Transcript Goals 11 and 12

Goals 11 and 12
•Communist Scare
•Duck and Cover
•Fall out Shelters
•Alger Hiss
•Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
•ICBMs
•Sputnik
•National Security Act of 1947
•CIA
•Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
•AFL-CIO
•Watergate Scandal
•The Fair Deal
•Brown vs. Board of Education [1954]
•Federal Highway Act of 1956
•The New Left
•Détente
•Thurgood Marshall
•Rosa Parks
•Martin Luther King Jr.
•The Little Rock Nine
•Sit-ins
•Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools [1971]
•Texas vs. Johnson [1989]
Communist Scare
• The threat of nuclear war was a very real
threat in the United States during the
Cold War with the Soviet Union from
1945 to 1989.
• School children in the United States
during the 1950s and 1960s were trained
in school to Duck and Cover if they were
under attack from a nuclear explosion.
• Students would hide under desks and
protect exposed body parts from nuclear
blasts.
• Of course this method was not adequate
but it was all there was available in case
of an actual explosion.
Communist Scare
• To protect themselves from explosions and
radiation related to nuclear attacks from the
Soviet Union private and public buildings often
created Fallout Shelters in the basements.
• Clearly labeled signs instructed citizens to head
underground into these shelters that were lined
with thick walls and large supplies of water,
canned or dried food and batteries for prolonged
stays if necessary.
H.U.A.C. [House Un-American Activities Committee]
Formed to root out Communists in
the U.S.
–
–
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Started by investigating movie industry
Led by Richard Nixon
Friendly vs. unfriendly witnesses
Hollywood Ten [a list of ten prominent
movie writers, producers and writers
who refused to give testimony to
Congress when subpoenaed. They
were blacklisted or banned from the
movie industry for many years if not
permanently].
McCarran Act
– 1950 - Passed by Congress
– Law made it unlawful to plan actions
that might lead to totalitarianism.
– Vetoed by Truman
– Overridden by Congress
Spy Cases Stun the Nation
Alger Hiss
– State Dept. official
– Accused of espionage by
Whittaker Chambers – former
Communist Spy
– Nixon gained fame for pursuing
Hiss.
– Hiss went to jail for perjury since
too much time had passed to be
convicted of espionage.
– 1990s – Soviet cables released by
the NSA proved Hiss’s guilt.
Spy Cases Stun the Nation
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
– Sept. 3, 1949
• USSR exploded an Atomic Bomb
– Klaus Fuchs, an American
diplomat, admitted giving info to
the Soviet Union
• Implicated Ethel & Julius
Rosenberg – minor activists for
Communist Party
– Professed innocence
– Found guilty on weak and
circumstantial evidence.
– Executed via Electric Chair for
Espionage in June 1953.
Competition in arms/technology
• Americans were first in nuclear
weapons but the Soviets were
first in satellites and ICBMs
[Intercontinental Ballistic
Missiles].
• In 1957 the USSR launched the
space satellite Sputnik via
ICBM.
• The satellite was the first to
circle the earth from space and
could take pictures of the
earth’s surface.
• ICBMs could reach targets far
from their launch sites [across
oceans thousands of miles to
different continents].
National Security Act of 1947
• In the midst of the so-called Cold War between the United States and the
Soviet Union President Truman signed the National Security Act in 1947.
• The legislation was intended to increase the security of the United States by:
[A] Creating the C.I.A. [Central Intelligence Agency] which was designed to
secretly gather intelligence [information] on foreign threats to the U.S.
[B] Creating the position of Secretary of Defense led by a civilian manager to lead
all branches of the U.S. Military answering only to the president [previously
the position was called Secretary of War].
[C] Creating a National Security Council to advise the president on foreign,
domestic and military policy.
Taft-Hartley Act
• In 1947 the U.S. Congress
passed a law sponsored by U.S.
senators Taft and Hartley.
• The law prohibited [banned]
certain actions, such as strikes,
by labor unions which
protected employers from
workers/unions.
• Unions had to give at least 60
days notice of strikes and could
not just walk off the job for no
reason.
A.F.L.-C.I.O.
• In 1955 two labor unions, the American
Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, merged to create
the United States largest workers’
organization called the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
•
The A.F.L. was founded and led by famous
union leader Samuel Gompers who was
known for promoting and combining craft
unions.
• The C.I.O. was founded and led by politically
powerful John L. Lewis who organized
mining workers and helped raise pay,
improved working conditions and created
retirement pensions.
• The C.I.O. had heavy communist influences
which were criticized. The Taft-Hartley Act
mandated non-communist oaths for union
membership. After the merger there was no
communist influence.
The Fair Deal
• In 1948 after President Harry
Truman was elected serve to serve
in his own right as president [he
became president after F.D.R.’s
death initially] he unveiled a
domestic policy agenda called the
Fair Deal.
• His policy strengthened the
progressive agendas of F.D.R.’s New
Deal and the Teddy Roosevelt’s
Square Deal before that.
• Increases in funding for Social
Security payments, increases in the
federal minimum wage, creation of
federal housing projects, increased
benefits for war veterans and much
more.
Brown v. Board of Education [1954]: The “Separate Schools” Case
Facts of the Case:
A third grade student named Linda Brown
Was forbidden from going to an all-white
school 7 blocks from her home.
Instead she was forced to walk 6 blocks
Across train tracks and past junk yards to
wait at a bus stop to attend a “colored”
school 1 mile from her home.
Her parents were persuaded by the
NAACP to sue the school, system after trying
to register their child and being refused.
All their appeals were rejected because of
the precedent [stare decisis] set by the
Plessy case decision which allowed
separate but equal public facilities .
The Brown family was granted an appeal
[certiorari] to the Court in 1954.
Constitutional Issue(s):
Would the legal precedent set in the Plessy
case be overturned?
Were racial segregation [separation]
laws allowable?
Supreme Court’s Ruling:
The opinion of the Court determined
Separate but Equal effected black children’s
ability to learn because based on studies
also harmed their self image. The Court’s previous ruling
in Plessy was overturned because they believed the
14thAmendment of the U.S. Constitution allowed equal
protection under the law.
Federal-Aid Highway Act [National Highway Act] of 1956
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation
authorizing funding and construction of a national
interstate highway system in 1956.
• During his early U.S. Army career he realized the
nation had great shortcomings with regard to its main
road systems.
• The interstate highway system connected all regions
of the nation [North to South and East to West].
Taxes on gasoline, tires and vehicles paid for the
project. 90% federal funding and 10% from the
states.
The New Left
• In the late 1950s many young socialist thinkers, especially college students,
became disenchanted and disgruntled with Communism as it manifested itself
in China, Cuba and the Soviet Union.
• Authoritarian dictatorships ,where citizens’ rights were trampled, led people
with communist “leanings” associated with the New Left to use democratic
principles such as protesting and demonstrations to force social changes.
• The New Left called its target, the conservative federal government or anyone
who disagreed with it, The Establishment.
• The new left was inspired by former many labor leaders but also by European
philosophers such as Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre who questioned
government legitimacy.
Détente: French for eased tension
• Richard Nixon became president in 1968. Prior to his terms as vice president to
Eisenhower he had been an the outspoken chairman of H.U.A.C. [House UnAmerican Activities Committee].
• The Soviet Union was concerned that relations with the U.S. would deteriorate.
However, with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the U.S. engaged its two
biggest communist rivals: China and the Soviet Union in productive peace and
trade talks.
• The U.S. and the Soviet Union were able to ease tensions between them by
negotiating nuclear weapons reductions during the S.A.L.T. I and S.A.L.T. II
conferences . The second conference ended with the U.S. not ratifying the
arms treaty because of Soviet military actions in Cuba and Afghanistan.
U.S. President
Nixon
Soviet Premier
Brezhnev
Thurgood Marshall
• Marshall was a Howard University
trained lawyer who argued more cases
before the U.S. Supreme Court than any
other lawyer in history [won 29 out of
32 cases there].
• He was the chief counsel of the
N.A.A.C.P.’s Legal Defense Fund for over
20 years.
• His most famous case was the 1954
Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education.
• The Court ruled that segregation of
public schools was unconstitutional.
• Unfortunately, the case’s effect was
blocked by Southern governors from
Mississippi to Arkansas to Georgia.
• Marshall was confirmed as the first
black U.S. Supreme Court justice in
1967.
Chief Justice Earl Warren
• Earl Warren was a former governor of California and
unsuccessful Republican vice presidential candidate with
Thomas Dewey in 1948.
• He was confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court justice in 1953
and served until 1969.
• The “Warren Court” was known for its momentous 4
Landmark decisions:
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•
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Brown vs. Board of Education of 1954 [public segregation]
Gideon vs. Wainwright of 1963 [right to counsel]
Reynolds vs. Sims of 1964 [one man one vote]
Miranda vs. Arizona of 1966 [freedom from selfincrimination]
Rosa Parks
• Up until her arrest on December 1, 1955
Rosa Parks was a nondescript department
store employee in Montgomery Alabama.
• After her work shift was over, she
boarded a public bus to go home. She
refused to obey the orders of a bus driver
to move her seat to a different section of
the bus according to an Alabama Jim
Crow law created in 1900.
• She was arrested and convicted of
disorderly conduct and fined a total of
$14 including court costs.
• Her actions led to the so-called
Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted 20
days until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
Browder vs. Gayle that Alabama’s bus
segregation laws were unconstitutional.
Martin Luther King Jr.
• King was an Atlanta born minister who ministered at a church in Montgomery,
Alabama.
• Due to what he deemed unacceptably discriminatory, racist laws in Alabama he
embraced the non-violent methods on Indian freedom fighter Mohandas Gandhi.
• He led non-violent, anti-segregation marches on Alabama’s state capital as well as
the famous March on Washington in 1963 where he delivered the legendary I
Have a Dream speech advocating an end to racial egregation.
• He was arrested, attacked and threatened many times during his Civil Rights
Movement. After years of threats he was murdered on April 4, 1968 on a hotel
balcony in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Little Rock Nine
• Following the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling to desegregate the Little Rock,
Arkansas School Board agreed to institute gradual integration and by 1957 have
integration completed.
• 9 black students were chosen for Little Rock Central High School based on their
excellent academic record. Local white residents were incensed with the change.
• Arkansas’ Governor Orvil Faubus sent in the state’s National Guard to appease
defiant white residents and blockade the Little Rock Nine from entering the school.
• Eventually, at the local mayor’s request, President Eisenhower took command of
the state’s National Guard and sent in the 101st Airborne Division to escort and
protect the Little Rock Nine. Despite abuse and threats all 9 students graduated.
Sit-ins
• On February 1, 1960 four college freshmen from North Carolina A&T in Greensboro
entered a Woolworth’s department store at the lunch counter to attempt to
receive service.
• Woolworth’s policy was to not serve blacks due to their segregation policy. The
students were not served that afternoon instead they were heckled and harassed
by other patrons.
• In the following days dozens and dozens more black students and youth
participated in sit-ins and eventually the store reversed its policy voluntarily after
the movement gained national attention and spread to other Southern states.
President Eisenhower was also sympathetic to the cause.
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited the segregation of all public
accommodations.
Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education [1971]:
The “Forced Busing” Case
Facts of the Case:
After all efforts to desegregate schools in
North Carolina schools in the CharlotteMecklenburg system remained heavily
racially segregated [separated by color].
The parents of black 6-year old James Swann
believed that not being able to go to a
school of their choice beyond their
neighborhood was preventing the child
from receiving a proper education.
The parents believed that busing should be
provided to insure that desegregation was
really happening and their child was going
to a school that was appropriate.
All lower courts ruled in the school district’s
favor because all but most elementary schools
were busing students.
Constitutional Issue(s):
Was the ruling in the Brown case being
obeyed by this school district?
Must a state government agency “go out of
its way” to insure constitutional rights?
Supreme Court’s Ruling:
The opinion of the court stated that without
forced busing of students to even
out the racial mix of schools the district was
not doing enough to make sure schools were
not racially segregated.
Forced busing become mandatory if the
schools wanted to do it.
Nixon and the Watergate Scandal
• Was a member of the Republican
political party.
• He ran for re-election in 1972
against the Democratic party his
opponent.
• He allegedly sent men to break
into a hotel in Washington, D.C.
where the Democratic Party was
headquartered.
• Why did he do this you ask?
Nixon and the
Watergate Scandal
• President Richard was by many accounts
a was a paranoid person.
• Why else?
• To gain info on his opponents.
• The men placed listening devices (bugs)
at offices of his opponents at the
Watergate hotel.
Watergate
• Five (5) men were caught
breaking into the Democratic
headquarters and arrested.
• So?
• The investigation led all the way
back to the president.
• Nixon denied all involvement at
first.
Other branches of government
enter…
• The House of
Representatives launched
an investigation.
• They uncovered a “cover
up” by the president.
• Evidence of “high crimes
and misdemeanors”
Impeachment
• The House of Representatives decided
to impeach the president.
• Then what?
• They needed evidence (proof).
• They remembered that everything in the
White House was audio recorded.
Enter the Courts
• The infamous “smoking
gun” tapes were
subpoenaed (called for).
• What was Nixon’s
response?
• He refused citing executive
privilege.
The final branch
• Nixon eventually gave up highly
edited versions of the tapes.
• The Supreme Court ordered that
Nixon hand over the tapes without
delay.
• Evidence from the unedited
versions proved his involvement.
Final result?
• Dick Nixon became the first president
ever to resign.
• Why?
• He did not want to be removed.
• What was the whole point?
• This cased proved that no one is
above the law which .
Regents of the University of California v Bakke:
Facts of the Case:
“The Med School Quota Case”
Issues before Supreme Court:
Allan Bakke believed he had been
discriminated against, because he was
white, after he applied to medical
school and was rejected.
The medical school in California he
applied to had different programs to get
in.
Were racial quotas a fair method of
preventing racism in college entrance?
Were racial quotas preventing everyone
from equal treatment?
Ruling by the Supreme Court:
One for “disadvantaged” and one for
“regular” students.
Race could only be one factor used to
After being rejected twice and learning
non-white students with lower scores
than he were admitted he sued.
into a school.
California State Courts later ordered Bakke
admitted because the medical school
illegally created quotas [slots specially set
aside] for non-whites which was considered
discrimination.
The Regents of the University of California
appealed the decision to the High Court.
consider whether to allow a student
If it was the sole or major reason it
was in violation of equal protection
under the law.
Texas v Johnson:“The Burnt Flag Case”
Facts of the Case:
Issues before Supreme Court:
As a way to protest against President
Ronald Reagan and his policies Gregory
Johnson burned an American flag at the
Republican Convention in Dallas, Texas.
Were Johnson’s actions a protected
form of expression even though it
was very unpatriotic and insulting?
He was eventually sentenced to 1 year in jail
and a $2,000 fine by the state of Texas.
48 out of 50 states at that time had laws
banning abuse to the U.S. flag.
Can states make laws protecting
certain symbols?
Ruling by the Supreme Court:
The opinion of the Court was that
although this expression was very offensive
His conviction was overturned and upheld by
all courts on appeal.
to democracy and its symbol the symbolic
The State of Texas appealed to the High
Court.
speech.
action was an acceptable form of protected
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