sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners

will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

By 1960 government had become an increasingly powerful force in people's lives. During the 1930s, The White House had initiated legislation and worked closely with Congress to ease the trauma of the Great Depression. New executive agencies were created to deal with many aspects of American life. The number of civilians employed by the federal government rose from 1 million to 3.8 million during World War II, then stabilized at 2.5 million throughout the 1950s. Federal expenditures, which had stood at $3.1 thousand-million in 1929, increased to $75 thousand-million in 1953 and passed $150 thousand-million in the 1960s.

Most Americans accepted government's expanded role, even as they disagreed about how far that expansion should continue. Democrats wanted the government to use its power to ensure growth and stability. They wanted to extend federal benefits for education, health and welfare. Republicans, while accepting government's basic and necessary responsibility, hoped to cap spending and restore a larger measur

In 1965, a year after enactment of these suffrage measures, the first of a series of riots that were to scar numerous American cities during the next several years exploded in Watts, a predominantly black section of Los Angeles in California. In six days 35 persons were killed and hundreds of buildings destroyed. Angered by what they considered slow and uneven progress after decades of social neglect and discrimination, and at times spurred by militants, blacks resorted to violence in -Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Newark, and scores ofothercommunities. In April 1968, a downtown section of the nation's capital was racked by burning, rioting, and looting in an emotion-charged response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the nation's foremost black leader, who had been murdered by a sniper's bullet while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

Unrest and violence were symptomatic of deep changes taking place in America. An ever-increasing number of Americans became dissatisfied with the impersonal aspects of mass society and large government, the war in Vietnam, and continuing aspects of discrimination against persons because of their sex, ethnic background, race, or life styles. The 1960s, therefore, witnessed many changes in attitudes, personal relationships, values, and even dress and manners.

For most of the nation the Johnson years were a time of prosperity although there was serious concern about the worsening balance of payments deficit and the resulting decline in U.S. gold reserves. The deficit, however, was due in part to growing American investments abroad, growing expenditures by Americans overseas, more buying of foreign goods, and higher incomes at home.

Kennedy wanted to exert strong leadership to extend economic benefits to all citizens, but a razor-thin margin of victory limited his mandate. Even though the Democratic Party controlled both houses of Congress, conservative Southerners resisted plans to increase federal aid to education, provide health insurance for the elderly and create a new Department of Urban Affairs. And so, despite his rhetoric, Kennedy's policies were often limited and restrained.

President Johnson was more successful. A Southerner from Texas, he became committed to civil rights as he sought national office. In 1963, he told Congress: "No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill." Using all his authority, he persuaded

Some topics in this essay:
Rights Act, Urban Affairs, Richard Nixon, War II, Supreme Court, African Americans, Allan Bakke, Vietnam War, Stokely Carmichael, Angeles California, civil rights, rights act, martin luther, supreme court, voting rights, martin luther king, luther king, voting rights act, king jr, education provide, health insurance, richard nixon, luther king jr, rights act 1965, civil rights bill,