Foreign Policy (1930-1940s)
1) WWII and isolationism
a) Adolf Hitler
i) Took power in Germany
ii) Adopted anti-Semitic laws
b) Germany invades Poland in 1939
i) US quota laws allow some (few) refugees to immigrate
c) American isolationism
i) Strong pacifist movement by Protestants
(1) AJ Muste
(a) Bible doesn't allow killing/war
(i) Too much collateral damage
(ii) Little gain
ii) Catholic support
(1) Father Charles Coughlin
(a) Anti-Semitic
(b) Liked Hitler’s anti-communist ideals
d) Communist isolationism
i) Agree with policy
e) Russian isolationism
i) Neutral agreement with Germany
f) Asian racism
i) Japan was seen as a threat
ii) Americans sympathize with Hitler because he is not Asian
g) Challenge to isolationism
i) Reinhold Niebuhr
(1) Protestant preacher
(2) The Moral Man and Immoral Society
(a) Academic credentials as well as appeal to average person
Cold War & Red Scare (1945-1960s)
1) Cold War
a) Tension are high between the US and USSR
b) Soviet Union
i) Controlled Eastern Europe
(1) Iron Curtain
(a) Barrier between E/W Europe which separated “free” from “communist”
ii) China turns communist
c) Public opinion
i) Most of Europe was Catholic
(1) USSR did not allow Catholicism
(2) Poland churches often noted missing Catholics in E Europe
ii) Protestant fundamentalists
(1) Billy Graham
(a) Communists are led by the devil
(i) Good Christians in America must fight the communist enemy
iii) Liberals
(1) Reinhold Niebuhr
iv) Critics (very few)
(1) Religious pacifists
(a) Quakers
(b) Catholics
(i) Dorothy Day
v) Result
(1) US joins NATO
(2) US joins arms race
(3) US foreign policy changes
(4) Add god
(a) “Under god” added to pledge
(b) “In god we trust” made official US motto
(i) Added to coins
2) Red Scare
a) American communists
i) Why?
(1) Great Depression
(a) Causes fear of capitalist collapse
(2) Popular Front Era (joining groups to support America)
(a) Communists were in these groups, exposed new ideas to open-minded people
(3) Joseph Stalin made out (by American communists) to seem like a good guy
(4) Above reasons garnered initial attraction by many, but research/practice in communism caused most Americans to quit
b) CIO (had many open communists)
i) United Electrical expelled
c) Joe McCarthy
i) Republican Senator
ii) Accuses Truman administration of having disloyal (treasonous) people in positions of power
(1) Neither Truman of admin. Were communists’
iii) Pink
(1) Similar to communists (and women)
(2) Cannot be proven
d) House Un-American Activities Commission (HUAC)
i) Hollywood
(1) Blacklist
(2) Asked about previous friends
ii) N
e) Billy Graham
i) Friends with Joe (praised HUAC)
ii) Sent message that Christians should support HUAC if they are patriots
f) Critics of the Red Scare
i) Arthur Miller
(1) The Crucible (wrote at this time)
(a) Searching for communists is the same as Salem searching for witches
ii) Will Herberg
(1) Protestants/Catholics/Jews have simplified their religion to be connected with patriotism
(a) “Civil religion”
(i) Your religion is your patriotism
g) Decline of Red Scare (mid-late 1950s)
i) Censure of Joe McCarthy
(1) HUAC/blacklist is weakened
ii) Supreme Court rulings
(1) Strengthened 5th amendment
Economics (1945-1960s)
1) Affluence and economic growth
a) Great Depression is over
b) US is dominant military/economic superpower
i) US car companies outsold every other foreign company
ii) TV
iii) Air conditioning
iv) Business computers
v) Space exploration
vi) Jonas Salk
(1) Polio vaccine
vii) Above things gave the feeling that the US was unstoppable/always moving forward
2) Mobility
a) Rise in middle class
i) GI Bill
(1) Allowed veterans to go to college with government money
ii) Mass movements from farm to urban/suburbs
iii) Mass movements from N and E to S and W
(1) Air conditioning helped foster this movement
3) Religious movies (after WW2)
a) Based on fictional characters inserted into biblical stories
i) Samson & Delilah 1950
ii) The Robe 1953
iii) Ten Commandments 1956
iv) Many more
v) Used to draw people away from TV
4) Norman Vincent Peale
a) Power of Positive Thinking
i) God is within; thinking positive can help unleash it.
ii) Message is that god wants American to be successful, which meant economic wealth
5) Critics of economic prosperity
a) C Wright Mills
i) The Power Elite
(1) Economic success (living the suburbs, etc.) brings unhappiness, stress, and alienation
(2) Middle class is too materialistic
(a) Makes them unhappy
(3) The power elite is big business
(a) They are manipulating the middle class (the one who are unknowingly supporting elitism)
b) Michael Harrington
i) The Other America
(1) Lots of Americans are in poverty
(2) Most Americans (middle class) either ignore impoverished or don’t see them
(a) The solution is government programs
(i) Becomes a political demand to create new programs/do something about the poor
ii) All his ideas are rooted in Catholicism
c) Reinhold Niebuhr
Protestant and Catholics (1945-1960s)
1) Relaxation of tensions
a) Covered in previous lectures
2) Cold War anti-communism
a) Unites both religions
3) Fulton Sheen
a) Catholic priest who later becomes a bishop
b) Radio program
c) TV show
i) Prime Time hit
(1) Won an Emmy
ii) Informal speaking style
(1) Brought in wide audience (not just Catholics)
(2) Didn’t quote abstract theologians
d) Connection with Martin Sheen (Estevez)
4) JFK Campaign (1960)
a) Motivated Catholics and Protestants to win election
5) John Courtney Murray
a) Catholic thinker/writer
b) Correct Catholic thinking should support American pluralism (concerning religion)
c) Very patriotic
i) Supports 1st amendment
ii) Supports separation of church and state
d) Vatican 2 (2nd Vatican Council)
i) Worldwide catholic council meeting in Vatican
ii) John Courtney Murray is the most important American catholic in attendance
iii) Creates list of reforms
(1) Catholic church is not the only road to salvation
(a) Reaches out to Protestants/Orthodox in spirit of conciliation and friendship
(2) Apologize for anti-Semitism
(a) Urge respect for Judaism
(3) Change Mass
(a) No longer in Latin
(i) Spoken in the language of the congregation
(b) Faces the parishioners
(c) More music allowed
(d) Congregation will be more involved
(e) Deemphasized confession
(f) Eliminated some catholic saints
(i) Admitted that some were legends (never really existed)
Supreme Court (1950-1960s)
1) Earl Warren
a) Chief Justice
b) Cases that caused decline of Red Scare
c) Religion and Schools
i) Required prayer in public schools
(1) School board is requiring prayer every day
(a) Supreme court rules it unconstitutional
(b) Abolishes the requirement that schools have prayer in school
ii) Required bible readings
(1) No longer mandatory
iii) Evolution
(1) Must be brought in
(2) Previous method was to read from the bible, in science class to teach how earth/people were created by god
(3) No longer requires teachers to teach biblical things
d) Censorship of books, movies, magazines
i) All in the form of state and local laws
(1) Allows obscenity and pornography
ii) “The Miracle” (foreign movie)
(1) Dealt with the birth of Jesus
(2) Supreme court rules that the movie can be shown in the US
(a) End of the Production Code
2) Conclusions
a) Warren court was extremely liberal
i) All decisions were not consensual
ii) Conservatives oppose
African Americans and the Civil Rights Movement (1910-1953)
1) Great Migration (began in the 1910s)
a) Positives in the North
i) Praise Union leaders from the Civil War
ii) Jobs (not sharecropping)
iii) Not denied the right to vote
b) Negatives in the North
i) Housing
(1) Living in small, cramped apartments
(2) Majority rental properties
(a) Renting from whites who discriminate
(b) Landlords didn’t care about housing conditions
(3) Buying a house
(a) Banks strictly enforced unfair laws concerning eviction/payments
ii) Economic
(1) Blacks were openly paid less than whites
iii) Politics
(1) No candidates that accurately/honestly represented blacks (Republican or Democrat)
2) Marcus Garvey
a) Back to Africa movement
b) Criticized by the NAACP
3) New Deal era
a) Laws
i) Minimum wage established
b) Eleanor Roosevelt
i) Pushed for integration
ii) Marian Anderson (classical singer)
(1) Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)
(a) Refused to allow Anderson to play
(i) Eleanor Roosevelt publicly revokes her membership to the DAR
1. New hosting center is found for Anderson to play at
c) Unions
i) CIO allows black to join (tradition in most unions was to discriminate)
ii) A Philip Randolph
(1) Creates/maintains a union for porters (1st of its kind)
(a) Wins better wages and benefits
(b) Gains respect for them
(i) Gets name tags for workers so they’re not all called George
d) March on Washington (before WW2)
i) Planned by Randolph to end discriminatory laws for all blacks (not just specific unions)
(1) FDR creates the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)
(a) 1st government agency (since Reconstruction) to try and help African Americans
(i) Very weak (no laws for FEPC to enforce)
1. Could not arrest/punish/prosecute discriminators
e) Blacks (in the North) begin to vote Democratic
i) Racist opposition
(1) Democrats begin to leave the party for the conservative Republicans
4) Culture in the 1930s
a) Swing music
i) Dominant style, most popular
ii) Sometimes played by blacks
b) Boxing
i) Only integrated sport
(1) Joe Louis
(2) African American boxer
(3) Becomes heavyweight champion of the world
(a) Beat white boxers along the way
c) “Gone with the Wind”
i) Racism
(1) Glorifies slavery
ii) Huge success
5) WW2
a) Blacks serve in the military
i) Makes them eligible for the GI Bill
(1) They receive an education
(a) Their children receive a better education
6) Truman era (post WW2-1953)
a) NAACP
i) Focus on the military
(1) Military had official discriminatory policies
(2) Truman integrates the military
ii) Thurgood Marshall
(1) Top attorney for the NAACP
(2) UT Law School
(a) Forced to integrate (1st of many law schools)
(3) White primary
(a) Supreme Court rules that the law is invalid
iii) Red Scare
(1) WEB DuBois kicked out for being a communist
b) Jackie Robinson
i) First black player integrated in the MLB
(1) Other teams begin to integrate
Civil Rights Movement (1954-1965) – abbreviated
1) Freedom rides
a) Freedom riders traveled around on the bus with the goal of integrating facilities
i) Started with 20 people
(1) Blacks, whites, men, women
ii) Stopped at segregated bus stops, restaurant, restrooms, etc.
iii) Good chance of getting arrested/shot/harassed/beaten
iv) All strong believers in god
v) JFK is current president
(1) Bobby Kennedy is Attorney General
(a) Public opinion eventually forces the Kennedys to protect riders civil rights
(i) Because they were interstate buses Kennedy was able to offer protection
2) University of Mississippi (1962)
a) School culture presented Confederate view
i) Mascot was the rebels
ii) Flew the Confederate flag
iii) Sang Dixie
b) Blacks were not allowed admittance
i) Because of state law
ii) James Meredith
(1) Veteran
(2) Applies to go to school there
(a) Application is rejected
(i) Goes to court, they rule that he is allowed to go there
(ii) Still has to fight the governor for admittance
1. States rights
2. Results in school riot
3. 2 black people are killed in the riot
3) University of Alabama (1963)
a) Governor George Wallace
i) Barred black students from entering
(1) Federal marshals are sent in
(2) No problems
4) Southwest Texas State University (1963)
a) No problems integrating
i) Texas governor saw how UM and UA were taken down, and decided to not interfere
5) JFK assassination, 1963
6) Civil Rights Act, 1964
a) LBJ
b) Stopping a filibuster required a 2/3 majority Goldwater
7) Mississippi
a) Freedom summer (1964)
i) Worked to integrate shop, business, etc.
8) Conclusions of the civil rights movement
a) Success
i) LBJ wins reelection
ii) Goldwater loses
iii) Civil rights accepted
Critics of the Civil Rights Movement
1) Nation of Islam
a) Black Muslims
b) USA, 1930
c) Elijah Muhammad (American)
i) All whites across the globe and through history are evil, no questions asked
ii) Apocalypse will be soon – everyone dies and blacks are the only ones who go to heaven
iii) Converts Malcolm X
(1) Calls MLK a traitor to his people
(2) Renounces Christianity as a pacifist tool
(3) Breaks from the nation of Islam (1964)
(a) Converts to traditional Islam Muslim
(i) Killed by nation of Islam (1965)
1. Aftermath
a. Islam continues without problems
b. Autobiography of Malcolm X is published
i. Malcolm X never read the book (because he was dead)
Black Power
1) Decentralized movement
2) Different from Civil Rights Movement
3) Major groups
a) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
b) Black Panthers
i) Stokely Carmichael
(1) Reject non-violence
(2) Support “self defense”
ii) Said black instead of negro
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