The Turning Tide:

The Great Society and The Vietnam War

1947 1975

1954- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.

1955 - (Montgomery, Ala,) Bus boycott initiated after NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the bus to a white passenger.

1957 - (Little Rock, Ark.) Nine black students are blocked from entering the

school by Governor. President Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students.

1960 - (Greensboro, N.C.) Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter.

1961- Freedom riders, student volunteers on bus trips to test the implementation of new laws prohibiting segregation in interstate travel facilities.

CIVIL RIGHTS BEFORE LBJ

1963 - (Washington, D.C.) About 250,000 people join the March on Washington. Reverend King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

1964 - President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment illegal.

- Johnson sends military personnel to find bodies of three Mississippi civil-rights workers.

1965 - March to Montgomery in support of voting rights are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade.

- Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote.

- (Los Angeles, Ca.) Watts Riot

1968- (Memphis, Tenn.) Reverend King is shot

  - President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

CIVIL RIGHTS AND LBJ

The Texan’s Family

LBJ’s Resume

• Congressional Staffer

• Member of the House of Representatives

• U.S. Senator– Majority Leader

• Vice-President

“The Johnson Treatment”

• Reputation of being “overpowering and intimidating”

• Invaded personal space: nose to nose

• “persuasive and personable rather than elegant and charming”

The Texan’s Style

The 1964 Election

LBJ winning campaign Ad!

The Results

War AbroadWars at Home:

Vietnam and theFracturing of America

Civil Rights to Revolution: The Needs of theOther America.

• Legal inequality versus de facto inequality• 22.1% poverty rate in 1960• disproportionate numbers of racial minorities,

women, elderly, and rural residents living in poverty

• Identity Politics Movements• Cultural pride and raised awareness

“When I was young, poverty was so common that we didn’t know it had a name. An education was something that you had to fight for..It is now my opportunity to help every child get an education, to help every Negro and every American citizen have an equal opportunity to have every family get a decent home, and to help bring healing to the sick and dignity to the old. A Great Society, [ which] rests on abundance and libertyfor all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice,to which we are totally committed.”

President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

A Great Society and A War on Poverty

Economic Opportunity Act(1965-1974)•1 billion for the Office ofEconomic Opportunity (10 programs)•Head Start

improve long-rangeeducationalachievements of poorchildren

•Upward Boundhelp low-incometeenagers develop skillsneeded for college

•VISTAdomestic Peace Corpsteachers into poor schooldistricts

Economic Opportunity Act 1965

Economic Opportunity Act 1965

Community Action AgenciesCommunity Action was based on the premise of funding neighborhood groups directly, rather than following the ancient political custom of allowing mayors, governors, and members of Congress to determine how federal money is spent in their jurisdictions.

1,000 CAPs were created with boards comprised of one-third elected officials, one-third local business leaders, and one-third poor people

Elementary and SecondaryEducation Act (1965)

1st federal-aid-to-education law$1.3 billion for textbooks,library materials, special

education programs***more money going to districts that had large proportions of students from poor families

Higher Education Act (1965)$650 million for scholarshipsand low-interest loans to needystudentsfunds for college libraries andresearch facilities

Education emphasis on helping poor children

EducationJob Corps

vocational training for schooldropouts

The Bilingual Education Act of 1968

minority language speakersprovide school districts with federal funds to establish educational programs for students with limited English speaking ability

Neighborhood Youth Corps give poor urban youths work experience and to encourage them to stay in school

The Wilderness Act of 1964

protected some 9 million acres of federal land. from corporation and private use.

Environment

National Historic Preservation Act 1965

preserve historical and archaeological sites in the United States of America. The act created the National Register of Historic Places

Water Quality Act of 1965 Required states to issue water quality standards for interstate waters monitored by feds!

Air Quality Act 1967 expand federal government

Aid to Families with Dependent Children

3 million to 10 million

Food Stamps Program (1961-) $ 1 million (1961)$2 billion (1970s)

Welfare

Housing• Housing Act (1965)

$8 billion for low-and middle income housing

rent supplements for low- income families

new authority for families qualifying for public housing to be placed in empty private housing

•Created Department of Housing andUrban Development (1965)

•Medicaremedical insurance for the elderly under socialsecurity

•Medicaidhealth care for welfare recipients$32 billion (1965-1975) paid medical costs for 20% of Americans

Medical Care Act (1965))

Transportation

Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964

$375 million for large-scale urban public or private rail projects

Each State shall have a highway safety program approved by the Secretary, designed to reduce traffic accidents and deaths, injuries, and property damage

Highway Safety Act of 1966

• Community Action Programencouraged maximum feasible participation.

•Legal Services Program provided poor with free legal aid

Community Empowerment

Social Security EXPANDED increased benefits established new programs to combat poverty

•Neighborhood Youth Corpsprovided work to 2 million between 16-21 28% unemployed after 6 months of training(1966-1967)

• National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities (1965) federal funding for artists and scholars

•Public Broadcasting Act (1967) to create educational television programs to supplement

the broadcast networks. Government funded programs such as PBS and NPR

Community Empowerment

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

II. Prohibited racial discrimination in public places, such as theaters, restaurants and hotels

III. Required employers to provide equal employment opportunities

Projects involving federal funds could now be cut off if there was evidence of discriminated based on color, race or national origin.

I. Barred unequal application of voter registration requirements, but did not abolish literacy tests sometimes used to disqualify African Americans and poor white voters

Abolished the national origins quota system that had structured American immigration policy since the 1920s - America was a low-immigration country favoring European based groups

Numerical restrictions on visas were set at 170,000 per year

LBJ and Ted Kennedy swept up in the new anti-discrimination wave- Criticized 1920s ethnic quotas as chauvinism and racism

Immediate family members of U.S. citizens and political refugees face no quotas

outlawed discrimination in voting

prohibits states from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.“

It outlawed literacy tests and poll taxes as a way of assessing whether anyone was fit or unfit to vote.

(1965) EXECUTIVE ORDER•Banned discrimination on the basis of race, religion, andnational origin by employers awarded governmentcontracts (1/3 of labor force)• Required employers to .take affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity.

•“to move beyond opportunity to achievement.[to achieve] not just equality as a right and theory, but equality as fact and as result.”

•required employers to bring composition of laborforce into line with civil rights acts by hiring more minorities

Affirmative Action

As he put down his pen, Johnson told an aide, "We have lost the South for a generation", anticipating a coming backlash from Southern whites against Johnson's Democratic Party.

Civil Rights Act of 1968commonly known as the Fair Housing Act

I. prohibited discrimination in housing, The 1968 act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin

II. Extended constitutional protections to Native Americans on reservations

The Economic “Miracle”– Capital and Labor

white, middle-class backlash

75% of poor were white and escaped poverty at a faster rate than blacks

special interest legislation

Race and Poverty

•$1.2 billion vs. $22 billion (1966)•< $2 billion/year vs. $2 billion/month

•“If I left the woman I really love - the Great Society - in order to getinvolved with that bleep of a war on the other side off the world, then Iwould lose everything at home. All my programs. All my hopes tofeed the hungry and shelter the homeless. But if I left that war andlet the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen asa coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we wouldboth find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhereon the entire globe..Losing the Great Society was a terrible thought,but not so terrible as the thought of being responsible for Americalosing a war to the Communists. Nothing could possibly be worse thanthat.” – LBJ

• The Great Society was “shot down on the battlefields of Vietnam”.Martin Luther King, Jr.

War on Poverty vs. War in Vietnam

•Longest war in U.S.history (1965-1973)

•6.2 million tons ofbombs dropped by U.S.

•3x WWII

•2.8 million Americans served•58,000 died•11,000 MIA•300,000 wounded•spent $150 billion

Overview of the Vietnam War

U.S. Ground Troops

1967Apr 10 - Vietnam Week starts.  Draft card burnings and anti-draft demonstrations Apr 15 - Anti-Vietnam War protest. 400,000 march from Central Park to UN. Oct 21-22 - Anti-war protesters storm the Pentagon 35,000 Demonstrate, 647 arrested Dec - "Stop the Draft" movement organized by 40 antiwar groups, nationwide protests ensue. Dec 5 - 1000 antiwar protesters try to close NYC induction center.  585  

1968 Apr 23 - SDS lead students take over 5 buildings at Colombia Univ for a week. 700 arrested Jun 14 - Dr. Benjamin Spock convicted of conspiracy to abet draft evasion August 25-29 - Democratic Convention in Chicago  demonstration 10,000  

1969 Feb 13 - 33 students arrested at admin bldg sit-in at Univ of Mass. Feb 18 - Students seize building and  boycott started at Howard University Feb 24 - Students occupy Admin bldg at Penn State Feb 27 - Police charge student picket lines, club and arrest two Chicano leaders at U.C. Berkeley Apr 9 - 300 Harvard students led by SDS seize Univ Hall and evict eight deans Apr 24 - U.S. B-52s launch biggest attack on North Vietnam. Protests in 40 cities Oct 8-11 - The Weatherman "Days of Rage" Oct 15 - Peace Day. 500,000 protesters nationwide. First Vietnam Moratorium

THE SO-CALLED PEACE MOVEMENT

1970 Feb 19 - Explosions in 3 office buildings in NY; and in Calif; Wash; Maryland; Mich, possibly done by the Weathermen Mar 6 - Three Weathermen blow themselves up in Greenwich Village, NY May 4 - Four College Students Killed by National Guard at Kent State University, Ohio May 9 - 100,000 attend antiwar rally, Wash. D.C. May 14 - Police kill two at Jackson State during violent student demonstrations

1971Apr 19 - Over 1000  Veterans demonstrate against the Vietnam  war in Wash D.C., throwing their

medals over the Capitol fence Apr 24 - Over 350,000 Veterans march in Wash D.C. and SF to protest war in Vietnam Apr 26 - 50,000 demonstrators in Washington D.C. set up "Algonquin Peace City" May 3 - May Day antiwar protest, Wash. D.C.

1972 Aug 23 - 1100 antiwar protest arrested outside Republican Nat'l Convention

1973

1974

1975

THE SO-CALLED PEACE MOVEMENT

The Traumas of 1968The King and Kennedy Assassinations

Memphis, April 4, 1968Los Angeles, June 6, 1968

Jam

es E

arl R

aySirhan Sirhan

1968 Election

“The Conservative

Response”