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President Dwight Eisehower
[Simply Because It Is: Some Dwight Eisenhower Quotes]('http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=87)[The American Pageant Textbook](Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006)President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a popular war hero who was chosen by the Republican Party's first ballot. He easily won the presidential election of 1952 and he was an ideally suited leader to soothe the problems at hand in the America of his time with his projected image of sincerity, fairness, and optimism along with his grandfatherly pose. However, he usually avoided the topic of civil rights and cared more for social harmony than social justice. -
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas
Our Documents Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren gave a unanimous ruling that segregation in public schools was unequal and unconstitutional, due to a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling reversed the decision made in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case almost sixty years earlier and it was a landmark in the progress of the civil rights movement. -
McCarthyism
Moment of Truth: McCarthyismMcCarthyism Joseph McCarthy had already been making a name for himself by accusing a countless amount of people of being Communists or associating with the Communists. His actions had created somewhat of a second red scare. But in December of 1954, a censure motion by politicians condemned his conduct. The last straw was the accusation of men in the US military being communists. -
Murder of Emmett Till
Emmet Till BiographyA young boy named Emmett Till was visiting his relatives in Money, Mississippi when he flirted with a white cashier at a grocery store. Four days after this, two white men kidnpped him, severely beat up his body, and shot him. When found, Till's body was mutilated. His funeral was public and it fed the progress of the civil rights movement. -
Rosa Parks Takes a Stand
Civil Rights Icon Rosa Park Dies In December of 1955, a woman named Rosa Parks challenged the Jim Crow laws of the time in the Southern state of Alabama. She was sitting on a bus when a white man told her to move to another seat. However, Rosa Parks refused to do so and she was arrested for this act of civil disobediance. Parks set an example for oppressed African Americans and galvanized the civil rights movement. -
Interstate Highway Act
Unit 4: ExpansionThe Interstate Highway System President Eisenhower saw the problems of unsafe roads, insufficient routes, and traffic jam so he signed the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. This was a $27 billion plan to build a faster and easier way to travel. It also created more jobs in construction and it stimulated the trucking, automobile, oil, and travel industries. -
SCLC
The New Georgia Encyclopedia The formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was triggered by the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, headed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. The SCLC was officially inaugurated in Atlanta in January of 1957 and it aimed to mobilize the power of black churches on the rights of African Americans. Black churches had a huge influence in segregated societies. -
Little Rock Nine
Integration of Central High School<a href=We Shall Overcome In Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, nine black students were prevented from attending Central High School by National Guard troops who were mobilized by Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas. President Eisenhower sent in federal soldiers to Arkansas and the they escorted the nine African Americans to their classes. This was a key event in the fights for civil equaltiy. -
Sit-In Protests
USA Today[The American Pageant Textbook](Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) Four black college freshmen in Greensboro, North Carolina demanded service at a whites-only lunch counter and workers refused to serve them. But they kept returning each day and sat there, gradually gaining more followers. In April black students formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to promote and support these efforts. -
President John F. Kennedy
[The American Pageant Textbook](Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) Presidnt John F. Kennedy took office in 1961 after the 1960 election. He was the youngest president elected in the US and he assembled one the youngest cabinets. He brought a challenge of a New Frontier that inspired youths and patriots JFK also created the Peace Corps and Green Barets. His grace, wit, and charm made him an appealing president. -
Moral Issues
Historic Speeches[The American Pageant Text](Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006)President Kennedy believed that the racial problems occuring in the US were "moral issues" after hearing of the violence that protestors had to face during peaceful demonstrations like at Birmingham. In June of 1963, JFK gave a memorable televised speech to the nation addressing this topic. He committed his personal and presidential prestige to find a solution to the problem of segregation and discrimination in America -
Murder of Medgar Evers
NAACP History: Medgar Evers Medgar Evers was a black Mississippi civil rights worker of the NAACP. He had been recieving threats on his life because of his public involvment in the civil rights movement, such as his investigation about the murder of Emmet Till. On June 12, 1963, a white gunman shot down Evers in the back in his own driveway, just hours after President Kennedy's address on his suppot of civil rights. -
March on Washington
Civil Rights March on WashingtonThe March on Washington in 1963 symbolized a new unity of several civil rights organizations, such as the SCLC, SNCC, and CORE. When tha march arrived at the capital, about a quarter of a million showed up in support of the demonstration. Noteworthy speeches were given by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis, both of which were civil rights leaders. -
Bombing in Birmingham
About the 1963 Birmingham Bombing On a Sunday morning in 1963, a box filled with dynamite was placed underneath the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The blast killed four girls who had just finished a church lesson and injured several others. The bomb was placed by a member of the Ku Klux Klan. -
President Lyndon B. Johnson
The White House Lyndon Johnson was sworn into the presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and then won in the 1964 presidential election against Senator Goldwater. Johnson soon developed plans for the Great Society, which included aid to education and poverty, Medicare, and voting rights. However, events occuring in belligerent Vietnam led to the Johnson's withdrawal as a candidate in the next election. -
Freedom Summer
Veterans of the Civil Rights MovementFreedom Summer-History.com Civil rights organizations, such as the CORE and SNCC, created a voter registration drive called Freedom Summer to increase the voter registration in Mississippi. Volunteers both black and white faced constant abuse from the white population. On the second day of their arrival, two white Northern students and a black Southern student disappeared and later their bodies were discovered. -
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
BBC News[The American Pageant Textbook](Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) US Navy ships were working with South Vietnamese gunboats in protective raids along the North Vietnamese coast and on August 2 and 4 two of the US ships were allegedly torpedoed by the North Vietnamese. However, there is no hard evidence to prove its legitimacy. President Johnson order a limited retaliatory air raid against NVA bases. -
Medicare Bill
Medicare Benefits[The American Pageant Textbook](Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006)Social Security HistoryPresident Johnson also had to deal with the issue of medical care for the elderly. The program of Medicare along with Medicaid conferred rights in certain categories of citizens virtually in perpetuity without repeated congressional approval. It helped the lives of millions of American, however it did damage the federal financial health. -
Voting Rights Act
Votin Rights Act of 1965[The American Pageant Textbook](Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) During his presidency, Johnson made large headway against racial discrimination. In 1965, he signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act outlawed literacy tests, which had been used to prevent African Amercians from votings all the polls, and sent federal voter registrars into several southern states. -
Tet Offensive
Tet Offensive The NVA and the Vietcong led a series of surprise attacks called the Tet Offensive. It was a surprise to the US and South Vietnamese troops because it took place on the first day of the Lunar New Year, which is a very important holiday in Vietnam. Although it was considered a military loss for the Vietcong, it showed that there needed to be a change in strategy if the US and South Vietnam were going to win the war. -
Philadelphia Plan
[The American Pageant Textbook]('Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006)Stone ZonePresident Nixon addressed the issue of racial segregation in the work force and implemented the Philadelphia Plan in 1969. It required contruxtion-trade unions to make goals and timetables for hiring black apprentices. Soon it extended to all federal contracts, requiring thousands of employers to meet hiring quotas for minorities looking for jobs. -
President Richard Nixon
Politico[The American Pageant Textbook](Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006)Richard Nixon office in 1969 during the midst of the unpopular Vietnam War. He was a solitary and paranoid man who seemed to be an unusual choice for America's era of division, but he was an expert in the area of foreign affairs. But a discovered scandal at Watergate tainted his political career and he eventually resigned his position as president. -
Landing on the Moon
NASA-Apoloo Moon Landing During the years of Kennedy's presidency, people questioned whether or not the US would make it to the moon. However, JFK solved this problem by promoting a multi-billion prject to land American on the moon. It was his investment that helped bring Armstrong and Aldrin on the surface of the moon. -
Attack on Cambodia
Nation Master[The American Pageant Textbook](Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006)President Nixon ordered US forces to assist South Vietnam in wiping out any enemy sanctuaries in the country of Cambodia. He did this without consulting Congress and this course of action was quite sudden. Also, Cambodia was an official neutral country, and public news of this attack was not favorable amonst anti-war protestors. -
Environmental Protection Agency
IDAEPA History President Nixon's era of leadership faced problems with the natural environment. To solve this issue, Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA consolidates a variety of government research, monitoring, and enforcement activities to ensure the safety of the environment. The EPA is still around today. -
Vietnam Cease-Fire
Vietnma WarCease-fire goes into effectThe US had withdrawn its troops in 1973 and left South Vietnam to fight the North on its own with some aid of US munitions. A cease-fire wa agreed upon by the two countries, but both sides violated it by trying to gain more territory. Each thought their attacks were justified because of the other's and it was a cycle retaliatory battles. -
President Gerald Ford
The White House Gerald Ford was the first president who wasn't elected by the US into office because of Nixon's resignation. He faced multiple problems as president such as a depressed economy, issues with energy, and trying to keep peace. He also granted ex-president Nixon full pardon for any crime he may have committed as president. His first goal as president was to curb the issue of inflation and then stimulate the economy. -
Nixon's Pardon
President Ford Pardons Richard NixonWhen Ford was brought into office, their was still talk about the Watergate scandal and Nixon's involvement in it. About of month into his presidency, Ford granted Nixon a full pardon for any crime that he may have committed. He made a televised speech to broadcast this political forgiveness. -
Whip Inflation Now
Ford Museum When President Ford came into office, he was faced with a country filled with economic problems. His first goal was to fight the inflation of the time and his economic advisers devised a Whip Inflation Now (WIN) program to solve it. He gave a speech about this program in the fall of 1974. -
Last Evacuation
South Vietnam's Collapse[The American Pageant Textbook](Kennedy, David., et al. The American Pageant. Thirteenth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) In spring of 1975, the last of the evacuation helicopters landed to help retrieve American soldiers and South Vietnamese refugees. The NVA had rapidly taken over South Vietnam and the US had to act fast to rescue those in need. The refugees were admitted into the country by President Ford, where culture brought even more ethnic diversity.
