Download Unit 4: A Time of Upheaval

Mrs. Magyar
Standard USHC-8: The student will demonstrate an understanding of social, economic
and political issues in contemporary America.
USHC-8.1 Analyze the African American Civil Rights Movement, including initial
strategies, landmark court cases and legislation, the roles of key civil rights advocates and
the media, and the influence of the Civil Rights Movement on other groups seeking
equality.
The non-violent direct action campaign of the civil rights movement was successful in
getting presidential support and the support of the majority of the voting public into the
early 1960’s.
President Truman:
 Issued an executive order to create a civil rights commission to investigate how to
protect all Americans in 1946
 Desegregated the Armed Forces in 1948
 His support of civil rights led to the Dixiecrats
 Dixiecrats: a political party that broke away from the Democratic Party; they
opposed integration and advocated for the Jim Crow laws and white supremacy
President Eisenhower:
 Introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1960
o The Civil Rights Act of 1957 set up the first permanent civil rights office
within the Justice Department
o Both acts were weaker than the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (President
Johnson), but they were the first significant acts since Ulysses S. Grant
signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875
 Enforced the integration ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education in Arkansas,
when the state government refused to integrate (Little Rock Central High School)
President Kennedy:
 Across the nation more than 70% of African Americans voted for Kennedy in the
1960 election
 He appointed a large number of African Americans to prominent positions in his
administration and strengthened the Civil Rights Commission
 Kennedy introduced a civil rights bill to Congress; it was not passed before his
assassination on November 22, 1963
President Johnson:
 Passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, as a way to honor the late John F. Kennedy
 Passed the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination in voting, allowing
millions of African Americans to vote for the first time
 The first president to have Ku Klux Klan members arrested since Ulysses S. Grant
 Nominated Thurgood Marshall to be the first African American Supreme Court
Justice in 1967
President Nixon:
 Implemented the “Southern Strategy” to turn a formerly solid Democratic South
into a Republican stronghold
o Many white southerners felt alienated from the Democratic Party, because
the previous democratic presidents supported the civil rights movement
and passed civil rights legislation
Mrs. Magyar
o Nixon exploited anti-African American racism and appealed to states’
rights
o He was able to turn the South into a Republican stronghold; however, he
also lost more than 90% of the African Americans’ votes to the
Democratic Party
MAIN IDEA: The movement for African American civil rights had an impact on the
movement for women’s rights, and for other minorities, namely Latinos and Native
Americans.
Women’s Rights:
 Participation of women in the civil rights movement prompted them to form their
own organizations to promote their own rights
 National American Woman Suffrage Association: campaigned for women’s
suffrage at a federal level, as well as for married women to be given property
rights
 American Woman Suffrage Association: aimed to secure women’s suffrage
through state legislation
 19th Amendment: granted women the right to vote
 The Feminine Mystique: written by Betty Freidan, it is primarily credited with
sparking the second wave of feminism in the U.S.
o Described the unhappiness women felt in the 1950’s and 1960’s due to
their primary role as “housewife”
 Betty Freidan helped found the National Organization of Women, an influential
feminist organization
 Roe vs. Wade: the Supreme Court ruled that a right to privacy, under due process
(the 14th Amendment) extends to a woman’s choice to have an abortion until
viability
o Viability: 24 weeks-7 months, or when a baby can live on its own outside
the womb
 Equal Rights Amendment: passed in 1972, the amendment provided full social,
economic, and political equality for women
 The goals, strategies and government response in the Latino and Native American
movements were similar to the early African American civil rights movement