Period 3: The Rights Revolution (1950s-1980s)

Period 3

The Rights Revolution (1950s-1980s)

• Topic 10: The Civil Rights Movement (1945-1970s)

• Topic 11: The Women’s Rights Movement (1963-1982)

• Topic 12: The LGBTQ Rights Movement (1950s-1970s)

• Topic 13: The Culture Clashes of the 1980s and 1990s

Topic 10: Civil Rights Movement & Key Figures

• 1945-1970s: was a political, legal, and social struggle to gain equality, full citizenship, and identity for African Americans = 2 approaches

• 1. MLK/Non-Violent Civil Disobedience wing (dominant: 1950s-mid 1960s)

  • Work within the system to make change (Reform)

  • Use tactics of non-violence and Civil Disobedience

  • Movement achieves many legislative accomplishments

• X/Black Panther Black Empowerment Wing (dominant: mid 1960s-mid 1970s) 

  • Work outside of the system to make change (Transform)

  • Use tactics of direct confrontation

  • Movement achieves cultural change 

Pressures that resulted in movement

• Continued Oppression 

  • Jim Crow Continues

  • Political Oppression Continues 

  • Poverty Continues 

  • Violence Continues (Emmett Till)

• Possible Change

  • Military Service during World War I  & World War II 

  • President Truman integrates the US Military 1947

  • Brown vs. Board of Education 1954

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955

  • Forcible Integration of Little Rock Schools by Eisenhower 1957

Brown vs. Board of Education

1954: Declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional

• Overturns Plessy v Ferguson (segregation, separate but equal)

Martin Luther King Jr

• MLK/Non-Violent Civil Disobedience wing (dominant: 1950s-mid 1960s)

  • Work within the system to make change (Reform)

  • Use tactics of non-violence and Civil Disobedience

Accomplishments:

• President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (a leading group in the Civil Rights Movement)

• Received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964

• present @ signing of Civil Rights Act of 1964

• was assassinated 1968

Civil Rights Movement key events

no jim crowe, no poll tax, no literacy, intermarrige!

• Civil Rights Act 1964

• 24th Amendment 1964

• Voting Rights Act 1965

• Loving v. Virginia 1967

Civil Rights Act

1964: outlawed major discrimination on basis of race, religion, or gender (outlawed Jim Crowe)

24th Amendment

1964: outlawed poll tax and fee voting restrictions

Voting Rights Act

1965: outlawed literacy test for voting (all remaining restrictions)

Loving v. Virginia

1967: Laws banning interracial marriage are unconst under the 14th amendment (Unanimous decision) 

Malcom X context

• Father died when he was young; rumored that he was killed by white supremacists

• When he was 13 his mother was placed in a mental hospital and he was placed in foster homes 

• Made his living as a criminal

• While in prison, X was exposed to the ideas of the Nation of Islam (a religious movement preaching black self-reliance and unification of the Africans

  • Believes: Black people are the original people of the world, Blacks are superior to whites

• Converts to the Nation of Islam

• Takes the name Malcolm X (Malik Shabazz) 

• Rejects a life of crime and “sin”

Malcom X Career & death

• After being released from prison in 1952, X begins to work with Elijah Muhammad to open Islamic temples throughout northern black communities.

• Rose to prominence and public attention in the early 1960s through his speeches

• 1964 X leaves the Nation of Islam after conflict with Muhammad 

• February 21, 1965 X is shot  by 3 members of the Nation of Islam while preparing to address a lecture hall in Manhattan

Shift from MLK party → Maclom/Black Panthers

Malcom X assassinated (1965), MLK assassinated (1968), Bloody Sunday (1965 peaceful protest broadcast on national television met w/ violence)

= black power + black conciousness movement SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) + Panthers

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee = MLK ally founded in 1960

• Key Figure: Stokley Carmichael

Stokley Carmichael

Member of SNCC emerges as rep for someone drawn to Malcom X + desire for Blacks to have ACTUAL power not just baseline rights

• = moves to Black Panthers

• shift from equality (MLK) to exclusion of whites which scares them

• many whites move on to protesting Vietnam

Black Panthers & Social Change

Focused on black separatism + self-empowerment (no reliance on white entities)

• bear arms, monitor police in groups (vs police discrimination)

• help community w/ food & healthcare (vs the poor services gov provides)

Early-late 60s Fashion: Martin (polished, assimilation, white) vs Panthers (afro, separatism, casual)

Soul Train: blackness defined by blacks run by blacks w/ black commercials = teaches black is beautiful, cool, & mainstream

Topic 11: The Women’s Rights Movement

(1963-1982):

1940s = WWII pre movement

1950s = domesticity pre movement

Emergence of Liberal Feminism 1963

• Equal Pay Act 1963

• Civil Rights Act 1964

Women’s Liberation Movement 1968 

Accomplishments of the Women’s Rights Movement

Bold Girls Really Endure Tight Restrictions, Denied Equality, Needing More Equal Rights

• Birth Control Pill

• Griswold v. Connecticut 1965

  • The Right to Privacy

• Eisenstadt v. Baird 1972

• Title IX 1972

• Roe v Wade 1973

  • Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization 2023

• Equal Credit Opportunity Act 1974

• No Fault Divorce Laws (1970-2010)

• Marital Rape Laws (1975-1993)

• The ERA 1972-1982

1940s

WWII pre movement

• many women (mainly white) worked outside home: factories, military support positions

• = earned + controlled money, had public role, valued by society

1950s

Domesticity pre movement: return to household via law & social norms

• post WWII women legally fired from jobs expected to return home

• strong social norms around marriage & motherhood

• “science supported housewife” bc women = diff

Emergence of Liberal Feminism

1963

Leader: Betty Friedan (Feminine Mystique 1963) (book abt how women weren’t satisfied)

Organization: National Organization of Women (NOW) = advocacy group of educated, white, middle-class women focused on changing laws

= 1963 Equal Pay Act: singed by Kennedy illegal to pay exact same job @ same firm diff wages (loopholes = diff titles + social norms i.e. janitor v maid)

= 1964 Civil Rights Act: signed by Lyndon cant refuse to hire or fire based on gender (“poison-pill”)

• pregnancy added in 1978

Women’s Liberation Movement 1968 

Leader: Gloria Steinem (moderate face to movement)

Organization: Ms. Magazine → Steinem run, cant exist within system, change way women view themselves (over laws) liberating from sexual objectification

• i.e. protest Miss America Pageant

• pamphlets & reading = the personal is political + consciousness raising

The Birth Control Pill

BOLD

Developed: in Mass by Gregory Pincus & John Rock funded by Margaret Sanger

• approved by FDA in 1957 for treatment of menstrual disorders

• not available to married women in ALL states til 1965 (Griswold v Connecticut)

• not available to unmarried women in ALL states til 1972 (Eisenstadt v Barid)

Cultural shift: sex = more casual + reproduction , discreet agency, makes it easier to work

Griswold v. Conneticut

GIRLS: married women right to contraception bc right to privacy

1965: Connecticut law banning contraception under Comstock Laws (1879 rarely enforced)

• goal: challenge to Supreme Court

• Griswold + Buxton open birth control clinic = arrested, tried, guilty, fined

SCOUS ruled Connecticut violated women’s constitutional right to privacy

• = Right to Privacy

• contraception for married couples

Right to Privacy

REALLY
Established 1965 by Griswold v Connecticut

Implied by const protections of First Amendment (religion, speech, press, assemble, petition)

Eisenstadt v. Baird

ENDURE: unmarried women right to privacy bc 14 amendment

1972: Barid distributes contraceptive foams after lecture @ as test case

• argument: violation of equal protection clause of 14th amendment based on marital status

SCOTUS rules since Griswold allowed distribution to married couples unmarried should also be allowed

Title IX

TIGHT: no more sex discrimination in school (mainly public bc fed funding)
1972: Portion of Education Amendments of 1972 for academic & athletic signed by Nixon

cultural shift: women’s access to scholarships and profesh sports

Roe v Wade

RESTRICTIONS: can get an abortion til 20 weeks

1973

Norma McCorvey/ Jane Roe wanted abortion for 3rd pregnancy but couldnt under Texas state law

• attorney goal argue: right to privacy under Griswold extended to abortion

SCOTUS rules right to privacy did extend to abortion until fetal viability (20-24 weeks)

Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization

DENIED: Roe v Wade overturned bc right to privacy did not extend

2023

= Mississippi law ban @ 15 weeks was legal

Equal Credit Opportunity Act

EQUALITY

1974: prohibits discrimination of race, color, religion, origin, sex, marital status, or age in credit transactions

No Fault Divorce Laws

NEEDING

1970-2010

divorce does not require proof of wrongdoing on either side

Marital Rape Laws

MORE

1975-1993

any sex without consent, even within marriage, is considered rape (previously believed getting married consented to all future acts)

Equal Rights Amendment

EQUAL RIGHTS

1972-1982

proposed amendment to guarantee equal rights on basis of sex ratified easily in house and senate but failed mainly in southern states (after first 30)

Anti-Women’s Rights Movement

Phyliss Safley: Religious Republican women who wanted to be a housewife (used fear mongering to scare women) and fears of inverted social dynamics

• women’s movement really wants choice but Phyliss illustrates forced assimilation

National Women’s Conference

1977: held in Texas as massive rally to discuss womens rights (ERA being one) but turns towards supporting LGBTQIA & abortion/reproduction as well

• Phyliss holds successful counter rally anti-abortion and lesbian

Topic 12: LGBTQ Rights Movement

From illegal & shaming gay men to general acceptance (50s-70s)

• WWII opportunities

• 1950s Pathologizing gay men

• Lavender Scare 1950s

• Gay Rights Activism 1950s (Mattachine Society, Homophile Movement)

• 1960s Gay Liberation

  • Compton’s Cafeteria Riot 1966

  • The Stonewall Uprising 1969

• The Gay Liberation Front 1969

• Gay Pride 1970s

WWII opportunities

• same sex military, women wear pants, men do plays

• return home to San Francisco oasis most soldiers stayed

“out” was still = discharge from military

1950s Pathologizing gay men

pre WWI everyone was assumed straight → same-sex relations acknowledged as “fake” (same category as pedophilia, bestiality, unmarried sex)

• return to nuclear family ideals

• voluntary, partially, and forced help w/ “phycological illness”

Education: “boys beware” pedophilia = homosexuality & associated w/ strangers

Lavender Scare 1950s

gay men = national security threat/ susceptible to blackmail by communists (x red scare)

• becomes illegal to not only have gay sex but to BE gay (criminalize act → criminalize person)

  • creates stereotypes bc sex = anonymous, public, casual

• women targeted less so bc assumed to not have sexual desires (Victorian Era)

= push for coed spaces

Gay Rights Activism 1950s

Mattachine Society: 1950

• raise awareness, educate, gain acceptance

Martin Luther esk: framed sexuality as small part of identity, peaceful, look respectable

1960s Gay Liberation

younger more radical group (influenced by black panthers, radical feminists) focused on making people proud of being gay & use violence if necessary

Compton’s Cafeteria Riot

1966

• One of the first recorded trans-led riots in US history

• Compton’s Cafeteria was an eatery that was frequented by trans people in San Francisco

• Riots broke out after police officers tried to kick out a trans woman

• Signals the start of a new, more confrontational approach to demanding LGBTQ visibility and rights. 

The Stonewall Uprising

1969

• The Stonewall Inn = gay bar in Greenwich Village subject to frequent raids by NYC police

• One night police instead of running away patrons started throw bottles and bricks at the police and began lighting fires, and soon an uprising broke out (as did more celebratory acts like chorus lines). 

• Uprisings continued for 5 nights and drew a diverse set of LGBTQ participants (all races, all genders, both trans and cis people).

• Many members of the Mattachine pleaded with the participants to avoid violence and riots, but their please were largely ignored—the LGBTQ movement was now rejecting assimilation and was instead endorsing liberation. 

Gay Liberation Front

1969-1974 full shift to gay pride (black panthers) arguing society is built on system of heteronormativity

• first Gay Pride Parade: 1970

Accomplishments 1970s

• form communities and culture

• end stigma: 1973 same-sex attraction no longer defined as psychiatric disorder in the DSM

• hold political power

• change law + repeal laws

Culture Clashes of the 80s & 90s

gov shift: 60s strikes down barriers to equality → 80s & 90s desires become more nuanced & gov is unwilling to build “on ramps” (gov becomes reactionary)

cultural shift: “instead of a coherent and identity Americans now have diversity and division”

Race: Bakke, LA Riots

Gender: Clarence Thomas + Annie Hill

Sex: ACT UP + sexual media

Bussing crisis

(Race Clashes) 80s & 90s end “voluntary” segregation (that wasn’t voluntary) by moving white kids from suburbs to cities and vice versa is opposed by whites / gov ignores, SCOTUS bussing within cities

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

(Race Clashes) 1978 Bakke argues for his Civil Rights Act & 14 amendment equal protection clause for no race quotas

• moderate decision: one member sanctioned the policy of affirmative action while striking down the practice of race-based quotas (vague)

LA Riots

(Race Clashes) 90s

• Rodney King was beaten by four police officers which was caught on tape but officers found not guilty = separation between media and courts which sensationalized this racism + event

• = Los Angelous riots of 1992 (also televised)

• Represents police crackdown on unemployment and gang violence that had only increased w/ less gov support & economic freedom

Anita Hill vs Clarence Thomas Hearings

Gender Clashes: 1991

Supreme Court Appointee vs African-American law professor

• Anita was demeaned, dismissed and belittled by a Senate committee panel of white men

• Anita & Hill both grew up poor, graduated from Yale Law School and she worked as his assistant

= education and legal addressing of sexual harassment in the workplace AND need for female legislators

• i.e. 9-5, sexual harassment unlawful under Civil Rights Act of 64’

ACT UP + sexual media

Sex Clashes:

gov shift: does nothing → Ryan White + Actor → more pharmaceutical action, “Parallel Track”

cultural/public shift: deserved/ ignorant/ stereotypes → more sympathetic media

ACT UP: Led by Larry Kramer organization that raised awareness and led protests to implore the gov to act on AIDS

• 1987, 1988 protests

90s: An American Family, Sex in the City (as gov becomes more harsh on sexuality public becomes more promiscuous)