the other liberation movements 1960s – 1970s. the two major movements of the 50s – 60s anti-war...
TRANSCRIPT
The “Other” Liberation Movements
1960s – 1970s
The Two Major Movements of the 50s – 60s
Anti-War Protestors with the Vietnam Conflict
Civil Rights and its off-shoots
An Era of Activism
The Women’s Movement
Ethnic Minorities Seek Equality
The Counterculture
Environmental and Consumer Movements
1960s: “The Times They Are A-Changin’” – Bob Dylan
songWomen’s Rights had been an issue since the 1880s Right to vote Right to property Right to self-
determination
Feminism
Theory of political, economic, and social equality between men and women.
Feminists believe in that and take action to bring it about.
1960s: Fighting against the Stereotype
The reality was many women could not be the stay-at-home moms. Necessity to work With skills and an
education – DESIRE to work
Education and Employment
1950: Only 25% of liberal arts graduates were women.
1970: 43% were women
Most employers were “reluctant” to hire women.
Felt the investment in them was wasted since they would leave to marry and have children.
Felt a woman’s place was in the home. Work to “catch” a husband.
Felt customers/ fellow employees would be “uncomfortable” with women in authority.
Wages were unequal
1963: women earned 59-cents to every dollar a man made.
1973: Women earned 57-cents to every dollar a man made!
Frustration of women that wanted equal rights!
Had a “how-to” model with the Civil Rights MovementBut often treated as second-class citizens in the Civil Rights Movement.Used courts to get equality at work. EEOC (Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission)
Women’s Groups Organize
Support Groups
NOW (National Organization of Women) 1966 Pressure govt. and
EEOC to take women’s issues more seriously.
NOW
Sought fair pay and equal job opportunities.
Attacked sexist attitudes in media and advertising.
Sought to educate people that parenting and house responsibilities are for men and women.
NOW
Seen by some as too radical Particularly under
Gloria Steinem
Seen as not active for poor women or women of color. Mainly white, middle-
class women issues
Impact of Feminism
1972: MS magazine
300,000 copies sold in 8 days.
A Shift In Attitudes
Shirley Chisolm – ran for president in 1972. Went down in
primaries.
1984 Geraldine Ferraro was first woman nominated for vice president (Democrat)
A Shift in Attitudes
Brought public awareness to the need for childcare facilities.
Shelters for battered women Better law enforcement
Women’s health concerns
Sexual harassment
Roe v. Wade
NOW pointed out the different laws restricting abortion through the country.
Rich women who had an unwanted pregnancy could just travel to another state.
But what about poor women?
US Supreme CourtRoe v. Wade
1973Said abortion laws were restrictive against poor women. Invaded privacy of
women.
IMPORTANT: No restrictions in the first
trimester of pregnancy. BUT later pregnancies
could be regulated by the states.
Roe v. Wade today
STILL quite controversial!
ERA: Equal Rights Amendment
Attempt to change the Constitution to say that discrimination based on sex was illegal. Needed 38 states to
ratify the amendment to become national law.
They made it to 35. Nebraska ratified it and
then changed their mind and de-ratified ERA.
Only state to do that.
Opposition to the Women’s Movement
Phyllis Schlafly
“It won’t do anything to help women and it will take away from women the rights they already have.”
Opposition to ERA
“as the right of a wife to be supported by her husband, the right of a woman to be exempted from military combat and the right … to go to a single-sex college.”
Schlafly’s rhetoric
Women would lose alimony.
Women would have to have co-ed bathrooms.
Women being in the military.
It did the job of scaring women and ended ERA.
Opposition to the Women’s Movement
Some women felt ERA would force them from their traditional roles.
Some men also protested feminism.
Latinos Fight for Change
Latinos lived in many parts of the US before whites arrived. (California, Texas, N. Mexico, Arizona)
But were frequently denied equal rights and lost their land.
Latino Population
1970: 14.9 million Americans originating from Central / South America.
1960s: Hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled Fidel Castro.
Chicanos
Mexican Americans
1960s: El Movimiento Chicano - Movement to end
discrimination in education, employment and the legal system.
Cultural Identity
1968: 10,000 Mexican – American students walked out of their schools.Demand for culturally sensitive courses, better facilities and Latino teachers and counselors.
Organizing to Fight Discrimination
Union: United Farm Workers.
1965: 1,700 members
Leader: Cesar Chavez 1927 – 1993 Normal life until 10. After military service
became a union leader. Used MLK’s nonviolent
methods.
Cesar Chavez
Organized national boycotts of Grapes Lettuce
Wanted better wages, safer working conditions, union recognition by owners of fields.
Other Chicano Movements
Political power with La Raza Unida in 1970. Elected Chicanos to
government Advocated for better
housing and jobs. Encouraging Latinos
to become lawyers
Asian Americans Fight Discrimination
Even though Asian Americans typically had better educations, they were paid less. White man paid $51 Chinese man paid
$38 Japanese man paid
$43
Asian Americans fight for Economic and Political
AdvancementJapanese American citizens League (JACL) Sought reparations
and apology for Japanese American internment in WWII.
Took until 1988 for the US to do that!
Asian Americans fight for Economic and Political
AdvancementWhen Hawaii became a state in 1959, Hiram Leong Fong
first Chinese American sent to the Senate.
Daniel K. Inouye – first Japanese American in Congress
Native Americans Face Unique Problems
Despite different languages and cultures – American culture has always tended to lump Native Americans as one group.
Native Americans Face Unique Problems
US government attempts to destroy the traditional lifestyle. Genocide in 1800s. Removal Programs Missionaries trying to
make Indians “white”
Native Americans Face Unique Problems
Denied citizenship until 1924.
1948 – allowed the right to vote.
Routinely denied equal opportunities.
Native Americans Face Unique Problems
Poor living conditionsHigh rates of unemploymentAlcoholismSuicideShorter lifespan than other Americans
Native Americans Face Unique Problems
Beginning in 1961 Native peoples began to be paid for the confiscation of their lands by the US govt. Cherokee, Crow,
Nez Perce
Not all Native Americans accepted the money
They wanted their lands back!
Attempts to regain lands
Taos Pueblos got their sacred Blue Lake and 48,000 acres of New Mexico.
Lakota Sioux pressed for the return of the Black Hills in South Dakota. (Mount Rushmore) Denied
AIM: American Indian Movement
1968 Russell Means Dennis Banks
Goals of AIM
Fight for better treaty rightsBetter conditions and opportunities Issues for Native Americans living in cities Street patrols Encouraging racial and
cultural pride in young people.
Goals of AIM
Autonomy (self-government on the reservations)
Control of natural resources on Native lands.
Restoration of lands illegally taken.
AIM
Adopted methods of militant groups like the Black Panthers.
“Power comes from the barrel of a gun.”
AIM: Confronting the Government
1972: Broken Treaties Caravan and taking over the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ office for six days.
1969: Occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco harbor. Stand-off lasted for a
year and half.
AIM: Wounded Knee
1973, Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
Poorest reservation Over half of people
on welfare.
Wounded Knee’s History
1890 – US troops massacred 200 Sioux men, women and children.
AIM’s Russell Means directed a takeover
Means and his followers refused to leave the village until the US government would agree to investigate the treatment of Indians and the poor living conditions.
Federal Marshals and FBI respond
Put the village under siege.
Arrested 300 people and reporters.
Two AIM members were killed.
May – AIM agreed to leave and turn in their guns – if govt. would investigate conditions.
Fighting Continued off and on through 1975
1975 two FBI agents died in a shoot out with the Sioux. One Native
American died too.
Government Changes
1975 laws to: Give more
autonomy. Tax incentives for
businesses to relocate to the area.
More land, mineral and water rights for reservations.
Murderer or Political Prisoner?
Leonard Peltier – said to have executed the wounded FBI agents. Convicted and sentenced to life. Says he is innocent, but
won’t reveal who did kill them.
Amnesty International and many groups consider him a political prisoner.
We can’t talk about the 1960s – 1970s protest movements without talking about …
THE HIPPIES!
The CountercultureFlower Power v. Corporate Power
Hippies advocated:
Peace, Love, Dope!
Freedom
Experimented with new styles of dress and music
Freer attitudes about sex and drugs.
Hippies and “Generation Gap”
Hippies, being the baby boomers, made up the majority of the population.Colleges had to “adjust” courses for them.Politicians couldn’t ignore them.
Sixties Style
Distinctive, frivolous and free.
Women gave up “structured” hair for free and long hair.
Tended not to shave and used “natural” products.
Clothing less form fitting.
Sixties Style: Men
Grew their hair long
Beards
Colorful clothes
Wore jewelry and flowers.
Sixties Style
Favored clothing of the poor working classes / other poor cultures. Blue jeans Work shirts Peasant blouses Ponchos Native American
moccasins and jewelry.
Sixties Style: Pop Art
Painted bodies
Painted cars
Pop Art
Andy Warhol
Pop Art
Roy Lichtenstein
The Sexual Revolution
Sex shouldn’t be tied to traditional ties to family life. Lived in communes
No marriage commitments
Shared chores
Shared property
The Drug Scene
Psychedelic Drugs and Timothy Leary Harvard Professor
that used undergrads to test LSD.
Believed it helped free the mind.
“Tune in, turn on, drop out.”
The Drug Scene
Most people used “natural” drugs like pot.
The Drug Scene killed so many
Janis Joplin
Jim Morrison
Jimi Hendrix
The Music World in the 60s
1960s – Rock and Roll
1960s – renewed interest in folk music.
Songs of protest
Songs of laborers, sailors, etc.
MAJOR EVENT of 1964
THE BEATLES!
“British Invasion”
WOODSTOCK
Counterculture gathering in August 1969.
400,000 came!
WOODSTOCK
For several days – great music.
Police backed off and let the hippies “police” themselves.
It worked!
Adult Reaction to the Counterculture?
HORROR!
Adult Reaction to the Counterculture?
Some tried to get “hip” and join in.
Hippies End
Most hippies were from comfortable middle class homes.
Eventually they “rejoined” society and have become the executives / politicians of today.
Steve Jobs
Some Hippie Movements took tragic turns
Patty Hearst and the SLA Symbionese
Liberation Army
SLA
Radical Hippie group in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Pro-Communist (?)
Willing to do violence to bring on the “revolution” against the rich.
SLA
1973 – kidnapped 19-year old Patty Hearst. Was it for a “prisoner
exchange”? Was it for ransom? Publicity made the
group feel power.
SLA
Hearst was held in a closet – bound and gagged for 56 days. Physically and sexually
attacked. Developed
STOCKHOLM SYNDROME
Prisoners identify more with their kidnappers than see them as enemies.
Patty Hearst Becomes “Tania”
In audio tape said she was joining the SLA and that everything her family represented was evil.
SLA Bank Robberies, murder, shoot-outs
1975 - Capture
For months Patty Hearst identified with her kidnappers.
Later, realized her errors and testified against them.
Sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Pardoned in 3 years.
The Environmental and Consumer Movements
Rachel Carson SILENT SPRING
Raised awareness that chemicals we used were killing wildlife around us.
DDT and the American Bald Eagle.
Pollution
Grass-roots groups that made the public aware of air pollution, urban sprawl, and sought to legislate the safety of the environment. Earth Day – April 22,
1970
Consumer Activism
Ralph Nader (today a Green Party candidate for president) Went after the
automobile industry for lack of safety features on cars.
Nader’s Raiders
Went after food and drug companies for false advertisements.
Made baby food safer.
Insecticides.
Made people aware you could stand up to corporations.