The document provides an overview of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, discussing its phases from legalization to black nationalism. It also profiles the presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon during this period. Additionally, it summarizes the Vietnam War, covering the increasing US involvement under Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon's pledge to end the war.

1. The Sixties

2. overviewCivil Rights

3. Presidents

4. John F. Kennedy

5. Lyndon B. Johnson

6. Richard Nixon

7. The Vietnam War

8. The CountercultureCivil Rights Protesters Marching From Selma to Montgomery, AL

9. The Civil Rights movementPhases of the MovementLegalization

10. mid-1950s to early 1960

11. Non-Violent Direct Action

12. 1960 – 1965

13. Black Nationalism

14. 1965-1970legalizationWhat is legalization?

15. African-Americans relying on legal means to achieve civil rights goals

16. Brown v. Board of Education

17. 1954 – ruled segregation unconstitutional in public schools

18. Separate facilities inherently make them unequal

19. NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

20. Formed in 1909

21. Originally focused on legislation to end lynching (the Jesse Washington case was paramount to their cause)

22. In the 1950s and 1960s, the NAACP championed legalizationOral History Interviewee on Desegregation in Waco

23. Non-Violent Direct ActionThe idea that legalization is moving too slow; not enough is getting done.

24. Peacefully and non-violently disobeying laws that African-Americans felt were immoral, unfair, and unjust.

25. Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56

26. This put non-violent direct action on the radar for minorities throughout the United States

27. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

28. Non-violent direct action is most commonly associated with him

29. Demonstration in Birmingham, AL

30. March on Washington D.C. – August 1963

31. “I have a dream speech”Non-Violent Direct ActionSNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee)

32. Played a major role in the sit-ins and freedom rides of the Civil Rights movement

33. Especially crucial in organizing voter registration in the South

34. Freedom Summer of 1964 – got both whites and blacks involved with protesting Civil Rights in the South

35. Attempting to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi

36. Sit-in

37. Protesters would go to restaurants for whites only and sit there all day (typically drug stores with lunch counters)

38. Goal was to sit and wait for service

39. Activists were completely passive. They would not resist any action taken against them by law enforcement

40. Attempting to appeal to the nation’s conscience

41. Freedom Rides

42. Civil Rights activists who rode on interstate buses into the segregated South

43. Goal was to challenge segregated local and state laws by attempting to ride all forms of transportation and break these lawsBirmingham Protesters

44. Civil Rights Protestor Attacked by Dog

45. Black nationalismThe next step after Non-Violent Direct Action

46. Activists begin to believe non-violence is not doing enough

47. Black nationalism incorporates resistance to the accommodation of European cultural and social ways

48. Essentially, extreme pride in African-American heritage

49. Nation of Islam

50. W.D. Fard created the new black nationalist version of the Nation of Islam

51. Black people were the very first humans and that whites had emerged out of scientific experiments of mad scientists

52. The mad scientists were attempting to use these experiments to dilute the strength of the original African people

53. Basically, whites are the mutant devils of this experiment

54. Elijah Poole – gets converted by W.D. Fard and takes over the movement; takes the name “Elijah Mohammed”

55. Poole is the individual who converts Malcom X Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom X

56. Black nationalismNation of Islam / Black Nationalism combined

57. Movement picks up in the latter half of the 1960s

58. The massive decolonization of African countries in the 1940s and 1950s greatly enhances the idea that Africa is worthy of activists’ attention, pride, and respect

59. This generates the idea that African-Americans controlling their political destiny should be a significant pillar of the Civil Rights movement

60. Black Power

61. Was not a program, but is a representative mood of disillusionment and alienation from a white-dominated America

62. June 1966 – James Meredith wants to prove that conditions are different in Mississippi

63. Planned to march through Mississippi in an attempt to convince blacks that they can vote

64. Meredith gets attacked when he crosses the Mississippi state line; gets severely injured

65. MLK and Stogley Carmichael decided to continue Meredith’s march

66. Run into hostile whites throughout their journey

67. King attempts to stay non-violent

68. Carmichael calls for black powerBlack nationalismBlack Power (continued)

69. African-Americans should have independent action in politics

70. They should control their political destiny

71. Political power in Southern, rural areas must be controlled by African-Americans

72. Emphasized

73. Self-help

74. Racial solidarity

75. Retaliatory violence

76. MLK’s assassination

77. April 4, 1968

78. Black power becomes synonymous with the Civil Rights movement

79. Led to a nationwide wave of riots in over 100 citiesWatt Riots, Los Angeles, CA (1965)

80. Civil Rights LegislationCivil Rights Act of 1964

81. Outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places, and employment

82. Included women and mentions whites

83. Introduced by Kennedy in his civil rights speech on 11 June 1963

84. Voting Rights Act of 1965

85. Outlawed discriminatory practices against minorities at the polls

86. Echoed the 15th amendment

87. Specifically aimed at literacy tests and poll taxes that were common in the South

88. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

89. Abolished the nation-origin quotas that had been a staple since 1924

90. Civil Rights Act of 1968

91. Prohibited racial discrimination in housing (sale, rental, or financing)

92. Equal opportunity based on race, religion, and national origin

93. Passed during Johnson’s administrationJohn F. Kennedy

94. John f. kennedyKennedy’s Agenda

95. Cold War mentality; new initiatives aimed at countering communist influence throughout the world

96. Space program

97. Peace Corps

98. Attempts to oust Castro from Cuba (Bay of Pigs Incident)

99. Did little for Civil Rights

100. Too worried about reelection

101. The Cuban Missile Crisis

102. October 1962 – American spy planes discover that the Soviet Union was installing missiles in Cuba that were capable of reaching the United States (fear of nuclear warfare)

103. Ends with an agreement with the Soviet Union

104. Soviets take missiles out of Cuba

105. Americans take missiles out of Turkey

106. Kennedy spins this to appear that he confronted Castro and made him back downLyndon B. Johnson

107. Lyndon b. JohnsonKennedy’s assassination

108. 22 November 1963 – Kennedy is shot down in Dallas

109. Johnson takes the oath of office on Air Force One 2 hours and 8 minutes after Kennedy was shot

110. The Great Society

111. The most sweeping proposal for government action to promote welfare since the New Deal

112. Unlike the New Deal, the Great Society was a response to prosperity, not depression

113. Items:

114. Federal funding for education

115. “War on Poverty”

116. Medicare and Medicaid

117. The Vietnam War was greatly responsible for the Great Society’s demise

118. Johnson ended up spending all his time and funding on the war Richard nixon

119. Richard nixonCampaign of 1968

120. Ran on a platform of law and order, appealing to the “Silent Majority”

121. Backlash to the anti-war movement, Civil Rights movement, and the counterculture (and all the riots associated with all of the above)

122. The Imperial Presidency

123. Acted much less like a president and more like an emperor

124. Over time, Americans have become accustomed to a president with great power over many issues

125. Imperial presidents decided their job was not just carry out laws, but to decide which laws should be carried out

126. Richard Nixon typifies this

127. Foreign Policy

128. Conservatives saw Nixon’s policies as dangerously soft towards communism

129. Nixon and Henry Kissinger were a strong foreign policy team that continued the policies of their predecessors, attempting to undermine governments deemed dangerous to democracyRichard Nixon and Henry Kissinger

130. The Vietnam war

131. Vietnam war overviewNorth Vietnam

132. Communist, ruled by Ho Chi Minh

133. Attempting to take over South Vietnam

134. Often used conventional warfare, also used guerilla tactics

135. South Vietnam

136. Anti-communist; supported by the United States

137. Attempting to resist communist take-over by North Vietnam

138. Relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to counter North Vietnam’s large number of troops

139. Why does the United States get involved?

140. Communist containment

141. U.S. involvement escalates in 1960

142. Number of committed U.S. troops triple in 1961 and triple again in 1962Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War in the Kennedy AdministrationFunctioning under the Cold War mentality

143. Fears the “Domino effect”

144. If South Vietnam falls to communism, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand would fall to communism

145. This would effectively ruin anti-communist efforts in East Asia

146. Rationalization for the war

147. The United States wanted to protect national interests and its security

148. Used the idealistic and moralistic approach

149. “Helping the good of humanity through the spread of democracy”

150. Kennedy was hesitant to act on Vietnam as he was worried about reelection

151. This occurred throughout his entire administration

152. Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War in the Johnson AdministrationJohnson escalates the war occurring in four steps

153. Johnson’s hands-on approach – we will win the war

154. Bombing of North Vietnam

155. Ground Troops

156. Full Commitment

157. Johnson had a machismo mentality toward the Vietnam War

158. Still very committed to the Cold War mentality

159. He over estimated the appeal of democratic principles in the face of communism

160. Also afraid of the Domino Effect

161. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) – assist any country against communist aggression

162. He did not want to be the first president to lose a war

163. Both he and Kennedy ignored the Vietnamese culture and their resistance to imperial powers

164. Kennedy and Johnson waged the war as a limited war

165. Not keen on adopting the guerilla tactics of the Vietnamese

166. The real victim of the Vietnam War under the Johnson administration was his Great Society legislation

167. His funding and attention was focused squarely on the war (Tet Offensive)

168. Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War in the Nixon AdministrationThe Vietnam War was at the center of the nation’s political life at the time of Nixon’s election

169. During his campaign, Nixon claimed he had a “secret plan” to end the war if he was elected

170. Didn’t have one; just a campaign ploy

171. Nixon expands the war less than two months after he was elected

172. Approved a bombing campaign in Cambodia

173. Nixon either destroyed or falsified most of the records on this campaign

174. After the New York Times reported on this campaign, Nixon becomes paranoid of leaks in his administration

175. Begins wire-tapping

176. Nov. 3, 1969 – Nixon announces that American defeat in Vietnam would lead to a communist massacre and a collapse of confidence in American leadership (becomes a justification to escalate the war)

177. Anti-War protest was at an all-time high

178. Nixon attempts to quell this by pulling troops out of Vietnam

179. Subsequently, he sends in troops to CambodiaThe counterculture

180. The Counter CultureAmerican culture prior to the 1960s

181. World War II / Cold War mentality

182. Television and mass media are becoming common (creating a national culture)

183. Emergence of a consumer culture (shift from the 1920s)

184. Nationalism

185. Prosperity and affluence

186. Social mobility

187. Baby boomers (more people = more consumption)

188. The national culture is linked with consumption

189. Television is the medium for this progression

190. Affluence: most items are within price ranges that people can afford

191. The Counterculture emerges as an alternative to the typical American cultureThe Counter CultureSociety was not a comfortable place for those in the counterculture

192. They felt disaffected and alienated

193. Most participants were white, middle-class Americans and products of the baby boom

194. Primarily reared in the 1950s with the traditional focus on conformity and social values

195. They came of age when there was great pressure for change politically

196. They identified with Kennedy because of his youth

197. After his assassination, they felt separated from the government

198. If the Kennedy and Johnson administrations could not bring about change, they had to do it themselves

199. Education

200. They thought the structure of the universities were too rigidThe Counter CultureThe “Technocracy” and/or “THE MAN” and/or “The Establishment”

201. Fairly interchangeable terms

202. Everything is controlled by a team of “experts” (sprung up out of the Cold War mentality where everything is intellectually and technologically superior)

203. In the technocracy, the individual should defer to “the experts” who “know better”

204. Students started to seek some control over their university lives

205. Democracy and the Technocracy

206. Students attempting to reconcile democratic ideals within the context that they should be taking orders and not thinking for themselves

207. Trinity of the Counterculture

208. Sex

209. Drugs

210. Rock n’ RollThe Counter CultureDivisions in the Counterculture

211. Political Rebels

212. Social/Cultural Rebels

213. Political Rebels

214. Those who became involved with anti-war movement and the Civil Rights movement

215. Those who primarily conduct the protests in the late 1960s

216. Social/Cultural Rebels

217. Basic “hippies”

218. The goal of happiness is a goal in itself

219. Haight-Ashbury – hippies attempt to create their own culture in San Francisco (large-scale hippie commune)

220. “Return to Nature” – hippies that would drop out of society all together

221. Sort of a throwback to TranscendentalismThe Counter CultureThe Counterculture was not a majority of the American population

222. However, it got a lot of media attention

223. Families, especially children and mothers suffered from the “free love” mentality

224. Anti-War Movement

225. Takes a while for full-scale protests to emerge

226. Starts in 1967-68

227. Protesters were tired of the Vietnam War

228. Kent State Shootings

229. Protesting after Nixon finally announced he was expanding the war into Cambodia

230. Thousands of protesters (residents of the town and students)

231. SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) came in to help protest

232. National Guard was called in to break up the riots

233. Rioters marched to Blanket Hill; National Guard opens fire

234. 13 students shot, 4 fatally woundedKent State Shootings at Blanket Hill (1970)

235. The Counter CultureFree Speech Movement

236. Grew out of protests at U.C. Berkeley

237. 1964 – administration decided that students could no longer set up tables on campus to support off-campus causes

238. Civil rights

239. Capital punishment

240. Nuclear disarmament

241. 21 September 1964 – nearly all the campus organizations decided to unite and violate the table ban (under the argument of freedom of speech)

242. One of the leaders was confronted and told to come to the office

243. Over 500 stage a sit-in at the administration building

244. University president suspends 8 students

245. This only increases the ill will between students and administration

246. Causes more protestsThe Counter CultureFree Speech Movement

247. Jack Wineberg – organizes students to set up tables over civil rights and political agendas

248. Refuses to leave when ordered to do so; gets arrested

249. Over 100 other students show up in a free speech rally; demand to be arrested

250. Crowd around the police cruiser; stage a sit-in around the car which grows to 3000 people

251. Lasted for 30 hours; ended when the Berkeley president decides to meet with students

252. It was the first massive campus demonstration in the 1960s

253. Most people thought that U.C. Berkeley had fallen into chaos