Apush Civil Rights Essay

Gabriella Yao         

APUSH outlines

1. Promises and Turmoil: The 1960s

1.Election of 1960

-Nixon had gained a great reputation and had just been unanimously nominated by the Republicans

-Kennedy was a charismatic, wealthy, and youthful 43 years old who beat his rivals

-Kennedy had enough delegates behind him to win the nomination

-Everyone wanted to see who would win

-In a very close election Kennedy defeated him

 2. Domestic Policy

-Kennedy gave his own style to presidency

- He promised to lead the nation into a new frontier

-The press loved Kennedy’s witty press conferences and soon the mythical kingdom of Camelot and the court of king Arthur likened his administration

-Kennedy called aid to education, federal system of health care, urban renewal, and civil rights but his domestic programs became lost in congress

-Kennedy found success in economic issues like achieving a price rollback

-Economy was stimulated by increased spending for defense and space exploration (promising to have a man on the moon)

3. Foreign affairs

-Kennedy brought his attention to foreign policy issues

4.Programs

-Kennedy set up the Peace Corps, which took in volunteers who help third world nations and prevent the spread of communism by getting rid of poverty in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

-Kennedy also set up alliance for progress which was a program created in which the united states tried to help Latin American countries overcome poverty and other problems, the money was used to aid big business and the military

-Congress was persuaded to pass the trade expansion act of 1962 which was a market treaty made with western Europe that authorized tariff cuts of up to 50 percent in order to promote trade

5.Bay of pigs

-In 1961 a group of Cuban exiles organized and supported by the CIA landed in Cuba in an effort to overthrow Fidel Castro. When the invasion failed, Kennedy took full responsibility

-Castro used this to gain more aid from the Soviet Union and to strengthen his grip on power

6.Berlin Wall

-In the same year the Soviet Union built a high barrier to seal off Berlin inorder to stop the flow of refugees out of the soviet zone of Germany.

-The wall was torn down in 1989

7. Cuban missile crisis

-US discovered Russians were building underground sites in Cuba for launching offensive missiles that could reach the US in minutes

-Tensions were so high b/c of potential nuclear war

-Khrushev agrees to remove all missiles

8. Flexible Response

-Many brushfire wars had developed in Africa and Southeast Asia, in which insurgent forces were aided by soviet arms and training

Kennedy and Mahamara decided to increase spending on conventional arms and mobile military forces

9.Assasination in Dallas

-On November 22, 1963 Kennedy was assassinated

-Kennedy’s presidency inspired many young Americans by his message-ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country

10.Lyndon Johnson

-Seemed less sophisticated and less wealthy than Kennedy

-Experienced lawmaker and politician

-Was determined to expand the social reforms of the new deal

11.The war on poverty

-40 million Americans were captured by this book bringing attention to a real issue

-OEO provided the antipoverty association with a budget of a billion dollars

-Results were produced

-In 1964 Johnson became the president once again

-Reforms were made

12. Change

-1964 civil rights act made segregation illegal on all public facilities and gave the federal government additional powers to enforce school segregation

-The 24th amendment abolished the collection of the poll tax, which decreased the amount of poor people that voted

- Voting rights act of 1965 ended literacy tests and provided federal registrars at areas in which blacks were kept from voting

13. Dr. Martin Luther King

-Used nonviolent protests against segregation

-Put in jail, which ironically helped his movement

-March on Washington-200, 000 blacks and whites which took part which ended with “I have a dream speech”

-March to Montgomery

-Voting rights march, police beatings started to occur