IMPACT OF POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

1.WARREN COURT2.MIRANDA DECISION3. ASSASSINATIONS:

JOHN F. KENNEDYMARTIN L. KING

ROBERT KENNEDY4.1968 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

5. JOHNSON’S: GREAT SOCIETY

WARREN COURT:• 1950s- 1960s Supreme Court

was headed by Earl Warren• Known for issuing famous

landmark decisions: • Brown v Board of Education

overturned Plessy v Ferguson

• Right to privacy and free speech: students can wear arm bands as anti-war statement on school grounds

• All states must obey Supreme Court decisions

• MIRANDA v Arizona: police must inform suspects of their constitutional rights at time of arrest : Ernesto Miranda was convicted after signing a confession. Never told that he had right to remain silent or right to an attorney

CHIEF JUSTICE EARL WARREN

Known for issuing landmark decisions

John F. Kennedy• assassinated in

Dallas, TX Nov 1963: Demonstrated power of US government- it would live on although a president was killed

• Death gave new president Lyndon Johnson the political capital to get Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed

MARTIN LUTHER KING• April 1968––The

assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. caused riots in over 100 cities across America, despite pleas for calmness from such prominent leaders as Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was then running for president. One week after King’s death, Congress passed the

• Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prevented discrimination in housing.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY• June 1968–– The

assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, following soon after King’s assassination, disheartened many people

who shared Kennedy’s desires for social reform and opposition to the Vietnam

War. He was running for president and was killed on the same night he won the California and South Dakota presidential primaries.

• JANUARY – TET OFFENSIVE– Viet Cong (Communists)

attacked: 100 South Vietnamese towns, 12 American air bases, US embassy in S. Vietnam

• APRIL- ASSASSINATION OF MARTIN L. KING– Riots in over 100 cities

• JUNE- ASSASSINATION OF ROBERT KENNEDY– Further disheartened Americans

• AUGUST- DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION RIOTS– Police armed with clubs and tear

gas violently beat antiwar protesters on live TV.

– Herbert Humphrey nominated as Democrat/ Nixon as Republican

1968

August 1968––The Democratic National Convention

• Chicago is remembered as a scene where police armed with clubs and tear gas violently beat antiwar protesters on live TV. Many Americans started wondering if the American form of government could tolerate dissent.

• “Chicago Seven” name given to the people who were arrested and tried

GREAT SOCIETY“WAR ON POVERTY” CAMPAIGN

During a 1964 speech, President Johnson summed up his vision for America in the phrase

• “the GREAT SOCIETY.” • give all Americans a better

standard of living and greater opportunities regardless of their background.

• The MEDICARE/ MEDICAID program is an important legacy of the Great Society:

• improve elementary and secondary education

• protect the environment• reform immigration policies.