History Exam 1

Truman Doctrine

1947, President Truman's policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology, mainly helped Greece and Turkey, asked for 400 million from government

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated. Oliver Brown wanted his daughter to be able to go to the school closest to her house, unanimous in favor of Brown

Interstate Highway Act

1956 law that authorized the spending of $32 billion to build 41,000 miles of highway, passed by Eisenhower as a result of dramatic increase in auto sales following the end of WW2

Odessa Cotter

Black maid in "The Long Walk Home", participated in Montgomery Bus Boycott, walked to work or picked up by her employer

"[I]n the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place."

Brown v. Board of Education, Thurgood Marshall fighting for desegregation of schools

Levittown

In 1947, William Levitt used mass production techniques to build inexpensive homes in surburban New York to help relieve the postwar housing shortage. Levittown became a symbol of the movement to the suburbs in the years after WWII.

Baby Boom

Large increase in babies born in the United States between 1946 and 1964, just after World War II in a time of relative peace and prosperity. These conditions allowed for better education and job opportunities, encouraging high rates of both marriage and fertility. Caused an economic boom

Emmett Till

Murdered in 1955 for whistling at a white woman by her husband and his friends. They kidnapped him, beat him and brutally killed him. Found in a river, his murderers tried by jury of white men and found not guilty, later confessed but cannot be tried for the same crime twice. His death led to the American Civil Rights movement.

De Jure Segregation

Racial segregation that occurs because of laws, enforced in the South through Jim Crow laws

"It is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies."

Said by George Kennan in regards to containment

De Facto Segregation

Segregation by matter of fact, not legally enforced, mainly occurring in the North where school segregation continued even though it was not written in the law

"The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as 'Communists' or 'Fascists' by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America."

Senator Margaret Smith's response to McCarthyism in the "Declaration of Conscience" in 1950

Lucille Ball

Star of "I Love Lucy", goes against what was expected of women in the 50s

HUAC

The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was an investigating committee which investigated alleged communist activity during the "Red Scare"

Berlin Airlift

airlift in 1948 that supplied food and fuel to citizens of west Berlin when Stalin closed off land access to Berlin, Stalin eventually backs off

McCarthyism

Falsely charging "enemies", supposed to be a trusted senator, manipulated the press and the public, was promoting himself by "defeating communism", told multiple untruths and made false claims, George McCarthy is an alcoholic, eventually taken down through the power of television

The Yalta Conference

Feb. 1945 Meeting with FDR, Winston Churchill, and Stalin during WWII to plan for post-war, United Nations developed, split Germany, leading to beginning of the Cold War

Containment

Defined in 1946, trying to keep communism from spreading, Stalin is paranoid, Soviet Leaders scared, should be united against them, George Kennan