THE SIXTIES
LIVING WITH GREAT TURMOIL
I. Election of 1960
A. Kennedy the
Candidate: his
handsome look and
appearance, the
voters' mood of
restlessness and
Nixon's response to
the jailing of Martin
Luther King, Jr.
helped his
candidacy.
B. Televised Debates
1. First televised
presidential debate.
2. In the Kennedy-Nixon
debates, Richard M.
Nixon was hurt by a
lack of experience with
television.
3. JFK’s strong
performance helped
him in the polls and
win.
II. President Kennedy
A.
1.
2.
Youngest and first
Catholic elected
president.
Inaugurated Jan.
20, 1961.
“ Ask not what
your country could
do for you, ask
what you can do
for your country!”
B. Kennedy Takes
Command
1.
2.
The defense policy
called "flexible
response" was
designed to allow the
United States to
engage in military
actions that stopped
short of nuclear
attack.
the United States
strengthened its non
nuclear forces.
III. Cuba Missile Crises
A.
B.
C.
Fidel Castro leader of
Cuba on the promise of
democracy but declares
himself a communist.
CIA trained Cuban exiles
to retake Cuba with the
promise of air support.
The Bay of Pigs invasion
humiliated the United
States by making the
government appear
D.
E.
F.
U-2 planes
discover nuclear
missiles in Cuba.
JFK orders a naval
blockade of Cuba.
For 13 days the
US and the USSR
come to the brink
of nuclear war.
G. Soviet Premier Khrushchev promises to
remove the missiles if JFK promises not
to invade Cuba.
H. Khrushchev would fall from power.
I. Many Cuban exiles blame Kennedy and
the Democrats for “losing Cuba.”
IV. The Berlin Wall
A. 20% of the East
German population
flees to West Berlin
B. The construction of the
Berlin Wall resulted in
an,end to the immediate
Berlin crisis, a huge
decrease in the number
of East German
refugees and an
increase in cold war
tensions
C. Cold War Tensions
1.
2.
Kennedy and Khrushchev establish a
telephone hot line.
The US and USSR sign the Limited
Test Ban Treaty-barring nuclear
testing in the atmosphere, this eased
Cold War tensions
The New Frontier
I. The Camelot Years
1961-1963
A.Kennedy gives
special recognition to
American Art and
Culture.
B. The Public is
fascinated by the
President and his
families glamour.
C. Kennedy surrounds
himself with young ,
bright advisor.
I. The Camelot Years
C. Advisors:
1. Robert F. Kennedy as
Attorney General.
2. Robert McNamara
Secretary of Defense.
3. Dean Rusk Secretary
of State.
4. McGeorge Bundy
National Securtiy
Advisor.
II. The Promise of
Progress
A. Kennedy outlines
his New Frontier
proposals but has
difficulty fulfilling
many of them
because he lacks a
popular mandate.
II. The Promise of
Progress
B.
Kennedy tries to stimulate the
economy by engaging in deficit
spending,and tax cuts.
C. Funds new types of foreign aid.
D. The Peace Corps was developed as a
means of helping disadvantaged
countries.
E. The Mercury Project.
1. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri
A. Gagarin becomes
the first human in
space.
2. Commitment made in
landing a man on the
moon before the
decade is out.
3. Col. John Glenn the
first American to orbit
the earth.
III. Tragedy in Dallas
A. November 22,
1963: JFK arrives
in Dallas with
Jackie to mend
political fences.
B. Kennedy received
warm applause
from the crowd.
III. Tragedy in Dallas
C. Texas Schoolbook
Depository: As the
motorcade
approached, three
shots rang out and
struck the
president.
D.
http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=E66__vymfPA
III. Tragedy in Dallas
D. JFK is assassinated
on Nov. 22 1963
E. Vice President
Lyndon Baines
Johnson is sworn
in aboard Air Force
One.
III. Tragedy in Dallas
C.
D.
Lee Harvey
Oswald is
arrested and
charged with
the murder of
the President.
The Warren
Commission
concludes that
Oswald acted
alone.
LBJ and the Great
Society
I. LBJ’s Path to Power:
A. Johnson's imitates
FDR’s leadership style.
B. Johnson proved
himself to be a master
of party politics. Gets
the Civil Rights Act of
1957 passed.
C. LBJ’s connection in
Congress and and
Southern Protestant
background secure him
a slot with JFK.
II. Johnson’s Domestic
Agenda.
A. In the early 1960’s the nation faced
unemployment, civil rights abuses and
poverty.
B. LBJ persuades Congress to pass in Feb.
1964 a tax reduction bill over $11 billion into
law.
C. In July 1964, LBJ signs the Civil Rights Act of
1964 into law prohibiting discrimination based
on race, religion, national origin and gender.
C. War on Poverty
1. LBJ declares an “unconditional war on
poverty.”
2. Economic Opportunity Act is passed,
providing $1 billion for youth programs,
antipoverty measures, small business loans
and job training.
3. VISTA (volunteers in Service to America and
Head Start are formed to help the poor.
D. Election of 1964
1. The Republicans faced an uphill battle to
defeat LBJ, they nominate Sen. Barry
Goldwater (AZ) a conservative for president.
2. Goldwater suggested he might use nuclear
weapons on North Vietnam and Cuba.
3. LBJ plays to American fears of nuclear war.
4. LBJ wins by a landside, the Democrats
increased the majority in the Congress.
II. Building the Great
Society
A. The Great Society focused on providing
solutions to the problems of poverty and
civil rights.
B. The Elementary and Secondary
Education Act: money for textbooks,
library materials and special ed.
C. Medicare: hospital insurance and low
cost medical insurance for over 65.
D. Medicade health insurance to welfare
recipients.
E. Housing Urban and Development low
income housing. Robert Weaver , first
African-American to hold a cabinet post.
F. Acts were passes to protect the
environment.
The Great Society
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Congress doubled the appropriation on the Office of
Economic Opportunity to $2 billion and granted
more than $1 billion to refurbish Appalachia, which
had been stagnating.
Johnson also created the Department of
Transportation and the Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD), headed by Robert
C. Weaver, the first Black cabinet secretary in the
United States’ history.
Johnson gave money to students, not schools, thus
avoiding the separation of church and state by not
technically giving money to Christian schools.
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In 1965, new programs called
Medicare and Medicaid were installed,
which have certain rights to the elderly
in terms of medicine and health
maintenance.
The Immigration and Nationality Act
of 1965 abolished the “national origin”
quota and doubled the number of
immigrants allowed to enter the U.S.
annually, to 290,000.
.
G. Ralph Nader wrote Unsafe at Any
Speed criticizing the U.S. auto industry.
H. Dept. of Transportation is established.
III. The Warren Court.
A. The Supreme Court reflects the wave of
liberal reform that characterizes the
Great Society.
B. Congressional Reapportionment. Urban
areas received more representation
than before. Balancing between Urban
and Rural voters.
C. Rights of the Accused
1. Mapp v. Ohio - evidence seized illegally
can not be used in court.
2. Gideon v. Wainwright - free legal
counsel.
3. Miranda v. Arizona – suspects must be
read their rights.
IV. Impact of the Great
Society
A. LBJ extends the power of the federal
government more than any president in post
–WWII.
B. The reforms made by the Great Society help
create a new awareness of social problems.
C. Debates over the effectiveness of the Great
Society programs result in a conservative
backlash.
1. In 1966 Ronald Reagan a conservative wins the
California governorship.
2. Costs of the programs have skyrocketed.
I. The Segregation System
A. Plessy v. Ferguson affirmed the legality
of segregating the races and prompted
the passage of Jim Crow laws.
Colored Water
B. Segregation in the
Century
th
20
1. African-American flee the South to the North
to escape discrimination in the late 1890’s.
2. They discovered racial prejudice existed in
the North as well.
3. World War II inspires African-Americans to
fight for their civil rights.
a. Jobs open up.
b. Soldiers fighting in combat units.
c. End Jim Crow and segregation.
II. Challenging
Segregation in Court
A. The NAACP exposes
the unequal state of
education funding
under segregation to
challenge Plessy v.
Ferguson.
B. Thurgood Marshall
would win 29 cases
before the Supreme
Court.
C. Thurgood Marshall represented the
NAACP in arguing Brown v Board of
Education before the Supreme Court.
D. The Supreme Court decision in Brown
v.Board of Education overturns
separate but equal relating to public
education in 1954.
III. Reaction to the Brown
Decision
A. Some state and local governments balk at
the Brown decision.
B. In 1955, the Supreme Court orders district
courts to enforce the Brown decision.
C. The Little Rock crisis arose when efforts were
made to desegregate the public schools.
D. President Eisenhower responded to the Little
Rock crisis by placing the Arkansas National
Guard under federal control.
IV. Montgomery Bus
Boycott.
A. Refusing to give up a
bus seat to a white
person resulted in the
historic arrest of Rosa
Parks.
B. African-Americans in
Montgomery, Ala,
organize a boycott to
protest discrimination
on city buses.
IV. Montgomery Bus
Boycott.
C. The boycott thrusts Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
into the national spotlight.
D. Economic pressure was exerted by the
Montgomery Improvement Association in
response to segregated buses.
E. For 381 days, African-Americans refused to
ride the Montgomery bus lines.
F. In a lawsuit filed by the boycotters, the
Supreme Court outlaws segregated buses.
VI. Dr. King and the SLCC
A. Martin Luther King Jr.
seeks to promote civil
rights through
nonviolent resistance
B. King draws his ideas
from the teachings of
Thoreau, Gandhi,
Jesus and A. Philip
Randolph .
VI. Dr. King and the SLCC
C. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
was a founder and the
first president of the
Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
(SCLC).
D. In April 1960 Ella Baker
helps students form the
Student Nonviolent
Coordinating
Committee (SNCC).
VII. The Movement
Spreads.
A. Members of the SNCC build on methods of
protest used earlier by the Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE).
B. Students from North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical College refused to leave a
segregated lunch counter at Woolworth's.
C. Sit-ins attract national media attention to the
civil rights movement
TRIUMPHS OF A
CRUSADE
I. Riding for Freedom
A. CORE attempts to test
the Supreme Court
decisions banning
segregated seating on
interstate bus routes
and segregated
facilities in bus stations.
B. Freedom riders expose
Southern resistance to
federal desegregation
rulings.
I. Riding for Freedom
C. The MAIN goal of the freedom rides was to
inspire the federal government to enforce the
law banning segregation on interstate bus
routes.
D. In Birmingham, Police Commissioner Eugene
“Bull” Conner beat several freedom riders.
E. Violence against the freedom riders forces
the Kennedy administration to intervene.
F. The Justice Department sends 400 U.S.
Marshals to protect the riders to Jackson,
Mississippi.
II. Standing Firm
A. Civil Rights organizers
turn their attention to
integrating some
Southern campuses
and towns.
B. Federal troops are
needed to get James
Meredith into all white
University of
Mississippi.
C. Birmingham 1963
1. From 1957-1963
there were 18
bombings in
Birmingham.
2. Rev. Fred Shuttle
worth invites Dr.
King to test his
nonviolence
approach.
C. Birmingham 1963
3. King led a small
band of marchers
on Good Friday,
April 12.
4. Bull Conner arrests
King.
C. Birmingham 1963
5. King writes, “Letter
from a Birmingham
Jail”
6. On May 2nd, King
plans a children’s
march, Conner
arrests 959 of them.
C. Birmingham 1963
7. A national televised
audience watch police
use high pressure fire
hoses, attack dogs and
beating those who fell.
8. Protests, boycotts and
negative news
coverage convinces
Birmingham to end
segregation.
III. March on Washington
A. Civil Rights activists
organize a great
protest march on
Washington to
pressure Congress into
passing the civil rights
bill.
B. Martin Luther King Jr.
delivered the "I Have a
Dream" speech at the
March on Washington
on August 28, 1963.
C. More Violence
1. In September 1963 a bomb exploded on the
16th Street Baptist Church killing four girls.
2. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 specifically
prohibited discrimination in public
accommodations.
3. The posting of "Whites Only" signs was made
illegal by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
IV. Fighting for Voting
Rights
A. CORE and SNCC planned a voter
registration drive in Mississippi in the
Freedom Summer of 1964.
B. Violence and intimidation prevent
millions of African-Americans in the
South from registering to vote.
C. Mississippi Burning
1. Three civil rights
workers, Michael
Schwerner, Andrew
Goodman and James
Chaney were murdered
in Mississippi and
buried in an earthen
dam because of their
work involving voter
registration.
D. New Political Party
1. The SNCC organizes the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to hope
to unseat Mississippi’s regular party
delegates.
2. Fannie Lou Hamer was beaten to a cripple
because she tried to register to vote.
3. The Democrats compromised with civil rights
leaders to give them two seats and end
discrimination at the 1968 convention.
4. Hamer and the young supporters of the
SNCC felt betrayed.
D. Selma march
1. In 1965 the SCLC
decided to march on
Selma because African
–American’s counted
for half of the
population but 3% of
registered voters.
2. King hopes for violent
white response to the
march to push through
a voting rights act.
3. Arrests
 By the end of
January 1965, more
than 2000 African –
Americans were
arrested, Selma
sheriff Jim Clark and
his men attacked civil
rights demonstrators.
4. Violence
 James Reeb, a white
clergyman from
Boston was killed.
 King announces a
march from Selma to
Montgomery.
5. Opposition
 Alabama governor
George Wallace
vowed to do
everything in his
power to stop the
various attempts to
complete the Selma
to Montgomery
March.
6. Support
 Gathered to support
King along the 1965
march to
Montgomery were
many celebrities
including Harry
Bellefonte and Tony
Bennett.
7. Voting Rights Act of
1965
 The Voting Rights
Act of 1965 enabled
federal officials to
register voters.and
outlawed voter
literacy tests.
CHALLENGES AND
CHANGES IN THE
MOVEMENT
I. African-Americans Seek
Greater Equality
A. In the mid-1960’s differences over tactics
create divisions in the civil rights movement.
B. De jure segregation segregation by law. (In
the South).
C. De facto segregation is segregation that
results from habit and tradition.(the North)
1. a concentration of urban African Americans in
slum areas is an example of de facto segregation
D. Urban Violence
1. Urban riots reveal
that many AfricanAmericans suffer
economic and
political inequality.
2. A race riot breaks
out in New York in
July 1964.
3.Watts
 A riot breaks out in the
Los Angeles section of
Watts on August 11,
1965.
 After six days, 34 people
were killed and property
worth $30 million
destroyed.
 In 1967 riots took place
in over 100 cities.
II. Malcolm X
A. Early Life: Born
Malcolm Little in 1925.
 Malcolm was forced to
take care of his siblings
when his mother had a
collapse.
 Malcolm was at the top
of his eighth grade
class.Was told by his
teacher, “ Who would
want a Nigger as a
lawyer”
Elijah Muhammad
 Malcolm dropped out
of school and
became a petty thief
and drug addict.
B. Transformation:
While in prison ,
Malcolm educates
himself and joins the
Nation of Islam under
Elijah Muhammad.
C. Malcolm’s Message
1. Malcolm X would
become one of the
early leaders of the
Black Power
movement.
2. Claimed that whites
were the “devil” and
the cause of their
condition.
3. Malcolm X preached
Elijah Muhammad’s
views of separatism.
4. He advocated self
defense, “If you're not
ready to die for it, put
the word 'freedom' out
of your vocabulary."
Malcolm X
5. Malcolm X’s
controversial
statements had two
effects. First it
scared whites and
second, his
popularity was
overriding Elijah
Muhammad’s.
D. To Mecca
1. In March 1964,
Malcolm breaks
with Elijah
Muhammad.
2. Takes a pilgrimage
to Mecca. Malcolm
discovered that
Islam preaches the
equality of all races.
E. Malcolm and King
1. Malcolm X began
preaching a new
message that
emphasized exercising
the right to vote.
2. On February 21, 1965
Malcolm X is
assonated by three
followers of the Nation
of Islam.
F. Black Power
1. James Meredith in
June 1966 leads a
“March against fear”.
2. Stokley Carmichael
head the SNCC, after
being arrested and
beaten calls for “Black
Power”
3. He urged the SNCC to
stop recruiting whites
and focus on Black
Pride.
G. Black Panthers
1. Huey Newton and
Bobby Seale founded
the militant political
party the Black
Panthers.
2. The Black Panthers
advocated Black
Power, Black
nationalism and
community
development.
3. Stokley Carmichael
joins.
III. 1968-A Turning Point
A. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tries to organize a
Poor People’s
Campaign to counter
the angry rhetoric of
Black Power.
B. On April 4, 1968 , King
is assassinated by
James Earl Ray.
C. Reaction to King’s
Death
1. King’s death sets off
the worst wave of
race riots in the
nation’s history.
2. June 4, 1968,
Robert F. Kennedy
is assassinated by
Sirhan Sirhan.
IV. Legacy of the Civil
Rights Movement.
A. According to the Kerner Commission,
the MAIN cause of urban violence was
white racism.
B. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 banned
discrimination in housing. Made it illegal
to discriminate against African
Americans while awarding a
construction contract
C. The number of African – Americans elected
jumped from 300 in 1965 to over 7,000 in
1992.
D. The use of tax monies for the inner-city,
urban riots, and forced busing angered some
whites.
E. Affirmative Action: the government passed
laws requiring companies and colleges to to
hire or enroll groups that suffered from past
discrimination.
Stepping into the Vietnam
Quagmire
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The American-backed Diem government
had shakily and corruptly ruled Vietnam
since 1954, but it was threatened by the
Communist Viet Cong movement led by
Ho Chi Minh.
JFK slowly sent more and more U.S.
troops to Vietnam to “maintain order,” but
they usually fought and died, despite the
fact that it was “Vietnam’s war.”
Vietnam Vexations
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America was floundering in Vietnam and was being condemned
for its actions there, and French leader Charles de Gaulle also
ordered NATO off French soil in 1966.
In the Six-Day War, Israel stunned the world by defeating
Egypt (and its Soviet backers) and gaining new territory in the
Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the
West Bank of the Jordan River, including Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, numerous protests in America went against the
Vietnam War and the draft.
Opposition was headed by the influential Senate Committee of
Foreign Relations, headed by Senator William Fullbright of
Arkansas.
“Doves” (peace lovers) and “war hawks” (war supporters)
clashed.
Vietnam Vexations Con’t
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Both sides (the U.S. and North Vietnam) did try to
have intervals in bombings, but they merely used
those as excuses to funnel more troops into the area.
Johnson also ordered the CIA to spy on domestic
antiwar activists, and he encouraged the FBI to use
its counterintelligence program (“Cointelpro”)
against the peace movement.
More and more, America was trapped in the awful
Vietnam War, and it couldn’t get out, thus feeding
more and more hatred and resentment to the
American public.
Vietnam Topples Johnson
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Johnson was personally suffering at the American casualties,
as he wept as he signed condolence letters and even prayed
with Catholic monks in a nearby church—at night, secretly, and
the fact that North Vietnam had almost taken over Saigon in a
blistering offensive during Tet, the Vietnamese new year, didn’t
help either.
Johnson also saw a challenge for the Democratic ticket from
Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy, and the nation, as
well as the Democratic Party, was starting to be split by
Vietnam.
LBJ refused to sign an order for more troops to Vietnam.
Then, on March 31, 1968, Johnson declared that he would stop
sending in troops to Vietnam and that he would not run in 1968,
shocking America.
Presidential Sweepstakes
of 1968
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
On June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy was shot
fatally, and the Democratic ticket went to
Hubert Humphrey, Johnson’s “heir.”
The Republicans responded with Richard
Nixon, paired with Spiro Agnew, and there
was also a third-party candidate: George C.
Wallace, former governor of Alabama, a
racist who wanted to bomb the Vietnamese to
death (what a radical!).
Victory for Nixon
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
Nixon won a nail-biter, and Wallace
didn’t do that badly either, though worse
than expected.
A minority president, he owed his
presidency to protests over the war, the
unfair draft, crime, and rioting.
The Obituary of Lyndon
Johnson
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Poor Lyndon Johnson returned to his
Texas ranch and died there in 1973.
He had committed American into
Vietnam with noble intentions, and he
really wasn’t a bad guy, but he was
stuck in a time when he was damned if
he did and damned if he didn’t.
The Cultural Upheaval of
the 1960s
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In the 60s, the youth of America experimented with
sex, drugs, and defiance.
They protested a lot against conventional wisdom
and beliefs.
Such poets like Allen Ginsberg and novelists like
Jack Kerouac voiced these opinions.
Movies like Rebel without a Cause also showed
this belief.
At the UC Berkeley, in 1964, a so-called Free
Speech Movement began.
Kids tried drugs, “did their own thing” in new
institutions, and rejected patriotism.
The Cultural Upheaval of the
1960s Con’t
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In 1948, Indiana University “sexologist” Dr. Alfred Kinsey had
published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, and had
followed that book five years later with a female version, and
his findings about the incidence of premarital sex and adultery
were very controversial.
He also estimated that 10% of all American males were gay.
The Manhattan Society, founded in LA in 1951, pioneered gay
rights.
Students for a Democratic Society, once against war, later
spawned an underground terrorist group called the
Weathermen.
The upheavals of the 1960s can largely be attributed to the
three P’s: the youthful population bulge, the protest against
racism and the Vietnam War, and the apparent permanence of
prosperity, but as the 1970s rolled around, this prosperity gave
way to stagnation.
However, the “counterculture” of the youths of the 1960s did
significantly weaken existing values, ideas, and beliefs.