The 1960's
Many social changes that were addressed in the 1960s are still the
issues being confronted today. The '60s was a decade of social and
political upheaval caused by student and anti-war protest movements,
political assassinations, and ghetto riots. The decade began under the
shadow of the Cold War between the Soviet Union which was aggravated by the
U-2 incident, the Berlin Wall construction, and the Cuban Missile Crisis,
along with the space race with the USSR. The decade ended under the shadow
of the Vietnam War, which deeply divided Americans and their allies and
damaged the country’s self-confidence and sense of purpose. Even for
someone who wasn’t alive during the sixties, it is known ...
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minimal. Only a small percentage of black
children actually attended integrated schools, and in the south, "Jim Crow"
practices barred blacks from jobs and public places (Ascher 21). New
groups formed, new tactics devised, to push forward for full equality.
White resistance, however, often resulted in violence. This violence
spilled across TV screens nationwide. The average, neutral American, after
seeing his/her TV screen, turned into a civil rights supporter (Ascher 36).
Black unity and white support continued to grow. In 1962, with the
first large-scale public protest against racial discrimination, Martin
Luther King, jr. gave a dramatic and inspirational speech in Washington,
D.C. after a long march of thousands to the capital (King 189). The
possibility of riot and bloodshed was always there, but the marchers took
that chance so that they could accept the responsibilities of first class
citizens.
The Negro, King said in this speech, "lives on a lonely island of
poverty in ...
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failed (Consort 161)
However, by the summer of 1964, the black revolution had created
its own crisis of disappointed expectations. Rioting by urban blacks was to
be a feature of every "long, hot, summer" of the mid-1960s (Consort 87).
In 1965, King and other black leaders wanted to push beyond social
integration, now guaranteed under the previous year's civil rights law, to
political rights, mainly southern blacks' rights to register and vote. King
picked a tough Alabama town to tackle: Selma, where only 1% of eligible
black voters were registered to vote (King 74). The violence, the march,
the excitement all contributed to the passage of the second landmark civil
rights act of the ...
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"The 1960's." Essayworld.com. August 28, 2004. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-1960s/13434.
"The 1960's." Essayworld.com. August 28, 2004. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-1960s/13434.
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