As the presidential election of 1952 began to heat up, so did
accusations and counteraccusations concerning communism
in America. The “Red Scare”—the widespread belief that
international communism was operating in the United States
—came to dominate much of the debate between Democrats
and Republicans in 1952.

Senator Joe McCarthy delivered a radio address on 
October 27, 1952 where he made accusations of
Communist infiltration into the State Department,
the administration of President Harry S. Truman,
the Voice of America, and the U.S. Army.

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the
African American civil rights movement reached its high-water
mark when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream"
speech to about 250,000 people attending the March for Jobs
and Freedom.