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Period: to
Times of Change
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France is Defeated
The French soldiers made a last stand in the First Indochina War in a valley in northwestern Vietnam called Dien Bien Phu. About 40,000 Vietminh troops surrounded 15,000 French tropps. The French surrendered. -
Separate Not Equal : Brown vs. Board of Education
Oliver Brown wanted to go to an all white school in Topeka, Kansas. The school would not admit her in so the famiy brought a law suit to court. All nine justices agreed that separate schools fro African Americans and whites violated the constitutions guarantee of equal protection of the law.This was the beginning of desegregated schools. -
Geneva Conference Sought Peace
After the French surrendered, representatives from France, Vietnam, Cambodia, Great Britian, Loas, China, the Soviet Union ,and the U.S. gathered in Geneva, Switzerland. The goal was to work out a peace agreement. They all signed the Geneva Accords and Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel. -
Rosa Parks marks the Beginning
Rosa parks boarded a Montgomery bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and refused to give up her seat to a white man. she was arrested for violating segregation laws. This marked the beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Little Rock Nine
At Little Rock Central High School in Little rock Arkansa, nine african americans students were prevented by a mob of angry whites to enter the intregrated school. The students became known as the Little Rock Nine. -
The Sit-In Movement Takes Charge
Four college students in Greensboro, North Carolina began a sit-in of their own in a Woolworth's Store. Denied service because of their race, the men stayed in their seats. in the days that followed they returned with more protestors -
Kennedy Takes office
Kennedy was elected 303-219 margin. He became the youngest person and first catholic to take office. This began the "1000 days" of Kennedy, where he would do great things for the nation. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The FBI trained Cuban exiles in order to take back their homeland. The attack failed and many exiles were captured and killed. This was one of Americas lowest points in the 1960s, and gave the Soviets an edge in the war. -
Let Freedom Ride
A group of blacks called Freedom Riders rode buses across the country to support intergration of buys services. They were swarmed by a mob outside of Anniston, Alabama. The mob firebombed the bus and beat the Freedom Riders as they escaped. -
America Orbits the Earth
NASA successfully sends astronaut John Glenn into space, making him the first american to robit the moon. This advanced america in the race to space with the Soviet Union. -
Twenty- Fourth Amendment Takes Effect
African Americans were getting closer and closer to equal rights. States used to use poll tax to prevent blacks from voting. Congress passed the twenty- fourth amendment, banding states from taxing citizens for voting. -
I am a Berliner
Kennedy traveled to West Berlin, and gave a speech at an outdoor rally near the Berlin Wall addressing the issue of the Berlin Wall. He gave one of the greatest speeches of his precidency that day. This gave many people hope in America. -
War on Poverty
President Johnson, in his first state of the union address, declared 'unconditional war on poverty" in America. To launch the War on Poverty, he asked congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act.President Johnson helped the poor greatly duiring his time in office. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964 Passed
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimmination in housing, employment,and public accommodations, and it authorized federal government to enforce desegregation. This was the first Civil Rights Acts since the 1800s. It was one of the first steps to desegregation in America. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
The USS Maddox, a navy destroyer, had been attacked by North Vietnam. Due to growing tension between the communist North Vietnam, congress approved the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, It enabled the president to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the U.S. -
Berkeley Protest
At the University of California at Berkeley students were banned from making speeches at the enterance of the campus. Jack Weinberg set up a table in the banned area to collect donations for CORE. When police tried to arrest thim, hundreds of students surrounded the police car so that it could not move. -
Kennedy Assassinated
President Kennedy rode in an open car through the city of Dallas, Texas on his way to deliver a speech. He was shot in the head by Lee Harvey Oswald. America suffered a great loss that day,and their spirits were crushed. -
Johnson Takes Precidency
Within hours of Kennedy's assassination, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One. Johnson's role was to now lift the American spirits after such a terrible tragedy. -
The Air War
President Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder, a bombing campaign over North Vietnam. He wanted to weaken the enemy's ablility and will to fight. The communist were bale to withstand the bombing and many South Vietnamese joined the Vietcong. -
The Selma March Attack
600 African Americans, led by Martin Luther King Jr., began the march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama to show peaceful protest toward segregation. On the way out of Selma, police blocked their way, and attacked them with clubs, chains, and electric cattle prods. -
SDS Protest the War
The SDS members led the first national antiwar demonstration. 20,000 people marched to the Capitol in Washington D.C., where they delievered a petition to Congress wanting the end the war. -
Health Care for the Poor
In july 1965, Congress authorized funds for states to set up medicaid- a program that provide free health care for poor people. At the same time it created madicare- a health care program for people over the age of 65. These were some of the first steps in government health care in the U.S. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 Passed
Blacks were gaining more and more rights in the country and the years went by. The voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed in congress by a large majority. This law gave federal government powerful tools with which to break down longstanding barriers to African Americans -
Summer of Love
The summer of 1967 in San Francisco, California was the height of the hippie movement. Hippies protested for harmony and peace during a time of racism and sexism. The ideas of hippies were hard to achieve many hippies had drug addictions and with the lack of order, were known to cause trouble. -
Khe Sanh Attacked
Vietnam troops surrounded a U.S. military base in khe Sanh, in northwestern South Vietnam. Americans were overwhelmed. After the 77-day siege ended, however, the Americans still held Khe Sanh. -
Pueblo Inadent
North Korean forces captured the "Pueblo" a U.S. Navy spy ship,off the coast of communist North Korea. This event hightened the tensions of the Cold War. -
Tet Offensive Begins
During this offensuve, some 80',000 communist soldiers attacked 12 U.S. bases and 100 cities across South Vietnam. After about a month of fighting the cities taken by Vietcog were retaken. Despites great loses to their men, the communist continued their drive to fight. -
The Assassination of King
James Earl Ray shot ,and killed Martin Luther King Jr. as he stood on the balcony of his hotel in Memphis, Tennesse. Many people were distraught over the loss of the great leader of the civil rights movement. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. THe law banned discrimmination in the sale or rental of housing. This showed that the Civil Rights Movement still lived on in King Jr.'s legacy. -
Johnson Seeks a Solution
Delegates from North Vietnam and the U.S. met in Paris to discuss a way to end the war, They could not agree on any terms. The two sides would not reachc an agreement for several more years. -
Poor Peoples Campaign Disastor
Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr.'s successor, lead the Poor Peoples campaign. It turned out to be a disastor. The SCLCexperienced terrible media, and about 200 protestors turned out to be members of inner city gangs. People were desperate for King Jr. back. -
Black Power Rise
In Mexico City, Mexico at the summer olympics, African American members of the U.S. track team, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gave the black power salute as they recieved their medals. This demenstrated the rise of black power for the civil rights movement. -
American Indain Movement is Born
The American Indian Movement or AIM was founded by Dennis Banks in Minneapolis, Minnesota. AIM became the major force behind the larger Red Power Movement. AIM fought for better education, economic independence, and renewal of traditional cultures. AIM lead to many of the advances in equal rights for Native Americans. -
Support Decline
Most Americans supported U.S. involvement in the Vietna Warr at first. By the end of 1968 more than 16,000 Americans had been killed in combat. A growing number of Americans began to question the U.S. policy rgarding involvement in Vietnam. -
The Spiritual Plan of Aztla`n
Rodolfo Gonzales and the Crusade for Justice sponsored the National Chincano Liberation Youth Conference. THe conference produced the Spiritual Plan of Aztla`n. The plan encourged Latinos to reclaim the land in the Southwest. The over all goal was to build a unified Latino community that was able to determine its own future. -
Students Take Charge
Almost 700 Mexican American high school studets in Crystal City, Texas, boycotted class. The students were protesting for Mexican American teachers, and a bilingual education program. The strike forced the school to banned its discrimmination policies. -
Music Rocks the Age
In the summer of 1969, 400,000 young people went to Woodstock in New York, a festival of music and art. Woodstock was the celebration of an era, and it marked the high point of the counterculture movement. -
La Raza Unida
José Angel Gutiérrez formed La Raza Unida Party. The party campaigned for bilingual education, improved public serives, and an end to job discrimmination. In 1970, RUP candidates were elected to offives in many Texas cities. -
Pentagon Papers
The New York Times published a collection of secret government documents involving the Vietnam War all the way back from the Truman years. They showed that governemnt officlas had been lying to the American people about the war for years. The leak embarrassed President Nixon. -
Radification of Twenty-sixth Amendment Passed
Young American boys were upset they could be sent off to war but they could not vote on the offical who sen tthem to war. In 1971, McGovern worked for the ratification of the Twenty-sixth Amendment. In this ratification the voting age was droppd from 21 to 18. -
Andrew Young
Young became Georgia's first African American member of Congress since Reconstruction. Young later served as U.S. ambassadorf tot he united Nations and mayor of Atlanta. -
The Indian Education Act
The Education Act established culturally appropraite educational programs for Native Americans students. This was one of the many steps in education for Native Americans -
Peace Finally Found in Vietnam
All sides wanted the war over. Officals from North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the U.S. finally reached a settlement. The U.S. agreed to take out all of its tropps. Both sides released war prisoners. The agreement did not settle the political future of South Vietnam. -
Roe v. Wade
A significant issue for the womens movement was abortion. In the case Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court made state laws that banned abortion. The Court ruled that such laws violated a constitiutional right to privacy. -
Draft Ended
The government tried to make the draft fairer to help with the popularity of it. It did not work. Finally, the governmet ended the unpopular draft and returned to filling its ranks with volunteers.
