Voices of Protest

The Warren Court

Chief Justice Earl Warren Began conservative, but

beliefs became more liberal over the years

Tried to correct what the Court saw as the nation’s social ills

Believed in equal justice under the law for African Americans, a poor person, an accused criminal, an immigrant, or a city dweller

Women’s Movement Betty Freidan wrote The Feminine Mystique in 1963

- Stated that women were not “only suited for low

paying jobs”

- Women’s achievements could also be measured as

wives and mothers Many women supported these ideas and began

looking for alternatives to marriage, childbearing, and homemaking

Many women opposed these ideas as well. They supported traditional roles for women

Women’s Issues in the 60’s

For every $1 a man earned a female earned $0.59 Women only held 5% of the legislative seats in the

country 13 women were in Congress The FDA approved birth control allowing couples to

plan their families Formation of NOW – National Organization for

Women in 1966

Women in the 1970’s In 1970, the Labor Department required employers to hire a

certain percentage of women

1972 - Education Amendments Act – outlawed sexual discrimination in education

- school boards had to rewrite policies that limited girls to cooking

classes

and boys to shop classes

- asked school to support girls’ athletics

1976 West Point and Annapolis (military academies) to females

1923 – 1982 fight for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Failed in 1982

1973 Roe v Wade = Abortions

Hispanic Americans

Numbers of Hispanic Americans increased dramatically in the 1960s – 1970s

Very little representation in the state legislatures and Congress

Bilingual education was a controversial topic

- some believed it delayed assimilation (the melting

pot) The Supreme Court upheld rulings that schools had

to meet the needs of its students

Cesar Chavez 1927 – 1993 He was a community and

labor activist in the 1950s He founded the National

Farm Workers of America in 1962

In 1968, he called for a boycott of California table grapes due to poor working conditions and improved pay

- this lasted for 5 years

until he won

Cesar Chavez

In 1972, he merged his union with another union to form The United Farm Workers

He encouraged nonviolent protests (inspired by Gandhi and MLK, Jr.)

He often went on hunger strikes to help bring attention to his causes

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