The US government consists of 2 different parts, The federal government and state governements. The federal government is reponsible for governing the whole country while state governements govern their own individual states.

The federal government is based in Washington D.C.

The executive part of the government runs the country. It is led by the president who is also helped by the vice-president and cabinet

The executive government also has departments, They carry out government policies. They are led by secretaries chosen by the president

The Congress makes new laws, It is made up of 2 houses, The house of senate and the house of representatives

The supreme court and other federal courts make sure that the laws passed are constitutional and clear, Judges are chosen by the president but have to be approved by the senate/p>

The US system of government is designed to limit the powers of each group or person, including the president

Each state also has its own political system, with a governor, a legislature and a supreme court. While the federal government is reposible for taxation and foreign policy

State governments have control over most of the laws in their state

Each state also has a national guard, commanded by the governor, to enforce the law

There have only been 27 additions or ammendments to the US constitution. An ammendment to the constitution requires two-thirds majority of both houses in congress and has to be ratified by three-quarters of the states

WW2 ended in 1945 when the USA and its allies(including Britain and Soviet Union) defeated Germany and Japan

The USA and Soviet Union emerged as the 2 most powerful nations in the world

There had been some distrust between the 2 since 1941

This distrust deveoloped into the cold war

The USA is a capitalist democracy while the Soviet Union is communist

In 1917, after the communist takeover of Russian Empire, There was a wave of anti-communist violence accross the USA which led to the first Red Scare of 1919-20

Many Americans feared that immigrants from Eastern Europe would try to take over their government and make the USA communist as well

Thousands of suspected communists were arrested and sent back to Russia.

The fear of communism in the USA reduced after 1920s however, it did not reduce completely. Many people were still concerned that the Soviet Union still wanted to destroy Capitalism

The USA wanted the rest of the world to be capitalist because it needed other countries to trade with so that its own businesses and people would get riched

Eastern Europe was liberated by the Soviets from Nazi Germany near the end of the 2nd World War. In some of these countries communist countries were setup between February 1945 and July 1945

To the Soviets, this provided a buffer zone of protection against an invasion from the west

Due to the testing and successful use of the Atomic Bomb by the USA, The Soviet Union saw it as threat and immediately began work on its own atomic weapons

In 1946, Communists in Greece tied to takeover the governement. Although the soviet union did not send any materials or troops to the Greek communists it did voice encouragement.

The US government sent money to the Greek government to remove the communists

Throughout 1947-48, The remaining countries under soviet influence in Eastern Europe had communist governments and had become satellite states of the Soviet Union

In March 1947, The US government, Led by President Truman launched the Truman Doctrine, This promised to support any country resisting communist takeovers

The Marshall Plan was announced and gave millions of dollars in financial aid to any European Countries suffering economic problems. This plan was made due to the belief that communism may stem for areas of poverty

the Soviet Union did not allow Eastern European countries to accept any aid offered

In 1945, Germany had been split into four, with France, USA, Britain and Soviets each controlling a zone

The German capital, Berlin was also divided into 4 zones even though Berlin was actually inside the Soviet zone of Germany

In 1946, Without the consult of the Soviets, France, USA and Britain decided to combine all 3 of their zones together. This area later became West Germany

By 1948, there were signs that West Germany was starting to recover from the effects of the war. The Soviet Union feared the threat of a recovered Germany

In June 1948, Stalin blocked all road, rail and canal supply lines into West Berlin in a attempt to make the whole of Berlin reliant on the USSR and free from Western Influence

The allies instead flew into West Berlin to deliver supplies by aircraft. Stalin knew that firing on the aircraft could start a war so there was nothing he could do. In May 1949, He reopened the supply lines

To the Soviets this was moral defeat and also left Berlin at a crisis point for years to come

The events of 1949-50 convinced many Americans, including people in the Government that the Soviet Union wanted world domination

Director of the FBI is J. Edgar Hoover. He had extremely strong Anti-Communist views. He played a major role in arresting communists during the 1st Red Scare

Set up the FLB (Federal Loyalty board) in 1947

Between 1947 and 1951, Over 3,000,000 government employees were investigated and 3000 people were forced to resign or fired because they were considered to be a security risk. However, no evidence of actual spying was found

As fear of communism grew many states, cities and even Private businesses investigated their workforce and thousands of employees, some of whom were only suspected of being sympathetic to communists, lost their jobs

The House of Un-American Activities Committee was set up by the US government in 1938 to monitor extremist groups suspected of "Un-American" activies.

In 1947, It began public hearings on the threat presented by the communist part of America

The FBI secretly began to pass down intelligence to HUAC, HUAC then called suspected communists and witnesses to be questions.

The committee asked the suspects "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" and sent people for criminal trial depending in the answers they recieved

I was during the trial of Hiss where the news of the successfull detonation of a Nuclear Bomb by the Soviets had arrived. This, when combined with the Hiss Case meant that the fear of communism had never been higher. This led to the passing of the McCarran Act in 1950

The McCarran Act stated that communists were not allowed to hold US passports and they also not allowed to work certain jobs

In an emergency, Anyone suspected of 'subversion' could be put in a detention camp without facing trial

President Truman tried to stop the act but few agreed with him in congress

Joseph McCarthy was a Republican Senator for the State of Wisconsin in 1946.

While his time as senator was unimpressive, After the Hiss Trial in 1950, he made a speech where he claimed to have a list of 205 members of the communist party who worked for the US State Department. He made several more speeches where the numbers varied until the number on the list was reduced to 57.

Many senators and Members of the public demanded an investigation. The Tydings committee, made up of members of congress was setup to investigate

They found that Senator's McCarthy's claims were untrue. In response, McCarthy called Senator Tydings a communist sympathiser. Tydings was not re-elected that year

McCarthy still had the support of the republican party to carry out more investigations. The republicans encouraged him to do so as they realised he was popular and it gave them an issue on which to attack the Democrats in the 1952 election campaign

McCarthy held hearings, first in private and then in public

McCarthy used bullying and far more aggressive questioning on many suspected communists

He liked to especially target high-profile figures as it allowed him to gain more publicity

McCarthy gathered evidence, most of which was fed to him by the FBI. He also fabricated evidence against those he accused

There were Democratic senators and journalists who spoke out against him, But he attacked them for being "soft on communism"

Even though nobody accused by McCarthy was convicted of spying, he continued to win popular appeal

Thousands of people attended his speeches and millions of them watched his television appearances

Just being called by McCarthy ruined the careers of many people as others just assumed they were guilty

McCarthy's accusations continued to grow more extreme

He accused a popular war general - George Marshall - of helping the 'communist drive for world domination' through the marshall plan and through his failiure to prevent a communist victory in Chine

President Eisenhower did not say anything as he was afraid of losing votes

In spring 1954 the Army-McCarthy hearings began, They were televised and for the first time the American Public could see the McCarthy at work. They were shocked by his bullying. The army fought back, finding evidence of McCarthy abusing his own power

The Army sent the evidence of McCarthy abusing his power to reporters who had been known to be critical of McCarthy

Ed Murrow released a tv show named "See it now" which shows how McCarthy abused his own power and how he bullyied people.

In December of 1954, The senate formally condemned Joseph McCarthy for 'improper conduct' by 67 to 22 votes. McCarthy continued his work but the media no longer wrote about it

He died from alcoholism in 1957

McCarthy had a direct impact as thousands of people lost their jobs or career and lives were damaged by McCarthy's allegations

The state department lost hundreds of intelligent and other talented people who may have steered US policies in another direction if they had remained

Anti-communist hysteria was so common that almost everyone in America was affected by the fear of the 'enemy within'

People were seen as communists if they had radical or socialist ideas or even different opinions

Trade Unions were seen as communist organisations, Fewer workers joined them to avoid being seen as communists

McCarthyism also had a impact on politicians where they were afraid to make any new left-wing policies

The USA was also damaged internationally as because it was seen as intolerant of people with different ideas and more people became Anti-American

The first major civil rights protests of the 1960s were not organised by well known organisations like the NAACP, They were organised by the actions of college students who began to take a new phase of non-violent direct action protest

In 1960, 4 African-American students from the North Carolina Agricultural and technology college sat at a whites only lunch counter in Woolworth's department store in Greensboro and waited to be served

The were asked to leave. instead, the students remained, sitting patiently where they were until the shop closed. The next day, the same 4 students returned to Woolsworth and sat at their lunch counters

They were joined by another 25 students and they took turns to sit at the counter. On February 3rd, 80 more students joined them

On February 4th, Over 300 students joined them

More students began sit-ins and tried to desegregate lunch counters accross Greensboro.

They then spread to other towns accross North Carolina and then finally to other towns accross the whole south, In total over 70,000 people took part in the sit-ins, which even spread to northern states such as Ohio

Those taking part in the sit-ins faced much abuse form some white segregationists

They were insulted and spat at

They regularly had food and drinks thrown at them

Some were even physically attacked

despite some extreme provoocation, the protesters did not respond with violence

Thousands were arrested, which led to the new tactic of 'jail not bail', so some jails became very overcrowded, which helped the sit-ins to spread

These tactics helped attract widespread media attention, This helped the sit-ins spread and motivated people to take part in them

The sit-ins took the civil rights groups by surprise

They were eager and happy to support the movement

Activists from CORE, SCLC organised a boycott of shops with segregated lunch counters

CORE and the SCLC helped to effectively train students to become more effective white protestors and made sure that they were always visible

It also prepared them for aggressive harresment they would face, so they would never respond with violence

Martin Luther King visited Greensboro and spoke to the protestors to give and help maintain their confidence

The SNCC, Student Non-violent Co-ordinating committee was also setup and given a grant to establish themselves

The sit-ins proved to be very successful

The businesses affecred by them suffered, They sold fewer lunches as there were fewer seats for white customers and sold fewer goods in stores because of the boycott

By the end of the 1960, over 120 towns and cities in south had desegregated lunch counters due to the sit-ins

The sit-ins were more visible then boycotts, so everything could be seen by the public and the media. They generated huge publicity

The sit-ins were the first, truly mass protest due to the huge numbers of people who took part in them and because of the vast area they covered

They also indicated a slight change of direction in the tactics of Civil Rights protestors as they were more confrontational then previous protests and could be applied to a wide range of facilities such as beaches, hotels and libraries

CORE activists planned the freedom rides to show that supreme court rulings about inter-state buses and state buses being desegregated were not always being followed

CORE aimed to provoke a violent reaction that would generate huge publicity and force the federal government to act

The first freedom rides left Washington D.C. On May 4th 1961 on 2 buses heading to the south

On May 14th, When the first bus arrived at the station in Anniston, The freedom riders were met by an angry crowd of the KKK (Ku Klux Klan)

The KKK destroyed the windows and sides were smashed and the tyres were damaged

Poice were calles and they cleared a safe path for the bus to leave, No one was arrested for the damahe

A poice escort led the bus to the outskirts of the city but then left, The mob had followed the bus and now with no polic they were once again attacked

The damaged tires finally burst forcing the driver to pull over

The mob tried to enter the burst and also tried to roll it over

Eventually as the fire in the bus spread, The mob left the bus fearing an explosion, This allowed some passengers to leave the bus

Highway patrolmen prevented more attacks and the riders were taken by car to the Birmingham airport

The second bus was also attacked in Anniston. The passengers were dragged of the bus, beaten up but still determined to complete their journey. They got back on the bus and continued to Montgomery where they were attacked again. 'Bull' Conner, ordered the police to do nothing

CORE arranged more freedom rides and the SNCC became involved as well.

The freedom rides had achieved their aim, The violence aginst them attracted huge media attention, The feberal government under President Kennedy was embarrassed by what the world was seeing

They threatened to send US marshalls to enforce desegretion of state buses. This brought an end to the freedom rides by the end of 1961

By summer 1961, Over 300 riders were sent to jail in Jackson, Mississippi alone, Many more were beaten up

African American student James Meredith applied to Mississipi University in May 1961

He was rejected and went to the NAACP which helped him take his case to court

In June 1962, The supreme court ordered the University to admit James Meredith but the university still refused to

The governor of Mississipi, The governor of Mississipi said 'no school will be integrated in Mississipi while I am your governor'

With the governor's encouragement, Mississipi state legislature passed a new law that denied admission to any person who had been convicted of any 'felony offence'. Meredith had been previously been accused and convicted of false voter registration. He was automatically suspended

At this point, President Kennedy intervened, On 29th September, he ordered those 'obstructing the law' to 'desist'

There was riots on the University campus as white people were opposed to Meredith joining the university protested.

Kennedy sent hundreds of federal officials, including marshalls, to escort Meredith to register on 30th September. The officials were attacked and a riot followed. Kennedy's request for calm were ignored, as two civilians died and 300 people where injured

Over 2000 federal troops were sent in by the president and they managed to stop the rioting. On Monday October 1st, James Meredith successfully registered with Mississipi University

He was guarded by 300 state troops for the next year until he graduated

The Meredith case forced President Kennedy to act. This shows that the president will do anything to enforce the ruling of the supreme court if he had to. After this African American students where rarely prevented from attending integrated universities by state or university authorities

The year of 1963 say a huge explosion in Civil Rights protests accross the USA

The first of these to achieve significant publicity was Birmingham. Birmingham was chosen as it didn't have any desegregated facilites and it also had a influential civil rights groups, The ACMHR. Nearly 45% of the city was African-American so there was potential for very large protests

Civil Right leaders knew that a campaign in Birmingham was likely to generate the publicity needed for change as Birmingham had a highly active KKK and they commonly attacked African-American people

African-American businesses and houses were bombed so frequently that the city was nicknamed 'Bombingham'

The first march in Birmingham was on 3rd April 1963 and was followed after by other demonstrations. The police started arresting protestors, after a few weeks, most of the people who had taken part in marches were in jail, Including Martin Luther King and Fred Shuttlesworth

The SNCC began to train younger, people to participate in these protests

On May 2nd, the first large childrens march took place, Although most of the children were teenagers, some were as young as 6 years old. Some people were shocked that children were being used as protestors. They became even more shocked when the children were arrested, By the end of the day, over 1000 children had been arrested

On 3rd May, More children marched. This time partly because all the Birmingham jails were full. The police changed tactics and Chief Connor ordered dogs to be set on the protestors, He then called in the fire department to use powerful hoses on them.

Chief Connor's actions meant that the Civil Rights groups gained the publicity they wanted: televison footage and photographs of young people people being attacked by dogs and fire hoses were shown throughout the world

President Kennedy sent a negotiator to Birmingham to help out an agreement, and the mayor and protest leader talks began 10th May. State troops from the governor of Alabama were sent to disrupt these talks, this stirred up violence. This led to extreme violence against African - Americans on the 11th and 12th of May. The African - Americans did not respond with such violence. President Kennedy ordered Federal troops to restore calm.The mayor eventually agreed to some desegregation such as allowing African-Americans to apply to some specific jobs and desegregating most shops/lunch counters in Birmingham

The events in Birmingham led to similar protests across the USA and more cities began to desegregate thier own facilities

Civil Rights groups had wanted to organize a march on Washington for some time and detailed planning began soon after the Birmingham march

As the US Capital, Washington DC was the place where the Federal Government was based, The protestors wanted to show their support for the new civil rights bill which was being debated at the time

They hoped that if large enough numbers of people marched in support of the bill, It would force the government to pass the bill. The organisers were not disappointed - The march on washington would be the largest political gathering the USA had ever seen

Washington Authorities were very worried about violence and rioting

President Kennedy tried to pursuede the organisers to call it off, but they refused

To keep order, an extra 1000 police were brought in and 2000 members of the national guard were placed on stand-by

On August 28th 1963, exactly 100 years after slavey ended, over 250,000 people , both African-American and white took part in the march for Jobs and freedom

They marched peacefully through the city to Lincoln Memorial, where the National Anthem was sung followed by prayers, musical performances and speeches. The events were broadcasted to the world live on television

Members from all the groups that had organised the march, Including CORE, the NAACP, SNCC and SCLC, delivered speeches to the huge crowd

Martin Luther King was the final speaker, He had agreed to go last because nobody else wanted to, believing that most of the crowd would have gone home by then. They did not

King used his great skill to deliver a speech that became one of the most famous speeches in all of history

The speech made referances to the US constitution, the Declaration of Independance, Abraham Lincoln, The bible, hymns and sermons and the idea of the 'American Dream'

In emphasised Martin Luther King as the main leader of the the civil rights movement. In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

The March on Washington was extremely important in the Civil rights movement this is because of the huge number of people who participated and showed that the Civil rights movement was supported by many people African American and white. The event also brought huge publicity to the cause due to its size and the presence of many celebrities such as Bob Dylan (Songwriter and singer) and actors such as Paul Newman and Marlon Brando. It also put further pressure on politicians as it took place during a time when a civil rights bill was being debated in court, It also really fixed the importance of Martin Luther king as a leader of the whole Civil Rights movement

After the March ended, Civil Rights leaders met President Kennedy and vice president Lyndon Johnson at the white house, They told that the federal government was committed to pass the Civil Rights bill through congress

However, This was not an easy task, it seemed even more unlikely when President Kennedy was assasinated in November 1963

Vice President Johnson, a Democrat from the Southern state of Texas, Became the new president

The NAACP, CORE and SNCC stepped up the campaign "Freedom Summer" during the summer months of 1964 to boost the number of African-American voters in Mississipi. Mississipi had the lowest number of voters then any other state: fewer then 7%

This is because the African Americans had to pass an extremely difficult literacy test. The few who passed the test were often beaten or threatened with violence to prevent them from registering

The Freedom Summer campaign involved setting up a new political party called the Mississipi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). This party had more then 80,000 members, and 68 members were elected to join the national Democratic Party convention in that year

This was a direct challenge to Mississipi's all white democratic party. The MFDP ran classes to help African-Americans pass voter registration tests. It also opened 30 freedom schools across Mississipi, Which taught black history and politics

The SNCC recruited around 1000 volunteers to travel to Mississipi and help in the Freedom Summer Project

Most volunteers were young, white college students from well-off northern families. They were chosen because they could afford to support themeselves but also because violence against young, white people would generate big headlines

Those who took part in the Freedom Summer were attacked by the KKK, which had a very large membership in Mississipi. Freedom Campaigners were shot or beaten up, and African American churches and homes were bombed, On 21st June 1964, Three campaigners- Michael Scherner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney (All members of CORE) were arrested for traffic offences when driving to Scherner's house, The police officer who arrested them was a Klan member. After they were released from prison, they were never seen again, 6 weeks later, their bodies were found, Scherner and Goodman had been shot in the chest while Chaney had been beaten to death

Their deaths attracted huge publicity and support for civil rights, but they also caused some divisions within civil rights groups, some black members suggested that the publicity was big because Scherner and Goodman were white, some African-American activists began to look for more radical solutions

Many people saw the freedom campaign as a failiure, its aims were to increase voter registration, but only 1600 more African Americans successfully registered to vote in Mississipi (17,000 attempted to vote)

Most of them failed to register even though they passed the literacy tests

Many people see Mississipi Freedom summer as a failiure, Most of them were too frightened to register by being threatened with violence , others were threatened with dismissal from work

However there were some success such as the MFDP was set-up and 30 freedom schools were also setup. Which improved African American literacy rates. It also helped increase support for Civil Rights and brought the problem of voter registration to national attention

Selma had an worse percentage of registered black voters then Mississipi

In January 1965, local civil rights groups invited Martin Luther King and the SCLC to campaign there

For 2 months there were protests and attempts to register African Americans to vote. This led to violent confrontations with the police and many arrests. One protestor was murdered

The lack of success led to the SCLC changing tactics

On Sunday 7th March, a protest left Selma, heading to the state capital Montgomery. Just outside Selma, The march was stopped by police. State troops and police attacked the protestors with tear gas, horses, clubs and electric cattle sticks. It became known as "Bloody Sunday". The footage of African Americans being attacked was broadcast around the world

A 2nd March was organised 2 days later, but Martin Luther King would not let marchers confron state police, So the march was called off. However the president used the events of the first match at selma to persuade members of congress to support the voting rights bill.

Many protestors from across the United States went to selma to voice their encouragement and support

On 17th March, Johnson submitted a voting rights bill to congress. He then took control of the Alabama national guard and the March from Selma to Montgomery finally took place from 21st March, escorted by these troops

On 25th March, Martin Luther King led around 25,000 people to see the state capitol in Montgomery.

In August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1955

Another major impact of Selma was the fact that is where the civil rights movement began to split as many of the members, including SNCC wanted to directly confront the police and more began to question non-violence as a strategy, This would lead to more militant protests later on

President Lyndon Johnson used the shock and horror of Kennedy's death along with every other method he could think of to perduade and bully members of congress to support the bill without ammendments. It was still very close to being denied as the Dixiecrats managed a 54-day filibuster attempt, But Johnson still had enough support from both the Democrats and Republicans. On 2nd July 1964, He signed the Civil Rights act

The passing of the Civil Rights act was significan and a huge achievement, as it ended legal segregation. However, the act did not mean the end of discrimination as it was very difficult to enforce the laws, especially in the Deep South. Many southerners were angered by the extent of the act while many African-Americans felt that it did not go far enough

The events from Selma and Mississipi freedom summer showed that black people wanted the ability to vote and the events at selma and mississipi showed that they were being prevented from being able to vote due to many issues when trying to vote.

During the events at Selma, President Johnson tried to presuade members of congress to support a voting rights bill. He managed to get this bill through Congress in record time. It became law in 6th August 1965

After the voting rights act there was a dramatic increase in the number of African Americans who registered to vote in some southern states

Some people may believe that the Voting Rights act was more important then the 1964 Civil Rights act