Paper 3 Social Protest Movements

-be sure to also review civil rights as they coincide with each other

What was Black Power and how was it different from Civil Rights?

• Black power was a movement focused Black autonomy and self-sufficieny. It wanted to push past civil rights to say that Blacks weren’t just equal to Whites but also could be more powerful culturally, economically, and politcally if they mobilized to do so.

• It wasn’t focused on integrating Blacks into White culture but rather them creating their own culture and communities and builiding them up.

• It was popularized by Stokely Carmichael in 1966. It arose out of the ashes of the Civil Rights movement because him and others felt non-violence and integration was an insufficient response to the generations of suffering Blacks had endured.

How was the nation of Islam related to Black Power?

• The Nation of Islam was a Black/Islamic religious and nationalist group. They had a strong focus on Islamic/Black brotherhood, and ultimately using this to strengthen Black communities.

• It wanted to build Black communities to be stronger than whites ones, not just integrate or be equal them.

• Elijah Muhammed was their leader and a mentor to Malcolm X

• Malcolm X would become a large speaker in the Black Power movement, telling African Americans to defend themselves against white attacks (not react nonviolently) and to be brothers

Who were the Black Panthers and what did they achieve?

• All Black militant group founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Netwon in Oakland California

• They sought to defend local African Americans from police brutality and spread the message of Black power by showing Black strength. They also had marxist ideologies

• They wore uniforms and carried arms which made them look strong and good role models for young blacks

• 10 point programme —> their manifesto that demanded equal employment and housing opportunities, exception of Blacks from military service, end police brutality and more. It was seen as radical but their actions were less radical.

  • Added Black history courses to schools, helping Blacks learn their history

  • Ran free health clinics and ambulance services, making up to where the government had failed their communities

  • Ran free breakfast programs for school children, tackling urban segregation and poverty

• Destroyed by COINTELPRO (CIA investigations into communist) for their marxist origins

What were the main impacts of the Black Power movement?

• Black University programs/African American studies added to most Universities

• went beyond integration into cultural change, making it more meaningful to Blacks nationwide (not just in the South)

• Paved the way for the Black is Beautiful movement and the revalorizing of Black Culture

What Groups were involved in youth protest?

• Students for a democratic society

  • Group of student activists who fought for democracy and liberal standards in culture, not just economically

• Hippies

  • Counter-culture movement that rejected American mainstream culture

  • They expressed themselves more creatively and non-conventionally in terms of gender, love, fashion, and more. They were rejected by the ‘silent-majority’ of Americans, but appealed to young liberals.

• Yippies

  • Radical, anti-governmental counter-culture movement that advocated against the Vietnam war and was pro-freedom

• Weathermen

  • radical anti-governmental domestic terrorist organization

  • planned to overthrow the government, b@mb buildings to protest the Vietnam war

What were the key goals of the youth/anti-war protest movements?

• End US involvement in Vietnam

  • they protested the draft and how it targeted the youth as well as the suffering of Vietnamese people caused by the US

• Change university life

  • they wanted universities to stop conventional programs like ROTC

  • stop University research into military weapons/warfare

  • stop Universities from banning free speech on campus

• Change American culture

  • rejected materialism and conventional ideals of fashion, consumerism, cold war culture

  • wanted more free-love, dr3gs, long-hair, etc.

• Radical systemic change

  • groups like the weathermen and yippies wanted to radicalize the American govermental system and even overthrow it

What were some key events of the anti-war/youth protests?

• Pentagon March “make love, not war” (1967)

  • 100,000 protesters marched on Washington with the slogan “make love not war” which showed people’s anti-war attitudes and opposition to militarism

  • It also showed how they wanted ‘love’ out of marriage to be more conventional

• Democratic National Convention of Chicago (1968)

  • There was a large mass of people gathered to protest the nomination of Hubert Humphrey, a pro-war democrat.

  • Chicago Mayor Richard Daley deployed the plolice and national guard who beat protesters, journalists, and bystanders

  • It was televised which looked bad for the US, crowds chanted “the world is watching”

• Woodstock Festival (1969)

  • 400,000 people gathered on a farm for a music festival that promoted peace and communal living

  • Performers like Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez performed

• People’s Park Battle-Berkeley (1969)

  • Students and protesters gathered at a UC Berkeley lot

  • Governor Ronald Reagan sent the national guard

  • Became very violent, many hospitalized, showed how the government was willing to use force to suppress protesters

• SDS split (1969)

  • At the 1969 SDS national convention, the organization fell apart. The weathermen leaders believed peaceful protest had failed and chose to turn towards violence

• Kent State Massacre (1970)

  • Kent State University Ohio, National Guard opened fire on students who were protesting Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia in the Vietnam war

  • 4 students were killed

  • Altered how the public viewed the war and put pressure on Congress to stop the war and repeal the Gulf of Tonkin resolution

Impact of the anti war/youth protest movements

• War ended

  • thought it probably would have ended due to funding and the economic state of the US, the domestic protest movement definetly put pressure on Congress

• 26th Amendment

  • the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 to give youth more rights

  • It sided with the youth protesters who thought it was wrong that they could be drafted but could not vote

• End of draft

  • Nixon ended the draft and created an all volunteer army for the war from 1973-75

• Counterculture

  • More sexual freedoms and artistic liberties were present after the war

  • Music became more critical of the government

  • Counter-culture (opposite effect)

    • The rise of ocunter culture also led to a rise in conservatism as people feared the youth were straying too far from traditional values

    • helped Nixon and Reagan gain popularity —> conservatism was more popular after 1970s and on (backwards effect)

What are the origins of the feminist movement?

• More women gaining popularity in activism throgh civil rights movement

  • rosa parks, ella baker, fanie lou hammer all showed how women could be involed in protest and legislation

• “The Problem that has no name”

• This idea was popularized by Betty Friedman, author of ‘the feminine mystique’

  • she said that women had become disillusioned that the poster “housewife” life was for them, and so if they were disatisfied, they felt ashamed

  • many women could not speak as to why they were depressed or unhappy because they had been disillusioned that their lives were perfect

• Friedman calling out this issue jumpstarted the feminist movement as women became to call for a shift in culture that alienated women

• It helped unite women and made them feel seen (they were no longer ashamed)

What was NOW?

• NOW = national organization for women

  • aimed to fight gender discrimination through court cases and law

  • wanted to enforce Title VII of the civil rights act that called for equal opportunities for women

  • good pressure organization

  • had chapters across states that united women

What did NOW achieve?

• gave women a voice and platform for change

• Equal Pay Act —> equal pay for work regardless of Sex.

• Title VII of the civil rights act —> This was extremely effective at targeting employers who had been discriminating against women because of their age. Employers were hesitant to hire/give raises to women who were young or unmarried because they thought they wouldn’t be able to work for long due to kids/family pressures.

• Roe v. Wade —> abortion and maternal healtcare privary was a constitutional right —> super impactful as many women struggled from poor reproductive healthcare and stigma against contraceptives

• Women’s history/gender studies courses added to higher education which were empowering to women

• Equal Credit Opportunity Act —> people could not base mortages/credit cards based on a woman’s name and if this indicated her marital status or not

  • Women were previously denied loans if they did not have a male cosigner

• Domestic rape and law reform —> emergency hotline for rape victims was created

  • first rape shelters opened

  • rape including marital rape was outlawed

  • huge for domestic violence and female autonomy

Where did NOW fall short?

• ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) —> called for constitutional legality regardless of sex

  • never fully passed by congress

  • Phylis Schalfy, catholic and conservative anti-feminist activist who advocated for women’s rights but framed it as them staying home was better for them, argued that the modern feminist movement was harming women

    • She began the STOP ERA campaign and lobbied congress, eventually getting it to not pass

• Child Development Act —> Though this passed congress, Nixon vetoed it

  • would have created federally funded childcare centers to reduce the double burden on women

  • Nixon argued it harmed traditional family values

• Racial disparities —> many of the achievements, such as Roe. v. wade, disproportionately helped white women compared to colored women

  • white women were focused on birth control but many colored women reported mass sterilization of women in their communities

What main groups were involved in radical feminism?

• Women’s Lib/Women’s liberation movement

  • more radical movement that popularized the term “the personal is political” meaning that domestic sites of female life (marriage, children, etc.) were all forms of female oppresion put upon women by society

• smaller organizations such as:

  • WITCH (women’s international terrorist conspiracy from hell) —> used theatre and ‘magic’ to showcase female oppresion. They often dressed as witches to allude to how women were oppresed in the past.

  • redstockings —> feminist group that said women were a political class oppresed by men. they argued in their manifesto that women’s rights required overthrowing men and not just integrating them.

What was the significance of the Miss America protest?

• Miss America protest —> feminists went to the Miss America protest and burned items like playboy magazines and bras that represented patriarchal society.

• The setting also played a role, Miss America was seen as an example of female oppresion

• Targeted cultural oppresion, not just legislation

Why did the feminist movement split?

• Parts of it were too radical for original feminists

  • bra-burnings and abortion were too radical for feminists who were more focused on equal rights

  • religion also was a barrier for many women to support the more radical changes

  • it became violent which many women did not agree with

  • particurarly the “silent majority”

  • similar to youth protest, following the feminist movement there was a rise in conservative values because people felt the youth was straying too far