An Era of Social Change

Latinos of Varied Origins

• Mexican Americans – 1million came in 1910’s following the Mexican Revolution, some came in the 1940’s and 1950’s as braceros, and 1 million came in the 60’s

• Puerto Ricans began immigrating after the Spanish American War of 1898, and by 1960’s 1miilion in the US (1/2 NYC)

• Cubans fled Castro after 1959 and large communities formed in NYC, Miami, NJ

• During the 1960’s thousand of Central and South American emigrated

• Most Latinos lived in barrios

Latinos Fight For Change

• In 1966 Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta merged their new unions to form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee

• Chavez believed in non-violence in dealing with California’s large fruit and vegetable companies (Ex. Boycotts/Fast)

• In the 1960’s the Chicano Movement took off, “Brown Power” and the “Brown Berets” demanded Spanish speaking classes and Chicano studies programs at universities (Bilingual ED. Act of 1968)

Latino Political Power

• During the 1960’s eight Hispanic Americans served in the House of Representatives

• In the 1940’s and 1950’s the League of United Latin American Citizens fought in the courts for school desegregation and government funding

• In the 1970’s La Raza Unida ( Mexican Americans United) ran Mexican Candidates in many local elections

• In 1963 the more radical Alianza Federal de Mercedes seized a Texas courthouse

Native Americans Fight For Equality

• Native Americans suffered the highest unemployment rates, alcoholism, infant mortality rates and suicides

• In 1954 Native Americans had to deal with the government’s Termination Policy

• In 1961 reps from 61 tribes drafted the Declaration of Indian Purpose

• In 1968 LBJ established the National Council on Indian Opportunity

Voices of Protests

• In 1968 the AIM (American Indian Movement) was formed to demand lands, burial grounds, fishing/ timber rights, and a respect of their culture (George Mitchell and Dennis Banks)

• In 1972, AIM leader Russell Meads organized “The Trail of Broken Treaties” march on DC ( Occupied the BIA building)

• In 1973, the AIM led 200 Sioux to occupy Wounded Knee, SD where a massacre of Sioux had occurred in 1890

• After negotiations a shootout with the FBI left 2 dead, and many wounded

Native American Victories

• In 1975 Congress passed the Indian-Self-Determination and Education Act which gave tribes control to govern their own affairs including education

• In 1970 the Taos of NM regained sacred Blue Lake Land

• In 1971 the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act gave 40million acres and $962 million

• Political Representation improved by working through the system (Ex. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell)

The Asian American Movement

• In 1968 the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) was founded at Berkley which unified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Filipino activists

• Protested the Vietnam War and racism directed at Asians

• 1969 “Shut it Down” strikes at Berkley

• “Yellow Power” Conference to learn of Asian American history and destiny

• 1968 San Francisco’s Chinatown Grievances (Housing and Medicine)

• Japanese American Citizens League brought forth the issue of internment

The Gay Liberation Movement

• In the 1950’s the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis were campaigning to reduce discrimination towards G/L

• 1960’s The Society for Individual Rights was founded in Greenwich Village/SF

• June ,1969 the Stonewall Inn Riot in NYC pitted aggressive police against bar patrons “Gay Power” appeared

• After Stonewall the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed (Gay Pride Marches)

• In 1975 the Gov. ended its ban on employment of G/L

Women Fight for Equality

• In 1920 the 19th Amendment was passed giving women the right to vote (Women’s Suffrage)

• In the 1960’s Feminism was the belief that women should have economic, political, and social equality with men

• In 1963 Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique identified the “problem that has no name” Women were not happy in the 1950’s (Men’s work v Women’s work)

• In the 1960’s women were forced into clerical work, retail, social work, nursing, and teaching

Women’s Activism of the 1960’s

• Women were members of SNCC and SDS, and active in the civil rights movement

• In 1966 28 women including Friedan founded the National Organization for Women (NOW)

• NOW fought against gender bias in hiring and in the workplace and pushed for child-care facilities

• In 1968 the New York Radical Women protested the Miss America Pageant in AC

• “Women’s Garbage” into “Freedom’s Trashcan”

Women’s Activism of the 1960’s

• In 1969, a journalist and political activist Gloria Steinem joined the feminist movement

• She founded the National Women’s Party Caucus

• In 1972 she founded and wrote for Ms. (Women’s Magazine)

Roe V Wade

• Feminist groups supported a woman’s right to chose to have an abortion

• In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the feminists

• Extremely Controversial

• Pro-Choice v Pro-Life

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

• Congress passed the ERA in 1972, it was first introduced in 1923 (Men and Women same rights and protections)

• 38 states needed to ratify it to make it part of the Constitution ( 35 received)

• A Stop-ERA campaign was launched by conservative religious groups, and anti-feminists led by Phyllis Schlafly

• Radical Feminist “hate men, marriage, and children”

• Fears of women being drafted, no husband responsibility, and possible same-sex marriages

The Conservative Response

• Nixon, Agnew and J Edgar Hoover expressed anger and concern over the counterculture and the threat to traditional values

• Many saw the values as decadent, un-American, immature and irresponsible

• Conservatives presented their own solutions to crime and lawlessness

The New Right Emerges

• In order to combat pro-choice and the ERA conservatives formed the “pro-family” movement which became the New Right (Social Conservatism when dealing with social, cultural, and moral problems)

• They debated family centered issues and played key role in Pres. Reagan’s election in 1980