Test 3 Notes Harry S Truman s Presidency President 1945 1953 1 first movement by government towards civil rights 2 America s economy booms 3 turn in American politics Harry Truman from Missouri born in 1884 ambition in life to go to WestPoint became officer of artillery in France during WWI became lawyer and senator Roosevelt chose Truman because he reached out to Americans spoke to ordinary Americans First issue dealt with 9 million people leaving service after war people were afraid of another Great Depression fear of flood in job market Truman implemented the GI Bill GI Bill passed in 1940 1 put 20 billion dollars aside for soldiers coming home 52 weeks of unemployment benefits 2 gave scholarships for soldiers who wanted to go to college 3 low interest loans for houses very few single roomed houses apartments started building small homes therefore it jump starts construction industry Women in Work Force books came out and put a foundation for what duties a woman should fulfill Common Sense of Baby and Child Care by Dr Ben Spock said women had to be primary caregiver for children a woman s success in life was based on her success of raising children The Lost Sex by Maryina Farnham and Ferdinand Lundberg said women who do not have children will be emotionally disturbed seeking jobs as a woman is looked down as a masculine rather than feminine endeavor women should provide love and care to returning veterans as well Economy started to boom after WWII families needed household items between 1946 1950 Americans bought 20 million refrigerators electronic stoves and dishwaters started to be bought 21 million new cars sold in this time first time people started paying with credit interest and installments William Levitt took on his family s construction company built civilian homes in New York bought potato fields in the north and started building a suburb 140 000 homes built in Long Island and Philly 3 different designs to choose from All of them consisted of 2 bedrooms and 1 bath for 7 000 Levittown was built 1946 Mid term election Republicans gained control of House of Representatives people tired of democratic war efforts Taft Hartley Act banned the closed shop no more hiring of union members only American union laborers went on strike and almost shut down businesses permitted employers to sue unions for broken contracts or damages inflicted during strikes forced unions to abide by a 60 day cooling off period before strike required unions to make public their financial statements Naace organization pushed for integration in army units During WWII African Americans were fighting for other people s democracies while they still didn t have theirs in American In perspective there was a camp in Jacksonville that all the German POWs were kept in German POWs were allowed to go to movies on Saturdays while African Americans couldn t Why should we do all this when we do not have rights Civil Rights Movement 1940 1964 1940 s and 1950 s public facilities were segregated even donated blood was segregated southerners wanted to keep lifestyle they had before the Civil War broke out African Americans couldn t vote without money African Americans had to take a hard literacy test in order to vote Double V victory Campaign Victory over Germany Japan and at home Civil rights movement boost in 1947 due to Jackie Robinson baseball player 1st African American to play major league baseball got death threats had to give up seat in plane for a white couple Rookie of the year played for the Dodgers NAACP challenged segregation laws lawyers from different African American law schools came together to acomplish this Thurgood Marshall one of the lawyers Oliver Brown v Board of Education Oliver Brown had a daughter who walked miles to and from the African American school instead of walk a couple minutes to the white school close to their house had to pass railroads very dangerous for a little girl Brown decides to use NAACP fund and sue the Board of Education Supreme Court shuts down segregation in public schools 1948 Election Hubert Humphrey mayor of Minneapolis democratic party pushed for civil rights Thomas Dewey Republican awkward and bland didn t even try to campaign Strom Thurmond States Rights Party against civil rights Democratic party split between Hubert and Strom due to Hubert s push for civil rights Truman decides to take a train to campaign 357 speeches all over the country Slogan Give Em Hell Wins election Dixie Craft Party southern states break away from Democrats who are for civil rights southern states do not support Democrats again until 1992 When Harry Truman becomes president again initiates a civil rights commission they didn t have real power but they could recommend changes to Congress everything that was recommended got denied Recommended but never passed Anti Lynching Law an end to discrimination in education The Cold War 1945 1956 Adolf Hitler bonded Russia Great Britain and U S Russia has been invaded many times very paranoid that it will happen again Russia wanted to make sure this never happened again Russia wanted to keep the countries gained from war Czech Slovakia Hungary Poland Romania acted as buffer states U S keeps France At the end of the war U S had the only atomic weapon Russia began an arm race to build more nuclear weapons than the U S Winsten Churchill 1946 made a speech at a college in Missouri set off the cold war George F Kennan soviets were neurotic about being invaded Kennan sent a telegram to Moscow to get Russia to back out of Eastern Europe Russians said they won t back out of Eastern Europe U S starts a plan to prevent soviets from expanding wanted to use a blocking strategy people started to fear the spread of communism American Cold War Policy 20 years wherever Russia soviets go America will stop them China falls into Communism Kennen s theory first used by Truman The Truman Doctrine Greece and Turkey both countries had communist political parties that tried to seek power in the government only thing keeping Greece from becoming a communist was Great Britain paying Greece s government money to resist communism Great Britain was in bad shape and couldn t keep funding Greece s government U S fears that if one country falls to communism other countries will too Domino Theory Reason why America didn t want to help Greece out is WWII U S needed to help its own people out Truman s 1st to use TV making announcements Truman decided to fund Greece got supporters
View Full Document
Unlocking...