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Chap 2 : Domestic challellenges in the United States and in France from the 1950s to the 1990s

Plan

• Chap 2 : Domestic challellenges in the United States and in France from the 1950s to the 1990s
  • I. Political, Social, and Cultural transformation in the Post War 40s, 50s, and 60s.
    • A. Post War
    • B. 50s (Affluent Society)
    • C. 60s Great Society
  • II. Civil Rights Movements 60s, 70s, \& 80s
    • A. African American
    • B. Women
    • C. Native Americans (Indians)
    • D. Latinos
    • E. LGBT
    • F. 1968 : The year that want too far or not far enough ?
  • III. Political, Social, and Cultural transformation in the 70s and 80s
    • A. Popular Culture and News Media
    • B. 70s : Rise and evolution of conservatism
    • C. 80s rise and evolution of conservatism
    • D. Evolution in the 90s

I. Political, Social, and Cultural transformation in the Post War 40s, 50s, and 60s.

A. Post War

Baby boom & Suburbia

• soldiers came back; more kids; a good economy
• The gov helped to support the suburbs
• spreading out as they needed more space
• William Levitt → he build homes quickly, all the same

Social Unrest

• purchasing power (pouvoir d’achat) was declining because of inflation
• ended price control
• Waves of Strikes for higher wages

Inflation and Labor Unrest

• Summer 1946 : End of most price controls
• November 1946 : end of all wages control
• Increase in overall consumer price index in just 2 years
  • Decrease in purchasing power
  • Inflation Waves of Strikes for higher wages

Racial Discrimination

• Executive over 9981
• Was an expansion of Executive order 8802 (1941)
  • Establishes equality of treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services for people of all races, religions, or national origins
• Desegregation of armed forces finally accomplished by the Korean War

Fear of Communism - Mr McCarthyism

• National Security Act 1947
• Cold war
• the second red scare
• McCarthyism
• senator that said that anyone who was communist are a threat
• he gave 205 names of people who worked for the government that were supposedly communists
• Propaganda against communism
• National Security Act (1947)
• The federal employe loyalty program
• more than 3 million government workers were investigated to see if they had links to communism
• 1950 : House of Unamerican activities
  • Committee that spread propaganda against communism
• 1954 : The army was accused of being soft on communism
• National Security Council
  • Created by the National Security Act to advise the president

Fair Deal

Civil Rights in the 40s

B. 50s (Affluent Society)

Economic Changes

• People with money and kids buy new things
• Baby boom : Need to follow increasing demographics
• Richest/Healthiest/abundance for many
• Population growth (17%) - 1950 : 153M / 1960 : 179M
• In 1957, 1 baby born every 7 seconds
  • Over 4.3M babies in 1957
• Demand for homes / appliances : cars
  • Made Americans affluent and the sburbs functional
• New businesses
• Inflation was very low
• People were spending money on new technologies
• 1948 : 9% of the households had a television
• 1950 : 55% of the households had a television
  • This had huge influence on social change

Cultural Changes

• Americans workers found themselves becoming standardized
• Baby boom impact
• Suburbian development
• Automobile industry
• Gas was cheap
  • By 1960 : 60M owned an auto
• Interstate highways Act 1956
• Rural population decreased
• If you believe in God, you cannot be communist
  • Communism is a religion
• Highways

Downside of the Affluent Society

• Stronger inequalities
• Automobile
  • Noise, pollution, accidents, traffic jams, stress
• Decline of public transportation
• Poverty on the sideline : in 1952, 1/4 of Americans living below poverty level
• Richest 1% owned 1/3 of the country’s wealth
• Richest 5% owned 1/2 of the country’s wealth
• Michael Harrington : “The Other America” (1962)
• White Flight

Minorities and Civil Rights in the 50s

Part of the population suffered and in particular :

• Senior citizens, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Puerto Ricans
• They sffered from : poor housing / malnutrition / insufficient medical care / Immigration Issues
• 1954 : Brown vs Board of Education
  • Segregation in schools was unconstitutional

Jim Crow Laws and Segregation in the South

• Jim Crow laws were laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States
  • Plessy VS Ferguson, an 1896 Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine
  • Voting rights were restricted through poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses

Immigration Issues in the 50s

• Operation WetBack in 1954

Browan VS Board of Education

• Judge Warrren : Ruled in favor and this struck down the “separate but equal” law
• They didn’t want the school to be desegregated, while it was the law
• Segregation in public schools was unconstitutional

Rosa Parks : 1955

• Rosa Park was black, and should have given her bus seat to white people
• But she did remain sitting

Little Rock Arkansas : 1957

• These people wanted to enter the local school that was desegregated
• When they walked into the school, their entry was refused
• They were intimidated
• The local law enforcers were there but did nothing

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957)

• Founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders
• Aimed to coordinate and support nonviolent protests and civil rights activism
• Played a key role in organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington
• March in Washington DC : 20 000 people
  • Marching to demand the right to vote for everyone
• Advocated for desegregation, voting rights, and equal treatment for African Americans

C. 60s Great Society

JF Kennedy

• Elected in 1960
• Assassinated in November 1963

LB Johnson

• Became president in 1963
• Elected in 1964
• Did not run in 1968

Unconditional War on Poverty

Objective => pass government reforms to fight against :

• poverty
• disease
• racial injustice

40 programs that were intended to eliminate poverty by improving living conditions and enabling people to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty
89 bills

Going Liberal

Judge Warrn … passed laws to increase individual rights including

• Prisonner rights to counsel (Gideon vs Wainright 1963)
• Right to counsel during interrogation (Escobar vs Illinois 1964)
• Right to remain silent and speak to a lawyer (AKA Miranda rights)
• Limiting prayers in schools
• Limiting prayers in schools
• Overtunrned state law in Virginia banning interracial marriage (Loving vs Virginia 1967)

Growing Activism

War escalation

• The the Vietnam was Startve the Great Society Funding ?

Cultural revolution

• The counterculture - A desire for change
• Nature > society / Nature vs plastic
• Hipples / San Francisco Haight-Ashbury - 1967 “Summer of Love”

Student Protests

• Against the war in vietnam
• Against the government
• Some because they were afraid to get drafted for the war, other because they are against the war
• 1967 : protest in burkley “stop the draft week”
• violent

Pentagon Papers

• 1971 : The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers
• The Pentagon Papers was a study of the Vietnam War ordered by the Department of Defense
• The study revealed that the government had been lying to the public about the war for years
• The Nixon administration tried to stop the publication of the papers, but the Supreme Court ruled that the government could not censor the press
• The publication of the Pentagon Papers was one of the first major blows to the Nixon administration
• Human cost

II. Civil Rights Movements 60s, 70s, & 80s

A. African American

Sit in that staarted on Feb 1940

• 4 black students sat at a white counter
• They were refused to be served
• They stayed there until the store closed
• They did that for 5 months, and more and more black people came to do this
• They were arrested, beaten up, sprayed with water, but they kept doing it
• They were not violent, they were just sitting there
• Had a code of conduct, that defined how they should behave
  • They should always stay polite
  • Don’t reply or react to any act of violence

Executive Order 11063 (20 nov 1962)

• Signed by JFK
• Prohibits racial discrimination in federally funded housing
• The order was signed in response to protests by civil rights activists who had marched on Washington DC in 1962
• The order was not enforced until 1968

1963 : Violence in Birmingham

• The police chief was very violent
• He used dogs and fire hoses against the protesters
• The police chief was fired
• The city was desegregated

Civil Rights Act 1964

• Banned discrimination in public accomodations
• Outlawed unequal voting requirements
• Banned discrimination in employment based on race, gender, religion, or natural origin
• Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enforce the law
• Applied federal power to speed integration of school and other in public facilities

Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964

• CRA wasn’t enough
• Stil faced discrimination
• Racist laws and fear of white retribution kept southern blacks from voting
• “Wave of terror”
  • Hundreds of students were burned
  • Churches were burnt

Selma 1965

• Bloody Sunday, Selma

Voting Rights Act 1965

• Major legislation
• Key concern of the civil rights movement

Black Power Movement

• Emerged in the 1960s as a response to racial inequality and oppression faced by African Americans
• Advocated for self-determination, self-defense, and economic empowerment within the black community
• Promoted black pride, cultural awareness, and the celebration of African heritage
• Influenced by leaders such as Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party
• Called for an end to police brutality and systemic racism
• Focused on community organizing, political activism, and grassroots movements
• Played a significant role in shaping the civil rights movement and challenging the status quo

B. Women

Equal rights law 1963

• The women hit a glass ceiling
• Betty Friedan wrote a book : The feminine mystique (1963)
  • A rebirth of feminism
• Simone de Beauvoir (1949)

The Civil rights act did include a law for equality, but enforcement wasn’t there

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

• Proposed amendment to the US Constitution
• Equality for everything for both genders
• WDesire to change the constitution
• A lot of feminist were against this equal rights
  • Not all women wanted it
  • Afraid of the consequences of the women going to work
• 1972 : ERA proposed for vote into the congress
  • Approved, but not the same

Phyllis Schalafly - was totally against ERA

• Sweetheart of silence Majority (SSM)
• Strong leader in trying to oppose the abortion law
• Wanted to sanction gay marriage, unisex toilet, women in combat, tranditional family

Reagan was president in the 90s

• Anti abortion was very strong
• Reagan government’s appointed some women but not that much
• He opposed federal funding to help for childcare, women
• Opposed programs (affirmative action)

C. Native Americans (Indians)

• Severe house problems
• 1/3 of the population was unemployed
• 1/3 of the population was illiterate
• Isolated
• Racist
• Low life expectancy
• Children were likely to die at a very young age
• Wern’t always official citizens
  • Operation wetback (1954)

1953 : Termination policy

• Goal was to end the status of Indians and give them rights

Tried to occupy alcatraz

• To maintain their power
• Forced out by the federal gov
• 300 native americans were killed (1890)
• the gov gave conpensation

D. Latinos

• Increased in the 60s
• 1/3 live below poverty line
• Unemployment x2 higher than caucasian white
• 80% worked in unskilled jobs
• Faced discrimination
• Fewer ressources
• Struggle for equal justice
• They call themselves the Chicanos
  • Convey the idea of ethnic pride
  • Be proud and contribute to make things change
• 1962 : National Farm Workers Association
• 1966 : Crusade for justice
• 1967 : MAYO (Mexican A YOuth Association)
  • Aggressive
• 1970 : Raza Unida
  • Campaining for bilingual education
• 1967 : Brown Berets
  • Powerful
  • Education
  • Protesting against police’s brutality
• The Chicano death rate in Vietnam was much higher

E. LGBT

• They are GAY
• Too gay
• Liberty
• Until 1963 : Listed homosexuality as a mental disorder
• Treatment by law enforcement was very harsh
  • Police often infiltrated bars to beat up people and send them to jail
• June 29 1969 : Stonewall INN
  • Turning point
  • A bar in NYC
  • The bar was raided by police, a riot broke out
  • The days after this incident; gay people started to come out
  • People started to realise that they were a lot more gay people than they though
• 1970 : Homosexuality was still suffering from discrimination
• 1973 : National Organization for Women endorse gay rights as well
• 1974 : The American Psychiatric Association stopped considering homosexuality as a mental disorder
• Harvey Milk
• 1977 : Poll suggested that half of the population favored equal rights for gay people
  • Those who oppose were the conservatives, the religious people
• 1980s : Still millions of gay people were scared to come out

F. 1968 : The year that want too far or not far enough ?

Things were changing

• Good for some
• Bad for others

They elected Richard Nickson

• Narrow victory
• Nickson ran against the democrats

The year that went too far

• 1968 was a year of social and political upheaval
• The Vietnam War was at its peak
• The civil rights movement was gaining momentum

Rising unemployment, and rising inflation

• Stagflation

Deficit spending

• The government was spending more than it was earning
• Price freezing

1973 Oil Crisis

• OPEC countries
  • They did set up en embargo on the shipment of oil to the US
• The price of oil was multiplied by 4
• The US was very dependent on oil
• The US was importing a lot of oil
• The oil exporting countries were angry at the US

New federalism

• The federal government was giving more power to the states
• Revenue sharing
• They try to choose in which sector they want to invest their money
• Give the state more autonomy
• Budget that you would have for the federal government

III. Political, Social, and Cultural transformation in the 70s and 80s

A. Popular Culture and News Media

Nixon & Civil rights

• Nixon less sympathetic to minorities than Johnson had been
• He believed integration was moving too far too fast
• He wanted to delay the desegregation of the schools in Mississippi and opposed court-ordered busing
• Opposed the extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but Congress did extend it
• Vice-president Ford
  • Ford is the only american president that was never elected by the american people

B. 70s : Rise and evolution of conservatism

• Republican
• Vice-President under Nixon 1973 - 1974 after Agnew’s resignation
• President from 1974 - 1977
• Vice President : Nelson Rockfeller

Jimmy Carter

• He seemed like a nice guy that would be truthful
• Democrat
• President from 1977-1981
• Vice-president : Walter Mondale
• Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
• BUT
  • American blamed him for failing to improve the economy
  • He lost his campain for re-election to conservative Republican Ronald Reagan during the Iranian Hostage Crisis
  • Served just one term (much presidential rotation since Nixon’s resignation)
• The 70s
  • End of the Vietnam war
    • It was a humiliation for the Americans
  • Iranian revolution

C. 80s rise and evolution of conservatism

A new right

• Abortion right
• Reagon attracted the Moral Majority

Supreme Court becoming more conservative

• Reagan’s presidency had a significant impact on the Supreme Court, leading to a shift towards conservatism.
• Reagan appointed conservative justices, such as Antonin Scalia and William Rehnquist, who held conservative views on issues like abortion, affirmative action, and individual rights.
• This shift in the Supreme Court’s composition had long-lasting effects on the interpretation of the Constitution and the direction of the country.

Conservative measures

• Reduction of government regulations
• Tax cuts for businesses and high-income individuals
• Deregulation of industries such as telecommunications and banking
• Welfare reform
• Tougher crime policies

Social Changes & Impact

• Social transformation
• Money spending

Entertainment

• Soap operas
• Hollywood
• TV Talk shows
  • People talked about themselves, in public about private matters
• Music
  • Sang about sex & drugs
  • New types : Rap where lyrics spoken, not sang

Technology changed america

• Internet
• Computers

AIDS hit the headlines in the Reagan years

• Acquired immune deficiency sundrome (AIDS)
• Struck male homosexuals and intravenous drug users
• Mid 80s had spread to blood banks
• Reagan refused to push in that direction, he was against religious values
  • But it was very widespread among homosexuals
• 24 states had laws against sex between two males

Women

• Women earned on average 62% of what men earned in 1980 but 72% in 1990
• Supreme court did not reverse ROE V WADE but the anti-abortion sentiment remained strong

D. Evolution in the 90s

Impact on the economy

• Planned control of the money supply

Reagan was elected twice

• 1988 : George Bush
• 1992 : Bill Clinton

Reagan put an end to the cold war

Socio-economic impact of WW2