1. The Equal Rights Amendment DO NOW: Identify two areas where women did not feel they had equal rights.
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2. The Equal Rights Amendment
Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
(1)

3. ERA Timeline: Key Dates
1923 The ERA was written by Alice Paul, woman suffrage leader and lawyer, and first introduced into Congress.
The ERA was introduced into every session of Congress but never passed.
1972 The ERA was passed by a two-thirds vote in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and sent to the states on March 22 with a seven-year deadline for ratification.
The ERA was ratified by 35 state legislatures, with only three more states needed to put it into the Constitution.
1978 Congress passed a bill extending the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982.
Organized anti-equality political, economic, social, and religious forces prevented any more state ratifications before the deadline.
The ERA has been introduced into every session of Congress for the past 30 years.
(2)

4. What the ERA Would Do
Guarantee that the rights affirmed by the U.S. Constitution are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex;
Provide a fundamental legal remedy against sex discrimination for both women and men;
Clarify the legal status of sex discrimination for the courts, where decisions still deal inconsistently with such claims;
Make “sex” a suspect classification, as race currently is, so that governmental actions that treat males or females differently as a class would have to bear a necessary relation to a compelling state interest in order to be upheld as constitutional.
(4)

5. We Need the ERA Because . . .
The first – and still the only – right that the Constitution specifically affirms to be equal for women and men is the right to vote (19th Amendment, 1920).
The 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause has never been interpreted to protect against sex discrimination in the same way that the ERA would.
We need a constitutional guarantee of equality to protect against current threats to the significant advances in women’s rights achieved over the past half century.
Without the ERA, women (and occasionally men) still have to fight long, expensive, and difficult political and legal battles for equal rights under the law.
We need to improve the standing of the United States globally with respect to equal justice under law, since the governing documents of many other countries, however imperfectly implemented, specifically affirm legal equality of the sexes.
We need to liberate the time, intelligence, and energy of the women and men who work for the simple justice of equal legal rights, so they can be fully engaged with the many other challenges we face in common.
(5)

6. States (15) That Have Not Ratified the ERA
Alabama Arizona Arkansas Florida* Georgia Illinois* Louisiana* Mississippi Missouri Nevada North Carolina Oklahoma South Carolina Utah* Virginia* * = states with state ERAs or equal rights guarantees (9)

7. Who Supports the Goal of the ERA? Over 9 out of 10 Americans!
(1) April 2012: Poll for Daily Kos and SEIU (Service Employees International Union) “Do you think the Constitution should guarantee equal rights for men and women, or not?” It should % It should not % Not sure %

8. (2) July 2001: Opinion Research Corporation poll for the ERA Campaign Network
"In your opinion, should male and female citizens of the United States have equal rights?
YES: 96% (95% of men, 97% of women)
NO: % (4% of men, 2% of women)
DON'T KNOW: % (1% of men, 1% of women)
"In your opinion, should the Constitution make it clear that male and female citizens are supposed to have equal rights?"
YES: 88% (85% of men, 91% of women) NO: % (11% of men, 6% of women) DON'T KNOW: % (4% of men, 3% of women)
“As far as you know, does the Constitution of the United States make it clear that male and female citizens are supposed to have equal rights?" YES (or think so): % (75% of men, 69% of women) NO (or don't think so): % (16% of men, 21% of women) DON’T KNOW: % (9% of men, 10% of women).
Nearly three-quarters– 72% – of the 2001 respondents mistakenly assumed that the Constitution already includes a guarantee of equal rights for women and men.
By presenting these questions without specific mention of the ERA, the surveys filtered out the negative effect of false statements about it.
The citizens of the United States overwhelmingly support a constitutional guarantee of equal rights on the basis of sex. Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment will achieve that goal.
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9. American Indian Movement (AIM)

10. Brief Overview
Treaties
Allotment
Boarding Schools
Termination and relocation

11. Aim was founded in 1968 in minneapolis
Edward Benton, Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt were among the founders
Dedicated to protecting as well as imporoving life of native americans as well as keeping their culture alive
First goal: Deal with police brutality

12. 1969 – Occupation of Alcatraz Island
1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.
19 month occupation
More than 5,600 American Indians
Wanted positive example: no violence
1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The treaty promised the Sioux surplus federal land, but it was clear that the Sioux had no ancestral claims as far west as San Francisco. They lasted a few hours on the island
The annual household income of an American Indian family was $1,500-one-fourth the national average. Their life expectancy was 44 when other Americans could expect to reach 65.
“Occupiers wanted more than just Alcatraz; they wanted to reclaim lives. They made many demands. Among them was Boyer's $299,424 grant proposal to turn Alcatraz into a cultural park and Indian social and education center. The federal government turned it down as too unrealistic. So the occupation continued.”

13. Occupation of Alcatraz
Celebrity Support:
Boxes of food and money from CCR, Grateful Dead, Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando and polititians.
Life wasn’t perfect occupying the island:
Many tribes
Drugs/alcohol
Death – 12 yr old Yvonne Oakes
“Many who lived on the island described life there as near anarchy, as numerous factions tried to carve out their own versions of Indian utopia. Others saw the occupation as an escape from life and held constant parties fueled by drugs and alcohol smuggled past the volunteer security force.
On January 3, 1970, Oakes' 12-year-old daughter Yvonne died in a three-story fall inside the warden's house. Oakes soon left Alcatraz amid criticism that the island's own system of government had gotten too lax. A council of island residents, including Boyer and Oakes, made many of the decisions. But power struggles were common, according to many of the veterans; free speech and dissent were strongly encouraged.”

14. Outcome of Alcatraz
Some gov. officials wanted armed takeover – Nixon said ‘no’
A fire burned 4 buildings which signaled the end of the occupation
People began leaving on their own
A fire, not political unrest, signaled the end of the occupation. On June 1, 1971, four historical buildings on the island went up in flames. Because the buildings were far apart from each other, occupiers concluded that government agents had set the fires to discredit the occupation. Government leaders shot back that rowdy occupiers had set the fires.
Most of the occupiers began to leave on their own, anxious to return to schools and jobs. Only fourteen remained on June 11, 1971, when U.S. Marshals in three-piece suits arrived to reclaim the island.

15. Takeover at Wounded Knee

16. Wounded Knee, Cont’d
1973 – Lakota contact AIM to help with corruption within the BIA and Tribal Council
Armed indians reclaimed wounded knee
Over 75 nations were represented
Many demands:
Investigations into 371 Treaties
Investigate misuse of tribal funds
BIA investigation
Discuss the Film “Lakota Woman”

17. Wounded Knee Cont’d
Government cut of electricity and tried to keep food from going in.
Heavy Gunfire daily
Buddy Lamond and Frank Clearwater were killed – 12 others disappeared.
After 71 days of being free peoples, the siege ended – Over 1200 were arrested

18. Wounded Knee Cont’d Next 3 years “Reign of Terror”
64 unsolved murder victims
300 harassed and beaten
562 arrests made – only 15 convicted of a crime

19. Milo Goings, a 27-year-old Oglala, gets a ride from a fellow tribe member after Goings was wounded in an exchange of gunfire between the occupiers of Wounded Knee and U.S. marshals on March 10, 1973.

20. Bibliography:
Bieder, Robert E, Native American Communities in Wisconsin
Lurie, Nancy Oestrich, Wisconsin Indians
Paths of the People, The Ojibwe in the Chippewa Valley
Prucha, Francis Paul, Documents of United States Indian Policy