The Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement

House Un-American Activities (HUAC)

A committee in congress that tried to regulate the activity of suspected Communists and Soviet spies in America

Martin Luther King, Jr.

A major Civil Rights leader. Born in 1929 in Alabama, he was the son of a Baptist minister, and he would himself go on to become a Baptist Minister. Martin Luther King, Jr. was heavily influenced by many of the people and ideas spoken about in the Bible, especially Jesus, but was also influenced by people such as Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. Henry David Thoreau claimed in his book "Civil Disobedience," that if a law is unjust, you should simply not follow it, even if that results in you being imprisoned. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in using peaceful, non-violent resistance (using peaceful means to continually put pressure on the other person to get what you want). Using peaceful, non-violent resistance when trying to arouse awareness for a particular cause, you were not stooping down to the moral lowness of whatever you were trying to get rid of. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that since many people were hostile or close minded towards, or even unaware of, the Civil Rights Movement, peaceful non-violent resistance was the only way to gain support for the Civil Rights Movement. Shortly after the Civil Rights Movement ended in the mid 1960's, Martin Luther King, Jr. then began to take part in the anti-war movement and in political movements to try to help end poverty.

The Yalta Axion

A meeting held in Yalta, Russia attended by American, British and Soviet political leaders.They would sign an agreement in which the Soviets and Americans agreed to act peacefully towards each other.

The Marshall Plan

A military plan to try to prevent Communism from spreading. It would donate $13 million to anti-Communist groups and to various government organizations/programs meant to fight Communism

The Civil Rights Movement

A political and social movement in the United States that was at its height in the 1950's and 1960's. Although blacks had been freed from slavery at the end of the Civil Rights movement almost a century earlier, discrimination in political, social and economic affairs was still common, and people tried to do things to prevent blacks and other minority groups from voting (i.e., grandfather clause, property clause, literacy clause). This movement tried to prevent obstacles getting in the way of the rights of many Americans.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

A political group formed during the Civil Rights Movement. Formed by Martin Luther King, Jr., it was a religious-oriented political group that spoke out against segregation.

Birmingham Movement (4-5/1963)

A series of peaceful protests held in Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham was a good place to hold these protests. For one, they would gain a lot of support due to the fact that the Civil Rights Movement was already underway there. Not only that, but the local police co missioner, Eugene "Bull" Connor was known for being staunchly opposed to the Civil Rights Movement, and this would be a good place to test their non-violent peaceful resistance. When pictures were shown of the local police force brutally beating the protesters, this put much pressure on the government to pass Civil Rights Legislation

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

A student-based Civil Rights group that formed to provide manpower, money and supplies to local Civil Rights groups

The Berlin Wall

A wall meant to separate Berlin, the capital of Germany, into two separate realms, one owned by the Americans and the other owned by the Soviets. Since Berlin was in the heart of east Germany, many people in East Berlin were crossing the boarder into West Berlin, which was technically a part of West Germany

Name the causes of the Cold War

After WWII ended in 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as the two most powerful nations. This created a sense of competition between the Soviet Union and America, and thus causing anti-Communist propaganda to appear in America and anti-American propaganda to appear in the Soviet Union. Also, in the final months of WWII, you had the Soviet Union invading Germany from the East and the Americans, French and British invading from the West. Germany was then divided into two sections, East Germany (occupied by the Soviets) and West Germany (occupied by the French, British and Americans). This was meant to be only a temporary measure meant to help Germany transition into a non-Nazi government, but this became permanent when the Americans installed a separate, independent pro-American government in the West and the Soviets installed an independent, yet pro-Soviet government in the East in 1949. This was seen as a symbol of the division between the Soviets and the Americans.

Containment

An early foreign policy method used by the United States to combat communism. If we could keep communism only in limited areas, then it would would not spread, and as a result it would die out

The Cold War

An era of social, cultural and political tension and competition between Communists in the Soviet Union and any nation that supported them and the non-Communist in the United States and any nation that supported it. It lasted from the late 1940's through the early 1990's. Much of the foreign policy, and even some of the domestic policy, during this time was effected by issues caused by the Cold War.

Montgomery Bis Boycott

Buses were often segregated, with whites sitting in the front and blacks sitting in the back. If there was not enough room in the front, they would all move back a certain amount of spaces. One day, a white person asked for the seat of a woman named Rosa Parks, who said no on account of how tired she claimed. She was then arrested. This then led to a boycott of the local buses. especially those in and near Birmingham, Alabama, where the incident occurred. It lasted almost a year from December 5, 1955 to December 21, 1956, when the local bus companies then decided to desegregate the buses because the protests led to low business.

Emmit Till

Emmitt Till was a fourteen-year old black boy from Chicago who went to visit some relatives down south. He then went into a grocery store, where he met a woman who was rumored to be in a relationship with one of his friends. Accounts differ as to what his exact words were, but we do know that he flirted with the girl. He was then murdered by the woman's husband and brother-in law. When he mutilated body was found in a local lake, his parents then brought a lawsuit against the murders. When they were found innocent, this was used as a way to bring attention to the Civil Rights Movement

Little Rock Protests (9/1957)

Even though schools were forced to desegregate over three years later, the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, refused to desegregate the schools, thus leading to a series of protests in the Little Rock region, which suffered some of the worst segregation.

McCarthysim

Named after Senator Joe McCarthy from Wisconsin, it was the notion that Communists live and dwell among us, and are influencing American politics and society. He often accused many celebrities and fellow celebrities of being suspected Communist spies

Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)

One of the earliest major issues (and victories) in the Civil Rights Movement. The court case has its roots in how a woman from Topeka, Kansas, named Esther Brown became upset at how many schools were segregated, and how schools for blacks were often inferior to those of whites. Though she was a white woman, she would help raise awareness for segregation, and even spoke before the local board of education in her city, even going as far as bringing in psychologists who attested to the negative social, emotional and psychological effects of segregation. Shortly afterwards, a local African-American girl named Linda Brown (of no relation to Esther Brown) tried to apply to Central High School in Topeka, since that school was closer to where she lived then the local public school for blacks. When she was denied admittance, her family sued the school in September of 1954. The law suit even made it to the Supreme Court. The verdict that followed overturned the verdict of the Plessy vs. Ferguson case of 1893, which said that segregation was legal just so long as facilities for blacks were equal to those of whites. This case then claimed that segregation is unconstitutional, and that schools, businesses, and any public or government group had to desegregate as soon as possible.

24th Amendment

Passed in 1962. it outlawed poll taxes

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Passed in 1964, it claimed that discrimination in public places (schools, businesses, government-owned organizations, public transportation) was not allowable. It also said that people could not be denied a job on the basis of their gender or race. This bill also formed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which tried to get rid of segregation in the workplace

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Passes in 1965, it tried to get rid of any additional regulations on voting (grandfather clause, literacy clause, property clause, etc.)

Freedom Rides (1961)

Shortly after several Supreme Court cases that officially desegregated the buses, many supporters of the civil Rights Movement the began riding buses from town to town throughout the deep south, partly in an attempt to showcase their victory, and partly to spread the message of the Civil Rights Movement down there, where racism and segregation was at its worse. Unfortunately, some of the buses were blown up by local terrorist groups, and two of the members disappeared

The March on Washington (8/28/1963)

When Civil Rights leaders stages a massive protest against in Washington, D.C. It was during these protests that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech.

The Riga Axiom

When the Soviet Union first formed, we had no official government relations with the new government when it first took over Russia. Many American politicians were stationed in Riga, the capital of Latvia (a small country near Russia) to find about about the Soviet government and society. When they saw many people trying to leave Russia to avoid the Soviet government, they reported back to the United States claiming that the Soviet Union was a type of dictatorship that needed to be halted.