Poverty was most common among African-Americans. Most lived in poor neighborhoods in Northern cities, or in the South where they faced racism and "Jim Crow" segregation. These conditions led to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s, led by Martin Luther King Jr. and others. In 1954, the Supreme Court found school segregation illegal in "Brown v. Board of Education", though it would be several years before school segregation was ended. In 1955, King led a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. In the late 1950s and 1960s, King got help from Presidents John F. Kennedy, who was shot, and Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1963, he led a march on Washington calling for civil rights. Soon after, Congress passed laws that made most segregation illegal. Johnson also passed a program called the Great Society that helped poor people and minorities.
Gays and lesbians, who had often been persecuted, also started to ask for rights, beginning with the Stonewall riots in 1969. Chicanos, Native Americans, old people, consumers, and people with disabilities also fought for rights, as did women. Though women had had jobs during World War II, most of them went back to the home after the war. Women did not like that they often held jobs that paid less than men or that fewer opportunities were open to them. People like Betty Freidan and Gloria Steinem founded groups such as the National Organization for Women to try and solve these problems. NOW and other groups wanted an Equal Rights Amendment that would guarantee them equality in all areas. In the 1970s and 1980s, many more jobs and opportunities were opened to women. There were some women like Phyllis Schlafly who opposed Freidan and Steinem and were known as "anti-feminists". It was partly because of the anti-feminists that the Equal Rights Amendment was defeated, but also because women had already gained equality in many areas and they did not want to be drafted into the army.
In the 1960s, the counterculture was created. Some of the followers of the counterculture were called hippies. They had long hair, and lived communally, smoking marijuana and practicing free love. The counterculture, along with college students, were the groups most against the Vietnam War. They also were the groups that listened to new music known as rock and roll.
In 1973, the Supreme Court issued a decision called "Roe v. Wade", which made many abortions legal. The many changes led to a reaction by Jerry Falwell and other conservatives who called themselves the "Religious Right" and the "Moral Majority".
Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980. He defeated incumbent Jimmy Carter by winning 44 out of the 50 American states. During the Reagan Era, the country was facing through inflation, a bad economy, and the American foreign policy were not as good. When Ronald Reagan became president, he signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 which lowered taxes for corporations, supposedly so they could reinvest the surplus profits back into business. During Reagan's presidency, he expanded the American military creating more jobs, but also raising the deficit due to overspending. During his first term, the economy went from a 4.5% to 7.2%.
In 1984, Reagan won in a major landslide by winning 49 out of the 50 American states. During his second term, Reagan focused on ending the Cold War. He held many meetings between Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. They first met at the Geneva Summit in 1985. Later they both discovered their passion of ending the war. Reagan met four times with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who ascended to power in 1985, and their summit conferences led to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Also during his second term, Reagan's Invasion of Grenada and bombing of Libya were popular in the US, though his backing of the Contras rebels was mired in the controversy over the Iran–Contra affair that revealed Reagan's poor management style.
Since leaving office in 1989, Reagan became one of the most popular Presidents of the United States.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Cold War came to an end. This was due to the Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev starting a policy called perestroika, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Soviet Union breaking into different countries. Around this time, the United States cut down on its production of cheap goods, and had many people working in service jobs. Part of these service jobs were in computers and the internet, which came into wide use in the 1990s. By this time, the United States had a very large trade deficit, meaning it received more goods from other countries, such as China, than it sent to other countries.
The Middle East became the main focus of U.S. foreign policy. In 1991, the United States fought a war with Iraq called the First Gulf War or Operation Desert Storm. This was to stop Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from occupying Kuwait, a small oil-producing country.
In 1992, Bill Clinton became President. Under Clinton, the United States sent soldiers into Bosnia as part of a United Nations mission. The United States also agreed to a trade pact called the North American Free Trade Agreement (and repealed Glass–Steagall Legislation). Clinton was impeached for lying in court about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, but the Senate voted against removing him as President.
In 2000, George W. Bush was elected President. Terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Thousands of people died. Soon after the attacks, the U.S. and NATO went to Afghanistan to find Osama bin Laden and others who they believed planned the September 11 attacks. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have lasted many years. By 2011, most American soldiers had left Iraq, and combat there was over.
In 2005, the southern United States was hit by Hurricane Katrina. Much of the city of New Orleans was destroyed. In 2006, the Democrats won back Congress because Americans did not like the way Bush dealt with War in Iraq or Katrina. At the end of Bush's term, the United States entered the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Barack Obama was elected President in 2008. He became the first African-American President of the United States. During his first years in office, Obama and Congress passed reforms on health care and banking. They also passed a large stimulus bill to help the economy during the recession. During the recession, the government used large amounts of money to keep the banking and auto industries from falling apart. There was also a large oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2010, Congress passed the Patient Protecton and Affordable Care Act, a sweeping overhaul of the health care system. Dubbed "Obamacare", it was faced with fierce criticism from conservative media.