Master Memory Aid: The Whole Unit at a Glance
Part of Key Dates and Statistics — GCSE History
This memory aid covers Master Memory Aid: The Whole Unit at a Glance within Key Dates and Statistics for GCSE History. Revise Key Dates and Statistics in America 1920-1973 for GCSE History with 10 exam-style questions and 0 flashcards. This topic appears less often, but it can still be a useful differentiator on mixed-topic papers. It is section 11 of 15 in this topic. Use it for quick recall, then test yourself straight afterwards so the memory aid becomes usable in an answer.
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Section 11 of 15
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10 questions
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🧠 Master Memory Aid: The Whole Unit at a Glance
The "BOOM-BUST-DEAL-WAR-RIGHTS-BACKLASH" arc: This is the narrative spine of the entire unit. Every topic connects to this five-part story:
- BOOM (1920s): WCRAM — War, Credit, Republican policies, Advertising, Mass production. Model T: $850 → $290. 27 million cars. Dow Jones: 63 → 381.
- BUST (1929-32): Wall Street Crash — $30 billion lost in 2 days. 5,000 banks failed. 25% unemployment (13 million). Hoovervilles. Bonus Army.
- DEAL (1933-41): Three Rs — Relief (CCC 2.5m, WPA 8m), Recovery (partial — 14% in 1937), Reform (Social Security, Wagner Act). Roosevelt Recession 1937. Only WW2 ended it.
- WAR (1941-45 + Cold War): Unemployment 14% → 1.2%. Double V. Japanese internment (120,000). GI Bill. McCarthyism 1950-54. NAACP 50,000 → 500,000.
- RIGHTS (1954-65): Brown v Board. Montgomery. Greensboro. Freedom Rides. Birmingham (fire hoses, Children's Crusade, Letter from Jail). March on Washington (250,000, "I Have a Dream"). Civil Rights Act 1964. Selma Bloody Sunday. Voting Rights Act 1965 (Mississippi 7% → 67%).
- BACKLASH (1966-73): Malcolm X assassinated (1965). Black Power (Carmichael 1966). Panthers (Newton & Seale, Oakland). Urban riots (Watts, Detroit, Newark). MLK assassinated (1968). Fair Housing Act — last law. Nixon's Southern Strategy. Vietnam drained resources. Legal equality won — economic equality not.
The three most important statistics in the whole unit — learn these cold:
- 25% — Peak unemployment 1933 (13 million people)
- 250,000 — March on Washington attendance, August 1963
- 7% → 67% — Mississippi Black voter registration after Voting Rights Act
The three most important laws — what each one did:
- Social Security Act (1935): Pensions for over-65s + unemployment insurance. Still exists today.
- Civil Rights Act (1964): No discrimination in public places and employment.
- Voting Rights Act (1965): No literacy tests + federal registrars. Mississippi: 7% → 67%.
The three most important court cases:
- Plessy v Ferguson (1896): "Separate but equal" — constitutional backing for segregation for 58 years
- Brown v Board of Education (1954): "Separate is inherently unequal" — school segregation unconstitutional
- Boynton v Virginia (1960): Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in interstate bus terminals was unconstitutional — directly triggered the Freedom Rides (1961), when CORE tested whether Southern states would comply