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Civil Rights in America: An Evolving Process. Was the process of achieving civil rights for various groups in the US positive?. Internment of Japanese Americans During World War II. Executive Order: allowed military to create zones to exclude enemy aliens
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Civil Rights in America: An Evolving Process Was the process of achieving civil rights for various groups in the US positive?
Internment of Japanese Americans During World War II • Executive Order: allowed military to create zones to exclude enemy aliens • Some German and Italians were included, but not many • 62% of those interned were American citizens • All interned on West Coast • Approx. 1,800 interned in Hawaii • Yasui v. US, Hirabayashi v. US (43) –upheld convictions for breaking curfews • Korematsu v. US (44) – upheld exclusion order
McCarthyism and the Red Scare • House Un-American Activities Committee • Smith Act (1940) • Illegal • to advocate the overthrow of the government by force • to belong to an organization with the above goal • McCarran Internal Security Act (1950) • Illegal to • Advocate or support the establishment of a totalitarian government • Restrict travel of people belonging to Communist organizations • Authorized creation of detention centers for subversives • Joseph McCarthy v.. Hollywood and the Boy Scouts • Blacklists • Contempt of Congress • Eventually censored by the Senate in 1954 (when he took on the military)
Black Civil Rights • Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954) • Separate not equal in education • Public schools should be desegregated as soon as possible • Eisenhower uses troops to defend black students going to school in response to Arkansas Governor OrvalFaubus calling the National Guard to prevent black students from attending a “white school” • Chief Justice, Earl Warren wrote the majority opinion • Thurgood Marshall, lawyer for NAACP • Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) • 1956 Supreme Court strikes down bus segregation, Bowder v. Gayle • Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957) • Martin Luther King Jr. organization for civil disobedience against discrimination against blacks • Marches – Washington (1963), Montgomery (1965) • James Meredith (1962) • First black student to attend University of Mississippi • Escorted by US Marshalls, Governor Ross Barnett barred his entrance • 160 US Marshalls were injured, 40 national guardsmen injured, 2 people were killed
Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 • 1964 • All segregation in public facilities illegal, i.e. hotels and restaurants • Increased jurisdiction for the federal government to intervene on behalf of school desegregation • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission • 24th Amendment – made poll taxes illegal • 1965 • Voting Rights Act – ended literacy tests and mandated federal oversight of voting in the South
Great Society and the War on Poverty • Medicare • Medicaid • Elementary and Secondary Education Act • Abolish quotas for immigration • Department of Transportation created • Department of Housing and Urban Development created
Landmark Supreme Court Decisions • Mapp v. Ohio (1961) – illegally seized evidence cannot be used • Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) – requirement to provide a public defender • Miranda v. Arizona (1966) – right to remain silent, be represented… • Yates v. US (1957) – radical and revolutionary speech protected unless clear and present danger • Engel v. Vitale (1962) – prohibited prayer in school
Women’s Liberation • Portrayal of women in media less restrictive • Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) – state cannot prohibit the use of contraceptives • The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan (1963) – encouraged middle class women to seek professional careers • NOW – National Organization of Women established • ERA – passed by Congress, did not pass the required number of states • Roe V Wade (1973) – struck down laws prohibiting abortions as protected by the right to privacy
Student Revolts • Students for a Democratic Society • Port Huron Statement – students to participate in rules of the university regarding political activity, speech, dormitory rules, Vietnam War • 1st protests in Berkeley • Weathermen • Used violent means to protest discredited the SDS • Woodstock • End of the movement • Gathering in Upstate NY – drugs, music, sex – zenith of the New Left
Assassinations • Medgar Evers – June 12, 1963 • President John F Kennedy – November 22, 1963 • Malcolm X - February 21, 1965 • Martin Luther King Jr. – April 4,1968 • Senator Robert F Kennedy – June 5, 1968