“War at Home”

1. “War at Home” Social, Political, and Economic Challenges (1965-1976)

2. “The Great Society” and the “War on Poverty” • Examples of programs: • Job Corps • Neighborhood Youth Corps • Volunteers in Service to America • Community Action Program • Legal Services Program • Head Start • Medicare

3. Medicare • Established by Congress in 1965 to provide basic health care for the aged. • Best example in this period of “social welfare”; “spending on social welfare jumped from 7.7 percent of the GNP in 1960 to 16 percent in 1974.” • But the bulk of people covered under Medicare and who were receiving expanded Social Security payments were not poor.

4. Malcolm X • Born Malcolm Little. • Dad was murdered in “racist attack by local whites.” • While serving a prison sentence for burglary, converted to Islam, and would eventually change his last name. • Beginning in 1952, he became “dynamic organizer, editor, and speaker for the Nation of Islam.”

5. Malcolm X • By the early 1960s, he “ridiculed the integrationist goals of the civil rights movement,” saying that: • Blacks needed to feel free to defend themselves and “break free of white domination ‘by any means necessary.’” • Black Muslims do not want “to integrate into this corrupt society, but to separate from it, to a land of our own, where we can reform ourselves, lift up our moral standards, and try to be godly.”

7. Malcolm X • Then, after becoming disenchanted with NOI and making a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, he underwent a “radical alteration in my whole outlook about ‘white’ men.” • He founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, met with SNCC activists, and reversed his separatist stance. • On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated during a speech in Harlem by NJ members of the NOI. • http://www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/

8. Selma to Montgomery (1965) • MLK and his aides “plotted to create a crisis that would arouse national indignation, pressure Congress, and force federal action.” • After trying to register blacks to vote in Selma – and having 3,000 protesters arrested – the SCLC called for a protest march from Selma to Montgomery in order to deliver a list of grievances to Governor Wallace.

9. Selma to Montgomery • On March 7, 1965 -- in what became known as “Bloody Sunday” -- the group of marchers were met by county and state police. • When they refused to turn back, “the lawmen attacked with billy clubs and tear gas.” • A week later, President Johnson both voiced support for voting rights legislation and demanded that the marchers be allowed to complete their journey. • http://www.spidermartin.com/spidermartin/welcome.html • http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/civilrights/al4.htm

10. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Signed into law in August 1965. • Authorized federal supervision of registration in states and counties where fewer than half of voting-age residents were registered. • It outlawed voting “tests.” • Would prove enormously successful: • Between 1964-68, the number of black voters tripled from 1 million to 3.1 million.

11. African American Voter Registration Before and After Passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965http://www.usnews.com/usnews/documents/docpages/document_page100.htmhttp://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-07-13-votingrights_x.htmhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4788074

12. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 • “The egalitarian political climate created by the civil rights movement nurtured efforts to modernize and reform the country’s immigration policies.” • The new legislation “abolished the national origins quotas that had been in place since the 1920s,” and instead “substituted overall hemispheric limits.”

13. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 • Exempted from new quotas were immigrants seeking family reunification -- additionally, once a new immigrant achieved resident or citizenship status, they could sponsor other family members to come over. • Preferences were given to people with specialized job skills and training. • Limits on Western Hemisphere migration “created conditions that increased undocumented immigration from L.A.”

15. Stokely Carmichael and “Black Power” • In 1966, Carmichael -- a former SNCC activist -- coined the term “Black Power” as a “means for African Americans to take control of their own communities.” • Discussions amongst activists included a range of issues, including celebrating African culture and history to creating a plan to partition the U.S. into black and white nations.

16. Black Panther Party for Self-Defense • An outgrowth of the separatist and self-help movement. • Founded in Oakland, California in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. • “We want freedom…We want power…We want full employment…We want all black men to be exempt from military service…We want an end to POLICE BRUTALITY…We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, and justice.” • http://www.bobbyseale.com/phototour/ • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u21ziZSEpTE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

17. National Organization for Women • Formed in 1966, with Betty Friedan first president. • NOW pledged itself to “to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now.” • Issues included passage of the ERA and/or enforcement of laws banning sex discrimination in work and education, maternity leave for working mothers, and government funding of day-care centers.

18. Left: Earthrise, December 24th, 1968 (NASA). Right: Still frame from the video transmission of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the surface of the Moon on July 20th, 1969. An estimated 500 million people worldwide watched this event live, the largest television audience for a live broadcast at that time.http://www.apfn.org/apfn/moon.htmhttp://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicapollo.htmlhttp://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/introduction.htmhttp://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm

19. Silent Spring • Written by Rachel Carson. • Published in 1962. • Would be the “roots” of the modern environmental movement. • Detailed effects of the use of the pesticides (DDT in particular). • “By 1970, opinion polls showed the state of the environment outranking all other domestic issues.”

20. Earth Day and the EPA • The first “Earth Day” – April 22nd, 1970 – was created to help people discuss the environment. • An estimated 20 million people took part. • Congress began passing a series of environmental-based legislation, and it established the EPA. • http://www.epa.gov/earthday/ • http://www.epa.gov/air/caa/ • http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/lcwa.html

21. “Ping-pong diplomacy” • Forrest Gump anyone? • Nixon defied political expectations with his foreign policy -- in this case with the PRC. • Nixon is credited with recognizing that China was too important (large) to be ignored, especially because it was not friendly with the USSR. • In April 1971, China hosted the US table tennis team. • In February 1972, President Nixon went to China. • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/china/peopleevents/pande07.html

22. Left: President Nixon meets with China's Communist Party Leader, Mao Tse-Tung, 02/29/1972. Right: Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai speaking at a banquet during Nixon's visit to China in 1972.

23. Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty • And then Nixon went to Moscow! • He met Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, and declared “There must be room in this world for two great nations with different systems to live together and work together.” • Nixon offered to sell $1 billion in grain. • Nixon completed negotiations on SALT, the first agreement since cold war started.

24. http://www.historycentral.com/elections/1972.html

25. OPEC • To protest U.S. support for Israel during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, OPEC implemented an oil embargo. • At that time,the U.S. was consuming 70% of all oil produced in the world, with OPEC responsible for 54% of the supply in 1973. • “The oil crisis played a major role in the economic downturn, the worst since the Great Depression.”

26. The Oil Shocks: Price Increases of Crude Oil and Gasoline, 1973-1985

27. Watergate • The break-in -- June 17, 1972 -- was the tip of the (illegal) iceberg. • The ensuing investigation had no impact on the Election of 1972. • On June 24, 1974, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Nixon and the White House. • Nixon resigned August 9, 1974, and was replaced by Gerald Ford.