From Boomers to Millennials: A Modern US History Podcast

We begin this episode with a look at popular culture of the early 60s, as Hollywood began making more technicolor epics such as "Lawrence of Arabia," and also increasingly addressed social issues in films like "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Judgment at Nuremberg." Folk artists like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan outcompeted rock-and-roll musicians for a place on the pop charts, but new bands such as The Beach Boys kept the spirit of rock alive. President John F. Kennedy tried to make the most of the optimistic mood of the early 1960s, but his domestic policy reforms were sometimes stifled by a conservative coalition in Congress. Among young people, new groups such as the right-wing Young Americans for Freedom and the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society questioned the centrist "Cold War consensus." We end this episode with a deep dive into the Ole Miss riot of September 1962, which was almost certainly the biggest single pro-segregation insurrection of the civil rights era. Despite the efforts of Dixiecrat politicians to foment "massive resistance" to integration, and the violence of vigilante mobs, African-American student James Meredith ultimately was able to enroll in and graduate from the University of Mississippi.

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Although the majority of white Southerners were staunchly opposed to racial integration during the 1950 & 60s, there were a few mavericks who held a different point of view.  One of these was Big Jim Folsom, who successfully ran for Governor of Alabama in 1946, and again in 1954.  Gov. Folsom gained popularity by challenging the corruption and selfishness of the wealthy elites who dominated state politics.  He became known for building roads & schools, and he created old-age pensions & worker protection laws.  However, by the mid-50s, a different and uglier version of populism began sweeping the South, as white Southerners rallied against the push to give civil rights & voting rights to African-Americans.  Folsom's popularity suffered because he was relatively progressive on racial issues, & said he would not defy the federal courts if they mandated integration.  In 1962, Big Jim's racial tolerance, along with his many personal flaws & vices, caused him to lose the governor's race to George C. Wallace, a former Folsom supporter who had become a militant segregationist.  Gov. Wallace went on to gain national fame as a far-right demagogue, while Big Jim & his form of economic populism faded from the Southern political scene.

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In the long-awaited next episode in our Kennedys series, we explore how JFK went from a relatively obscure rookie senator to a viable presidential candidate. We document his imperfect but glamorous marriage to Jacqueline Bouvier, his controversial refusal to censure Joe McCarthy, and his continued battle with health problems. We also explore how the publication of Jack's award-winning book "Profiles in Courage," and his attempt to win the vice-presidential nomination in 1956, helped to raise Kennedy's national profile. The battle against organized crime took center stage in domestic politics during the 1950s, while continued decolonization abroad shook up the international situation & forced Americans to cope with the damage the Jim Crow system was doing to the effort to win over potential Cold War allies in the Third World. Kennedy would try to steer a moderate course in the debates of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, hoping to appeal to Northern liberals without alienating the White Southerners within the Democratic Party coalition. We conclude by noting how JFK promoted himself as a promising young political star in the national media, setting the stage for his successful 1960 presidential run.

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This episode examines the first 10-minute profile subject who was born outside of the United States. Hannah Arendt was born to a secular Jewish middle-class family in Germany, and as a young woman she was an academic prodigy. She entered university to study philosophy, and engaged in an affair with a famous professor, Martin Heidegger. By the late 20s, Arendt broke up with Heidegger and completed her academic studies. During the early 30s, the Nazis came to power in Germany, and Prof. Heidegger joined the party. Arendt wrote critical articles about the Nazi regime and was jailed for a brief time by the new government that did not tolerate free speech. Arendt was stripped of her German citizenship & fled to Paris, where she met a fellow exile who became her husband. However, when the Nazis invaded France, Arendt moved to the USA, which became her permanent home. As an adopted American, she published 2 classic works of political philosophy: "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951), which examined how fascist & communist regimes came to power, and "Eichmann in Jerusalem" (1963), which considered Nazi officials' unquestioning loyalty to their government to embody the modern "banality of evil." Arendt generated controversy with remarks defending her former mentor & lover Heidegger over his decision to join the Nazi Party, but she nevertheless remains an influential thinker whose writings about the dangers of authoritarianism remain relevant to this day.

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In 1961, an multiracial group of intrepid "Freedom Riders" attempted to desegregate bus stations in some of the most militantly segregationist parts of the Deep South. These courageous civil rights activists, including John Lewis, Diane Nash, Jim Zwerg, and James Peck, encountered shocking violence in the State of Alabama. A bus they were taking was burned down, and several Riders were bloodied & beaten by organized vigilantes who opposed racial integration. Once photographic images & film footage of this brutality received international media coverage, the Kennedy Administration finally intervened to force desegregation of interstate travel facilities. Southern politicians then attempted to get revenge by tricking busloads of impoverished African-American Southerners to head north in the so-called "Reverse Freedom Rides." Meanwhile, Cold War tensions continued to heat up, as the Vienna Summit between John F. Kennedy & Nikita Khrushchev failed to reach a solution to the Berlin crisis, leading the Communists to construct the Berlin Wall to keep East Germans from moving into the capitalist West. Decolonization continued to free global populations from European imperialism, including a violent struggle that gained Algerian independence from France. Some new nations sought neutral non-alignment, while others allied with the Communist bloc. JFK tried to keep these new Third World nations from siding with the Soviets via aid programs such as Food for Peace, the Peace Corps, and the Alliance for Progress in Latin America. However, there was a more coercive side to these US Cold War efforts, as the Kennedy Administration also funded CIA interference into foreign politics, anti-Communist military buildups in Latin nations, and an escalation of US military commitment in South Vietnam. The year closed on an ominous note as both the USA & the USSR began escalating defense spending and nuclear testing.

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In our latest profile episode, we provide an overview of the life of pastor & public intellectual Reinhold Niebuhr, who was something we rarely see today - a clergyman who became an important figure on the political Left. Niebuhr led a Protestant church in Detroit, Michigan during the 1910s & 1920s. From his pulpit, he spoke out against the Ku Klux Klan and in favor of organized labor. During the 1940s & 1950s, Niebuhr moved away from pacifism & socialism and became a more mainstream Cold War liberal. He became one of the founders of the anti-Communist ADA organization and wrote books expressing a "Christian realist" view of foreign policy. With the arrival of the turbulent 1960s, Niebuhr reconsidered his support for US Cold War policies overseas; he spoke out in favor of the civil rights movement & against the Vietnam War until his death in 1971. In recent years, his writings have drawn a diverse group of admirers that include Barack Obama & James Comey.

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In this profile, we shift gears to examine the life of someone who was an outsider to mainstream America during the mid-20th Century, but who nevertheless found a way to make a major impact as an activist and organizer. Bayard Rustin was born to an African-American family of Quakers in Pennsylvania who were heavily involved in the NAACP.  After being kicked out of college, Rustin pursued a singing career in New York City during the 1930s. While living in the Big Apple, he became involved with the Young Communist League. Rustin liked the group's promotion of equal rights for Black people, but he disapproved of its cultish devotion to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, which led him to resign. During the 1940s, he was hired as a writer & organizer by a pacifist organization, and he studied Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent resistance tactics in India. In the years that followed, Rustin ran afoul of the law 3 times: for failing to register for the draft, for participating in a civil rights sit-in, & for engaging in a gay relationship. During the late 50s & early 60s, Rustin met Martin Luther King Jr. and convinced him to embrace a totally nonviolent approach (King had been carrying a gun for protection up to that point). Rustin successfully organized the famous March on Washington in 1963, despite becoming a lightning rod for right-wing criticism when people learned that he was a gay ex-Communist. In the late 60s & early 70s, Rustin also drew criticism from some on the Left due to his opposition to the non-nonviolent militancy of the Black Power movement. Bayard Rustin then advocated for LGBT rights in his home state of New York prior to his death in 1987.

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This episode debuts a new format of very brief profiles of interesting historical figures that we haven't given sufficient attention to in regular episodes. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. is a prime example of the Northeastern elites who had a disproportionate (albeit declining) amount of power in mid-20th Century America. Both of Lodge Junior's parents were descended from Republican Senators, so you could say politics was in their blood. Lodge launched a successful political career during the 1930s. When Lodge, who was a Moderate Republican,  lost his Massachusetts US Senate seat to John F. Kennedy in 1952, he pivoted to a diplomatic career. He became US Ambassador to the United Nations under President Eisenhower. He then served as Richard Nixon's running-mate in the razor-thin 1960 presidential election. After losing that race, his former opponent President Kennedy appointed Lodge to serve as Ambassador to South Vietnam, & Lodge remained involved in diplomatic negotiations in Southeast Asia for the remainder of the disastrous Vietnam conflict. The Lodge family is a prime example of a New England WASP political dynasty, one that never achieved the glamour & fame gained by the Kennedys, but which nevertheless wielded considerable power.

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Season 3 of our podcast begins with the next chapter of the Kennedy saga, as Rep. John F. Kennedy manages to knock off powerful incumbent Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in the 1952 Massachusetts U.S. Senate race. The secret ingredient in that victory was  JFK's tenacious & combative younger brother, Robert F. Kennedy (often known as "RFK" or "Bobby"), who served as his campaign manager. RFK had grown up younger & shorter than his charismatic brothers Joe Junior  & Jack, and he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder. He started his political career as a staunch anti-Communist conservative, taking after his right-wing father. He even worked for infamous red-baiting Senator Joe McCarthy. But he still supported the Democrats, and after getting JFK into the Senate in 1952, he also served as the campaign manager for his presidential campaign in 1960. As a reward for his hard work, & to have a trusted confidant in the White House, JFK appointed RFK as his Attorney General. Bobby was known at the Justice Dept. for taking tough stances against organized crime at home & Communists abroad. However, after Jack's assassination in 1963, he moved far to the Left politically. He remade himself as a crusader against poverty & the Vietnam War, & he sought to defeat archrival Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1968 Democratic primary. However, his race was tragically cut short when he, too, was assassinated, leaving many Baby Boomers to dream about the America that might have been if Bobby Kennedy had survived to become president.

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In January 1961, new President John F. Kennedy said in his Inaugural Address that the American people were ready to "bear any burden" and "pay any price" in order to fight for global freedom, which he argued was being threatened by the Communist bloc. That price soon turned out to include a new taxpayer-funded military buildup when Congress approved increased government spending upon nuclear missile production. It also included the cost of a new federal investment in diplomatic initiatives such as the Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress. However, an aggressive US attempt to use Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro was met with disaster in the Bay of Pigs invasion. This fiasco taught Kennedy to question the advice he was receiving from the military & the CIA. When JFK's hawkish advisors later suggested that the USA should undertake a substantial military intervention in order to prevent Communists from taking power in Laos, the president decided that another attempt at foreign intervention was a burden that he could not bear. Unfortunately, Kennedy hadn't seen the last of his foreign policy troubles related to both Cuba and Southeast Asia.

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