Jfk Civil Rights Movement Analysis

Out of all the periods of American literature, none are as varied and changing as the Contemporary period. This is especially true in the events and history that unfolded The United States of America came out of the largest war in human history as one of two dominant superpowers in the world next to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. For the next century, the world would be dominated at first by the actions of the two superpowers, then by only one of them. American history was at its most tumultuous during the Contemporary Period.

The war left only two world powers standing in the rubble: the United States, and the USSR. While they may have held an alliance during the war, they each were already planning for how they would deal with each

This new decade started off with the election of John F. Kennedy, a new, young face to head America into the sixties. This man championed the civil rights movement, the space race, and foreign relations, even working through the tense period of the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile crisis. However, JFK never got to see many of his proposals seen through. JFK’s assassination was a tremendous blow to the morale of the nation; JFK was beloved by most American citizens. Perhaps this is what helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned any and all discrimination in employment and public accommodations. This was a huge step for the Civil Rights Movement, headed by civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.. Yet, despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964, race riots occurred throughout the United States, such as the ones in Los Angeles in 1965: “There was rioting in the streets, looting and firebombing of stores. Police and National Guardsmen were called in; they used their guns.” (Zinn 459) Later that decade in 1969, America won the space race by being the first and so far only country to put a man on the Moon. The same decade, the Counterculture movement, the reaction against the social rigidness of the previous decades, took root and festivals like Woodstock in 1969 took place. However, not all was roses and

The election and inauguration of President Ronald Reagan brought optimism to the American people. Under Reagan, things that people only a decade before thought impossible, happened. The economy was revitalized from the economic slump of the seventies. The Berlin Wall was torn down and many communist governments in Eastern Europe collapsed, signifying the waning years of the Cold War were upon the American people. The first IBM released the first commercial personal computers for the average consumer, a sign that the computer age had started. New Conservatism had swept through the youth of America, influenced by the religious conservatism of the Reagan administration. But, the eighties were not all sunshine and roses, because during the presidency of Reagan, the War on Drugs came to the forefront of American law enforcement. The War on Drugs would dramatically increase the prison population of America in the coming decades.