Civil Rights

• What do I need to revise?

  • The Red Scare and McCarthyism
  • Civil Rights in the 1950s
  • The impact of the Civil Rights protests, 1960-1974
  • Other protest movements: students, women, anti-Vietnam
  • Nixon and Watergate
• Reasons for the Red Scare

  • The Cold War (1945-1950)
  • Hiss and Rosenberg cases
  • The FBI
  • The HUAC and the Hollywood Ten
  • Party political advantage
  • Role of individuals (J Edgar Hoover, Joseph McCarthy)
• Reasons for McCarthy's downfall

  • Accusations became more extreme
  • Army-McCarthy hearings (1954)
  • Nobody accused of spying by McCarthy was convicted
  • 1954 Senate condemned McCarthy for 'improper conduct'
  • McCarthy died in 1957 from alcoholism
• Overall impact of McCarthyism on the USA
• The importance of Brown versus Topeka, 1954
• Death of Emmett Till, 1955
• Little Rock, 1957
• The significance of the Civil Rights Act, 1957
• Revival of the KKK
• The impact of the Civil Rights protests, 1960-1974


  • Freedom riders
  • Anniston fire bombing
  • Sit-ins and voting rights
  • Meredith case
• The methods and activities of Martin Luther King

  • The Birmingham and Washington Peace marches
  • The 'Dream' speech
• The failure of the Mississippi Freedom Summer
• The impact of protest on civil rights legislation of the 1960s
• Selma and voting rights
• Reasons for the growth of Black Power and its impact

  • The 1968 Olympics
  • The influence of Stokely Carmichael
• The impact of race riots especially in the Watts District
• The student movement and links to war in Vietnam

  • The anti-Vietnam War movement
  • The Berkeley Free Speech movement
  • Students for a Democratic society
  • 'hippies'
• Women's protest movements


  • Betty Friedan
  • Eleanor Roosevelt
  • NOW
  • Women's liberation movement and abortion
  • Phyllis Schafly and opposition to the women's movement
• Impact on Nixon, US politics and new laws

  • The War Powers Act (1973)
  • The Election Campaign Act (1974)
  • The Privacy Act (1974)
  • The Congressional Budget Control Act (1974)
• Gerald Ford and the presidential pardon
• Eisenhower was concerned by the violence to the civil rights protests. These were disruptive and damaging to the international reputation of the USA.
• The Civil Rights Act (1957) was passed as a result of the determination of Senator Lyndon Johnson.
• Reasons for passage of civil rights laws in 1960s
• white people placed emphasis on giving black people pride and celebrating black culture
• They placed emphasis on the economic and social problems facing African Americans, particularly in the cities/ ghettos of cities all over the USA
• They were frustrated by the slow progress made by the civil rights movement in improving the lives of African Americans
• Black nationalist groups


  • The Nation of Islam
  • Organisation of Afro-American Unity
  • SNCC
  • Black Panthers
• The Nation of Islam

  Muslim group, led by Elijah Muhamad and Malcolm X
• Malcolm X thought not retaliating against white racists was foolish and was critical of MLK. He described the March on Washington as the 'Farce on Washington'
• Malcolm X's views changed in 1964 after going on pilgrimage to Mecca. He broke away from the Nation of Islam and set up the Organisation of Afro-American Unity to promote closer links with people in Africa and became less extreme in his views
• Malcolm X was assassinated on the orders of Elijah Muhamad in 1965
• Stokely Carmichael


  Became leader of SNCC in 1966. He was a supporter of non-violence protest until 1966 when the shooting of James Meredith on a march in Mississippi led him to become a Black nationalist. He encouraged people to demand 'Black Power'
• White people were no longer welcome in SNCC
• Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the Black Power clenched fist salute during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympics. They wore no shoes to highlight poverty many black Americans suffered
• Black Panthers


  Set up in Oakland, California in 1966. Led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. Wore black berets, leather jackets and carried guns. Followed police officers to prevent abuse ('Patrolling the pigs'). Ten Point Plan called for full employment, better housing, trials of black people by black people
• The Kerner Report (1968) set up to investigate the riots said they were caused by: frustration and anger at poor living conditions caused by segregation and discrimination and inappropriate policing
• Between 1964 and 1968 there were hundreds of riots in American cities. Hundreds were killed and billions of dollars of property was destroyed. Some of the worst rioting happened in the Watts district of LA (1965)
• In 1966 MLK started a campaign in Chicago called 'Operation Breadbasket' to tackle poor housing, low employment among blacks in the city
• In 1967 MLK started the Poor People's Campaign to help poor people of all races. It was focused on Washington DC. This included a call for a minimum wage, more welfare payments, better education and improved housing
• After King's death in 1968 the Poor People's Campaign set up temporary shelters in Washington to house protesters