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APUSH Unit XI

Post-War America
1945-today

By: Michael Kraft (1-3), Charles Basile (4-6), Brian Reitz (7+8), Eric May (9+10), Demi Adejuyigbe
(11+12), Ragini Mistry (13+14), Saud Ahmed (15+16), Tiffany Shieh (17+18), Tom Caligiuri (19+20),
Justin Graver (21+22), Adam Stark (23+24), Igor Kushner (25+26), Nikhil (27+28), Michelle Samadzada
(29+30), Max Glover (31+32), Gokul Mani (33+34), Chris Russell (35+36)

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1. Rosa Parks- Called the 'mother of the civil rights movement' because of her refusal to
give up her bus seat to a white man. This act and the her following arrest set off the
boycott of Montgomery, Alabama's bus system, which helped lead to the widespread civil
rights movement throughout the US.
2. Martin Luther King, Jr.- A Baptist minister who was a major leader in the African American
civil rights movement. He began his activist career by leading the Montgomery Bus
Boycott; after the issue of bus segregation was resolved, MLK was elected to be
president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He used this position to
advocate Gandhi's method of nonviolent protest and to bring greater voting rights to
blacks. During the protest to integrate Birmingham, Alabama, King was arrested. This is
when he wrote the stirring "Letter from Birmingham Jail," defending the use of nonviolent
protests. He organized the march on Washington in 1963, where he gave his 'I Have a
Dream' speech. The same year he was given the Nobel Peace Prize, and then in 1964
the Civil Rights Act was passed. In 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed. He was
beginning to emphasize aide for the poor and unemployed when shot by James Earl Ray
on April 4th, 1968.
3. Malcolm X- shaped the black power movement that challenged the nonviolent rhetoric
favored by MLK. He was 20 when he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. While in jail he
converted to Islam and joined the Nation of Islam, which held a radical anti-white stance.
When he was released from prison, he adopted the name Malcolm X and became a
prominent leader in the Nation of Islam. He did not believe in integration or nonviolent
protest, and he verbally talked of his hatred of whites. These beliefs caused a large
amount of whites to fear him, and they eventually led him to break from the Nation of
Islam to form the organization Muslim Mosque, Inc. He eventually traveled to Mecca
where he reversed his more extreme views. He was assassinated in 1965.
4. Bobby Seale & Huey Newton – Founders of the “Black Panthers Party for Self Defense”,
a radical civil rights group that was founded in 1966, and utilized the techniques and
advice for revolutionaries in Mao Zedong's “Little Red Book”. They began “policing the
police” combating police brutality through armed patrols of their own.
5. Stokely Carmichael – A leader of SNCC, and saw it through to becoming a more radical
organization than it was at its inception after becoming disillusioned with the Multiracial
Freedom Democratic Party. He protested with Martin Luther King in 1967 after becoming
the “Honorary Prime Minister” of the Black Panthers.
6. Brown v Board of Education – Ruled that de Jure segregation was unconstitutional and
that separate was inherently unequal and mandated schools must desegregate.
Unfortunately, required schools to desegregate with all deliberate speed. Which in
essence gave states infinite time to desegregate their public schools.
7. De facto vs. de jure segregation- Both were forms of separation between blacks and
whites. However, de jure, meaning “of jury or law” is a lawful segregation, whereas de
facto, meaning “of fact” is a segregation that happens because of location. For instance,
many African Americans settle in the east part of town, because housing is less
expensive. Many whites settle on the west side of town. If schools in the area are split up
upon location, this would be de facto segregation.
8. Montgomery Bus Boycott- a yearlong protest in Montgomery, Alabama, that led to a 1956
Supreme Court decision declaring segregated seating on buses unconstitutional. The
protest was a response meant to coincide with the trial of Rosa Parks.
9. Little Rock Nine – occurring in 1957 it consisted group of African-American individuals
whom were attempting to become students of Little Rock High School but were denied
due to the segregation in the town. The event gained prominence because of Dwight
Eisenhower’s use of the National Guard to safeguard the students from racial tensions
rooted throughout the school.
10. Birmingham Riot – in 1963 with lead of Martin Luther King Jr. African-Americans
attempting to end segregation were met by brutal means such asdogs, cattle prods, fire
hoses against the demonstrators. The American public witnessed horrifying scenes on
television and in newspapers, bringing home the reality of the violence occurring in
Birmingham. Eventually the Birmingham campaign was finally successful, and black and
white leaders agreed on a gradual procedure of desegregation.
11. Selma March - (March 21 – March 25, 1965) The Selma Marches were a series of three
marches from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama in which blacks protested the
use of segregation in America and demanded voting rights.
12. Emmett Till – A 14 year old boy whose murder in August 1955 sparked a national debate
about lynching’s. Till was dared to go into a grocery store and talk with one of the white
women inside, which he did by quickly saying “Bye, baby” when leaving the store. The
woman he talked to was the wife of the store owner, Roy Bryant. Bryant and his cousin,
J.W. Milam, later kidnapped Till and tortured him, until he begged for mercy. When he
didn’t, they killed him, then crushed his skull and dumped him in the Tallahatchie River,
where Till was found 3 days later. When Bryant and Milam were persecuted for the crime,
they were found innocent by an all-white jury, which only further fueled the civil rights
revolution.
13. John Kennedy – His presidency represented a time of hope and was the youngest man
ever to be elected president. He sought the democratic party nomination in 1960. He
faced challenges during his campaign because of his young age and his Roman Catholic
religion, but he narrowly won the election. What he said and what he did often
contradicted each other: for example, he opposed combat troops in SE Asia but
increased US presence there. Relations worsened with the Soviet Union when he
decided to put more money into defense spending. When the US found out that the
Soviet Union was going to install missiles in Cuba, Kennedy responded with a naval arms
blockade of Cuba (Cuban Missile Crisis). Historians criticize him for being willing to bring
the US to the brink of war. Domestic politics was mainly about the economy and civil
rights. He endorsed tax cuts and increased government spending to boost the economy.
He made headway in the civil rights movement: Equal Employment Opportunity,
appointed many African Americans to public offices, and more civil rights legislation. He
was killed on Nov 22, 1963 in Dallas.
14. Robert Kennedy – Served as campaign advisor and attorney general for brother. He was
a liberal democrat who advocated civil rights and aid to the poor. He decided to run for
president in 1968 but was killed after the California primary.
15. Robert McNamara: As President Kennnedy’s Secretary of Defense, he pushed for a
united defense policy, strategic Policy Analysis, and supported Kennedy’s idea of Flexible
response.
16. Lee Harvey Oswald: Assassin responsible for JFK’s death. Alleged communist and KGB
spy, as well as former marine. Worked at the depository from which he sniped. Killed by
Jack Ruby en route to jail.
17. Lyndon B. Johnson- was the 36th president of the United States. On November 22, 1963,
John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. The event thrust him into the
presidency.
18. Earl Warren- Was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States and was the only person to
be elected three times to become Governor of California. He also wrote for a unanimous
court in banning segregation in the nation's schools in the landmark ruling in Brown v.
Board of Education. The "Warren Court" proceeded to issue a stream of decisions
broadening civil rights.
19. George Wallace- A very pro-segregation southern governor who is well known for his
famous quote “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
20. New Frontier- The nickname for space, that, with its billions of unknown planets and
stars, had become the new area for man to explore, as most, if not all, of Earth had been
explored and documented.
21. War on Poverty- the name for legislation first introduced by United States President
Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This
legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to the difficult economic conditions
associated with a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent. The War on Poverty
speech led the United States Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act, a law that
established the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to administer the local application
of federal funds targeted against poverty
22. Counterculture- a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of
a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the
day,[1] the cultural equivalent of political opposition. A general example would be a
competing, dissenting culture that wishes to change the nature of, or at least the
dominance of, a predominant culture in a particular society. It is a neologism attributed to
Theodore Roszak
23. Students for a Democratic Society- A central force in the antiwar movement of the 1960s.
It also received a $10,000 grant from the United Automobile Workers and hired a full-time
field secretary, Al Haber, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, and Tom
Hayden, also a University of Michigan student. Hayden was sent to Atlanta to join the civil
rights movements and to keep SDS posted on civil rights activities. Hayden's reports
were circulated on campuses nationwide. He was also the author of the Port Huron
Statement, the SDS manifesto published in June 1962. In June 1963, SDS's most
ambitious program was initiated: the Economic Research Action Project (ERAP), which
was established to go into poor urban neighborhoods and organize residents to improve
their economic and living environment. Its Anti-War movement was launched in 1964
when journalist I.F. Stone spoke at a meeting and convinced them to join the March on
Washington.
24. Port Huron Statement: Manifesto of the SDS, which stated "We are people of this
generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking
uncomfortably to the world we inherit." Takes positions on values, racism, nuclear arms,
and poverty. Was a pivotal paper in the ideological debates that took place in universities
at the time.
25. Hippies/yippies- Groups of many young people with interests that were opposite to the
mainstream culture. The 1960s youth culture favored different styles of music and
clothing than other generations. The police and government viewed hippies as an
annoyance and threat.
26. Woodstock- The Woodstock Music and Art Fair promised “3 days of peace and music”.
The conditions during the event where horrible, but the half a million people that showed
up endured them without any violence.
27. Betty Friedan—Author of Feminine Mystique, free lance write and a smith graduate
28. The Feminine Mystique—Book that helped jump start a stalled women’s rights
movement; displayed how society institutions were systematically barring women from
becoming anything more than housewives and mothers. It only essentially to white
women in the middle class and ignored the fact that not all women thought of those roles
as bad.
29. Flexible response- a strategic defense policy developed in the 1960s to replace U.S.
dependence on nuclear weapons and "massive retaliation." Flexible response called for a
sizable increase in conventional armed forces prepared to fight nonnuclear battles,
including wars of counterinsurgency against Communist guerrillas.
30. Bay of Pigs- one of the first attempts sponsored by the U.S. government to overthrow the
government of Cuba following the Cuban Revolution of 1959. The operation was
organized and funded by the CIA. The invasion was a disaster, both for the fighters, who
were easily defeated and imprisoned, and for the administration of President John F.
Kennedy, which had authorized the mission.
31. Alliance for Progress – this was foreign aid started by President Kennedy in 1961 with a
main goal of achieving economic cooperation between North and South America. It
served as a counter to the emerging communist threat from places like Cuba. The
program succeeded at first but then failed due mostly to lack of support and also the
laziness of Latin American nations regarding reform.
32. Peace Corps – an organization created under Kennedy to work with people all around the
world in improving life. The stated goal, under the Peace Corps Act, is: “to promote world
peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested
countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad
and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of
such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.” Kennedy also
used this to counter the notions of Americans as the bully of the world and show that the
U.S. could be a good ally.
33. Nuclear Test Ban Treaty-- Signed by representatives from the Soviet Union, the United
States, and Great Britain at Moscow on August 5, 1963. Treaty was intended to be the
first step toward total nuclear disarmament. It prohibited any of the signatory countries
from testing nuclear weapons in outer space, the Earth's atmosphere, or underwater,
although underground testing was not banned. France and China did not sign the Treaty.
34. Viet Cong --were communist rebels working within South Vietnam during the Vietnam
War with the support of North Vietnam. Despite large amounts of U.S. aid, the South
Vietnamese government was unable to defeat the Viet Cong, and the Viet Cong
eventually took over the entire country with the assistance of the North Vietnamese Army.
35. Tonkin Gulf Resolution – Passed August 7, 1964 allowing President Lyndon B. Johnson
to do anything he saw necessary to helping the South Vietnamese. The resolution was
under conflict because the reasons behind it were provoked by the US and another
attack, actually a false alarm, was submitted as a reason for the resolution. Repelled at
the end of 1970.
36. Operation Rolling Thunder – US plan to bomb the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
(DRV). Cost North Vietnam half its bridges, most all large petroleum storage facilities,
two-thirds of its power plants, and an estimated 52,000 citizens. The US lost 1,000
aircrafts, hundreds of prisoners of war, and hundreds of airmen killed or missing in action.
Overall considered a US air force failure for not accomplishing its original goals.
37. Tet Offensive (by Chris) – said to be designed by DRV Defense Minister General Vo
Nguyen Giap. The Tet Offensive is a massive strike against South Vietnam in an idea of
“one final push”. The plan came in two stages: the “General Offensive” (a Chinese idea)
and the “General Uprising”. Fought Tet (the Lunar New Year in Vietnam) 1967. The US
won out but the shock of the attack, during LBJ’s campaign to gain support for the war,
shattered his thoughts of running for re-election.
38. Tet Offensive – (by Demi)The decisive turning point of the Vietnam War., conducted by
the Viet Cong. The purpose of the offensive was to strike command and control centers
throughout South Vietnam and spark an uprising among the population that would topple
the Saigon government, thus ending the war in a single blow. The campaign resulted in a
victory for the US and for Southern Vietnam.

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