Period 8: 1945–1980

Source: Waldorf Statement, Association of Motion Picture Producers, November 25, 1947

"Members of the Association of Motion Picture Producers deplore the action of the 10 Hollywood writers and directors who have been cited for contempt of Congress by the House of Representatives. . . . We will not knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any party or group which advocates the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force or by any illegal or unconstitutional methods. . . . In sponsoring this policy, we are frank to recognize that such action involves dangers and limitations and that many people will fear that it step-steps into the field of censorship."

The policy announced in the excerpt most directly reflects which of the following developments of the post-Second World War era?

Source: Fannie Lou Hamer, testimony before the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention, August 22, 1964:

"All of this is on account of we want to register, to become first-class citizens. And if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?"

The excerpt most directly reflects which of the following dynamics within the Civil Rights Movement during the mid-1960s?

Lewis F. Powell Jr., memorandum to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "Confidential Memorandum: Attack on American Free Enterprise System," August 23, 1971:

"No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack. This varies in scope, intensity, in the techniques employed, and in the level of visibility. But there always is a common theme��acid criticism of the system itself, its institutions, its values, its history... The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals... The business community has been remarkably slow in recognizing this, and even slower in responding. The time has come—indeed, it is long overdue—for the wisdom, ingenuity and resources of American business to be marshaled against those who would destroy it."

The arguments expressed in the excerpt most directly contributed to which of the following developments?

"The air here in the Haight is filled with music and the smell of incense. We have turned our backs on the corporate rat race, the suburbia of our parents, and the senseless violence of the draft. Here, we are trying to build a new community based on cooperation, love, and personal freedom rather than competition and material acquisition."
— Journal entry of a participant in the San Francisco youth community, 1967

Which of the following developments during the post-World War II era most directly contributed to the sentiments expressed in the excerpt?

"We believe we can end police brutality in our Black community by organizing Black self-defense groups that are armed for self-defense..."
— Black Panther Party, Ten-Point Program, 1966

Which of the following statements best describes a major difference between the philosophy expressed in this excerpt and the early strategy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) led by Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Source: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Statement of Purpose, April 1960

"We affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence as the foundation of our purpose, the pre-supposition of our faith, and the manner of our action. Nonviolence as it grows from Judaic-Christian traditions seeks a social order of justice permeated by love. Integration of human endeavor represents the crucial first step towards such a society. Through nonviolence, courage displaces fear; love transforms hate. Acceptance, dignity, discipline, and sacrifice are required to rebuild the ruins of community."

Which of the following developments in the mid-to-late 1960s best illustrates a shift away from the philosophy described in the passage?

“The university is the training camp for the corporate state... We are told that if we conform, if we remain quiet and accept the decisions of the administrators, we will be rewarded with comfortable suburban lives and secure careers. But we refuse to be the raw material for their machine. We demand a society where human values, not corporate profits or bureaucratic efficiency, govern our lives.”

—Excerpt from a student activist pamphlet, University of California, Berkeley, 1965

The sentiments expressed in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following developments during the period from 1945 to 1980?

"And so tonight—to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans—I ask for your support. I pledged in my campaign for the Presidency to end the war in a way that we could win the peace. I have initiated a plan of action which will enable me to keep that pledge. The more support I can have from the American people, the more quickly that pledge can be redeemed; for the more divided we are at home, the less likely the enemy is to negotiate at Paris. Let us be united for peace. Let us also be united against defeat. Because let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that."

— President Richard Nixon, Address to the Nation on the War in Vietnam, November 3, 1969

The political strategy reflected in the excerpt contributed most directly to which of the following developments?

Source: President Harry S. Truman, Address to Congress (Truman Doctrine), March 12, 1947.

'At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms. I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.'

Which of the following best explains the immediate historical context that prompted the policy described in the excerpt?

Read the following excerpt from a letter written by a volunteer during the Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi (1964):

"The atmosphere is one of tense expectation... The white population is hostile and the Negroes are frightened, but there is a quiet determination among the local people that is incredibly moving. We are opening Freedom Schools tomorrow. Our main job is to help them find their voice, to register them to vote, and to build the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party."

The efforts described in the excerpt most directly illustrate which of the following developments within the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s?

"We believe that a family which owns its own home is a more stable family, and a better citizen. A nation of homeowners is a nation of stable, middle-class citizens who are committed to the preservation of our democratic institutions. No man who owns his own house and lot can be a Communist. He has too much to do. He has to paint his house, cut his grass, and look after his property, and he becomes a stakeholder in the community. Through mass production, we have made the American dream of homeownership accessible to the average veteran and worker."

— William Levitt, suburban home developer, 1948

Which of the following factors was most responsible for facilitating the suburban homeownership trend described by Levitt in the excerpt?

"The political philosophy of black nationalism means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community; no more. ... The economic philosophy of black nationalism is pure and simple. It only means that we should control the economy of our community. Why should white people be running all the stores in our community?"
— Malcolm X, "The Ballot or the Bullet," 1964

Which of the following developments within the civil rights movement of the 1960s is most directly reflected in the ideas expressed in the excerpt?

“We, the native Americans, re-claim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery. We feel that this so-called Alcatraz Island is more than suitable for an Indian Reservation, as determined by the white man’s own standards. By this, we mean that this place resembles most Indian reservations in that:
1. It is isolated from modern facilities, and without adequate means of transportation.
2. It has no fresh running water.
3. It has inadequate sanitation facilities.
4. There are no oil or mineral rights.
5. There is no industry and so unemployment is very great…
We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for twenty-four dollars ($24) in glass beads and red cloth, a precedent set by the white man's purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago…”

— Proclamation to the Great White Father and His People, Alcatraz Island, 1969

The sentiments expressed in the excerpt were most directly a response to which of the following federal policies?

"During the past few days, declarations of importunate people and the actions of mobs have made it necessary for me to use the Federal troops... inside the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. ... Under the leadership of demagogues, disorderly mobs have deliberately prevented the carrying out of proper orders from a Federal Court. ... The foundation of our American way of life is our national respect for law. In the resolution of the Little Rock school integration dispute, the executive branch of the government was obliged to act when it became clear that local authorities would not or could not enforce the ruling of the Supreme Court."
—President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Radio and Television Address on the Situation in Little Rock, September 24, 1957

Which of the following developments in the early civil rights movement is most directly reflected in the excerpt?

"Housing . . . seems to be the one commodity in the American market that is not freely available on equal terms to everyone who can afford to pay. . . . The Federal Government, which by its mortgage insurance and [loan-guarantee] programs has done so much to build the suburbs, must accept its share of the responsibility for the pattern of residential segregation that has resulted."
— U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Report on Housing, 1959

Which of the following postwar developments best explains the Federal Government's role in creating the pattern described in the excerpt?

“Our parents' world is built on the premise that happiness is a two-car garage and a suburban home. They have traded their passion for security and their individuality for conformity. We are looking for something else—a way of living that values human connection over material accumulation. By changing our music, our lifestyle, and our minds, we are creating a new culture that rejects the Cold War consensus and the foreign policy decisions that consensus justifies.”

— Excerpt from an editorial in an underground student newspaper, 1968

The ideas expressed in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following developments during the 1960s?

The concentration of defense-oriented industries in the Southwest and Pacific Coast states has created a new economic dynamic. Since 1945, federal contracts for aircraft, electronics, and aerospace development have acted as a magnet for skilled labor, drawing millions of families away from the traditional manufacturing centers of the Northeast and Midwest. This movement has not only transformed the regional distribution of the American population but has also shifted the balance of political power in Congress, as congressional seats follow the Sunbelt migration.

—Adapted from a federal economic report, 1961

Which of the following was a primary cause of the population movement described in the excerpt?

Source: Martin Luther King Jr., "Beyond Vietnam," speech at Riverside Church in New York City, 1967.

"There was a shining moment in that struggle a few years ago. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor—both black and white—through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money..."

Which of the following represents a major difference between the Great Society programs described in the excerpt and the New Deal programs of the 1930s?

"The modern youth movement is not just a reaction against specific policies, but a rejection of the entire technological and bureaucratic apparatus of modern society. Today's youth are protesting the dehumanization that accompanies modern industrial progress, seeking instead personal authenticity, direct participation, and a return to human scale in social relations."

— Kenneth Keniston, sociologist, *Young Radicals*, 1968

The sentiments expressed in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following historical developments of the 1960s?

Source: Justice Sherman Minton, majority opinion in *Adler v. Board of Education of the City of New York*, 1952

"A teacher works in a sensitive area in a schoolroom. There he shapes the mind and character of these young people in the devious years of their growth... That the school authorities have the right and the duty to screen the officials, teachers, and employees as to their fitness to maintain the integrity of the schools as a part of ordered society, cannot be doubted. One's associates, past and present, as well as one's conduct, may properly be considered in determining fitness and loyalty."

Which of the following historical developments most directly contributed to the screening policies defended in the excerpt?