United States in the 1960's

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United States in the 1960's In this essay I will be trying to find out whether the term 'divided nation' accurately describes America in the 1960's. B y the term 'divided nation' I mean was this country split? I will be looking at the Civil Rights Movement, and how it affected America, also I will be looking at other protests and events, also looking at the New Frontier. The New Frontier took place took place between 1961-63. In 1960 the presidential elections were held. There were two candidates Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. Kennedy was very successful and had a large percentage of the nation backing him. Nixon also had a lot of support gained by television appearances. Nearly 69 million votes were cast in the election. John F. Kennedy won 34,227,000 and Richard Nixon polled 34,107,000. It was an extremely close election. An extract from John F. Kennedy's speech "The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans - born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace…(then asks American's)… to pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." I also think another previous speech made in 1960 was important... "We stand at the edge of the New Frontier - the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils - a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams...(It would deal with)... unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice , unanswered questions of poverty and surplus." I think that this speech was asking too much too soon and don't think that the problems could have been answered in America at that time, however much they would of wanted them to have been. If you compare the two speeches they have changed considerably, so had John Kennedy set his hopes to high at first? In 1960 over 10% of the population were African-American. In the south segregation remained, the Southern politicians were determined to keep

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