Reagan
Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 11 of the
United States Constitution

“Congress shall have
the Power . . . To
declare War, grant
Letters of Marque
and Reprisal, and
make Rules
concerning Captures
on Land and Water.”
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
August 7, 1964

Section 2. . . . the United
States is, therefore,
prepared, as the President
determines, to take all
necessary steps, including
the use of armed force, to
assist any member or
protocol state of the
Southeast Asia Collective
Defense Treaty requesting
assistance in defense of
its freedom.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965




Abolished literacy tests
Abolished poll taxes
Placed federal monitors
in states with a history of
discrimination
By 1967, half of AfricanAmericans in the south
had registered to vote
Police attack
protestors in Selma to
Montgomery march,
1965
Race Riot in Watts, California

34 people killed
in the riot
 1,000 injured
 107,000
participants
 16,000 police
and National
Guardsmen
intervene
Martin Luther King Jr.
in Los Angeles, 1965
the Vietnam era



1965:
375,000 men
and women
in Vietnam
1968: U.S.
involvement
peaks at
543,000
only 11
percent of
the country
opposed the
war in 1965
Vietnam war statistics
9 million men and women
served in active duty during
the Vietnam war era
 over 7,000 women served
in Vietnam
 58,000 U.S. military
personnel died, 47,000 of
those in combat


Another 75,000 “severely
disabled”
 2,338 Missing in Action
 766 Prisoners of War
Total Vietnamese killed in their postWorld War II war for independence:





3,800,000 Vietnamese killed
One out of ten Vietnamese
This includes all wars with France,
Cambodia, the United States, China and
Japan . . .
and all political murders committed by Ho
Chi Minh, Diem, and other political leaders
Vietnamese killed in the U.S./Vietnam War:
1,719,000
Source: R.J. Rummel, “Statistics of Vietnamese Democide,”
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM
The Great Society Programs, 1965-1967

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
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Project Head Start: federal money for poor
schools
Medicare Act: health insurance for the elderly
Medicaid: federal aid to pay for medical
expenses of the poor
The Omnibus Housing Act: rent subsidies for
the poor
Public Broadcasting: Federal aid for noncommercial radio and television
Napalm
gasoline,
napthenic acid
and palm oil
 burns the flesh
off of its victims
 sucks oxygen
from the area
and suffocates
people

1967: support for the war begins to wane
71 percent of
U.S. public
support the war
 August it drops
to 61 percent
 October it slips
to 58 percent

The Fair Housing Act, 1968

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

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Federal law prohibits discrimination because of . . .
Race or color
National origin
Religion
Sex (gender)
Familial status (including children under the age of
18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregant
women)
Disability
The Presidential Election of 1968



Richard Nixon,
43.42% (301
electoral votes)
Hubert
Humphrey,
42.72% (191)
George
Wallace, 8.55%
(46)
Richard Nixon
Women enter the workforce,
1950-1980 (numbers on right in thousands)
25000
20000
15000
20-24
25-44
45-64
10000
5000
0
1950
1960
1970
1980
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
(a) It shall be an unlawful employment practice
for an employer - (1) to fail or refuse to hire
or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to
discriminate against any individual with
respect to his compensation, terms,
conditions, or privileges of employment,
because of such individual’s race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin . . .”
The Patriarchy State







Newspaper jobs divided into male and female
Government manuals used “he” and “she” to
describe managers and secretaries
Women could not establish businesses without a
male consigner
Quotas for women in professional schools
Higher university admission standards for women
Laws permitting husbands to beat their wives
Employers could fire women for weighing too much
1967-1979: insurgent Second Wave
Feminism




Legal actions sex discrimination against
women on the job
Lawsuits against separate want ads for
women and men
EEOC suits against discrimination in wages
and promotions
Actions against separate standards for
women and men in university admissions