Civil Rights and Lyndon Johnson's Presidency

Freedom Summer (1964)

• Efforts to register Black voters in the South
• Freedom Schools to educate on voting rights/tests
• Multi-racial volunteers
• Backlash: 3 Mississippi civil rights workers killed

Selma (1965)

• January-February: March for voting rights in Selma, Alabama
  • Sheriff Jim Clark arrests 3,000 demonstrators, including MLK and John Lewis
• Bloody Sunday: March 7, protesters attacked by law enforcement
  • Media captures events, public opinion shifts
• Lyndon Johnson's response: televised address, emphasizes need for voting rights
  • Pressures George Wallace to back down
  • March 21: 25,000 Americans march to Montgomery
• Result: Voting Rights Act of 1965, outlawing racial discrimination in voting

Civil Rights Movement Split

• Post-1968: Fracture within the movement
• Peaceful protests (MLK) vs. Black nationalism/Black power (Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael)
• Disagreement over pace of progress

Lyndon Johnson's Liberalism and Great Society

• War on Poverty: Big government solutions
• Great Society Programs
  • Medicare: Medical coverage for Americans over 65
  • Medicaid: Medical care for low-income families
  • Head Start program
  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act
  • Higher Education Act
• Unprecedented legislative accomplishments (Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965)

Vietnam War and its Impact

• Johnson inherits Vietnam conflict, derails his presidency
• History: U.S. support for France's imperialism, Cold War context
• American strategy: Increase troop levels, bomb North Vietnam
• Technological advances: Defoliants (Agent Orange), helicopters, napalm
• Escalation: Gulf of Tonkin incident, Operation Rolling Thunder
• General William Westmoreland's strategy: War of attrition

Insurgent Warfare in Vietnam

• Insurgents blend with civilian population
• Frustration and morale issues among American troops
• Ho Chi Minh Trail: Supply line for insurgents, running through Laos and Cambodia
• Resentment and morale decline: Targeting civilians, village burnings

Conclusion

• Johnson's presidency marked by significant civil rights advances and ambitious liberal policies
• Undermined by complexities and failures in Vietnam

Next: Episode 3