The 1960s and Beyond

1
The 1960s and Beyond
2
Johnson Presidency (1963-1969)

• LBJ pushed through more domestic legislation than
  any 20th century president except FDR
• Declared a war on poverty and creation of a Great
  Society
• Medicare and Medicaid programs
• VISTA (Volunteers in Service to
  America)--domestic Peace Corps (now AmeriCorps)
• New cabinet offices created in Transportation and
  Housing and Urban Development
• Head Start programs to aid underprivileged
  children
• Food Stamp aid to help poor families

3
Civil Rights Legislation

• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• LBJ
• No literacy tests
• Provided federal registration of African-American
  voters in areas that had less than fifty percent
  of eligible voters registered
• Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968
• March on Washington helped to get passed
• Federal government would withdraw support from
  any state that discriminated
• Established Equal Employment Commission

4
Urban unrest

• Watts Riots (1965) resulted in 34 deaths and 35
  million damage and demonstrated frustration of
  urban blacks with unemployment and police
  practices
• Riots followed in black neighborhoods in
  Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Newark, and
  Jacksonville from 1965-1967.
• King's assassination in April 1968 further
  antagonized racial tensions. National Commission
  concluded "Our nation is moving towards two
  societies, black and white, separate and
  unequal."

5
LBJs Foreign problems

• Vietnam
• Because of criticism, LBJ announced on March 31,
  1968 he would not seek second full term as
  president in 1968 election.

6
Countercultural Movements

• Port Huron Statement (1962)--group of young
  intellectuals formed the SDS (Students for a
  Democratic Society) and set out an agenda for
  societal reform, that included student rights,
  economic justice, and anti-nuclear war views
• Free Speech Movement (1964) begun at UC Berkeley
  by Mario Savio in protest of university policies
  spread to other universities as general student
  unease focused on anti-establishment sentiments.

7
Radicalization of American students led to
challenge to Establishment norms and laws

• Youth culture openly scornful of middle class
  values
• Increased and public use of hallucinogenic drugs
• Rise of hippies led to development of communes
  and other counterculture movements

8
Rock and folk music reflected iconoclastic views
of the counter culture

• Rock groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling
  Stones, and the Doors expressed mystical approach
  that embraced drugs and Eastern religions as well
  as themes of anger, frustration, and
  rebelliousness
• Folk singers (Joan Baez, Bob Dylan) expressed
  explicit radicalism and challenged traditional
  mores.

9
Militancy and Protest

• New militancy among ethnic groups (Native
  Americans and Hispanics) and feminists also
  challenged values and laws through affirmative
  action and university programs that focused on
  correcting past abuses and stridency in pushing
  for equal treatment and legal protection.

10
From Civil Rights to Black Power

• King and Selma march
• Watts (1965)
• "Black Power"
• Nation of Islam
• Malcolm X
• Elijah Muhammad
• Stokely Carmichael
• leader of SNCC and later the Black Panthers
• Integrationist and later a separatist
• Civil Rights Act of 1968
• expanded on previous acts and prohibited
  discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and
  financing of housing based on race, religion, and
  national origin
• as of 1974, sex
• as of 1988, the act protects the handicapped and
  families with children
• The Act is commonly known as the Fair Housing Act
  (of 1968).

11
Environmentalism

• Preservationist legislation
• Environmentalism
• Rachel Carson Silent Spring (1962)
• Earth Day (1970)
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Clean Air Act of 1970
• Endangered Species Act of 1972

12
Controversies over Rights

• Warren Court and Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
• Burger Court and Dandridge v. Williams (1970)
• Each state has the right to determine guidelines
  for welfare programs
• Ralph Nader
• Unsafe at Any Speed (1965)
• Occupational Safety Act (1973)
• National Organization for Women (NOW)
• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
• Phyllis Schlaflys Stop ERA
• Roe v. Wade (1973)

13
Détente (Nixon)

• Easing of tensions with Soviets and Communist
  Chinese
• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I)
• People's Republic of China

14
Vietnamization

• "Nixon Doctrine
• U.S.s allies were to take care of their own
  protection.
• Cambodia (1970)
• Jackson State College
• Kent State University
• My Lai
• Vietnam Veterans Against the War
• "how do you ask a man to be the last man to die
  for a mistake John Kerry April 1971
• Paris Peace Accords (1973)
• Collapse of Saigon (1975)

15
The Aftermath of War

• 1960-1973 3.5 million men and women served in
  Vietnam
• 58,000 died
• 150,000 wounded
• 2,000 missing
• Politicians and citizens alike struggled with the
  conditions and outcome of the war
• No more Vietnams

16
The Nixon Doctrine

• Kissinger the U.S. would not dispatch troops to
  oppose revolutionary insurgencies but would give
  assistance to anticommunist regimes or factions
• Early 1970s, America supported staunch
  anticommunist powers with dictatorial governments
• Iran, South Africa, Brazil
• Covert CIA operations Chile, 1970

17
The Election of 1972

• CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect the President)
• Dirty tricksters"
• George McGovern, Democratic candidate
• Twenty-sixth Amendment, 1971
• Lowered legal voting age to 18 years

18
A Changing People

• Demographics of the United States
• Population was becoming
• Older
• More urban
• More ethnically and racially diverse
• Center of Power shifted away from the Northeast,
  towards the West and South

19
An Aging Population

• Growth rate almost halved between 1970 and 2000
• Age of marriage delayed
• Median age of population
• 28 was the average age in 1970
• 34 was the average age in 2000
• The graying of America

20
New Immigration

• Between 1960 and 2000 5 times as many immigrants
  came from Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin
  America than Europe
• Mexicans were the largest group
• Immigration Act (1965)
• Abolished national origins quotas
• Refugee Act (1980)
• Admits refugees on a humanitarian basis
• Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986)
• Makes it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit
  illegal immigrants
• Immigration Act of 1990
• Increased numbers of immigrants allowed into the
  U.S.

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Urbanization and Suburbanization

• Metropolitan areas continued to expand
• Urban corridors connected city centers and
  adjacent suburbs
• Edge cities
• City centers transformed
• Financial, administrative and entertainment
• Upper and middle income residents leave
• More lower income residents moves in
• Major challenges in urban sprawl, traffic,
  affordable housing
• Community Reinvestment Act

22
Postindustrial Restructuring

• Downsizing and mergers
• Increase in service sector jobs
• Decrease in union jobs
• Cesar Chavez
• United Farm Workers (UFW)
• Microsoft
• Bill Gates

23
The New Mass Culture Debate

• FCC regulations
• Self-censorship
• Mass Cultural studies
• No longer made distinctions between lowbrow and
  highbrow
• Analyzed the cultural icons and the way consumer
  integrated products of mass culture into their
  everyday lives
• Multiculturalism

24
Social Activism

• 1960s style activism embeds itself in American
  life
• "Million Man March (1995)
• "Promise Keepers (1999)
• International Christian organization for men
• Promote abstinence
• Take back the night
• Media coverage slips as protest activity
  increased

25
Womens Issues

• The pill
• Greater control over reproduction
• Affected sexual behavior
• Struggles over gender issues
• Feminization of poverty
• Glass ceilings
• Sexual harassment ruling, 1986
• Thomas-Hill hearings (1991)
• Political gender gap
• "Tailhook" (1991)

26
African American Activism

• "Afrocentrism
• Henry Lewis Gates, Jr.
• Greater recognition of black literature and
  accomplishments
• Toni Morrison
• 1st black woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for
  Literature (1993)
• O.J. Simpson trial (1995)
• Racial profiling
• Confederate flag issue
• Congressional Black Caucus

27
American Indian Activism

• American Indian Movement (AIM)
• Civil Rights Act (1968)
• Indian Bill of Rights
• Tribally Controlled College Assistance Act
• Native American Rights Fund (NARF)
• Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988)
• Powwows

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Dilemmas of Antidiscrimination Efforts

• Affirmative action
• Quotas and the issue of reverse discrimination
• Title IX (1972) "No person in the United States
  shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from
  participation in, be denied the benefits of, or
  be subjected to discrimination under any
  education program or activity receiving Federal
  financial assistance."
• Proposition 209 (1996)
• Public institutions may not consider race, sex or
  ethnicity
• Opposed by affirmative action activists

29
The New Right

• Mid-1970s diverse coalition called New Right
• Anti-communist and anti-domestic spending
  programs
• New Right members came from
• Older activists
• Phyllis Schlafly
• William F. Buckleys Firing Line

30
The New Religious Right

• The New Right attracted grassroots support from
  Protestants in fundamentalist and evangelical
  churches
• Effect of Roe v. Wade mobilized fundamentalist
  and evangelical leaders
• Conservative Catholics
• Jerry Falwell
• Constitutional dilemma strict separation of
  church and state perceived as infringing on the
  free exercise of religion

31
The New Rights Agenda

• National Conservative Political Action Committee
  (1975)
• Conservative Caucus
• Moral Majority
• Family values
• Politically correct
• Pat Robertson
• 700 Club
• Pat Buchanan

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Conclusion

• Sweeping changes in U.S. in last quarter of 20th
  century
• Demographics
• Economics
• Culture
• Society
• Mass Culture the video screen
• Suburbs and urban sprawl
• Social activism centered around sexual, ethnic
  and racial identities
• New Right movement