The 1960s was a turbulent decade marked by social change and upheaval. John F. Kennedy campaigned on a platform of reform but was assassinated in 1963. Lyndon Johnson continued Kennedy's agenda through programs like the Great Society, but the escalating Vietnam War and urban riots undermined his presidency. The civil rights movement made progress through nonviolent protest and new laws, but was met with resistance and violence. Growing anti-war sentiment and unrest in 1968 led to assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy and riots at the Democratic National Convention, contributing to Richard Nixon's election on a message of restoring order.

1. Civil Rights and
Ordeal of
Liberalism
Andrelli Oliveros
Johanna De Guzman
Veronica Amaya

2. 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.

3. John Fitzgerald
Kennedy
• 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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEVfKKjODBg

4. 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.

5. “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

6. Johnson and the World
JOHNSON
• 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. The Battle of
Racial Equality

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Urban Violence and
Black 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.

15. The Traumas of
1968

16. 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%.

17. 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.

18. 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.

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

20. 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.

21. 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.