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African American Cultural Changes

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Until the late 1950s when a series of bills passed that shifted Southern Whites perspectives of the government, the majority of the South voted for the Democratic party. In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, passed a Civil Rights Act that protected African Americans’ right to vote. Though this act marked the beginning of a series of controversial legislations in a still segregated America, the act itself did not cause much turbulence. Though it officially gave African Americans the right to vote, it did not strongly protect that right. Most Americans that were not prepared for such a cultural change were not reacting dramatically to the passing of the 1957 Civil Rights Act. However, in 1960 Dwight Eisenhower passed a second Civil …show more content…
Johnson that furthered this shift in Southern whites towards conservatism. In 1964 president Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, passed a Civil Rights Act that made discrimination and segregation illegal in the United States. It opened all public accommodations to everyone, regardless of race or origin. This Act mainly targeted the South, the most racist and segregated area of the United States. Southerners were unprepared for such a drastic cultural change, one that completely opposed Southern culture and history. They saw this act as unfair and believed that it did not take their needs and desires into consideration as it did for African Americans; it was not a compromise between two battling races, but rather an absolute concession to just one side. Finally, in 1965, Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act, which made it illegal to deny or obstruct African Americans’ right to vote in federal, state, and local elections. The furthering of African Americans’ controversial rights heated Southerners more and drove them to associate with the more conservative and conventional tendencies of the Republican Party. In his book, What’s the Matter with Kansas, Thomas Frank says that these acts of support for Civil Rights caused this “style of conservatism” to come “snarling onto the national stage:” it was the, “response to the partying and protests of the late sixties.”[3] Many …show more content…
It was a period in which
‘long-held values and norms of behavior seemed to break down, particularly among the young. Many college-aged men and women became political activists and were the driving force behind the civil rights and antiwar movements. Other young people simply “dropped out” and separated themselves from mainstream culture through their appearance and lifestyle.’ [6]
Many people did not think that the government should be intervening in other countries’ problems. The 1960s and 1970s is the period of American history during which the American “Hippie” emerged. Hippies rejected the norms and standards of American society and were seen as extreme liberals. They saw equality and peace as the only way to live. To them, America’s military intervention in other countries was unjustifiable and unfair. Hippies believed that America should be a peaceful country that did not resort to war. They took a stance on Civil Rights, claiming that they should advance as quickly as possible and that African Americans should be treated as equals to whites. Because of this very public support of Civil Rights by the Hippies, Southerners and all other Americans that opposed the Civil Rights movement immediately disliked the Hippies. Also, in a country in which military service is so deeply respected

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