Week 11: Civil Rights and Liberal Reform, 1954-1968

During the next two class periods, we’ll examine the civil rights movement and try to understand its relationship to the political liberalism of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations as well as to other reform movements of the early 1960s (including those focused on women’s rights, the environment, etc.)  The Digital History chapter “America in Ferment” offers a solid overview of the material, thought its coverage extends a bit farther (at least in terms of time frame) than we probably will in class; other textbooks will usually address these issues in either a single chapter or parts of several chapters, so adjust your readings accordingly.

Our major questions will include:

1. What significant events and circumstances launched the civil rights struggles of the 1950s?  In what ways were these early confrontations successful?  In what ways were they not?
2. What role did civil disobedience and grassroots activism play in the civil rights campaigns of the 1960s?  How did the Kennedy and Johnson administrations respond to these renewed demands for political equality from African Americans?
3. What factors helped to produce a new movement for women’s rights?  In what ways did women’s experiences in the workplace and the home provide a spur for new demands for equality?  For other women, how did participation in the civil rights and student movements push them toward a more defined feminist position?
4. What were the most important goals of Kennedy’s “New Frontier” and Johnson’s “Great Society?”