Twentieth Century Social Justice Movements

Social Justice Movement, the Definition: Social Justice Movements seek to redistribute wealth, opportunity or privileges in society. Examples: Abolition Movement: ending slavery Black Civil Rights Movement: ending segregation Women’s Rights: gaining rights for all Am. Women American Indian Movement (AIM): rights for Native people Brown or Chicano/a Rights Movement: Rights for Hispanic or Latino women. Gay Rights:

The Black Civil Rights Movment, Grandparent of all 20th c. SJ Movements Many, many events and peoples make up this movement, Like: A. Brown v. Board of Ed. (1954): Ended Public School segregation. The Little Rock Nine: 9 students who enrolled in Little Rock HS in Arkansas, precipitating a school desegregation crisis.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956)

The Traditional Story: Rosa Parks as ACCIDENTAL HERO Boycott as a spontaneous action. Martin Luther King saved the day. NOPE!

The Real-er Story: Enter Joanne Robinson

. . . And how the busses in Montgomery really worked. Peg has to draw on the board now!

The Car Pools

Hitching & Walking

Result: 1 year of protesting, boycotting, carpooling, blacks and whites cooperating, and the Montgomery bus system was near bankruptcy– they desegregated the busses. Victory!

Little Rock Nine: School Integration in Little Rock Arkansas Brown v. Board of Education (1954): Landmark U. S. Supreme Court Case that made it illegal to segregate public schools. It struck down Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) which made segregation legal as “separate but equal.” There’s no such thing as separate but equal. It’s one thing to pass a law, it’s another to enforce it.

The Little Rock Crisis 1957, 9 black students prevented from enrolling in Little Rock High School by segregationist Gov. Orville Faubus. Faubus used Nat’l Guard troops to keep the students out. President Eisenhower enforced Brown v. Board of Ed. By ordering the Nat’l Guard to protect the students and allow their entry into school. National media brought attention to the yelling, spitting, racist, segregationist adults who abused the 9 black students.

Protesting in Little Rock

2nd Wave Feminist Movement Maybe started with THE PILL, 1962 Maybe started with Betty Friedan’s book THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE (1963) Maybe started with the Miss Am. Protest (1968)

The Miss America Protest (1968) Protest organized by the New York Radical Women, against the beauty pageant called the Miss Am. Pageant.

The Protest was about many things:

1. The Objectification of Women

2. Miss America as Pro-Vietnam War (So the protest as anti-war)

3. Miss America as Promoting Consumer Culture

4. Miss America as Racist: Only white women in pageant 4. Miss America as Racist: Only white women in pageant. Black women organized a Miss Black America that same night.

AIM: American Indian Movement and the Occupation of Alcatraz (1969-71) Alcatraz had been a prison on an island in San Francisco Bay– but the Federal Government had abandoned it.

The 1868 Treat of Laramie said that any land the US Government took from Indians and later abandoned could be reclaimed by Indians.

In November, 1969 79 Native people, from different tribes occupied Alcatraz.

They stayed, men, women, children, for 2 years, calling attention to Native American issues, including poverty, health care and education.

Stonewall Riots/Gay Rights Movement A series of riots and demonstrations, Spring 1969 in New York, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar. Protesting against discrimination and for greater acceptance. Considered a Foundation Moment in the Gay Liberation Movement.

Perhaps the Most Succesful Social Justice Movement of the late 20th & early 21st century

Finis!