1960s

Politics and Law
The 1960s was a period of great change and political polarization. Democratic Administrations controlled the majority of the decade and sought to solve social and economic problems, eliminate injustice, and promote the welfare of the nation's citizens through the use of government. Legislation focused on Civil Rights, poverty, education, medical care, housing, consumer and environmental protection.

Key Figures
John F. Kennedy - Backed by his father's powerful political machine, and with Lyndon Johnson as his running mate, Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard Nixon in the Election of 1960. The election featured the first ever televised presidential debate.

On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassated as his motorcade toured Dallas, Texas. The shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested, but hours later is shot and killed by Jack Ruby. The events surrouding Kennedy;'s assassination have since spawned numerous conspiracy theories.

Lyndon Johnson

As Kennedy's Vice President, Johnson took office following Kennedy's assassination. In November, 1964, Johnson defeated Republican Barry Goldwater in the presidential election. Johnson administration was know for his "Great Society" programs which addressed social and economic issues in the US from poverty and housing to education and civil rights. Johnson's administration is also known for its escalation of the Vietnam War.

Richard Nixon

Nixon was the only Republican President of the 1960's. Nixon won a narrow victory over Democrat Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 Presidental election. Nixon's election signified changing American interest in stability over social change.

Thurgood Marshall

Marshall was the nation's first black Supreme Court Justice. Prior to his appointment he had played a key role inthe civil rights movement as one of the preeminent lawyers for the NAACP. He was a key figure in the Brown v. Board of Education case.

Pertinent Laws and Cases
The 1960s houses some of the most relevant and controversial laws and court cases in American History, the following is a chronological list with explanations:

Baker v. Carr (1962) 

The ruling required state legislatures to apportion districts so all votes would have equal weight. Previously there had been disproportion vote strength to sparsely populated areas, diminishing the voting power of the urban populace. This ruling greatly strengthened the minority vote.

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

Obligated authorites to inform suspect of thier rights upon arrest.

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

Ruled prayer in public school as a violation of seperation of church and state.

Escobedo v. Illinios (1964)

Defendant must be allowed access to a lawyer prior to questioning by police.

Civil Rights Act (1964)

Ended segregation in all public facilities including resturants, public pools, and theatres.

Voting Rights Act (1965)

Gave the US Attorney General the authority to intervene in nay county where less than half of the eligible voters were registered. Additionally, the act provided federal protection to blacks attempting to exercise thier right to vote. Act added nearly 4 million voters in the South, 2 million of which were black.

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

Overturned a state law prohibiting the use of contraception. The decision would set precedent for the case Roe v. Wade in 1972.

Medicare (1965)

Provided health insurance as part of the Social Security program. A year later the program was expanded with the addition of Medicaid which provided medical assistance to all welfare recepients regardless of age.

Politics and Law Events Chronologically
1960 - First televised Presidential Debate

1960 - Kennedy is Elected

1962 - Baker v. Carr

1962 - Engel v. Vitale

1963 - Kennedy is assassinated

1963 - Johnson assumes the office of the President

1963 - Johnson's "Great Society" program begins

1964 - Civil Rights Act

1964 - Marshall becomes a Supreme Court Justice

1964 - Johnson is elected President

1965 - Griswold v. Connecticut

1965 - Medicare

1965 - Voting Rights Act

1966 - Miranda v. Arizona

1966 - Medicaid

1968 - Nixon is elected President

Martin Luther King Junior
In 1963 he started huge protests in Birmingham that included marches. These were meant to help integrate public places and to open up jobs for African Americans. At the March on Washington, King gave his memorable "I Have a Dream" speech. King was always trying to get black support without causing violence and he was a successful leader becaue he could make that happen. In 1968 King was assassinated.

Malcolm X
The Black Muslims' chief spokesperson in the early 1960s. He was murdered by fellow Black Muslim members in 1965 because they thought he was betraying them. Malcolm X was a symbol for self-respect and even after his death he was still a hero to many people.

Freedom RideFreedom_ride.jpg
In May of 1961 the Congress of Racial Equality supported the freedom ride. The freedom ride was where a biracial group tried to test the Supreme Court's decision about banning segregation used in interstate commerce. The group got attacked as soon as they arrived in Birmingham, Alabama by a group of white people.

March on Washington
On August 28, 1963, 200,000 plus marchers gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. The marchers were united together to urge the passage of JFK's civil rights bill. They also listened to multiple speeches but the most memorable was MLK's "I Have a Dream"

Feminist Wave
Women started getting more rights and they filed suit for equal wages and day care for their children provided by the company they worked for. In 1966 the National Organization of Women was founded and it helped achieve equal wages for women and also the legalization of abortion. It also helped with getting stronger laws against rape.

Music
Woodstock In 1969 a three-day music festival held at Bethel in New York where about 400,000 young adults went to listen to rock music, experiment with drugs, and get sexually active publically. The music played there often encouraged drug use and since most young people in the 60s were rebellious they enjoyed listening to it.

Popular Artists 

- Joan Baez - Bob Dylan - Beatles - Greatful Dead

Protesting the Vietnam War
Starting in 1962 there were thousands of protests led by an organization called Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). There were 20,00 protesters under SDS that went to thousands of college campuses to protest the war. The students came together and seized five buildings until police finally shut them down. SDS held sit-ins and marches at many colleges from Pennsylvania to Indiana as well.

Gay Rights Movement
In 1969 there was a Stonewall riot New York for gay rights. People had put graffiti on the streets and threw bottles at police officers because they were tired of the officers harrassing the gay people at the bar. This movement marked a serious divide in politics for politicians who are for or against homosexuality.

Native American Activism
In 1968, two Chippewa Indians founded the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM protects Indians from harrassment and police. It also established survival schools to help teach Indian history and values.

War on Poverty (1964)
When Lyndon B. Johnson assumed presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy he implored Congress to help make sure "John Fitzgerald Kennedy did not live or die in vain." During his January State of the Union speech, Johnson declared an "unconditional war on poverty" effective immediately. Johnson imagined a "Great Society" free from racial and economic injustice. This War on Poverty included numerous antipoverty bills designed to lower taxes, enhance education, create jobs, assist those without medical help, and kickstart the economy. Such legislation uncludes the Tax Reduction Act (1964), Economic Opportunity Act (1964), Higher Education Act (1965), Elementary and Secondary School Act (1965), Housing and Urban Development Act (1965), Social Security Act (1965), Appalachian Regional Development Act (1965), as well as the introduction of Medicare (1965) and Medicaid (1966).

Economic Opportunity Act (1964)
Seven months after declaring the "War on Poverty", the Johnson administration passed a draft of the Economic Opportunity Act to Congress who enacted the bill August 20, 1964. This bill started ten new federal programs designed to not only aid the unemployed, but also the impoverished and their children. $800 million were allotted to programs such as Head Start for underprivelaged preschoolers, the Job Corps for unemployed youth, and a legal service program which provided lawyers for those who could not afford them.

Office of Economic Opportunity
Under the new Economic Opportunity Act, a seperate federal office needed to be created that oversaw the ten new programs that Lyndon Johnson implemented to combat poverty. Established in 1964, the Office of Economic Opportunity was placed under direction of R. Sargent Shriver. Shriver was in charge of the agendas of Head Start, Job Corps, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), and the Community Action Program (CAP).

Tax Reduction Act (1964)
Also known as the Revenue Act of 1964, the Tax Reduction Act was inspired by John F. Kennedy's initial vision of a national tax cut. After Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon Johnson was determined to carry out the tax cut and in February of 1964, Congress passed legislation reducing income tax by more than $10 billion. The national budget was also lowered from $101.5 billion to $97.9 billion. Due to the Tax Reduction Act, national consumerism increased by $43 billion over a year and a half and jobs were created at one million per year.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)
In order to obtain jobs and defeat poverty, people had to first get a better and equal education. The first legislation created by Lyndon Johnson to enhance education was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed by Congress in April of 1965. The ESEA allocated over $1 billion to public schools to fund books, materials, programs, and facilities. Its intent was to "aid educationally deprived children."

Higher Education Act (1965)
Johnson's second step in ensuring quality education in his "Great Society" was to provide the option of college for those who could not afford it. The Higher Education Act was signed into law in November of 1965. The HEA set aside $650 million in scholarship money and low-interest loans for students pursuing a higher education but didnt have the means. The money also funded university libraries and created the National Teachers Corps.

Social Security Act of 1965
Passed in July of 1965, the Social Security Act created and funded two new forms of medical care; Medicare and Medicaid.

Medicare (1965)
Medicare, part of the Social Security Act of 1965 signed by Lyndon Johnson, is a federally funded health care policy that provides insurance to the elderly and disabled. National income tax specifically used for Social Security ensures that anyone over 65 and cannot afford health insurance or those who are physically disabled and cannot work are able to recieve health care.

Medicaid (1965)
Along with Medicare, Medicaid was created with the introduction of the Social Security Act of 1965. Lyndon Johnson wanted low-income citizens and families to be able to recieve as best health care as possible even if they couldn't afford it. Medicaid is run at the state level with federal funding contributions.

Housing and Urban Development Act (1965)
Under this Act, Johnson added the cabinet-level Department of Housing and Urban Development. The DHUD was responsible for appropriating $8 billion for low-income housing and supplements for low-income families so that the poor could either afford a home or not lose the one they were currently in.

Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act (1966)
One of the big problems in developing areas that are impoverished is that it is hard to make changes last structurally. Johnson knew that these areas couldn't simply just be fixed through tax cuts and economic stimulus but that they needed to be rebuilt. Hoping to kick start a trend, The Demontration Cities Act was signed. It aimed at reconstructing slums and rehabiliting facilities such as mass transit, housing, and recreation areas. These "model cities" acted as examples of the change possible.

Appalachian Regional Development Act (1965)
The Appalachian area of the United States tended to be neglected since the Great Depression and Lyndon Johnson wanted to focus on all poverty stricken areas, not just the urban ones. This Act used over $1 billion to develop highways, health centers, and resources in order to stimulate economic and social growth in rural Appalachia.

National Endowments of the Arts and Humanities Act (1965)
This Act created the NEA or National Endowment of the Arts. This national agency was responsible for giving grants and endowments to programs that showed a promise in artistic and cultural development. Johnson believed the American culture was unique and essential for national growth and development. In funding projects that promoted humanities and the arts he hoped that that culture would be advocated.

Labor Movement and Economic Growth
By redusing the national income tax by $10 billion, jobs were created at one million per year. The economy was helped because now people felt like spending more money. Unemployment dropped from 6% to 2% by the 1970s and the amount of people considered "poor" dropped from 23% to 11%. &nbsp



Santa Barbara Oil Spill and Creation of EPA
Towards the end of Johnson's presidency, the largest oil spill at that time occurred off the shore of Santa Barbara, California. Although it was during Nixon's administration that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was made in 1970, it was the oil spill in 1969 that served as a catalyst for its creation. The EPA is the nations largest regulatory agency and employed 10,000 people.

The Space Race
Following the Russian launch of the satellite Sputnik in 1957, the United States underwent a major commitment to their own space program. Following his election in 1960 President Kennedy anounced the begining of the space race with the end goal of putting a man on the moon. The new commitment to space exploration was accompanied by a significant bugdget increase to NASA. In 1961 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration s uccessful launched Astronaut Alan Shepard into space. That same year NASA began work on the Apollo Program.

In 1969 Kennedy's dream of putting a man on the moon became a reality on the Apollo 11 mission. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar module Eagle on the surface of the moon. The mission brought a decisive end to the space race, and while the Apollo program had several more missions American interest in the project began to wane.

Nuclear Technology
The beginning of the Kennedy Administration added fuel to the nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States. The administration increased the country's nuclear stockpile and invested in longer ranged more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles. The build up of nuclear arms would eventually be a major cause for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Spy Planes
Throughout the 1950's the US government had used spy planes over Russian to monitor military movement and the distribution of nuclear weapons. These top secret mission were highly successful until 1960 when a Soviet surface to air missile shot down an American U2 spy plane over Soviet territory. The American pilot was killed and the Soviets recovered the savage of the destroyed plane. The incident was a international embarassment for the US.

Despite the incident, the US again used the U2 spy plane inthe 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. During the crisis another american plane was lost. However, use of the spy planes over Cuba gave Kennedy and his advisors crucial information on which to base decisions over the course of the crisis.

Air Power in the Vietnam War
In 1965 the Johnson Administration announced the escalation of the Vietnam war. This escalation included the deployment of more ground forces and materiel to fight the ground war in Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder began that same year. The operation specifically called for the intensification of the air war in Vietnam. While enemy airpower was a nonfactor, the US Air Force dedicated its highly advanced planes to bombing and supply interdiction along route such as the Ho-Chi-Mihn Trail.

Apollo Program is Authorized (1960) Kennedy wanted tosorten the missile gap so he wanted to beat the Soviets to space. The first flight was on May 6, 1961.

Frist American in Space (1961) On May 6 the United State got their frist man in space. Commander Alan Shepard was sent into a suborbital flight 300 miles above the earth's surface.

'Space progam commitment (1961)' Kennedy calls for the increase in effort to make sure that American does not lose the space race.

'Congress Boost NASA's funding (1961)' Congress gives the program NASA a buget of $25 billion. 

Laos Civil War (1961)
The pathet lao rebels attempt to take over Laos in the support of a communist government. The United States agreement with the communist rebels and American supports that the Laos government will stay neutral. Most of the pro communist forces were just out side cites.

Bay Of Pigs (1961)
During April of 1961 United States agents train Anti Castro exiles to attack Cuba. The attack would start an general uprising among the people of cuba in order to overthrow the communistic government. With no Air support from the United States the attack failed. The absence of air support was an attempt to conceal United States's hand in the mess.

 Berlin Wall begins construction (1961)  In July the Soviets build the Berlin wall to seal off East Berlin. The wall was built to protect the east from the west and to keep the brains and talent from the west.

 Peace Corps Formation (1961)  The Peace Corps was created to give aid to those in third world countries. The aid has be provide to help make sure that countries would not become communist.

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)  In October 1962 U-2 spy planes spot Intermediate range ballistic missiles other wise known as (IRBM) found in Cuba. These missiles if fired can reach just about anywhere in the United States. The Castro received these missiles from the Soviet Union. To Prevent more missiles from coming into Cuba United States assembled a blockade around Cuba. If any ships were to try and run the blockade the United States and Soviet Union would have an nuclear war. Fortunately an agreement that the missiles would leave cuba was formed.

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 13pt;"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#2C2C2C;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Limit Test ban Treat on Nuclear Weapons(1963)  <p style="margin-bottom: 2pt;">Soviet Union and United States come to agreement that Nuclear testing should no longer be done on land. Due to the adverse affects of radiation on land which leads to a build up of nuclear weapons.

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 2pt;"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#2C2C2C;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1963)  <p style="margin-bottom: 2pt;">North Vietnam patrol boats attack United States battleships. The innocent allows the use of force to stop the North Vietnamese from taking South Vietnam.

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 2pt;"> Ho-chi-Min Trail (1965)  <p style="margin-bottom: 2pt;">The Ho-chi-min Trail was used to carry supplies for North Vietnam forces. The trail was a bombing target during operation Rolling Thunder. The operation did damage to the roads but North Vietnamese quickly repaired these damages using the canopy as cover.

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 2pt;"> The Vietnam War (1965)  <p style="margin-bottom: 2pt;">During the cold war North Vietnam allies with the soviet Union and aims to make south Vietnam join up with North Vietnam. Frist 184,000 Troops land in Danang. Thought the war the number of troops in Vietnam increases.

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 2pt;"> Antiwar Demonstrations (1965)  <p style="margin-bottom: 2pt;">On the University of Michigan campus the first teach-in was held. The teach-in was for bringing questions on intervention in the Vietnam War. Later on large-scale anti-war protests, against draft and university research for the Pentagon. These protests were the students and other people showing their disapproval for the war.

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 2pt;"> Operation Rolling Thunder (1965)  <p style="margin-bottom: 2pt;">The operation was exultation in the war. It includes the endless bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Trail had heavy traffic from the North Vietnamese army, which use it to bring supplies to the Vietcong and the solders. The raids were how ever ineffective with the canopy providing cover for trucks and those who were making repairs.

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 2pt;"> Tet Offensive (1968)  <p style="margin-bottom: 2pt;">The night of January 31 Untied States bases and other cities were attack by Vietcong and North Vietnamese solders. The invasion was unsuccessful and was pushed back.

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 2pt;"> My Lai Massacre (1968)  <p style="margin-bottom: 2pt;">Amy unit led by Lieutenant William Canley committed many crimes against the Vietnamese. Men gang rapped girls they would line women and children in ditches and shot them then burnt down villages.

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 2pt;"> Nixon Vietnamization policy (1968)  <p style="margin-bottom: 2pt;">Nixon’s goal for the Vietnam War was to get the South Vietnam to put their own troops on the battlefield and take USA troops out. As troops are taken out the number of bombing raids would increase.

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 2pt;"> US forces enter Cambodia (1969)  <p style="margin-bottom: 2pt;">North Vietnam forces occupy the nation of Cambodia. Nixon sent troops to invade and liberate the nation.