Social and Political Movements

Betty Friedan and Feminism:

Throughout time, women have always been seen as inferior to men. They were considered the typical housewife who would cook, clean, and care for the children. Women had no right to a voice when it came to voting or to an education. As time progressed, women began to gain certain rights. Eventually they were allowed to vote, but they still did not have a voice when it came to their household. They were not seen as being capable to work and were excluded from many jobs. When women were advertised they were shown as being helpless and not capable of doing many tasks without the help of a male role. However, there was one woman in specific who exposed the real life of women. This woman was Betty Friedan. Betty Friedan was born in 1921 and passed away in 2006. She graduated from Smith College in 1942, with the help of her mother who was very supportive of her education. She later enrolled to University of California, Berkeley. In 1947, she married Carl Friedman with whom she had three children and later divorced in 1969. Besides being very educated, she was also a part of union supporters who campaigned against racism and supported women’s rights during the 1940’s and 1950’s. While attending a school reunion, she became very dissatisfied with the lives of her peers in which they shared that they had to give up work or further their education for motherhood. It was then that she began her work and published The Feminine Mystique. In this book she documented the independence that women used to have and how now they were unhappy with their lives. They felt unrewarded for their daily tasks and felt guilty for having those feelings. She argued that women were unfairly treated because they were expected to stay at home and focus all of their energy on their families and none on themselves. It was because of this book that women decided to take a stand. Some became inspired and joined some of the growing movements for women’s rights.
 

There were a few women who were in the work force during this time period. However, even though they were not the typical stay at home, they were still not given the same rights as men. There was discrimination at work, especially when it came to wage. It was because of this discrimination that women felt that in 1963, the Equal Pay Act was established. This piece of legislation would address the historic pattern of undervalued and underpaid of women’s jobs. It abolished wage discrepancy between the sexes. Regardless of everything that women have had to fight for to accomplish, they have never given up on their rights. They continued this movement throughout the next decades and accomplished many more goals.

Stonewall Riot:
 

During the 1960’s, the U.S. was in the middle of many different changes and social revolutions. People were tired of being treated differently and wanted change in their lives. It was from the civil rights and women’s movement that a new movement was born and began to flourish. The birth of this new movement was known as the gay rights movement. These groups of people were conservative in the way that they lived but they emphasized that they were just like everyone else and deserved the same treatment. The majority of the gays argued that they were a minority and that the discrimination against them was the same as racial discrimination. Since the gay felt that they did not fit into society, they tried to construct their own identity to fit in. They constructed their own version of gay identity and saw themselves similar to the African Americans. This helped others see how they fit into society and even though differences did exist between the heterosexuals and homosexuals they were not important. The reason for why they identified themselves to the African Americans was because they too felt the oppression that the African Americans felt in the past. Gays during this time period were not able to do certain things because of the laws. They were not allowed to congregate together. If a man or woman was seen dancing with the same sex, cross dressing, propositioning another homosexual, reading or writing about homosexuality, and displaying pictures of two people of the same sex they risked arrest or police brutalization. If homosexuals were not citizens, they would be most likely be deported. They would also get punished when it came to their education. If a homosexual was a professional and were caught practicing certain acts they would lose the certification they needed to practice a certain profession. It was because of these laws and unfair treatment that the famous Stonewall riots occurred. Stonewall Inn was in a neighborhood in New York. Even though very few establishments at that time accepted homosexuals, this inn was different because the mafia owned it. Police raids were very common at that time in any location that accepted homosexuals. Stonewall attracted a huge audience that made it difficult for the police to raid in. It was because of these police raids that the riots, a series of violent demonstrations by the gay community towards the police began. There was so much physical violence involved that some of the people were sent to the hospital after being brutally beaten. The gays were not afraid of the police and would fight back to defend their rights. Stonewall became an overnight symbol in which to this day is a memory of the gay movement.

 

Hippies in the 60’s:

During this time as it is also seen today, young people began to revolt and go against certain conservative norms and began to remove themselves from the mainstream culture. This was the beginning of the counterculture that sparked a social revolution throughout the western world. They became known as the hippies and moved toward a more liberating society. In which the use of drugs was accepted and the sexual revolution began. It was during the 60’s that thousands of people migrated to San Francisco, Berkeley and settled in the North Beach District. Some of these people were writers, while others were poets, artists and musicians. These people were seeking a different type of lifestyle than that of the mainstream. They wanted a lifestyle in which consumerism and military imperialism were deemphasized. It was because of this desire to be different that the hippies were born. The hippies were made up of college students, drug-users, artists, rock musicians and their fans, and religious evangelicals just to mention a few. They dressed differently from those who did not belong to their group. The attire consisted of long hair, buckskin, slouched leather and felt hats, leather boots, and bandannas. The use of psychedelic drugs also became very popular among them. The use of these drugs was to enable them to enter and explore altered states of consciousness. They were also used for recreation, self-exploration, and some provided a path to spiritual enlightenment. These drugs allowed the hippies to believe that they were experiencing certain happiness. A psychedelic drug known as LSD, produced a profound alteration of sense perception which includes the auditory, visual and touch. It provided a vivid demonstration of what is perceived, as external reality is not really in the outside world, but rather having to do with a creation that the brain made. Besides the popularity of the hippies, the sexual revolution was also born. Herber Marcuse was regarded as a leading figure of the sexual revolution. Even though he was a theorist in the Marxian tradition, he called for a liberation of sexuality. It was in this liberation that the contraception pill was also introduced. Panned parenthood became involved and persuaded the National Council of Churches to take a favorable stance towards contraception and sterilization. The use of contraception became so popular, that in 1965 the Supreme Court decision in Griswold vs. Connecticut, warmly embraced contraception as a way of life. It struck down a Connecticut law that forbids the distribution of contraceptives as unconstitutional. The use of contraception and other drugs continued to become popular during the 60’s and even after. This time period was indeed a time for transformation.

 

 

Cesar Chavez & Union Farm Workers:
 

Another ethnic minority group was also fighting for change during the 1960’s. This group was the Mexican-Americans or Hispanics. They along with the feminist and homosexuals, fought to end racial discrimination. This movement was known as the Chicano movement, in which the largest populations were found in the Southwestern United States. All of these Mexican-Americans came to work on the farm fields to make a living. They were aware that it was going to be difficult, however they never imagined that they were going to be discriminated. It was because of this discrimination and unfair treatment that they decided to fight. Every group needs to have a leader especially if they are fighting to achieve something. They need someone to make decisions and be able to push them forward and help obtain that cause that they were fighting for. The Chicano movement had their own leader named Cesar Chavez.

  Cesar Chavez was their civil rights leader. He was a very charismatic and peaceful leader. He saw himself more as a labor organizer, rather than an ethnic movement leader. He was a very religious person and practiced that through his nonviolent acts of resistance to authority, fasting, prayer, and meditation. He along with another lady named Dolores Huerta began an organization that assisted those farm workers who were being treated poorly. In March 31, 1962, they founded the United Farm Workers, which was created from two groups that came together. These groups were the Agriculture Workers Organizing Committee and the National Farm Workers.  This labor union was at first a workers’ rights organization that assisted workers in obtaining unemployment insurance. However, it quickly turned into a union of farm workers, when one of the groups the National Farm Workers went on strike.  Chavez was aware that it would take a union in order to address all of the economic injustices that the farm workers suffered. He knew that it would take a lot of work and he along with the farmers had to suffer in order to help them. Chavez and his wife, Helen, had to work in the farm fields while raising their eight children to try to make enough money for themselves as well as for the union. Even though in 1962, Chavez was offered head of the Peace Corps in part of Latin America, he declined the offer. He continued to live his life in poverty until he died. He was really committed to this union and knew that together they would be able to accomplish what they were fighting for. In the end he was correct, the first union contracts were signed. These contracts required rest periods, toilets in the fields, the banning of discrimination in employment and sexual harassment of women workers. There were many other battles and accomplishments that they had and continued to work on even after Chavez’s death. Even to this day the farm workers’ movement is committed to assist farm workers and other Latino workers in their workplace and community.

Freedom Riders:

The Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s was referred to different types of social movements that were aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans. Different types of civil resistance campaigns characterized this movement. Similar to other social movements, this one needed several leaders for each campaign. One of those campaigns that fought for civil rights were the Freedom Riders.

The Freedom Riders were a group of civil activists who rode interstate buses into segregated Southern states. The goal of these riders was to protest against segregation on public transportation. This form of protest dates back to 1947 by the Journey of Reconciliation. This journey was intended to test a Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. However, several of the people involved were arrested for violating Jim Crow laws regarding segregation on public transportation. It was because of various Supreme Court laws that these riders would ride the buses.

In 1960, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Boynton vs. Virginia was what stimulated the next phase of attacks on segregated transportation in the South. Bruce Boynton was an African American university law student who was arrested for refusing to leave the white section of a bus terminal restaurant in Virginia. The Supreme Court ended up extending the ruling to include the desegregation of interstate transportation terminal facilities as well as interstate carriers. 

     After this new law was passed, one of the directors of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) proposed a Journey of Reconciliation to test the law. Their plan was to symbolically confront southern defiance of the law and bring a federal response to enforce the Boynton ruling. The riders wanted to test the lower as well as the upper south. However, their plan did not work. They were able to ride through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia without any conflict. As they reached Alabama, the problems arose. Their bus was attacked and they were brutally beaten and sent to the hospital. Despite all the difficulties they encountered they were determine to finish their journey, but were not able to. It was then that a group of students’ members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) declared that they would continue the journey. Unfortunately, the students were also beaten and were not fully successful in completing the journey. However, the Freedom Rides were not yet done. Since they were not able to complete the journey, the students gave their message another way. This was done by their arrest in Mississippi. They eventually gained their rights on bus terminals after so many attempts. This was one of the civil rights campaign that did not give up easily, until they accomplished their goal.