CHAPTER 25

The Sixties, 1960-1968

Chapter Study Outline

I. The freedom movement—civil rights

A. Rising tide of protest
1. Sit-in campaigns – people sat
a. Origins at Greensboro, North Carolina
b. Spread across South
2. Founding of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) - The Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was one of the most important
organizations of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a student
meeting organized by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in April 1960. SNCC grew
into a large organization with many supporters in the North who helped raise funds
to support SNCC's work in the South, allowing full-time SNCC workers to have a $10
per week salary. Many unpaid volunteers also worked with SNCC on projects
in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, and Maryland. SNCC played a major role
in the sit-ins and freedom rides, a leading role in the 1963 March on Washington,
Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party over
the next few years. SNCC's major contribution was in its field work, organizing voter
registration drives all over the South, especially in Georgia, Alabama, and
Mississippi.
3. Freedom Rides - On May 4 1961, the Freedom Rides began. The Freedom Rides
were a series of different bus rides in which the "freedom riders" would board
in protest of discrimination. The Freedom Riders were those who participated
in said rides. Discrimination was a huge problem in this time period, and the
Freedom Riders felt it was their duty to help fight it. The Freedom Rides started
off peaceful and calm. The first Freedom Ride was created by CORE (Congress
of Racial Equality) which contained 14 people in it. Seven of the people were
black, and the seven other were white. Their intentions were to test the
Boynton vs. Virginia decision which stated that interstate bus segregation was
unconstitutional. They left from Washington D.C and went onward to the deep
south in order to exercise their new freedom.
a. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) - The Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE) is a U.S. civil rights organization that played a pivotal role
for African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement. Founded in
1942, CORE was one of the Big Four civil rights organizations, along
with the SCLC, the SNCC, and the NAACP.
b. Purpose
c. Experience
d. Outcome: Desegregation of interstate bus travel
4. Birmingham desegregation campaign - The Birmingham campaign, or
Birmingham movement, was a movement organized in early 1963 by the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference to bring attention to the integration
efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. Led by Martin Luther
King Jr., James Bevel, Fred Shuttlesworth and others, the campaign of
nonviolent direct action culminated in widely publicized confrontations
between young black students and white civic authorities, and eventually led
the municipal government to change the city's discrimination laws.
a. Climax of region-wide demonstrations - After conducting sit-ins,
hosting mass meetings, and waging an economic boycott, the
 campaign received national media attention on April 7th when
Public Safety Commissioner T. Eugene "Bull" Connor loosed police
attack dogs on marchers undertaking nonviolent protest. King's
decision to disregard a federal court injunction barring further
demonstrations resulted in his arrest, along with local leader Fred
L. Shuttlesworth, and many others on April 12th. While imprisoned,
King penned "A Letter from Birmingham Jail," his eloquent
response to critics of direct action protest.
b. Leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr.
i. Letter from Birmingham Jail - The Letter from
Birmingham Jail, also known as the Letter from
Birmingham City Jail and The Negro Is Your Brother, is
an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin
Luther King Jr. The letter defends the strategy of
nonviolent resistance to racism. It says that people have
a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take
direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for
justice to come through the courts. Responding to being
referred to as an "outsider," King writes, "Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".
ii. Deployment of black school children – Alabama was no
longer allowed to prevent black children from going to white
schools.
c. Brutal response of "Bull" Connor; widespread revulsion over – turned
Birmingham into a triumph campaign for human right
d. Impact on public opinion
i. Growing sympathy for civil rights
ii. Presidential endorsement of movement - JFK
e. Outcome: Adoption of desegregation plan
B. Themes and characteristics
1. Growing involvement of college students, youth
2. Vision of empowerment of ordinary blacks
3. Commitment to nonviolent resistance
4. Multiplicity of organizations, settings, and strategies
C. Escalation of violent response
1. Perpetrators
a. Ordinary citizens
b. Local and state officials
2. Targets, episodes
a. Firebombing, beatings of Freedom Riders
b. Mob violence against desegregation of University of Mississippi
c. Use of fire hoses, dogs, beatings against Birmingham protesters
d. Assassination of Medgar Evers – secretary of NAACP
e. Deadly bombing of Birmingham church – killed 4 young girls
D. The march on Washington – meet up at Washington to protest
1. Magnitude – largest demonstration
2. As peak of nonviolent civil rights coalition
3. Breadth of demands – how this had formed an alliance with white liberal groups
4. King's "I Have a Dream" speech
5. Glimpses of movement's limitations and fault lines
a. All-male roster of speakers when there had been many crucial female
activists
 b. Toning down of John Lewis's speech – MLK told him he was being too
much
II. The Kennedy years
A. John F. Kennedy (JFK)
1. Image of glamour, dynamism – goals set
2. Inaugural themes – set objective for millenials
a. "new generation"
b. "pay any price"
c. "do for your country"
B. Kennedy and the world
1. New Cold War initiatives
a. Peace Corps - plan devised by Kennedy (1) where young men and
women (1) would travel abroad (1) and help people of Third World
nations (1) in various tasks (1)
b. Space race; call for moon landing – the space race triggered competition
which triggered the new cold war
c. Alliance for Progress -
d. Kennedy's foreign aid proposal (1) for Latin America (1) that would
not only contain communism (1) but also help Latin American
nations economically (1)
2. Bay of Pigs fiasco - The Bay of Pigs Invasion, known in Latin America as Invasión
de Playa Girón (or Invasión de Bahía de Cochinos or Batalla de Girón), was a
failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary
group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. The Bay of Pigs was an American attempt
to overthrow the newly established communist government in Cuba by training
and sending Cuban rebels. The coup ended up in a disaster due to the lack of
support by the Americans. The incident was an embarrassment for the U.S. and
ultimately led to Castro pleading for Soviet aid (Cuban Missile Crisis).
3. Berlin crisis; construction of Berlin Wall - The Berlin Wall was a fortified wall made up of
concrete and barbed wire made to prevent East Germans escaping to West Berlin. It was
one of the most visible signs of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain.
4. Cuban missile crisis - The Cuban Missile Crisis was an incident where Soviet missiles
were placed in Cuba as a response for help. The event greatly increased tensions
between the Soviets and the Americans. As a result, a hotline was established between
the two nations to avoid any accidents.

a. Narrative
i. Discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba
ii. U.S. "quarantine" of Cuba
iii. Soviet withdrawal of missiles
b. Significance and aftermath
i. Imminence of nuclear war
ii. Sobering effect on JFK; American University speech
iii. Nuclear test ban treaty
C. Kennedy and civil rights
1. Initial disengagement – he had been reluctant about supporting black rights, he
feared the movement was inspired by communism.
2. Growing support – Birmingham pushed him to support black rights,
D. Assassination of JFK
1. Shock to nation
 2. Succession of Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) to presidency – he was to secure passage of
the civil rights bill and to launch a program of domestic liberalism more ambitious
than anything JFK had done.
III. Lyndon Johnson's presidency
A. LBJ
1. Personal background – Raised wealthy and powerful
2. New Deal outlook – Believed the government should assist the less-fortunate
members of society.
B. Civil rights under LBJ
1. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the nation's premier
civil rights legislation. The Act outlawed discrimination on the basis of race,
color, religion, sex, or national origin, required equal access to public places
and employment, and enforced desegregation of schools and the right to vote.
a. Support from LBJ
b. Provisions
2. : Freedom Summer—Voter registration in Mississippi - Freedom Summer (also
known as the Mississippi Summer Project) was a campaign in the United States
launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters
as possible in Mississippi, which had historically excluded most blacks from
voting.
a. Concerted civil rights initiative
b. Influx of white college students who took part in the Freedom Summer
c. Violent reception
i. Bombings, beatings
ii. Murder of three activists lead to the conviction of a KKK
member.
iii. Widespread revulsion over
iv. The deaths of two white student made the government come
in to protect protesters.
3. Mississippi Freedom Democratic party
a. Crusade for representation at Democratic convention
b. Fannie Lou Hamer - Fannie Lou Hamer was an American voting
rights activist, a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, and
philanthropist who worked primarily in Mississippi. She was
instrumental in organizing Mississippi's Freedom Summer for the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She was the vice-
chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which she
represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
c. Bitterness over Democrats' response
4. Voting Rights Act - The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal
legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It
was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the
American Civil Rights Movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later
amended the Act five times to expand its protections.
a. Background
i. Selma-to-Montgomery march
ii. LBJ address to Congress
b. Provisions
5. Twenty-Fourth Amendment - The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United
States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning
the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of
 tax. The amendment was proposed by Congress to the states on August 27,
1962, and was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964.
6. Immigration reform: Hart-Cellar Act - The Hart–Celler Act abolished the quota
system based on national origins that had been American immigration policy
since the 1920s. The new law maintained the per-country limits, but it also
created preference visa categories that focused on immigrants' skills and family
relationships with citizens or U.S. residents. The bill set numerical restrictions
on visas at 170,000 per year, with a per-country-of-origin quota. This took away
restrictions of Asian immigrants. However, immediate relatives of U.S. citizens
and "special immigrants" had no restrictions.
a. Links to civil rights reform – Belief that racial discrim. Was in xenophobia
b. Provisions
c. Long-term consequences - Policies in the Immigration Reform and
Control Act of 1986 that were designed to curtail migration across
the Mexican-U.S. border led many unauthorized workers to settle
permanently in the U.S.[22] These demographic trends became a
central part of anti-immigrant activism from the 1980s leading to
greater border militarization, rising apprehension of migrants by
the Border Patrol, and a focus in the media on the supposed
criminality of immigrants.
C. The 1964 election
1. Right-wing views of Republican Barry Goldwater
2. The conservative sixties
a. Young Americans for Freedom
i. Sharon Statement
ii. Ideas
iii. Prominence in Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign
b. New conservative constituencies
i. Expanding suburbs of southern California, Southwest
ii. Sun Belt entrepreneurs
iii. Deep South whites
c. Racial overtones of conservative appeal
3. LBJ's landslide reelection victory
4. Seeds of conservative resurgence
5. Immigration reform
D. The Great Society - An idealistic call for improved environmental, conservation, racial,
educational, and health programs, the Great Society was inspired by JFK and prompted by
LBJ’s insecure need to win over the American people. Largely successful in the first two
years of the Johnson administration, the idealism would later give way to virulent
conservatism and a return to traditional values.
1. Goals and philosophies
a. Government action to promote general welfare
b. Fulfillment and expansion of New Deal agenda
c. Eradication of poverty
d. Broadening of opportunity
e. Lessening of inequality
f. New conception of freedom
2. Key measures
a. Medicaid and Medicare
b. Increased funding for education, urban development
c. Increased funding for the arts, humanities, public broadcasting
3. War on Poverty
a. Outlook
 i. Influence of Michael Harrington's The Other America
ii. Emphasis on fostering skills, work habits
iii. De-emphasis on direct aid, structural remedies
iv. Input of poor into local programs
b. Key measures
i. Food stamps
ii. Office of Economic Opportunity initiatives
4. Achievements
a. Affirmation of social citizenship
b. Substantial reduction of poverty
5. Limitations
a. Inadequate funding
b. Long-term persistence of poverty, inequality
IV. The changing black movement
A. Emerging challenges to civil rights movement
1. Persistence of racial inequality and injustice, North and South
2. Diverging perspectives of whites and blacks on racial issues
3. The ghetto uprisings
a. Leading episodes: Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit
b. Kerner Report
B. Growing attention to economic issues
1. King's "Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged"
2. A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin's Freedom Budget
3. King's Chicago Freedom Movement
a. Demands
b. Mayor Richard J. Daley's political machine
c. Ineffectiveness of mass protest tactics
d. Radicalization of King
C. Malcolm X
1. Background
2. Black Muslims
3. Message
a. Black self-determination
b. Rejection of integration, nonviolence
4. Assassination
5. Legacy
a. Lack of consistent ideology or coherent movement
b. Enduring appeal of call for black self-reliance
D. The rise of Black Power
1. Introduction by Stokely Carmichael
2. Imprecision and multiplicity of meanings
3. Resonance among militant youth
4. Place in wider spirit of self-assertion; "black is beautiful"
5. Militant directions of SNCC, CORE
6. Black Panther party
a. Emergence
b. Demands and programs
c. Demise
i. Internal divisions
ii. Assault by government
V. Vietnam and the New Left
A. Arena: college campuses
 B. Following: white middle-class youth
C. Spirit and ideology
1. Departure from Old Left and New Deal liberal models
2. Aspects of postwar society brought under challenge
a. Personal alienation
b. Social and political conformity
c. Bureaucratization
d. Corporate, Cold War outlook of American institutions
e. Material acquisitiveness
f. Social and economic inequality
g. Gulfs between national values and realities
3. Visions and inspirations
a. "Authenticity"
b. "Participatory democracy"
c. Black freedom struggle
D. Key moments
1. Influential social critiques
a. James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time
b. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
c. Michael Harrington's The Other America
d. Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities
2. The rise of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
a. Emergence and growth
b. Port Huron Statement
3. Free Speech Movement at Berkeley
VI. America and Vietnam
A. America's growing involvement (pre-LBJ)
1. Outlook of policymakers
a. Cold War assumptions
b. Ignorance of Vietnamese history, culture
c. Fear of "losing" Vietnam
2. Key developments
a. Defeat of French colonialism
b. Fostering of Ngo Dinh Diem regime in South Vietnam
c. Dispatch of counterinsurgency "advisers"
d. Collapse of Diem regime; U.S.-backed coup
B. Lyndon Johnson's war
1. LBJ's initial outlook
2. Escalation
a. Gulf of Tonkin resolution
b. Initiation of air strikes
c. Introduction of ground troops
d. Increasing magnitude of troop presence, bombing
3. Brutality
a. Bombing
b. Chemical defoliation, napalm
c. "Search and destroy" missions; "body counts"
4. Lack of progress
a. Resilience of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces
b. Failings of South Vietnamese government
C. The anti-war movement
1. Emerging critiques
 2. Antiwar movement
a. Early stirrings
i. SDS rallies
ii. Themes
b. Growth
i. Draft resistance
ii. 1967 Washington rally
VII. Wider currents of dissent
A. Counterculture
1. Spread among youth
a. College students
b. Working class
2. Spirit and vision
a. Rejection of mainstream values
b. Challenge to authority
c. Community, creativity, pleasure over pursuit of wealth
d. Cultural "liberation"
e. "Sexual revolution"
3. Symbols and manifestations
a. Physical appearance, fashion
b. "Sex, drugs, rock and roll"
c. Be-Ins
i. Timothy Leary; LSD
ii. "Turn on, tune in, drop out"
d. New forms of radical action
i. Underground newspapers
ii. Youth International party ("Yippies")
e. Communes
f. Rock festivals; Woodstock
g. Hair
B. Reawakening of feminism
1. Status of women at outset of 1960s
a. Legal subordination
b. Barriers to power, opportunity
2. Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique
3. Steps toward equal rights
a. Equal Pay Act
b. Civil Rights Act of 1964
c. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
d. Founding of National Organization for Women
i. Range of demands
ii. Middle-class character
4. "Women's liberation"
a. Roots in civil rights and student movements
i. Inspiration of movements' ideals
ii. Indignation against movements' inequalities
b. Key initiatives
i. Protests within SNCC, SDS
ii. "Consciousness-raising" groups
iii. Miss America beauty pageant protest
c. Impact on public consciousness
i. Expansion of idea of freedom
 ii. Introduction of "sexism," "sexual politics," "the personal is
political"
d. Campaigns and demands
i. Abortion rights; reproductive freedom
ii. Wide-ranging issues; Sisterhood Is Powerful
5. Growing acceptance of feminist ideas
C. Rise of gay liberation
1. Traditional oppression of gays
a. Legal and cultural stigmatization
b. Harassment of gay subcultures
2. Stonewall revolt
3. Emergence of militant movement
a. "Out of the closet"
b. Gay pride marches
D. Latino activism
1. Chicano pride movement
2. United Farm Workers
a. Cesar Chavez
b. Blend of civil rights and labor struggles
c. Grape strike, boycott
3. Young Lords Organization (New York)
4. Feminist current
E. Red Power—Indian militancy
1. Background: shifting Indian policies of postwar administrations
2. Demands
a. Material aid
b. Self-determination
3. Initiatives
a. Founding of American Indian Movement
b. Occupation of Alcatraz; Red Power movement
4. Impact
F. Silent Spring—New environmentalism
1. Themes
a. Critique of prevailing notions of progress, social welfare
b. Activist, youth-oriented style
c. Language of citizen empowerment
2. Initiatives
a. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
b. Campaign to ban DDT
c. Expanding range of causes, organizations
3. Progress
a. Bipartisan appeal
b. Clean Air and Clean Water Acts
c. Endangered Species Act
d. Inauguration of Earth Day
G. Consumer activism
1. Ralph Nader
a. Unsafe at Any Speed
b. Subsequent investigations
2. Spread of consumer protection laws, regulations
VIII. The rights revolution and the Supreme Court
A. Warren Court
 B. Reaffirmation of civil liberties
1. Curtailing of McCarthyite persecution
2. Intertwining of civil liberties and civil rights
a. NAACP v. Alabama
b. New York Times v. Sullivan
c. Loving v. Virginia
d. Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.
3. Imposition of Bill of Rights protections on states
a. Bars on illegal search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment
b. Right of defendant to speedy trial, legal representation
c. Miranda v. Arizona
C. Political reapportionment: Baker v. Carr
D. Reinforcement of separation of church and state
E. Establishment of right to privacy
1. Griswold v. Connecticut
2. Roe v. Wade
a. Implications for women's rights
b. Source of ongoing controversy
IX. 1968: A year of turmoil
A. Momentous events around nation
1. Tet offensive; repercussions at home
2. Eugene McCarthy's challenge to LBJ for nomination
a. New Hampshire primary
b. Withdrawal of LBJ
3. Assassination of King; subsequent urban unrest
4. Student revolt at Columbia University
5. Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
6. Antiwar protests, police riot at Chicago Democratic convention
B. The global 1968
1. A year of worldwide upheaval
2. Anti-war demonstrations in many world capitols
3. Worker-student uprising in France
4. Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia
5. Killing of student protesters at Mexico City Olympics
6. Women's rights movement advanced in many countries
C. Nixon's comeback
1. Stages
a. Attainment of Republican nomination
b. Narrow election victory over Hubert Humphrey
c. Independent campaign of George Wallace
2. Sources
a. Conservative backlash
b. Resonance of appeals to "silent majority," "law and order"