1. III. The Struggle for Equal Rights
Many struggles for minority groups in 1960’s to gain equal rights:
A. Civil rights for African Americans
B. American Indian Movement
C. Equal rights for Hispanic Americans
D. Women’s Liberation Movement

2. C. Struggle for Equal Rights: Hispanics

3. Hispanic Americans/Latinos
1970’s Fastest growing minority group in the U.S. M M M
M (28%)
Account for 1/3 of legal immigration since large numbers of illegals (7-12 M)
Puerto Ricans; Cubans; Mexicans; Central Americans; South Americans

4. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Juarez found United Farm Workers Union in California
organize mostly Mexican agricultural laborers in California and southwest
Promote consumer boycotts of grapes, strikes

5. Hunger Strikes – Chavez & Robert Kennedy
Aligned themselves with the civil rights movements
Appealing to Hispanic identity and pride
Young Hispanics begin referring to themselves as Chicanos & demonstrating for Hispanic studies programs and bilingual education in schools
Hunger Strikes – Chavez & Robert Kennedy

6. Rodolfo Gonzalez of Mexican descent
Boxer; poet; political activist
Founder of Chicano movement
founds Crusade for Justice 1966
Community based civil rights organization
Opens private hispanic school in Colorado

7. I Am Joaquin by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales
Yo soy Joaquín, perdido en un mundo de confusión: I am Joaquín, lost in a world of confusion, caught up in the whirl of a gringo society, confused by the rules, scorned by attitudes, suppressed by manipulation, and destroyed by modern society. My fathers have lost the economic battle and won the struggle of cultural survival. And now! I must choose between the paradox of victory of the spirit, despite physical hunger, or to exist in the grasp of American social neurosis, sterilization of the soul and a full stomach. Yes, I have come a long way to nowhere, unwillingly dragged by that monstrous, technical, industrial giant called Progress and Anglo success.... I look at myself. I watch my brothers. I shed tears of sorrow. I sow seeds of hate. I withdraw to the safety within the circle of life -- MY OWN PEOPLE […]

8. Texas: Latinos launch a political party – advocating separatism
Puerto Ricans in New York establish the Young Lords

9. Prejudice suffered by Mexican Americans
Link to video: A Class Apart:

10. D. Women’s Liberation Movement

11. A Few Facts & Figures
World War II had brought more women than ever before out of the home into work. By 1960, 36 percent of all women sixteen and older- 23 million women-worked for paid wages. But although 43 percent of women with school-age children worked, there were nursery schools for only 2 percent- the rest had to work things out themselves.
Women were 50 percent of the voters-but (even by 1967) they held 4 percent of the state legislative seats, and 2 percent of the judgeships. The median income of the working woman was about one-third that of the man. And attitudes toward women did not seem to have changed much since the twenties.
Source: Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, Chapter 19: Surprises

12. 2nd wave of Feminism Fought all forms of male dominance
Fought against domestic violence
Women needed protection at the job level
E.g. flight attendants
Demanded Anti-discrimination laws
Equal pay for equal work/job opportunities

13. NOW: National Organization of Women 1966
Gloria Steinem: founded Ms. Magazine 1972
After Black Power, Women’s Liberation
Supported abortion rights

14. N.O.W. Statement of Purpose
We, men and women who hereby constitute ourselves as the National Organization for Women, believe that the time has come for a new movement toward true equality for all women in America, and toward a fully equal partnership of the sexes, as part of the worldwide revolution of human rights now taking place within and beyond our national borders.
The purpose of NOW is to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men . . .
There is no civil rights movement to speak for women, as there has been for Negroes and victims of discrimination. The National Organization for Women must therefore begin to speak.
Source: NOW Statement of Purpose, October 29, 1966.

15. Milestones Birth control pill approved by the FDA 1960
million million American women
Betty Friedan: Feminine Mystique bestseller in 1963
Title IX part of the Education Amendments of 1972
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”
Prohibited sex discrimination in education
More opportunities for women’s and girls’ athletics
Supreme Court Decision 1973 Roe vs. Wade
Legalization of abortion during 1st trimester

16. Feminist Victories and Defeats
Equal Rights Amendment
Idea had been around for a long time (1920s – Alice Paul)
Congressional Approval in 1972
Amendment did not achieve ratification; fell 3 states shy
Phyllis Schlafly - outspoken critic
“stop taking our privileges”
dependent wife benefits + selective service registration

17. Forms of Protest
Legislation
Bra Burning
Protests/Marches
Strikes

18. Miss America, 7 September 1968
In Atlantic City hundreds of US feminists gathered to protest against the meat market beauty pageant, leading to one of the funniest, but most inaccurate founding myths of second wave feminism, which is that women burned their bras to symbolise their emancipation from patriarchy. Anyone who’s tried to burn a bra – let alone one of those opaque flesh-coloured postwar girdle things – knows they don’t burn well. The under-trussings were in fact sloughed off and dumped into Freedom Trash Cans, along with high heels, fake eyelashes, copies of Cosmo and Playboy, mops, pots and pans – all items the protesters defined as “instruments of female torture”. The protest triggered a new and now mainstream critique of everything from “performative femininity” to the objectification of women, beauty ideals and domestic labour exploitation.
Source: The Guardian, “Ten direct actions by women that changed the world”, October 12th, 2015

19. Video: Women’s Liberation Movement 1950’s -1970’s 19’24

20. Video BBC Hard Talk – Gloria Steinem 0 – 4’10
How has the struggle for women’s rights changed since the 1960’s/1970’s?

21. Conclusion: Equal Rights Movements
In what ways were the various struggles among minority groups in the United States similar and in what ways where they distinct?