APUSH Unit 13
People’s Movements
APUSH 8.1 – APUSH 9.1
VUS.14a – VUS.15b
Comfort & Conformity
The post-World War II era saw a rapid expansion of the economy, guiding many Americans to a
seemingly idyllic life in the suburbs.
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Rapid economic and social changes in American society fostered a sense of optimism in the postwar years,
as well as underlying concerns about how these changes were affecting American values.
A burgeoning private sector, continued federal spending, the baby boom, and technological developments
helped spur economic growth, middle-class suburbanization, social mobility, a rapid expansion of higher
education, and the rise of the “Sun Belt” as a political and economic force.
These economic and social changes, in addition to the anxiety engendered by the Cold War, led to an
increasingly homogeneous mass culture, as well as challenges to conformity by artists, intellectuals, and
rebellious youth.
Although the image of the traditional nuclear family dominated popular perceptions in the postwar era, the
family structure of Americans was undergoing profound changes as the number of working women increased
and many social attitudes changed.
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New demographic and social issues led to significant political and moral debates that sharply divided the
nation.
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act
(G.I. Bill)
Veterans Administration (VA)
“Permanent war economy”
Research & development
Oil glut
Worker productivity
Materialism/consumerism
Madison Avenue
“Kitchen debate”
Middle class
Nuclear family
Baby boom
Benjamin Spock
Jonas Salk
Eisenhower’s “Modern
Republicanism”
Interstate highway system
Federal Housing Administration
(FHA)
Suburbia
Levittowns
“Duck & Cover”
Fallout shelters
Automobile ownership
Fast food
Motels
Drive-in theaters
Teenagers
“Lovers lane”
Coca-Cola
Television
Televangelism
Sunbelt
“Little Boxes”
The Organization Man
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Death of a Salesman
Milgram obedience experiment
John Kenneth Galbraith
The Affluent Society
Civil Rights & Black Power
Facing ferocious resistance, the civil rights movement gained momentum from the 1940s through
the 1970s, though younger African Americans grew impatient with the slow pace of progress.
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Seeking to fulfill Reconstruction-era promises, civil rights activists and political leaders achieved some legal
and political successes in ending segregation, although progress toward equality was slow and halting.
Following World War II, civil rights activists utilized a variety of strategies — legal challenges, direct action,
and nonviolent protest tactics — to combat racial discrimination.
Decision-makers in each of the three branches of the federal government used measures including
desegregation of the armed services, Brown v. Board of Education, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to
promote greater racial justice.
Continuing white resistance slowed efforts at desegregation, sparking a series of social and political crises
across the nation, while tensions among civil rights activists over tactical and philosophical issues increased
after 1965.
Liberalism reached its zenith with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society efforts to use federal power to end racial
discrimination, eliminate poverty, and address other social issues while attacking communism abroad.
Liberal ideals were realized in Supreme Court decisions that expanded democracy and individual freedoms,
Great Society social programs and policies, and the power of the federal government, yet these
unintentionally helped energize a new conservative movement that mobilized to defend traditional visions of
morality and the proper role of state authority.
New demographic and social issues led to significant political and moral debates that sharply divided the
nation. Conservatives and liberals clashed over many new social issues, the power of the presidency and
the federal government, and movements for greater individual rights.
A. Philip Randolph
March on Washington movement
Truman’s Committee on Civil
Rights/To Secure These Rights
Executive Order 9981
(desegregation of the armed
forces)
States’ Rights Democratic Party
(“Dixiecrats”)
Jackie Robinson
Davis v. County School Board of
Prince Edward County, Virginia,
1952
Oliver Hill
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
(LDF)
Thurgood Marshall
Brown v. Board of Education I,
1954
“Separate is inherently unequal”
Desegregation
Brown v. Board of Education II,
1955
“All deliberate speed”
Harry F. Byrd, Orval Faubus &
George Wallace
“Massive resistance”
Nullification
States’ rights
White flight
Temporary closure of public
schools
Private schools
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rosa Parks
Civil disobedience & nonviolent
“passive resistance”
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Little Rock Nine
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Greensboro Sit-In
Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC)
Southern Christian Leadership
Council (SCLC)
Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE)
“Ink for Jack”
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Freedom Riders
James Meredith
Medgar Evers
1963 March on Washington
“I Have a Dream”
16th Street Baptist Church
bombing
Lyndon Johnson’s “Great
Society” & “War on Poverty”
Civil Rights Act of 1964
24th Amendment
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Loving v. Virginia, 1967
Interracial marriage
“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to
Break the Silence”
James Earl Ray
Urban riots
Stokely Carmichael
“Black Power”
Nation of Islam
Malcolm X
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay)
Black Panther Party
Attica Prison Riot
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Board of Education, 1971
Forced busing
Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke, 1978
Affirmative action
“Reverse discrimination”
Jesse Jackson
Rainbow Coalition
Douglas Wilder
Clarence Thomas
Barack Obama
The Warren & Burger Courts: “Judicial Activism”
Under the leadership of Earl Warren and Warren Burger, the Supreme Court expanded
protections for civil rights, civil liberties and the rights of the accused in the 1950s-1970s.
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New demographic and social issues led to significant political and moral debates that sharply divided the
nation.
Liberal ideals were realized in Supreme Court decisions that expanded democracy and individual freedoms,
Great Society social programs and policies, and the power of the federal government, yet these
unintentionally helped energize a new conservative movement that mobilized to defend traditional visions of
morality and the proper role of state authority.
New demographic and social issues led to significant political and moral debates that sharply divided the
nation. Conservatives and liberals clashed over many new social issues and movements for greater
individual rights.
Amendments & Issues
1st Amendment
Civil liberties
4th, 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th Amendments
Rights of the accused
14th Amendment
Civil rights
The Earl Warren Court
Brown v. Board of Education I,
1954
Brown v. Board of Education II,
1955
Mapp v. Ohio, 1961
Engel v. Vitale, 1962
Abington School District v.
Schempp, 1963
Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963
Escobedo v. Illinois, 1964
Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S.,
1965
Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965
Miranda v. Arizona, 1966
Loving v. Virginia, 1967
LBJ appoints Thurgood Marshall
to the Supreme Court, 1967
Tinker v. Des Moines, 1969
The Warren Burger Court
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Board of Education, 1971
New York Times v. U.S., 1971
Furman v. Georgia, 1972 &
Gregg v. Georgia, 1976
Roe v. Wade, 1973
U.S. v. Nixon, 1974
Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke, 1978
Youth Counterculture & the Antiwar Movement
Young people including the “Baby Boomers” challenged the values of their parents’ generation
and became a force for political and social change in the 1950s-1970s.
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Liberalism, based on anticommunism abroad and a firm belief in the efficacy of governmental and
especially federal power to achieve social goals at home, reached its apex in the mid-1960s and
generated a variety of political and cultural responses.
Groups on the left assailed liberals, claiming they did too little to transform the racial and economic status
quo at home and pursued immoral policies abroad.
Anxiety engendered by the Cold War and an increasingly homogeneous mass culture led to challenges to
conformity by artists, intellectuals, and rebellious youth.
Young people who participated in the counterculture of the 1960s rejected many of the social, economic,
and political values of their parents’ generation, initiated a sexual revolution, and introduced greater
informality into U.S. culture.
New demographic and social issues led to significant political and moral debates that sharply divided the
nation. Conservatives and liberals clashed over many new social issues and movements for greater
individual rights.
Conservatives, fearing juvenile delinquency, urban unrest, and challenges to the traditional family,
increasingly promoted their own values and ideology.
Baby boomers
Teenagers
Rock & roll
James Dean
The Catcher in the Rye
Beatniks/Beat poets
Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS)
Port Huron Statement, 1962
Berkeley Free Speech movement
Ethnic studies & gender studies
programs
Sexual revolution
Kinsey, Masters & Johnson
Haight-Ashbury district
Hippies/yippies
Abbie Hoffman
Timothy Leary
Marijuana & LSD
Andy Warhol & pop art
Woodstock Festival
Charles Manson
Sexually-transmitted diseases
(STDs)
Vietnam War military draft
Deferments & draft dodgers
Vietnam veterans
Kent State & Jackson State
shootings
The Weather Underground
26th Amendment
Campus Crusade for Christ
Young Americans for Freedom
(YAF)
American Indians, Latinos & Asian-Americans
Indigenous Americans have struggled to confront issues of cultural identity and their unique status
under federal law while the Latino movement has focused its efforts on addressing issues of
economic opportunity and immigration.
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Inspired by the African American civil rights movement, Latinos, American Indians, and Asian Americans
began to demand social and economic equality and a redress of past injustices.
Internal migrants as well as migrants from around the world sought access to the economic boom and other
benefits of the United States, especially after the passage of new immigration laws in 1965.
New migrants and immigrants affected U.S. culture in many ways and supplied the economy with an
important labor force, but they also became the focus of intense political, economic, and cultural debates.
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New demographic and social issues led to significant political and moral debates that sharply divided the
nation. Conservatives and liberals clashed over many new social issues and movements for greater
individual rights.
Indian Citizenship Act, 1924
Indian Reorganization Act
(Indian New Deal), 1934
Codetalkers
Dennis Banks & Russell Means
American Indian Movement (AIM)
Alcatraz occupation, 1969
Wounded Knee confrontation,
1973
Termination/autonomy/selfdetermination/sovereignty
Media depictions of American
Indians
Urban Indians
Pow-wows
Federal recognition of tribes
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Indian gaming
National Museum of the
American Indian
Seasonal labor vs. permanent
immigration
Bracero program
“Operation Wetback”
Mendez v. Westminster, 1947
Immigration & Nationality Act of
1965
“La Raza”
United Farm Workers (UFW)
Cesar Chavez
Boycotts
Bilingual education
Catholicism
Immigration Reform & Control
Act (IRCA) of 1986
Immigration amnesty
2010 U.S. Census data
Sonia Sotomayor
Japanese American internment
Korematsu v. U.S., 1944
Reparations & apologies for
internment
Maya Lin
Vietnamese refugees
“Model minority”
The Women’s Movement & LGBT Movement
“Second wave” feminism of the 1960s-1980s focused on issues of female identity, sexual
violence, reproductive rights, family dynamics and workplace inequality. Spurred by the 1960s
sexual revolution, the gay liberation movement has gained greater acceptance in recent decades.
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Although the image of the traditional nuclear family dominated popular perceptions in the postwar era, the
family structure of Americans was undergoing profound changes as the number of working women increased
and many social attitudes changed.
Stirred by a growing awareness of inequalities in American society and by the African American civil rights
movement, activists also addressed issues of identity and social justice, such as gender/sexuality and
ethnicity.
Activists began to question society’s assumptions about gender and to call for social and economic equality
for women and for gays and lesbians.
New demographic and social issues led to significant political and moral debates that sharply divided the
nation. Conservatives and liberals clashed over many new social issues and movements for greater
individual rights.
First wave feminism, 1848-1920
“Rosie the Riveter”
Housewives
Betty Friedan
The Feminine Mystique
Second wave feminism, 1960s1970s
National Organization for
Women (NOW)
Equal Pay Act, 1963
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
Phyllis Schlafly
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Title IX
Contraception
Right to privacy
Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965
Birth control pill
Abortion
Roe v. Wade, 1973
“Glass ceiling”
Sexual assault
Sexual harassment
Divorce
Single-parent families
Maternity leave
Sally Ride
Sandra Day O’Connor
Geraldine Ferraro
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Sarah Palin
Integration of female soldiers
into full combat roles, 2013
Sexual revolution
Bayard Rustin
Allen Ginsberg
Urban gay districts
Stonewall Riots, 1969
Harvey Milk
AIDS pandemic
ACT UP
Hate crimes
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT),
1993
Jesse Helms & Rick Santorum
Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA), 1996
Boy Scouts v. Dale, 2000
Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,”
2011
U.S. v. Windsor, 2013
Marriage equality
Environmentalism & Consumer Protection
Concerns for environmental preservation and human health and safety have often been at odds
with demands for rapid economic growth and inexpensive resources and goods.
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Responding to the abuse of natural resources and the alarming environmental problems, activists and
legislators began to call for conservation measures and a fight against pollution.
New demographic and social issues led to significant political and moral debates that sharply divided the
nation. Conservatives and liberals clashed over many new social issues, the power of the presidency and
the federal government, and movements for greater individual rights.
“Tragedy of the commons”
Conservation movement
Sierra Club
John Muir
“Pure preservation”
Gifford Pinchot
“Managed use”
Theodore Roosevelt
National parks
Rachel Carson
Silent Spring, 1962
DDT
Clean Air Act, 1963
Emissions standards
Clean Water Act, 1964
Sewage treatment
Agent Orange
Earth Day
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA)
Environmental Superfund, 1980
Fossil fuels
 Coal
 Oil
 Natural gas
 Tar sands
“Alternative” & renewable
energy
 Nuclear
 Solar
 Wind
 Geothermal
 Hydroelectric
 Biofuel
Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC)
1970s Energy Crises
Stagflation
Exxon-Valdez & Deepwater
Horizon oil spills
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
(ANWR) & Keystone XL pipeline
controversies
“Energy independence”
Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”)
Greenhouse effect, global
warming & climate change
Rejection of Kyoto Protocols
“Atoms for Peace”
Three Mile Island, Chernobyl &
Fukushima Daiichi accidents
“No Nukes” movement
Radioactive waste management
Ozone layer &
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
Endangered Species Act, 1973
Bald eagle population recovery
Upton Sinclair
The Jungle, 1906
Pure Food & Drug Act, 1906
Meat Inspection Act, 1906
Food & Drug Administration
Surgeon General’s “Report on
Smoking & Health,” 1964
Ralph Nader
Unsafe at Any Speed, 1965
Green Party
Consumer Reports
Conservatism
The conservative movement epitomized by the 1980 “Reagan Revolution” represents a wide
array of traditional economic, political, religious and social interests.
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As many liberal principles came to dominate postwar politics and court decisions, liberalism came under
attack from the left as well as from resurgent conservative movements.
Liberal Supreme Court decisions, Great Society social programs and policies, and the power of the federal
government unintentionally helped energize a new conservative movement that mobilized to defend
traditional visions of morality and the proper role of state authority.
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Conservatives and liberals clashed over many new social issues, the power of the presidency and the
federal government, and movements for greater individual rights.
A new conservatism grew to prominence in U.S. culture and politics, defending traditional social values and
rejecting liberal views about the role of government.
Public confidence and trust in government declined in the 1970s in the wake of economic challenges, political
scandals, foreign policy “failures,” and a sense of social and moral decay.
Reduced public faith in the government’s ability to solve social and economic problems, the growth of
religious fundamentalism, and the dissemination of neoconservative thought all combined to invigorate
conservatism.
The rapid and substantial growth of evangelical and fundamentalist Christian churches and organizations, as
well as increased political participation by some of those groups, encouraged significant opposition to
liberal social and political trends.
Dwight Eisenhower
“Modern Republicanism”
Harry Byrd, Orval Faubus &
George Wallace
“Massive resistance”
John Birch Society
Anticommunism
Campus Crusade for Christ
Young Americans for Freedom
(YAF)
Barry Goldwater
“Southern strategy”
“Law & Order”
“Silent majority”
Richard Nixon
War on Drugs
Phyllis Schlafly
Roe v. Wade, 1973
“Right to life” movement
Moral Majority
Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell &
Pat Robertson
New Right Coalition
Reagan Revolution
Reagan Democrats
William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia
& Clarence Thomas
U.S. aid to Israel
Military spending
Collapse of communism
Isolationism vs. interventionism
Free trade vs. protectionism
Deregulation, laissez-faire &
supply-side economics
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) debate
National Rifle Association (NRA)
Capital punishment
Flag Desecration Amendment
Illegal immigration
Border patrol & U.S.-Mexico
border fence
Newt Gingrich’s Contract with
America
Ross Perot
Federal deficit, national debt &
government shutdowns
Monica Lewinsky scandal &
impeachment of Bill Clinton
“Family values”
“Traditional marriage”
Rush Limbaugh
FOX News
Rick Santorum
“Intelligent design”
Atheism & secular humanism
“Pointy-headed intellectuals” &
“ivory tower liberals”
School-sponsored prayer
School choice & vouchers
George W. Bush
“Compassionate conservative”
Embryonic stem cell research
Global warming political debate
War on Terror
Islamic fundamentalism
“Soccer moms”
Sarah Palin
Obama “Birthers”
Tea Party movement
Libertarian Party
Mormonism
Mitt Romney
Unit Review: Essential Questions
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What factors contributed to the growth of suburban, middle class life in the 1950s?
What were the cultural mores of 1950s America?
How did the Warren & Burger courts expand federal protections for civil rights, civil
liberties and the rights of the accused?
Were the decisions of the Warren and Burger courts examples of unwarranted "judicial
activism" or reflections of long-standing constitutional principles?
What were the goals, methods and effects of the African American freedom struggle
during the 20th century?
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How did states and the federal government respond to the African American freedom
struggle?
How did the African American freedom struggle influence other social movements of the
20th century?
What values of the older generation did the youth counterculture reject and what
alternative values did they seek to replace them with?
How did the Vietnam War impact the development of the youth movement in the 1960s
and 1970s?
What unique challenges have the Native American and Hispanic civil rights movements
faced and how successful have they been in overcoming obstacles?
How have the federal government and the American public responded to the concerns of
the environmental and consumer protection movements?
To what extent did "second wave" feminism change gender roles and transform American
society?
What challenges has the LGBT movement faced and what successes has it enjoyed?
What values have defined the conservative movement from 1964 to the present?
What factors contributed to the "Reagan Revolution" of 1980?