JFK/LBJ & the Civil Rights Movement
Please take out your SOL review guide – we will review for 10
minutes before taking the SOL review quiz.
When you finish the quiz, please pick up Class Notes #30 and
use the textbook to begin finding details on your assigned law or
court case related to the Great Society.
Please also take out Class Notes #29.
We will:
*take the second SOL review quiz
*evaluate the achievements of JFK & LBJ
*analyze the origins of the Civil Rights Movement
JFK & LBJ
John F. Kennedy
1961-1963
Lyndon B. Johnson
1963-1969
Who achieved more as president in the 1960s?
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Containment Failures: Cuba & Vietnam
• John F. Kennedy elected president in 1960; promised a more “hawkish”
approach to defense spending and dealing with the USSR
• Bay of Pigs operation (1961) failed to overthrow Castro and set the stage for
the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), in which the U.S. secured removal of Soviet
missiles from Cuba in exchange for a pledge to never again intervene in
Cuba against Castro; U.S. also removed missiles from Turkey
• U.S involvement in Vietnam and Laos escalated through the 1960s; JFK
ordered overthrow of President Diem in 1963; Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
gave President Johnson authority to send in U.S. combat troops to support
the South Vietnamese against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese
• By 1968, the U.S. had committed more than 500,000 troops to Southeast
Asia with no clear results; Tet Offensive proved that the U.S. was neither
winning nor losing in the Vietnam War (1965-73)
Cold War Conflicts, 1961-62
•
•
The Berlin Wall (1961)
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•
•
The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
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How did JFK handle both of these crises?
How could each crisis have turned out differently?
The Civil Rights Movement
America’s Struggle for Equality in the 20th Century
African-American Leadership at
the Dawn of the 20th Century
• Booker T. Washington founded the
Tuskegee Institute and advocated a
gradualist approach to civil rights and
equality – his own life story (Up from
Slavery) made the case for achieving
social and economic equality before
political equality
• W.E.B. Du Bois helped to found the
NAACP and encouraged efforts to
achieve civil rights and political
equality as soon as possible; a product
of the so-called “Niagara Movement”
African-American Challenges &
Gains in the Early 20th Century
• Segregation, racism, and lynching
remained serious problems in the first
three decades of the 20th century
• African-Americans contributed directly to
victory in both world wars and became a
key element in FDR’s New Deal coalition
• Great Migration (c. 1917-1945) brought
many African-Americans to northern
urban centers in search of jobs; created
both friction and economic opportunity
• Culturally, the Harlem Renaissance raised
the status of African-Americans in the
eyes of “white” America (ex: Louis
Armstrong, Bessie Smith)
Civil Rights in World War II & After
• A. Philip Randolph, founder of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, launched
the “Double-V Campaign” in 1941 to protest
discrimination in war industries and in the
military – FDR issued an executive order
requiring equal pay for equal work in war
industries
• James Farmer founded CORE (Congress of
Racial Equality) in 1942 to protest segregation
in the North – racial violence erupted in 1943
• Democratic Party adds a civil rights plank in
1948 – “Dixiecrats” split off in protest but
Truman wins re-election anyway and
desegregates the military in 1948
The Civil Rights Movement
• Please pick up the PSI packet from the cart
and take out class notes #31
• On your own, take the first 10 minutes of
class to complete part I of the PSI packet
(Brown v. Board of Education)
We will:
*analyze the significance and impact
of the Civil Rights Movement
School Desegregation
• The Warren Court overturned
“separate but equal” (established by
Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896) in
Brown v. Board of Education
decision (1954); Thurgood Marshall
of the NAACP represented the
plaintiff successfully
• Led to conflicts over desegregation
of schools, ex: Little Rock Central
High School (1957) where the
federal government intervened to
force integration
The Birth of the Movement
• Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)
began when Rosa Parks refused to
give up her seat; Martin Luther
King, Jr. emerged as a major leader
of the boycott and organized the
SCLC (Southern Christian
Leadership Conference) in 1957
• CORE and the SNCC (Student
Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee) also organized sit-ins at
lunch counters and other forms of
non-violent resistance from the late
1950s to the 1960s
Intensified Activism, 1961-63
• 1961 – CORE organized the Freedom Riders,
who are greeted by angry mobs in Alabama –
JFK sends in federal marshals to protect them
• 1962 – James Meredith attempts to enter “Ole
Miss”; federal marshals intervene
• 1963 - SCLC targets Birmingham for
desegregation; Police Chief “Bull” Connor
leads a violent crackdown that results in MLK’s
imprisonment and a national backlash against
segregationist tactics
• 1963 – over a quarter million march on
Washington to hear MLK’s “I Have Dream”
speech on the National Mall; motivates
Kennedy and Congress to take action
Civil Rights Legislation
• “Grass-roots” activism and Kennedy’s death provided
the popular support necessary for LBJ and Congress
to take action:
• Civil Rights Act of 1964 – banned segregation in
public facilities and established Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
• 24th Amendment (1964) banned poll taxes
• Voting Rights Act of 1965 – eliminated literacy tests
and enabled federal examiners to register voters
• These actions effectively enforced the 14th and 15th
Amendments and completed the failed dream of
Radical Reconstruction 100 years before
• LBJ led the Democratic Party into a new era but it
cost the Democrats the “Solid South” by 1968
Radicalization of the
Movement
• Watts Riot in 1965 ushered in four years
of urban violence even as civil rights
legislation took effect
• MLK openly opposed U.S. involvement
in Vietnam; boxer Muhammed Ali defied
his draft order to protest the war
• Malcolm X (Nation of Islam) preached a
message of resistance and separation
from white society
• SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael started
the Black Power movement in 1966
• Black Panthers founded in 1966 to
openly fight police brutality in cities
The Dream Deferred?
• MLK’s assassination in April 1968 struck a blow
to the movement
• Kerner Commission (1968) reported that the major
cause of racial violence and low social-economic
conditions for blacks was white racism
• De facto segregation replaced de jure segregation,
“white flight” resulted from desegregation fights
• Problems of poverty, crime, poor health, and lack
of educational opportunities continued to plague
African-Americans in the 20th century, despite
many advances (examples: Thurgood Marshall’s
appointment to the Supreme Court in 1967 and
federal support for affirmative action)