Civil Rights and Ordeal of Liberalism

Civil Rights and Ordeal of Liberalism

Andrelli OliverosJohanna De Guzman

Veronica Amaya

Andrelli OliverosJohanna De Guzman

Veronica Amaya

Presidential Election of 1960

• The presidential campaign of 1960 produced two young candidates, Republican nominated Richard Nixon and Democrat nominated John F. Kennedy--Kennedy won the election.

• Kennedy had campaigned a promising set of domestic reforms described as the “New Frontier.”• He won the approval of tariff reductions and built an ambitious legislative agenda. • His personality was an integral part of his presidency and a central focus of national attention.• On November 22, 1963 Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEVfKKjODBg

Lyndon Johnson• Before becoming Vice President,

Johnson was the majority leader of the U.S. Senate.

• As president, Johnson constructed a reform program of his own—The Great Society.

• Record Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress ensured that the president would be able to fulfill many of his goals.

“Flexible Response”KENNEDY • Kennedy’s administration were convinced that the United States

needed to be able to counter communist aggression in flexible ways, but Kennedy was unsatisfied with the strategy his administration devised.

• Heavy supporter of Special Forces, “Green Berets” = soldiers trained specifically to fight guerilla conflicts and other limited wars; he also supported the expansion of American influence through peace.

• He repaired the relationship between Latin America by proposing an “Alliance for Progress”: a series of projects for peaceful development and stabilization of the nations of that region.

• Bay of Pigs was an assault on the Castro government.• In June 1961, Kennedy met up with Nikita Khrushchev to discuss the

situation between the two nations, but their opposing ideas did little to reduce the tension.

• August 13, 1961, the East German government and the directions of Moscow began constructing a wall between East and West Berlin.

• The Berlin Wall was symbolic for the conflict between the communist and non-communist worlds.

• On October 14 aerial investigation photos showed clear evidence that the Soviets were constructing sites in Cuba for offensive nuclear weapons

Johnson and the WorldJOHNSON• Becoming president he lacked experience with

international affairs, along with that he was very eager. He continued the policies of the previous president as well as proving he was a forceful leader.

• The assassination of General Rafael Trujillo in 1961 led to a continuous struggle for dominance in the Dominican Republic.

• In the spring of 1965, a conservative military regime began to collapse because on the behalf of nationalist, Juan Bosch. He was accused of establishing a pro-Castro, communist regime.

• In response to this accusation, Johnson decided to dispatch 30,000 American troops to subdue the disorder.

• Johnson’s foreign policy was almost dominated by the civil war in Vietnam and the expansion of how much participation and involvement of the United States there.

The Assault on Poverty

• Medicare was a program created to provide federal aid to the elderly for medical expenses. • Created a large middle-class constituency for the program• Allowed doctors serving Medicare patients to practice

privately and to charge their normal fees.• The Medicaid program extended federal medical assistance to

welfare recipients and other indigent people of all ages.• The Office of Economic Opportunity created an array of new

educational, employment, housing, and health-care programs.• Community Action was an effort to involve members of

poor communities in planning and administrating the programs.

• This program fell short because of the weakness of the programs themselves and the lack of funds for them.

Cities, Schools, and Immigration

• The Housing Act of 1961 offered $4.9 billion to preserve open spaces, develop mass-transit systems, and subsidize middle-income housing.

• Johnson established the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Model Cities program, which offered federal subsidies for urban redevelopment pilot programs.

• `The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 aided both private and parochial schools and based the aid on the economic conditions of the students.

• The Immigration Act of 1965 maintained a strict limit on the number of newcomers admitted into the country and eliminated the “national origins” system.

Legacies of the Great Society

• Johnson won passage of a $11.5 billion tax cut Kennedy proposed in 1962.

• Great Society programs began to compete with the escalating costs of America’s military ventures.

• 1961—$94.4 billion; 1970—$196.6 billion• The high costs, deficiencies and failures, and

lack of funding of the Great Society created the idea that the government had to solve social problems.

• The Great Society reduced hunger in America and made medical care available to millions which made it the greatest reduction in poverty in American history.

The Battle of Racial Equality

The Battle of Racial Equality

JFK and Racial injustice • His intervention during the 1960 campaign to help win the

release of MLK from a Georgia prison won him large plurality of the black vote.

• His administration set out to contain the racial problem by expanding enforcement of existing segregation statutes, hoping to make modest progress without created politically damaging divisions.

• In February 1960, black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter. Those who participated in the sit-ins formed the Student Non-violent Coordination Committee, which worked to keep the spirit of resistance alive. SNCC began to encourage blacks to challenge the obstacles to voting that the Jin Crow laws had created.

• In 1961, an interracial group of students, working with Congress of Racial equality, began what they called “freedom rides”. Kennedy ordered the integration of all bus and train station.

• The SCLC created citizen-education and other programs to mobilize black workers, farmers, housewives, and others to challenge segregation, disfranchisement, and discrimination.

National Leadership Responding to Civil Rights

• In October 1962, a federal court ordered the University of Mississippi to enroll its first black student. Governor Ross Barrnett refused to enforce the order.

• In Alabama in April 1963, MLK helped launched a series of nonviolent demonstrations in Birmingham the Police Commissioner Connor supervised a brutal effort to break up the peaceful march. He ordered arrest on hundreds, using attack dogs, tear gas, electric cattle prods, and fire hoses

• Two months later governor Wallace pledged to stand in the doorway of a building at the University of Alabama to prevent the court order enrollment of several black students. That same night, NAACP official Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi.

A National Commitment • In an important television address the night of the University of

Alabama confrontation Kennedy spoke eloquently of the” moral issues” facing the nation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS4Qw4lIckg Days later, he introduced a series of new legislative proposals prohibiting segregation in public accommodations.

• To generate support for legislation more than 200,000 demonstrators marched down the Mall in Washington D.C. in August 1963 before the Lincoln Memorial. This is were MLK gave one of the most influential and greatest speech “I Have a Dream.” The assassination of President Kennedy 3 months later gave new impetus to the battle for civil rights.

• During the summer of 1964, thousands of civil rights workers, black and white, spread out through the South to work on behalf of black voter registration and participation known as freedom summer producing a violent response. It also produced the MFDP , an integrated alternative to the regular state party organization. President Johnson eager to avoid antagonizing anyone enlisted King’s help to broker a compromise.

• A year later in March 1965, King helped organize a major demonstration in Selma, Alabama. Selma sheriff Jim Clark led local police in a brutal attack on demonstrators. This helped push Johnson to propose and win passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

Urban Violence andBlack Power

• The first large race riot since the end of World War II occurred in Watts section of Los Angles. Where and incident between the local police and a black bystander triggered a storm of anger and a week of violence. Thirty four people died during the Watts uprising.

• Also in the cities of Chicago and Cleveland there were forty-three additional outbreaks. In 1967 there were eight major outbreaks including a racial clash in Detroit in which 43 people died.

• With the disillusion of the ideal of peaceful change the black changed into a new approach of the philosophy of “black power” which suggested a move away from interracial cooperation and toward increased awareness of racial distinctiveness. The most impacting of the Black Power was instilling racial pride in African Americans, it encouraged the growth of black studies in schools and universities

• In Oakland, CA, the Black Panther Party promised to defend black rights even if that required violence. They created an image of militant radicals willing to fight for justice.

• The Nation of Islam a black nationalist group in Detroit, taught blacks to take responsibility for their own lives, to live by strict codes of behavior and to reject any dependence on whites. Malcolm X was one of the most celebrated of Black Muslim, was an influential spokes man. He did not advocate violence he insisted that black people had the right to defend themselves from those who assaulted them. He was assassinated in New york in 1965 by a black gunmen.

The Traumas of 1968

The Traumas of 1968

The Tet Offensive• On January 31, 2968, communist forces

launched an enormous attack on American strongholds throughout South Vietnam.

• In the end, the Tet Offensive cost the communists a huge number in casualties that the communists were eventually weakened .

• Tet was a military success for the United States, but a political defeat for the administration.

• Within weeks opposition to the war grew , almost doubled .

• Johnson’s popularity declined 35%.

The Political Challenge• In the summer of 1967, rebellious Democrats

tried assemble support behind and antiwar candidate who would go against Johnson, but Robert Kennedy denied that invitation. So the rebellious Democrats turned to Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota

• Few days later, Robert Kennedy entered the campaign, who had the support of blacks, the poor, and workers to the antiwar cause.

• On March 31, Johnson announced on national TV his major concession to the anti-war forces, a limited halt in the bombing of North Vietnam and a surprised announcement – his withdrawal to the presidential campaign.

Robert Kennedy’s Assassination

• On a late night on June 6 he was at a ballroom of a Los Angeles hotel celebrating his victory. As he was leaving the venue after his victory statement, a young Palestinian, by the name of Sirhan Sirhan popped out of a crowd and shot him in the head.

• Considered to shape the “Kennedy legacy”: a set of ideas that would eventually become central to American liberalism” the fervent commitment to using government to help the powerless.

MLK Jr.’s Assassination• On April 4, MLK

traveled to many states to lend support to the racial strikes occurring.

• He was shot and killed while standing on the balcony of his motel by James Earl Ray, who didn’t have any valid reason into killing MLK.

• Major riots broke out in more than 60 cities.• 43 people died• More than 3,000

suffered injuries• About 27,000 people

arrested

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkn3TJ1XLnI&feature=fvsr

Democratic Convention• A candidate, by the name of Hubert Humphrey faced a

minor opposition along with the gloomy aura due to Robert Kennedy’s death.

• Humphrey received poisonous and negative claims that he would just continue the bankrupt policies of Johnson’s administration.

• The Democratic convention held this impression that it was useless, but they devised demonstrations outside it.

• In August, Democrats gathered in Chicago and debated an antiwar plank between Kennedy and McCarthy; on the third night delegates began balloting the expected nomination, Hubert Humphrey

• In a downtown park, while the balloting was occurring, antiwar protestors were staging the demonstrations and protestors, demonstrators and police were thrashing and were involved in a huge riot in the streets of Chicago.

• Hubert Humphrey’s dreams of becoming his party’s candidates and receiving a nomination seemed to be worthless due to the timing.

Conservative Response• An obvious sign of the conservative backlash was

success campaign of segregationist Alabama governor, George Wallace for the presidency.

• He became a third party candidate fro president, although he never had a chance in winning, his polls rose to over %20.

• Richard Nixon, Republican, recognized the tiresome reactions of the Americans who were tired of hearing about their obligations to the poor, sacrifices needed to achieve racial justice, and etc.

• With the constant fight between Humphrey, Wallace and Nixon, Nixon received %43.4 of popular vote and 301 electoral votes. With this win, it was evident America was more interested in restoring stability rather than promoting social change.