The Politics of Protest Chapter 18 Notes

Students and the Counterculture Lesson 1

Changes There was a time of peace and prosperity following WWII However, artists and writers of the beat movement believed that American society had come to value conformity over independence and financial gain over spiritual and social advancement The civil rights movement also brought questions of racism in America The youth movement originated with the baby boomers

Young Americans Due to the economic boom of the 1950s, more families were able to send their children to college College life gave students a sense of independence and freedom— this is where protest movements began Young Americans believed there were injustices in the nation’s political and social system They formed what is known as the New Left—thought that the wealthy elite controlled politics and that wealth was unfairly divided

College Life The free speech movement was led by Mario Savio and others at the University of California at Berkeley in the fall of 1964—due to the university restricting students’ rights to distribute literature and recruit volunteers for political causes on campus Many students were not satisfied with what was going on at their university, such as many classes being taught by graduate students and rules being made that they didn’t see as easy to obey The struggle at Berkeley peaked on December 2, 1964 when students formed a sit-in 600 police officers were sent in to deal with the situation and arrested more than 700 student protestors Within days there was a campus-wide strike that stopped classes The Supreme Court upheld students’ rights to freedom of speech and assembly on campuses The incident at Berkeley became a model for future students protests in the 1960s

Counterculture A counterculture was created in the 1960s: these people were referred to as hippies and tried to create a new lifestyle based on flamboyant dress, rock music, drug use, and communal living Hippie Culture Rejected rationality, order, and traditional middle-class values Wanted to create a utopia like society Wanted to live in communes—group living arrangements in which members shared everything and worked together Going against the stereotypical white-collar worker The counterculture movement gradually declined after a few years However, the fashion and music continued to have on influence on American culture

Play that Funky Music Musical influences included artists like: Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and The Who

The Feminist Movement Lesson 2

Women There was another group seeking changes in American society—the feminist, or women’s liberation movement Feminism is the belief that men and women should be equal politically, economically, and socially Women were given new opportunities during WWII, and many did not like that they were expected to return to their “old lifestyle” following the war By 1960, about 1/3 of all married women were part of the paid workforce However, many still believed the woman’s place was at home to care for her husband and family

Equal Pay Many women became increasingly resentful of a world where newspaper ads separated jobs by gender, banks denied women credit, and female employees were often paid less for the same work In 1963, women won the passage of the Equal Pay Act—this outlawed paying men more than women for doing the same job

More Progress Congress gave the women’s movement another boost by including them in the 1964 Civil Rights Act—this included that job discrimination also applied to gender Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, helped form the National Organization for Women (NOW) They set out to pass an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution It also worked to repeal laws against abortion and pass legislation against gender discrimination in employment, housing, and education

Equality in Education A female junior high student, Kathy Striebel, wanted to join the swim team At first she was not allowed but her mother fought and proved that the school she attended banned gender discrimination The opposing coach at a meet said she was ineligible to compete, however, because they were not at her school Leaders in the women’s movement lobbied to ban gender discrimination in education

Rights Congress passed several acts that helped equality in education and by 1978, women made up the majority of students attending college The feminist movement also worked to secure rights for women to make private decisions, such as reproductive decisions The right to privacy was expanded beyond married couples when activists began challenging laws against abortion Prior to this, the states were given the option on setting laws for this

Roe v. Wade The decision stated that state governments could not regulate abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, at time that was ruled to be within a woman’s constitutional right to privacy States could ban abortion in the final three months except in the cases of medical emergency

Debate The abortion debate continues to this day Even with the significant changes during the feminist movement, a significant income gap between men and women still exists

Latino Americans Organize Lesson 3

Immigration In the 20 th century Mexican immigration to the U.S. rose greatly During the 1920s, half a million Mexicans immigrated to the U.S. through official channels—an unknown number through other means In 1930, 90% of ethnic Mexicans in the U.S. lived in areas of the West and Southwest Texas and Southern California began to have a large Spanish- speaking population

Barrios Most lived in barrios: which were the product of a combination of the region’s history and discrimination against Latinos For example, Los Angeles was founded as a Spanish town in 1781, but when English-speaking settlers arrived a century later they built around the older Spanish-speaking district

Repatriation Act Employment discrimination meant that most ethnic Mexicans could only find low-paying jobs During the Great Depression about 1/3 of the nation’s Mexican population returned to Mexico—some voluntarily and some as part of the repatriation act

Bracero Program The Bracero Program was created and in this arrangement, Mexican workers entered into short-term labor contracts Illegal immigration began to increase

Deportation Eisenhower launched a program to deport undocumented Latino immigrants and police went through the barrios looking for illegal immigrants 3.7 million Mexicans were deported over the next 3 years These raids were criticized in the U.S and in Mexico for making people feel intimidated for “looking Mexican”—it did not have a way of distinguishing between legal and illegal immigrants

More Immigrants Mexican remained the largest group of Spanish-speaking newcomers, but large numbers of Puerto Ricans began to arrive in the 1950s as well Because Puerto Ricans became American citizens in 1917, they moved freely within American territory and about a million moved to the U.S. mainland after WWII, due to economic troubles More than 350,000 Cuban immigrants came in 1959 following the Cuban Revolution By 1970, more than 9 million Latinos lived in the U.S.

Discrimination Despite citizenship status, people of Mexican heritage were often treated as outsiders Latinos formed organizations to work for equal rights and fair treatment Many supreme court cases helped to improve Latino living conditions Encouraged by the African American civil rights movements, Latinos launched their own campaigns in the 1960s to improve their economic situation and end discrimination

Organizations In the early 1960s, Cesar Chaves and Dolores Huerta organized two groups that fought for farmworkers In 1966, these organizations merged to form the United Farm Workers (UFW) They worked to increase wages and were successful Latino youths also got involved in civil rights—Jose Angel Gutierrez founded the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) MAYO organized walkouts and demonstrations—one of which led to the creation of bilingual education at a local high school

La Raza Unida Successes encouraged Gutierrez to found a new political party in 1969—La Raza Unida (The United People) They helped elect Latinos to local offices in several cities with large Latino populations

Chicanos A larger civil rights movement began among Mexican Americans who referred to themselves as Chicanos Congress supported the Bilingual Education Act in 1968—this made schools set up classes for immigrants in their own language while they learned English This was controversial and by the 2000s, more than half of the nation’s state legislatures passed laws or amendments making English the official language of their state

Chicano Mural Movement In the 1960s a new art movement began in the urban southwest, particularly in the American barrios of Texas and southern California Artists began working on large brightly colored murals on the walls of city buildings, schools, churches, highway overpasses, and apartment buildings The murals depicted Mexican American culture The style of the murals resembled the styles of art in ancient Mexico, but reflected the characteristics and issues of the 1960s and 70s This movement helped remind Hispanics of their identity and their contributions to the U.S., and encouraged them to support the struggle for their rights One negative effect was the contribution to division among communities rather than emphasizing common ground among all Americans