Semester Notes

HIST 1320: Fall 2023

Cold War America – October 24th

The Postwar Decade
● Fear and anxiety about nuclear attacks, communism, and russian spies infiltrating the US
○ Linked to issues related to cold war issues
● Safety, comfort, and affluence for “nuclear families”
The Cold War (1947-1991)
● Military tension (no war) between the US and Soviet Russia
● Communism: classless society based on collectivism
○ Organizing ideology of a classless society
○ More equal society in terms of race, gender, jobs
● Stalin rose to power during the time of Musolinni and Hitler
○ He was a dictator who enforced many beliefs especially communism
■ Executed around 800,000 disenters or put people in work camps (gulags)
● Soviet Union part of Allied Forces in WWII
The Yalta Conference (1945)
● “The Big Three”
○ Where Churchill, FDR, and Stalin met in Ukraine
■ They agreed to punish Nazi War criminals
■ Support democracy throughout Europe
● Stalin however did not stick to this agreement
○ Expanded Russia in 1945 – those territories that were taken over by Germany
The Truman Doctrine (1947)
● “Containment Policy”
○ The US and the allies do whatever needed to contain the threat of communism
○ Defined US foreign policy for the next 30 years
The Marshall Plan (1948)
● US policy to provide billions of dollars for relief to Europe
○ $135 billion dollars used to rebuild
■ Care packages, roads, homes
○ A “new deal for europe”
● Part of US “containment policy”
○ Plan did heighten the tensions between US and Soviet Union
A Divided Germany
● The Berlin Blockade (1948-1949)
○ Blocking of all roads
○ US air force dropped supplies for a year in west berlin
● Berlin Wall (1961-1989)
Communism in East Asia
● Soviet Union occupies Northern Korea (1949)
○ Do so w/ help of China
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HIST 1320: Fall 2023

● China and Russia are allies during this time (both have communist views)
The Korean War (1950-1953)
● Containment policy
● A “hot war” in the Cold War
○ First racially integrated war
● End with the north and south being divided by the DMZ
The Cold War in America
● Life in the “Atomic age”
● The hydrogen bomb
○ 750x more powerful than the uranium bomb used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
○ Testing of them left nuclear waste in the ocean
● First school drills for nuclear attacks
○ Making of bomb shelters, alarms for at home safety
● The Red Scare
○ Paranoia of russian spies
○ Created the CIA, NSA
Postwar Prosperity
● First computers, became center of aircraft manufacturing, invented plastic
● Only 6% of the world’s population lived in america in 1950 but (US) manufactured ¾ of
the world’s goods
● 75% of american families owned a car by 1959 & 90% owned televisions
Postwar Consumerism
● Peak consumerism
Car Culture
● Huge boom in car ownership
The Federal highway Act (1956)
● Created the interstate highway system we have today
● Largest public works project in american history
● This is when the culture of “road trips” started
● Motels, drive-in fast food places come out
Television Culture
● TV became center of the american family life in the 1950s and still is today
The GI Bill of Rights (1944)
● Federal funds for going to college, starting a business, and buy homes
● Paid 5 million for veterans homes
○ Paid 8 million for veterans to go to college

The Southern Civil Rights Movement (1954-1965)

The Long Black Freedom Struggle
Semester Notes
HIST 1320: Fall 2023

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP – 1909)
● Focused on challenging the Jim Crow legal system
○ Challenged 14th and 15th amendments
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
● Was about the 14th amendment
○ Brown has the right to access education
■ Countered by Plessy v. Ferguson (“separate but equal”)
● The Warren Court (1953-1969)
○ Under leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren – considered the most liberal court
in American History
● The supreme court said “separate but equal” does not stand w/ education – schools were
inherently unequal
○ End of legal school segregation
“Massive Resistance”
● “The Southern Manifesto” (1956)
○ A group of southern congressman signed this denouncing the supreme court
decision
● Confederate flag becomes known as massive resistance during this time
● Example
○ The “Little Rock Nine”
The Little Rock Nine (1957)
● Eisenhower sent the national guard to send take them to school and class
○ All public schools shut down (Arkansas) for a year rather than desegregate (this
occurred in other places as well)
Ruby Bridges (1960)
● 1st one to integrate an elementary school
○ She stayed in one class w/ one teacher all day
The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)
● 15 year old girl Claudette Colvin was charged with violating the separate but equal policy
○ Ignited the boycott and chose Rosa Parks to be used w/ the press
■ Civil rights activist, light skinned (colorism), older & respectable
● Lasted 381 days
○ “Warren Court” ruled segregated buses violate the 14th amendment
● 4 black baptist churches bombed after buses were forced to integrate
○ Churches were community spaces for black people
Martin Luther King Jr.
● Charismatic leader that often didn’t let women or other activists speak
● Believed people needed a leader in terms of movements
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC – 1960)
● Founded by Ella Baker
Semester Notes
HIST 1320: Fall 2023

● Organized black and white college students to protest segregation

Lunch Counter Sit-Ins
● Organized by SNCC
○ College students would go to sit at lunch counters and wouldn’t move until they
were served
● At least 60,000 participated
● Inspired “wade-ins” (beaches) and “read-ins” (libraries) and other acts of disobedience
throughout the South
Boynton v. Virginia (1960)
● “Warren Court” ruled racial segregation in all interstate transportation illegal
● Basically ends most if not all “separate but equal” instances w/ transit
● Decision led to the “freedom rides”
The Freedom Rides
● Organized to put the Boynton v. Virginia decision to the test
● Mostly black and white students
● Quite dangerous to participate in
○ KKK and white mobs bombing buses and beating the riders w/ bats and metal
pipes
○ Most violent instances took place in Alabama
The Birmingham Campaign (1963)
● Led by Martin Luther King Jr
○ Use various strategies of protest at the same time in Birmingham due to it being
the worst Jim Crow city
● City-wide demonstration of civil disobedience against jim crow system
○ Nonviolent
● 1st day all black people walked out and started marching down the street (school, work,
etc)
○ MLK arrested along w/ teens in 1963 – he was released by Kennedy calling while
the teens stayed for a couple months
● City desegregated
President John F. Kennedy
● Containment policy
● Announced the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act

Civil Rights Reform and Black Power – November 7th

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963)
● An estimated 250,00 people participated, 75% were Black
● Largest political rally in American history (at this time)
Medgar Evers Assasination
● Desegregating the University of Mississippi (1962)
Semester Notes
HIST 1320: Fall 2023

● Evers was a Civil Rights Activist

○ Assassinated 3 hours after JFK’s “Civil Rights Address” by a white supremecist
group
Nina Simone “Mississippi Goddam” (1964)
● Song talks about a lot going on during the time
JFK Assassination (November 22, 1963)
● Assassinated 3 months after march on washington especially after the assassination of
Evers
● LBJ is sworn into office
The Civil Rights Act (1964)
● Has 11 sections and is focused on expanding rights and protections for EVERYONE
○ Title II: outlawed discrimination in all public facilities based on race, gender, or
religion
○ Title VII: outlawed discrimination in private hiring based on race, gender, or
religion
The Voting Rights Act (1965)
● Outlawed voting restrictions that targeted racial or ethnic minorities
○ Over 2 million registered to vote for the first time and others who never registered
● Section 5: required states that historically used racist voting restrictions to have federal
approval to change voting laws
○ No longer exists
○ Overturned by Shelby County v Holder (2013) – ruled southern states no longer
needed approval to change their voting laws
● Selma March
Selma to Montgomery March (1965)
● Series of marches that took place to push Congress to pass the VRA
○ Led by CR Activists – MLK and John Lewis (examples)
● Met with state troopers at the end of the bridge, protestors were beat with clubs and
sprayed by tear gas
○ Bloody Sunday
President Johnson’s “Great Society” (1964-1965)
● CRA of 1964
● VRA of 1965
● Immigration Act of 1965
○ Overturned race based policies that were passed
● Food Stamp Act (1964)
● Amended the Social Security Act t include
○ Medicare & medicaid
Johnson’s Immigration Act of 1965
● Eliminated national origin/ethnicity as criteria for immigration
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HIST 1320: Fall 2023

● Ensues the biggest wave of immigrants

○ Roughly 24M immigrants in the US by 1990
The Black Power Movement
● More popular in northern/western cities
● Emphasized Black self-sufficiency from white institutions
○ Liberation schools
○ Free cafeteria’s
○ Free food programs
● Pride in Black distinction
● Critical of police and prisons
● Malcolm X
○ One the leaders of this time
○ His assassination is what heightens the Black Power Movement
■ Black Panther Party (1966) ^ believed in all of the points above, made
programs that are listed above
King Assassination (1968)
● Cities in the west start rebellions in response to this
● The 1968 Riots
○ Biggest were Chicago, Washington DC, and Baltimore
○ 110 cities – tons of property damage
CRA of 1968
● Title I: Hate Crimes
● Fair Housing Act

A New Generation of Protest

The Counterculture of the 1960’s
● Reject social norms
● Behavior opposite to the exact social norms and expectations
● Protested political, racial, and class injustice
Vietnam War
● North Vietnam (1954): Ho Chi Minh – nationalist leader who believed that the country
should be united by communism
● Ngo Dinh Diem – prime minister of S. Vietnam and was a democratic capitalist
supported by the US as a part of the containment policy
The VietCong (Northern Vietnamese Communist Front) (1960-1974)
● A commie gange that tried t gaslight people into becoming commies
● Cong was a slang for commie
● Used guerilla tactics ← inspired many future groups
Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964)
● 2 US ships stationed here
Semester Notes
HIST 1320: Fall 2023

○ USS Maddock and USS Turner Joy were claimed to be attacked and under fire
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)
● Document that gave the president the power to take “all necessary measures” to prevent
“further aggression” in southeast Asia & also gave power to escalate the situation and use
the full force of the military
● Is NOT a formal, legal declaration of war
● Still disputed whether Gulf of Tonkin attacks ever occurred
○ USS Maddock had 1 bullet hole in it
Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968)
● Large-scale use of chemical warfare (phosphorus gas, agent orange, ranch hand)
The Lottery Draft (1969)
● The people drawn “luckily” were mostly poor, working class families and only 80% had
an high school education
Fighting the Viet-Cong
● “Search and Destroy” missions
Anti-War Movement
● Started on college campuses
● The “New Left” – presented more on a social welfare based state
● The Lottery Drafts burning
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
● New Left College Student Group (1962)
● The “Free Speech Movement” (1964)
Democratic National Convention in Chicago (1968)
● Massive protests got violent and cops suppressed
● Divided the nation into 2
President Richard Nixon
● 26th amendment (1971) – lowered voting age to 18
America Withdraws from Vietnam (1973)
● Vietcong agreed to a “peaceful reunification” of Vietnam
● Fall/Liberation of Saigon (1975)

Women’s Liberation & The Sexual Revolution – November 14th

Women’s Movements
● 1st wave: feminism (1870s-1920s)
○ Suffrage, progressive
● 2nd wave: feminism (1960s & 1970s)
○ Abortion rights, sexual harrassment, sexual violence, etc
Women’s Liberation Movement
● “The problem that has no name”
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HIST 1320: Fall 2023

○ The Feminine Mystique – Betty Friedan

■ Nothing more to be than a wife and a mother → shattering the housewife
ideal
● The “Sexual Revolution”
○ Women & gay rights
○ Gender and sex normativity challenged
○ Less marriage
Women on the New Left
Women in the Civil Rights Movement
● “Jane Crow”
○ Dangers for black women – sexual assault by white men
Women in The Chicano Movement (El Movimiento)
● Securing more rights and representation for chicanos
○ Protecting worker rights (ex: United Farm Workers Association)
● Machismo in the movement
Consciousness Raising (CR) Groups
● Women get together to talk about what occurred to them
○ Terms were put to these occurrences (ex: sexual assault)
The National Organization for Women (NOW – 1966)
● Founders – Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray, Shirley Chisholm
● Focused on gender discrimination in employment and higher education
● Betty Friedan and the “Lavender Menace”
○ Against lesbian women
Title IX (1972)
● Opens higher education to women, beginning of women’s collegiate and professional
sports, investigating sexual assault
The 1968 Miss America Protest
● Feminist stage protest and argue that women are being paraded around as sex objects
● Burn objects (makeup, barbie dolls, stocking etc) – arguing that culture needs to change
Changing the Culture
● Miss./Mrs. (originally only) → Ms.
● Chicano Women → Chicana
● Political revolution requires cultural revolution
● Political, racial, class, and gender injustices are all connected
Domestic Violence
● Women's Action Alliance (1971)
○ Opens 1st shelter for women leaving these relationships
○ Pushing laws for protected women from abusive partners
● “The personal is political”
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HIST 1320: Fall 2023

Abortion Rights
● Women never criminalized for this but doctors were
● Speakout protests
○ Reforming laws
○ Women are doing it but never talking about it → speakout
Roe v. Wade (1973)
● Argues the 14th amendment
● Rules: privacy is a personal liberty; 1st trimester is the right to privacy, 2nd to the states,
and 3rd has more restrictions
● Bobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization (2022)
○ Overturned Roe v. Wade
Phyllis Schlafy
● “The Silent Majority”
● Housewives in defense of “Family Values”
“Save Our Children”
● First anti-LGBT political organization
● Founded in 1977 by singer Anita Bryant
● Harvey Milk (1930-1978)
The Gay Rights Movement
● The “Sexual Revolution”
● “The Lavender Scare”
○ Systemic firing of anyone accused or thought to be someone who has those
thoughts/participates – basically gay
● Sodomy laws, denying parental rights, local laws
The Stonewall Inn Riot (1969)
● Police raid in beat up patrons and handcuff them → brawl between all of them → protests
(3 days)
● Launched the gay rights movement
Gay Liberation Front (GLF)
● Organized after the Stonewall Inn Riot
○ Fought against the pathologization of being gay
● First pride protests
● Against trans activists
○ Marsha P. Johnson helped found the GLF after Stonewall – couldn’t participate in
first protests
● Took on the “Lavender Menace” term proudly
Rise of the Sunbelt South
● 90% of US population growth took place here during the 1970s
● Majority of people moved here were the silent majority
● Lots of conservative, country music
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HIST 1320: Fall 2023

The Conservative Movement

● Argued social movements were anti-americans and anti-family
Watergate Scandal (1972-1974)
● Nixon’s “Dirty Tricks”
○ Was paranoid and angry and had wiretapped his own office
○ Was running for re-election and was not doing good – election manager was
engaging in sabotaging by publishing things about democrats (lies), wiretapping
then, and spying on them
● 5 workers were caught and arrested with the intent of stealing documents for Nixon
○ 4 were CIA agents – paid half a million ot keep their mouths shut
○ Gave up Nixon quickly
● FBI and CIA later admitted to doing things
● The Nixon Tapes (1973)
○ Nixon resigns to avoid impeachment
○ Growing skepticism and distrust of the federal government
President Gerald Ford (1974-1977)
● Republican Congressman from Michigan
● The only unelected President in American history (no one voted for him)

The New Right (1980s) – November 28th

Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
● Was known due to him being in the media in the 40s and 50s
● Reminded people of life in the 50s
The “New Right”
● Social conservatives
○ Growing movement in the 70s (Phyllis Schlafly)
○ No more social radicalism
● Religious conservatives
○ Evangelical christians join the republican party (mostly due to Jerry Falwell)
○
● Fiscal (economic) conservatives
The Moral Majority (1979)
● Founded by Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell
● Goal was to lobby christian lobby christian voters in subbelt/south and convince them to
vote for Reagan
○ Brought fundamentalist christians into the republican party
Religious (Chrisitan) Conservatives
● Televangelism (early 1980s)
○ Preachers using tele to spread evangelism
○ Megachurches
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HIST 1320: Fall 2023

○ Spreading their religion & other beliefs

● Goal of overturning Roe v Wade
● Reinstate prayer in public schools
○ The “School Prayer Amendment” (1982) – wasn’t passed
● Anti-gay rights movement
○ “Rally for Decency”
○ Reports that increased hysteria (AIDS)
○ Anita Bryant
The HIV/AIDS Crisis
● First US case reported in 1981
● AIDS spread rapidly and fueling that gay men were unsafe and other hysteria
● For the first 5 years there was no response from the govt
○ Thousands died or were infected
Economic Conservatives
● American manufacturing boom was officially over
○ Manufacturing that occurred in the rust belt region (mostly)
● Welfare spending at an all-time high
○ Disabled, social security, widowed mothers, public housing etc
○ Close to cost of military spending
Reaganomics
● Cut taxes for corporations and high-earners
○ Supply-side (businesses) or trickle down economics
○ The rich got richer
● Reduce federal spending on welfare/social programs
○ Food stamps, childcare services (free lunch), widowed mothers
● Wealth in the top 1% doubled during the 1980s
Myth of the “Welfare Queen”
● Used to demonize people receiving assistance
● Sensationalized stories of Black “welfare queens” living large on welfare support
The Computer Revolution
● Revolutionized american work in the 80s
○ Led by Apple (‘77) and Microsoft (‘88)
● Tech and financial sectors expand
● The manufacturing → the corporate city
● Yuppies – new people moving in
○ Young urban proffessionals
Urban Renewal
● Removing “slums” to “revitalize” cities
● Urban homelessness
● Divestment in welfare
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HIST 1320: Fall 2023

A New “Gilded Age”?

● Many were below the poverty line