Week 15, May 5-9: The Revolt Against Liberalism

Nixon and Elvis meet, December 21, 1970

Monday: Nixon and the Revolt Against Liberalism

Wednesday: The Reagan Revolution

Readings: Digital History

More Resources:

May 4 Collection Kent State University
Department of Special Collections and Archives, Kent State University .
This site is designed to serve as a memorial to the four students killed at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, by National Guardsmen. Visitors will find 93 transcripts of oral history interviews taken at May 4th commemorations in 1990, 1995, and 2000. The oral histories, ranging from two and 35 minutes, are part of a larger collection. The site provides a 780-word chronology of events and a bibliography of 18 books, 90 articles, four complete issues of journals dedicated to May 4th events, and 25 websites about the tragedy. Exhibits include images of 11 memorials to the four slain students, three poems, and annual commemoration programs and photographs from 1971 to 1995. The site also includes finding aids for 71 offline collections and will be interesting for research in the 1960s, protest, and American education.

Nixon and the FBI: The White House Tapes

The Hard Hat riots of May 1970On May 8, 1970, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped five points to finish at 717, in the slowest day of trading in months. In the streets outside the New York Stock Exchange, however, chaos erupted: at noon, hundreds of construction workers arrived on Wall Street and violently disrupted a protest against the Vietnam war. Next the workers marched to city hall, where their rampage continued throughout the lunch hour.May, 1970 was one of the most turbulent months of the "sixties" era. How did the hard hat riots fit into a larger scene that included expansion of the Vietnam war, campus unrest, school busing, and segregation in the building trades union? For that matter, how did the events of May 8 relate to what followed, including Archie Bunker, Ronald Reagan and the idea that the late sixties were dominated by "longhaired" protesters? Search for clues in this site -- and find out what brought those boots and that long hair to Wall Street on "bloody Friday."

George C. Wallace Campaign brochure from 1968 In 1968 segregationist former governor of Alabama George C. Wallace waged one of the most successful third party campaigns for President in history. Wallace ran as a right wing populist, appealing to white working class voters with a platofrm emphasizing opposition to civil rights and support for states rights. What does this brochure tell you about the tensions Wallace is speaking to in his campaign rhetoric?

Protest against school busing in the 1970s: During the 1970s many white Americans protested the enforcement of federal and state legislation mandating the integration of schools through the mechanism of busing - bringing African American or other minority students from largely segregated neighborhoods to attend mostly white schools. The following tells the story of the conflict aroused by busing in Boston.

"Not Protective but . . . Restrictive": ERA Advocates Oppose Protective Legislation for Women

In the years following the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment extending voting rights to women, the National Woman’s Party, the radical wing of the suffrage movement, advocated passage of a constitutional amendment to make discrimination based on gender illegal. The 1960s and 1970s saw important legislation enacted to address sex discrimination in employment and education—most prominently, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Title IX of the 1972 Higher Education Act—and on March 22, 1972, Congress passed the ERA. The proposed amendment expired in 1982, however, with support from only 35 states—three short of the required 38 necessary for ratification. Strong grassroots opposition emerged in the southern and western sections of the country, led by anti-feminist activist Phyllis Schafly. Schlafly charged that the amendment would create a “unisex society” while weakening the family, maligning the homemaker, legitimizing homosexuality, and exposing girls to the military draft. In the following 1970 Senate hearing, a representative of working women and members of the National Woman’s Party, including founder Alice Paul (1885–1977), argued that protective legislation harmed, rather than helped, working women by restricting their opportunities to acquire higher-paying jobs.

Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement

The Digital Scriptorium, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.
A collection of more than 50 documents—including journal and newspaper articles, speeches, papers, manifestoes, essays, press releases, a minute book, organization statements, songs, and poems—concerning the women’s liberation movement, with a focus on U.S. activity in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Organized into eight subject headings—General and Theoretical; Medical and Reproductive Rights; Music; Organizations and Activism; Sexuality and Lesbian Feminism; Socialist Feminism; Women of Color; and Women’s Work and Roles—and searchable by keyword. Includes five related links. Selected primarily by Duke University professor Anne Valk, with assistance from Rosalyn Baxandall (SUNY, Old Westbury) and Linda Gordon (University of Wisconsin, Madison). Useful for those studying women’s history and late 20th-century radical movements.

Photographing History: Fred J. Maroon and the Nixon Years
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History.
This is a companion site to a 1999 National Museum of American History exhibit of Fred J. Maroon’s photographs taken during the last four years of Richard M. Nixon’s presidency. Maroon, a freelance photographer known for his images of Washington’s monuments and landscapes, recorded Nixon’s presidency from 1970, through the 1972 reelection campaign and the Watergate controversy, to the impeachment hearings and Nixon’s resignation in 1974. The site is divided into four chronologically-arranged sections. The “White House” contains photographs taken in 1970 and 1971 while Maroon worked on a behind-the-scenes book about the White House Staff; “Reelection” records images of Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign; “Hearings” offers photographs of the White House staff during the Watergate crisis and impeachment hearings; and “Final Days” captures the events leading up to Nixon’s resignation in 1974. The site offers more than 25 images selected from the museum exhibit as well as a timeline of the Nixon presidency from 1968 to 1974 and a 200-word biography of Maroon. For those interested in Watergate and the Nixon administration, this is a good site.

Watergate Revisited
Washington Post.
This site provides a thorough introduction to the Watergate scandal. Created by the Washington Post, the newspaper whose investigative journalism led to President Richard M. Nixon’s downfall, the site provides more than 80 relevant news stories. Also offers links to 37 documents—speeches, tape transcriptions, and Nixon’s letter of resignation—in the National Archives and Nixon Library sites. A detailed timeline links to Post stories, and brief biographies introduce 24 “key players” in various phases of the scandal. Users may view four video clips of Nixon’s “I am not a crook” speech, his announcement of his resignation, his farewell to his staff, and John Dean’s testimony. The Post’s Bob Woodward and Ben Bradlee discuss the scandal in a video recording of a 2002 forum and a transcript of a 1997 interview. The site also includes a link to cartoons by the Post’s cartoonist Herblock, audio files, photographs, and an interactive quiz.

Illusion and Delusion: The Watergate Decade: An interactive photo essay about the Nixon years, Watergate, and the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter Presidencies

President Gerald Ford Good selection of Websites about the 37th President

The Fall of Saigon: A New York Times exploration of the last days of the Viet Nam War