Chapter 37

Front 1

affirmative action

Back 1

Program designed to redress historic racial and gender imbalances in jobs and education. The term grew from an executive order issued by John F. Kennedy in 1961 mandating that projects paid for with federal funds could not discriminate based on race in their hiring practices. In the late 1960s, President Nixon’s Philadelphia Plan changed the meaning of affirmative action to require attention to certain groups, rather than protect individuals against discrimination

Front 2

Black Panther Party

Back 2

Organization of armed black militants formed in Oakland, California, in 1966 to protect black rights. The Panthers represented a growing dissatisfaction with the non-violent wing of the civil rights movement, and signaled a new direction to that movement after the legislative victories of 1964 and 1965

Front 3

Black Power

Back 3

Doctrine of militancy and separatism that rose in prominence after 1965. Black Power activists rejected Martin Luther King’s pacifism and desire for integration. Rather, they promoted pride in African heritage and an often militant position in defense of their rights

Front 4

Freedom Riders

Back 4

Federal law that banned racial discrimination in public facilities and strengthened the federal government’s power to fight segregation in schools. Title VII of the act prohibited employers from discriminating based on race in their hiring practices, and empowered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to regulate fair employment

Front 5

Freedom Summer

Back 5

Organized mixed-race groups who rode interstate buses deep into the South to draw attention to and protest racial segregation, beginning in 1961. This effort by northern young people to challenge racism proved a political and public relations success for the Civil Rights Movement

Front 6

Great Society

Back 6

President Lyndon Johnson’s term for his domestic policy agenda. Billed as a successor to the New Deal, the Great Society aimed to extend the postwar prosperity to all people in American society by promoting civil rights and fighting poverty. Great Society programs included the War on Poverty, which expanded the Social Security system by creating Medicare and Medicaid to provide health care for the aged and the poor. Johnson also signed laws protecting consumers and empowering community organizations to combat poverty at grassroots levels

Front 7

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

Back 7

Political party organized by civil rights activists to challenge Mississippi’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention, who opposed the civil rights planks in the party’s platform. Claiming a mandate to represent the true voice of Mississippi, where almost no black citizens could vote, the MFDP demanded to be seated at the convention but were denied by party bosses. The effort was both a setback to civil rights activism in the south and a motivation to continue to struggle for black voting rights

Front 8

Six-Day War

Back 8

Military conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. The war ended with an Israeli victory and territorial expansion into the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. The 1967 war was a humiliation for several Arab states, and the territorial disputes it created formed the basis for continued conflict in the region

Front 9

Stonewall Rebellion

Back 9

Uprising in support of equal rights for gay people sparked by an assault by off-duty police officers at a gay bar in New York. The rebellion led to rise in activism and militancy within the gay community and furthered the sexual revolution of the late 1960s

Front 10

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

Back 10

A campus-based political organization founded in 1961 by Tom Hayden that became an iconic representation of the New Left. Originally geared toward the intellectual promise of “participatory democracy,” SDS emerged at the forefront of the civil rights, antipoverty, and antiwar movements during the 1960s

Front 11

Voter Education Project

Back 11

Effort by SNCC and other civil rights groups to register the South’s historically disenfranchised black population. The project typified a common strategy of the civil rights movement, which sought to counter racial discrimination by empowering people at grassroots levels to exercise their civic rights through voting

Front 12

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Back 12

Legislation pushed through Congress by President Johnson that prohibited ballot-denying tactics, such as literary tests and intimidation. The Voting Rights Act was a successor to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and sought to make racial disenfranchisement explicitly illegal

Front 13

détente

Back 13

From the French for “reduced tension,” the period of Cold War thawing when the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated reduced armament treaties under Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter. As a policy prescription, détente marked a departure from the policies of proportional response, mutually assured destruction, and containment that had defined the earlier years of the Cold War

Front 14

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Back 14

A governmental organization signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1970 designed to regulate pollution, emissions, and other factors that negatively influence the natural environment. The creation of the EPA marked a newfound commitment by the federal government to actively combat environmental risks and was a significant triumph for the environmentalist movement

Front 15

Kent State University

Back 15

Massacre of four college students by National Guardsmen on May 4, 1970, in Ohio. In response to Nixon’s announcement that he had expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia, college campuses across the country exploded in violence. On May 14 and 15, students at historically black Jackson State College in Mississippi were protesting the war as well as the Kent State shooting when highway patrolmen fired into a student dormitory, killing two students

Front 16

Miranda Warning

Back 16

A statement of an arrested person’s constitutional rights, which police officers must read during an arrest. The warning came out of the Supreme Court’s decision in Miranda v. Arizona in 1966 that accused people have the right to remain silent, consult an attorney, and enjoy other protections. The Court declared that law enforcement officers must make sure suspects understand their constitutional rights, thus creating a safeguard against forced confessions and self-implication

Front 17

My Lai Massacre

Back 17

Military assault in a small Vietnamese village on March 16, 1968, in which American soldiers under the command of 2nd Lieutenant William Calley murdered hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children. The atrocity produced outrage and reduced support for the war in America and around the world when details of the massacre and an attempted cover-up were revealed in 1971

Front 18

Nixon Doctrine

Back 18

President Nixon’s plan for “peace with honor” in Vietnam. The doctrine stated that the United States would honor its existing defense commitments but, in the future, countries would have to fight their own wars

Front 19

Pentagon Papers

Back 19

Secret U.S. government report detailing early planning and policy decisions regarding the Vietnam War under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Leaked to the New York Times in 1971, it revealed instances of governmental secrecy, lies, and incompetence in the prosecution of the war

Front 20

Philadelphia Plan

Back 20

Program established by Richard Nixon to require construction trade unions to work toward hiring more black apprentices. The plan altered Lyndon Johnson’s concept of “affirmative action” to focus on groups rather than individuals

Front 21

southern strategy

Back 21

Nixon reelection campaign strategy designed to appeal to conservative whites in the historically Democratic south. The President stressed law and order issues and remained noncommittal on civil rights. This strategy typified the regional split between the two parties as white Southerners became increasingly attracted to the Republican party in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement

Front 22

Vietnamization

Back 22

Military strategy launched by Richard Nixon in 1969. The plan reduced the number of American combat troops in Vietnam and left more of the fighting to the South Vietnamese, who were supplied with American armor, tanks, and weaponry

Front 23

War Powers Act

Back 23

Law passed by Congress in 1973 limiting the President’s ability to wage war without Congressional approval. The act required the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing troops to a foreign conflict. An important consequence of the Vietnam War, this piece of legislation sought to reduce the President’s unilateral authority in military matters