The Cold War and Civil Rights

1. The Cold War and Civil Rights The United States From the 1950s to the 1970s.

2. Topics for Today • The Red Scare • Civil Rights, Racism, and the Cold War. • McCarthyism • Civil Rights in the 1960s • The Great Society • Women’s Rights • After the Civil Rights Act • Back to the Cold War • The War in Vietnam • Watergate • The Carter Years.

3. The Red Scare • During the Cold War, Americans were paranoid about Communist (Russian) espionage. • Government employees had to take loyalty oaths. • 1950 – Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed that the U.S. State Department was full of Communists. • 1950 – The Rosenbergs were arrested for atomic espionage. • The Alger Hiss Trial added to this fear.

4. Anti-Communism • Congress established the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to investigate supposed Communists. • Much of their attention focused on Hollywood and controlling the message of films. Many actors and directors were “blacklisted.” • Senator McCarthy also held investigations aiming to uncover “subversives” in the U.S. government (he didn’t find any).

5. McCarthy’s Decline • 1953 – McCarthy’s accusations and methods began to embarrass and annoy America’s politicians, including President Eisenhower. • McCarthyism lost credibility as McCarthy accused the army, then the President, of harboring Communist sympathies • McCarthy was exposed on Television.

6. Anti-Communism and Civil Rights • During the 1950s, the African American Civil Rights movement challenged segregation in the South. • Some anti-Communists and segregationists said this was a Communist scheme. • This accusation was made in 1948, when President Truman acted against discrimination in federal government jobs. • Southern Democrats opposed Truman in 1948.

7. The World is Watching • As newly-independent, non-white nations (such as India [1947], and Ghana [1957]) entered the global political arena, racism became an international issue of great significance. • By 1960, around 30 African nations had gained independence from European imperial powers such as France and Britain. • But when diplomats from these nations visited Washington DC, they too experienced Jim Crow segregation.

8. The U.S. wanted these nations to ally with the capitalist world rather than with the Soviets. • But reports of American racism marred America’s relations with these nations. • Furthermore, Communists continued to make much of U.S. racism, seeing in it evidence of the inherently oppressive nature of a society based on competition.

9. 1950s Civil Rights • In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schooling was unconstitutional • Many Southern communities resisted integration violently. The protestors refused to use violence. • In 1955, after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began in Alabama. • The boycott ended segregation on public transportation in parts of the South.

10. 1955 – Emmett Till’s murderers walked free. • 1957 – World headlines were made as federal troops integrated Little Rock High School, in Arkansas. • 1958 – Jimmy Wilson, a black handyman from Alabama, was sentenced to death for the alleged theft of $1.95. • Observers all over the world were appalled and amazed • The U.S. Secretary of State intervened.

11. The 1960s. • 1960 – Greensboro, North Carolina: lunch counter sit-ins took place in department stores. • 1961 – The Freedom Rides defied segregation on public transport. • 1962 – The University of Mississippi denied entrance to a black student. • President Kennedy (JFK) sent in troops to desegregate the university. • 1963 – JFK called for broad reforms on racism.

12. 1963 – A march in Birmingham, Alabama, was met with fire-hoses and police dogs. • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was arrested. • Images of unarmed African Americans suffering these abuses were very harmful to the U.S.’s international reputation. • August, 1963 – 200,000 join the March on Washington for jobs and freedom, which finishes at the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King gives his “I have a dream” speech.

13. Civil Rights Reform • 1963 – President Kennedy assassinated. Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) becomes President. • LBJ passed extensive civil rights legislation. • 1964 – Civil Rights Act: Outlaws segregation in schools and public places • 1965 – Voting Rights Act. • 1965 – Immigration Act: restrictions on Asian and African immigrants are alleviated. • 1967 – Supreme Court declares laws against interracial marriage unconstitutional

14. The Great Society • Civil Rights reform helped improve America’s reputation across the world. • Civil rights reform was also part of President Johnson’s “Great Society” program. • This also included extensive government spending to provide education and healthcare to the poorest Americans. • The Social Security Act of 1965 provided healthcare for Americans over the age of 65.

15. Women’s Rights. • In the 1960s, the feminist movement grew from women’s dissatisfaction with their domestic roles and with sexism as a whole. • In 1963, Betty Freidan’s bestselling book The Feminine Mystique documented discrimination against women all across America. • The reforms of the civil rights acts also applied to American women. • The Civil Rights Act outlawed employment discrimination due to race, religion, nationality, and sex.

16. The Late 1960s • In 1966, the National Organization of Women formed to help protect women’s legal right to equality. • In 1973, the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States. • In the 1960s and ’70s, more radical versions of feminism appeared, some rejecting the need for men altogether.

17. After the Civil Rights Movement • Through the 1960s, separatist blacks such as Malcolm X criticize the Civil Rights movement for its emphasis on integration. Malcolm X saw integration as a form of black cultural suicide. • Mid-to-Late 1960s – Some African Americans embrace the kind of separatism and pride advocated by Malcolm X and encapsulated in the slogan “Black Power.” • Police spark a riot in L.A. in 1965

18. Late ’60s • Legal reform did not produce changes in everyday life very quickly. • African Americans’ frustrations at racism from the city police force erupted in urban riots in Detroit in 1967. • In 1968, after Martin Luther King was assassinated, riots took place in 125 American cities. • In 1968, two American athletes gave the “black power” salute at the Olympics • The FBI clamped down on Black Nationalists.

19. Other Movements • Other groups also came to reject the promise of assimilation. • Chicano nationalists advocated cultural independence and challenged mythic versions of the American past • In the early 1970s, The American Indian Movement formed to advocate for the rights of Native Americans.

20. In 1972, members of the American Indian Movement seized the premises of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington DC. • In 1973, members of AIM occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota for a 72-day siege. • AIM raised the issue of Native American rights to the national spotlight.

21. Back to the Cold War • 1959 – Fidel Castro won power in Cuba • 1960 – A U.S. spy plane was shot down over the U.S.S.R. • 1961 – Kennedy ordered the Bay of Pigs Invasion to try and depose Castro. It failed miserably. • 1961 – Construction of Berlin Wall began • 1961 – Yuri Gagarin, a Russian, became the first man in space.

22. The nuclear stand-off with Russia continued to trouble Americans during the 1960s. • In 1962, when Russia placed nuclear weapons on Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Kennedy demanded they be removed. • For thirteen days, nuclear war seemed a real possibility. Russia backed down.

23. Vietnam • Through the 1960s, the United States escalated its involvement in Vietnam • The U.S. did not want Ho Chi Minh’s Communists from the North to take over Vietnam, so it helped the South. • In 1964, American involvement escalated after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. • By 1965, 200,000 American troops were in Vietnam

24. Protesting Vietnam • As the Vietnam War dragged into the late 1960s, Americans began to question their nation’s involvement. • Students and Veterans protested on the streets. Some threw away draft cards. • In 1974, National Guardsmen shot dead 4 students at Kent State University, Ohio.

25. In 1969, 250,000 gather on the Mall to hear anti-war speeches and protest America’s involvement in Indochina. • America, under President Richard Nixon, withdrew its troops from Vietnam in the early ’70s. • The evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon in 1975 symbolized a humiliating defeat for the world’s biggest power.

26. Watergate & Distrust in Government • Americans lack of faith in their government grew when news of the Watergate Scandal broke in 1972. • A break-in at Democratic National Headquarters revealed a spying operation of which President Nixon was part • Nixon was forced to resign in 1974 in order to avoid impeachment by Congress.

27. Cold War Détente and Aggression • Nixon did manage to improve relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union • He signed a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, limiting nuclear build-up. • In 1972, Nixon also visited China in search of friendlier relations. • In 1973, Nixon provided money for a fascist coup against an elected Communist in Chile.

28. The Carter Years • Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976. • His presidency was marked by an economic depression and high unemployment. • In 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) refused to sell oil to the United States to protest US policies that supported Israel. • Americans could not get enough gas

29. Crisis and Malaise • Jimmy Carter spoke of a post-Vietnam malaise, a national loss of confidence. • This was confirmed when in 1979 the American Embassy in Tehran was occupied by radical Muslims. • Carter could not end the 400-day crisis, which seemed to confirm that America had lost its potency.

30. Ronald Reagan • Ronald Reagan, a former actor, was elected as a Republican in 1980 • Reagan set about restoring America’s confidence • He also insulted the Soviet Union, prompting a new period of Cold War tensions. • Reagan is where we’ll begin on Thursday.