the “ other ” liberation movements 1960s – 1970s

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.


US government attempts to destroy the traditional lifestyle. Genocide in 1800s. Removal Programs Missionaries trying to

make Indians “white”


Denied citizenship until 1924.

1948 – allowed the right to vote.

Routinely denied equal opportunities.


Poor living conditionsHigh rates of unemploymentAlcoholismSuicideShorter lifespan than other Americans


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.

the “ other ” liberation movements 1960s – 1970s

Documents