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The stimulus of the black civil rights movement, other major social reform movements of the era, positive signals from Washington D. C. In the form of legislation, and the change-of-life experiences by middle-aged women like Betty Friedman who wrote the Feminine Mystique, the bible of the feminist movement. White resistance in the south at the local and state level to integration presented a formidable obstacle to applying the legal tenets of civil rights legislation.
Local whites lobbied Congress, formed official white citizen’s councils, and also utilized violence through the ASK to stop implementation of civil rights legislation. Enforcing civil rights was also a judicial and executive function that presidents and southern judges were responsible for. Political concerns often derailed presidential enforcement of civil rights. Although the civil rights movement was in disarray by the late sass, minority group protests over the next decade continued to win social and economic gains. Affirmative action, which had expanded opportunities for African Americans and Latino, also proved divisive.
Threatened by court- ordered busing many white parents transferred their children to private schools, resulting in “white flight” that increased racial imbalance, while many black parents who opposed busing called instead for better schools in predominantly black neighborhoods. Ironically, the war in Vietnam was begun as an expression of the liberals’ faith in the nation’s economic and political strength. Vietnam destroyed the Great Society. The fabric of the Great Society was ripping apart. New demands and dissatisfactions could not be settled by the new liberalism. 1 968 was a pivotal year.
In the end Johnny’s fortunes ere destroyed and the Democratic Party and liberalism almost destroyed. The civil rights movement benefited from and encouraged the liberal agenda of the 1 9605. Government officials and President Johnson allied themselves and their power with the movement. The result was legislation outlawing segregation and restoring black voters’ rights. Activism by African-Americans and the federal government resulted in positive change. What was more difficult to obtain was real social change. The Civil Rights Act was adopted in 1964 and a year later the Voting Rights Act was approved.
The civil rights Netscape of the south was changing and with the power of the Great Society programs, Jim Crow took its final breath. The EEOC, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1 965 transformed the political and social landscape in the South. The foundation was laid for African-American political power. White resistance to court decisions and federal laws dealing with desegregation was swift and sometimes violent. President Kennedy’s administration was lukewarm in its support of freedom riders or other civil rights activists.