Great Society & Civil Rights Movement

The New Frontier & Great Society• Kennedy’s vision of

progress – medical care for aged, rebuild urban areas, education

• Practiced deficit spending to stimulate economy

• Increase defense budget by 20%

• Increased minimum wage, extension of unemployment insurance

• Established Peace Corps – volunteer assistance to developing nations

• Alliance for Progress – aid to Latin America ($12 billion)

• Investment in space program, race to the moon (Neil Armstrong 1969)

• Convinced Congress to cut $10 billion in taxes: people spent more, businesses & tax revenue grew!

• “War on Poverty” – Economic Opportunity Act: youth programs, small business loans, job training, Head Start

• Johnson took over after Kennedy’s assassination

• Civil Rights Act (1964): prohibited discrimination based on sex, religion, national origin, race

• Great Society: end poverty & racial injustice, higher standard of living & equal opportunity

• w/ support from democratic led Congress, Johnson able to push through laws on education, Medicare & Medicaid, Housing & Urban Development, immigration, environment

• Won big (1964) vs. Barry Goldwater (fear of nukes, not escalating war in Vietnam)

• Warren Court: rulings protected rights of the accused: illegally attained evidence couldn’t be used, legal counsel to those who couldn’t afford it, lawyer present during questioning, rights read before questioning

• Impact of Great Society: extended power of federal gov’t, poverty fell from 21% to 11%, funding his programs increased federal deficit

• Civil Rights Act (1875) declared unconstitutional 1883• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Supreme court ruled

separate but equal didn’t violate 14th Amendment• Southern states had passed Jim Crow laws, black

facilities were always inferior

Civil Rights Movement 1950s & 60s

• WWII helped set stage for movement, labor shortage, 1 million African Americans joined military

• Desegregation led by NAACP & Charles Houston

• Focused on inequality in separated schools & placed Thurgood Marshall as leader of council

• Morgan v. Virginia (1964) – unconstitutional mandating of segregated seating on interstate buses

• Arkansas 1st southern state to admit African Americans to state university w/o order

• Governor ordered national guard to turn students away at Central High School

• Brown v. Board of Education (Topeka): segregated schools unequal (unanimous decision)• Reaction was mixed & faced resistance in South (Miss & GA)

• federal judge ordered them in (Little Rock Nine)

• Eisenhower placed Ark. guard under federal control• Rosa Parks (1955) arrested for not giving up seat on

bus for white man• African American leaders organized a bus boycott

led by Martin Luther King Jr.

• Boycott lasted 381 days until Supreme Court outlaws bus segregation in 1956

• MLK based teachings & practices on Jesus, Thoreau, Phillip Randolph, Gandhi

• joined Southern Christian Leadership Conference that organized other protests & demonstrations

• 1960 students from NC A & T organized sit-in at Woolworth lunch counter covered by media

• Movement spread, students formed picket lines at national chains that practiced segregation (48 cities, 11 states)

• 1961 freedom riders took a 2 bus trip across south to challenge interstate segregated facilities

• Bus One was met by hostile mob in Birmingham, Alabama (chains, brass knuckles, pistols)

• Bus Two was followed out of Anniston, Alabama• tire blew & fire bomb thrown in

• New group joined in Birmingham & were beaten by police & driven to Tenn but returned

• Bus driver refused to take them out of fear & riders protested in white only facility for 18hrs until call from Robert Kennedy

• Alabama officials promised protection but riders faced violence in Montgomery, Alabama

• President Kennedy used US Marshalls to protect them on their journey & ICC banned segregation in all interstate travel facilities

• James Meredith won court case for admittance into Ole Miss but Governor refused to let him register

• Kennedy ordered marshals to escort him• Sep. 30, 1962 riots broke out• 1963 March on Washington: MLK – “I have a

dream” influenced public opinion to support civil rights laws, power of non-violent mass protest

• Birmingham, Alabama considered most segregated city, King flew in & led demonstrations

• King was arrested on April 12th, 1963

• posted bail & organized a march on May 2 (over 900 arrested)

• May 3rd another march, camera caught brutality• Continued protests, boycotts & negative media

convinced officials to desegregate & Kennedy to push for new civil rights legislation

• Kennedy ordered troops to force Gov Wallace to desegregate Univ. of Ala

• Convinced Congress to pass Civil Rights Act (1964): prohibited discrimination, desegregated public accommodations

• Volunteers went to Miss to register blacks to vote in 1964 known as Freedom Summer

• 3 murdered in Neshoba

• Jimmy Lee Jackson shot & killed in Selma, Ala

• King organized 50 mile march (March 1965) demonstrators beaten as violence erupted, media captured mayhem

• Marchers organized again on March 21st w/ federal protection

• Voting Rights Act (1965): outlaws literacy tests, federal registrars sent to South

• De facto segregation still existed & more difficult to change (economic & social power)

• Urban blacks lived in decaying slums, rent to landlords who failed to comply w/ ordinances, schools deteriorated, unemployment 2x whites

• Urban riots erupted in major cities throughout 60s (100, 1967)• Worst was Watts in LA (1965)

• Malcolm X rose w/in Nation of Islam

• taught that blacks should separate from white society & be able to defend themselves against white violence

• Went to Mecca & broke w/ Nation of Islam & changed some of his views, assassinated Feb. 1965

• Black Power movement grew led by Stokely Carmichael who was arrested & beaten in Miss

• Black Panther Party established in Oct 1966• Civil Rights Movement in Virginia: Oliver Hill – Legal

defense team in VA

• massive resistance to ruling, closed some schools, established private academies, white flight from urban schools

• King assassinated on April 4, 1968• March 1968 the Kerner Commission issued report

on urban violence - named 1 cause: white racism

• helped end de jure segregation in schools, housing, transportation; passed Civil Rights legislation, graduation rates rose, pride & identity, increased voters/elected officials, lowered “colored bar” in entertainment

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