In 1960, John F. Kennedy -- who seemed to many the embodiment of a new age -- was elected president of the United States. Kennedy had attacked President Eisenhower's conduct of the Cold War and promised to defend the free world against communism. He increased the U.S. military budget, creating thousands more defense industry jobs.

But while the U.S. economy was booming, the good life was not available to all Americans. In many Southern states, laws prevented blacks and whites from traveling together, eating together, or even going to the same school. Black Americans were denied jobs and the right to vote. Civil rights activists held peaceful demonstrations -- but were often beaten and jailed just the same.

Gov. George Wallace of Alabama saw the growing civil rights movement as part of a communist conspiracy -- a view shared privately by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Discrimination against blacks -- covered extensively on television -- damaged America's credibility as freedom's champion in the Cold War.
Next