Kennedy’s New Frontier

• President John F. Kennedy promised a “New Frontier” in 1961, but many of his domestic policies stalled in Congress. The Bay of Pigs fiasco led the Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, to test American resolve by erecting the Berlin Wall and installing nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba, which provoked the Cuban missile crisis. Determined to stand up to the Soviets, in October 1962 Kennedy ordered a naval “quarantine” of Cuba that led Khrushchev to withdraw the missiles. During his presidency, Kennedy deepened America’s commitment to Vietnam.

Civil Rights Achievements

• At the beginning of the decade, growing numbers of African Americans and whites staged acts of nonviolent civil disobedience to protest discrimination in the South. In 1960, activists formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to intensify efforts to dismantle desegregation. In 1961, courageous Freedom Riders attempted to integrate bus and train stations in the South. The high point of the early phase of the civil rights movement was the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Later on, the black power movement emerged and emphasized militancy, black nationalism, separatism, and, often, violence.

Johnson’s Great Society

• Lyndon Johnson began his presidency committed to social reform, especially civil rights. He forced the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress and then declared “war” on poverty by persuading Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act. After his resounding victory in the 1964 presidential election, he pushed his vision for a Great Society. Hundreds of initiatives expanded federal social welfare programs, most noticeably the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, and Medicaid.

1968 Presidential Election

• Frustrated by his failures in Vietnam and aware that he had lost public support, Johnson chose not to seek reelection in 1968. Anti-war Democrats rallied around Senators Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. In April, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, setting off violent riots in urban ghettos across the country. Then Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June. Ultimately, the Democrats selected Johnson’s loyal vice president, Hubert Humphrey, as their nominee, provoking angry protests by anti-war demonstrators at the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention. As they had in 1960, the Republicans nominated Richard Nixon, who claimed to represent the “silent majority.” In the end, Nixon narrowly bested Humphrey, while Wallace made one of the best showings ever by a third-party candidate.