A. Joseph McCarthy � Joseph McCarthy charged many American with harboring communist sympathies. Eventually, the Senate condemned McCarthy�s reckless behavior, but not before his unjust charges had ruined the careers of thousands of Americans.
B. Great Society � In 1963, Lyndon Johnson pressed ahead with a broad new program which he called the Great Society. It funded Medicare for the elderly, job training and low-cost housing for the poor, and support for education.
C. Ronald Reagan � President Ronald Reagan called for cutbacks in government sending on social programs, reduce government regulation of the economy, and cut taxes. At the same time, military spending increased.
D. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka � In 1954, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. It declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional. Some southern states tried to resist court-ordered desegregation, but President Eisenhower and his successors used federal power to uphold the law.
E. Martin Luther King, Jr. � By 1956, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as a leader of the civil rights movement. King organized boycotts and led peaceful marches throughout the 1960s to end segregation in the United States.
F. St. Lawrence Seaway � In 1959, Canada and the United States completed the St. Lawrence Seaway. It opened the Great Lakes to ocean-going ships and linked the interior of both countries to the Atlantic Ocean.