1960's Social and Political Movements

Vietnam War Protests

The hippies were a group of people that protested

against the Veitnam War in massive numbers across the nation. The protests are believed to have started in 1965 and by 1968, massive anti war marches and strikes occurred in major cities. Some say the source of the first hippies came from collage campuses and their thoughts of the war became national. However, many hippies did "feel good" drugs and sometimes at hippie rallies, drugs were slipped in food so people became easily influenced. These drugs also induced psychedelic hallucinations witch made the common "groovy" phrase. The hippie movement was severely amplified when thousands of collage aged kids were drafted and forced to go to war against their will. This only angered many of the hippies and sometimes, very violent anti war strikes were made. This movement was one of the largest in American history.

Woman's rights

Luke Bailey

• Woman normally wouldn’t get jobs because they were encouraged to become full-time housewives by society.
• The idea of woman’s rights began in World War II, most men went to the war, and woman took factory jobs since the men weren't to work. When the war was over the woman lost their jobs.
• In the early 1960’s woman in the U.S. began to protest around the world and would protest about their non-ability to work or when they did work, the fact they had a smaller wage then men.

• They made two types of groups, small informal woman’s liberation groups, they were mainly young students who had no leader and focused on members personal experiences. There were also large formal organizations called woman’s right groups, they campaigned for equal rights between men and woman.
• In 1961 President John F. Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of woman discovered laws and legal barriers keeping woman from their full citizen rights.
• In 1963 an act was passed called the Equal Pay Act making companies pay females and males the same.
• Many acts about who could hire who were made in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 allowing woman to be hired in any job a man could. From there on woman were more respected and had many of the same rights as men.

Gay rights

In the 1960s laws in most states prohibited homosexual acts.

State and federal laws often made it illegal for gay men and lesbians to work for the government, and private employers routinely discriminated against them.

The gay rights movement had a dual agenda to gain acceptance of homosexuality and to end discrimination against homosexuals.

Activists sought to make homosexuality acceptable to the larger society and thus encourage gay men and lesbians to reveal their homosexuality.

By 1973 some 800 gay organizations existed most were based in big cities and on university campuses.

But gay rights groups also lobbied local and state officials to pass nondiscrimination statutes similar to those that protect women blacks and other minority groups.

Throughout America's days African American rights (and other ethnicities) had been looked past in the American government. In the 1960's finally they had enough. On September 28th, in Washington D.C., Martian Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream Speech". Following this act many protests for rights had took place in America. Then in April of 1964, Malcolm X (a muslim minister and human rights activist) gave his own speech in Cleveland, Ohio. In the same year the civil rights act (of 1964) banned all racial and sexual discrimination in employment, education, and other areas of life. The following year a voting rights act was also established. This helped strengthen the government and prevent discrimination in elections/voting. All throughout these things activists were banning together in groups to strengthen the Civil Rights Acts. But many were killed and others were questioning their allegiance. Before they knew it though, their hard work paid off.

Bibliography

• web.ebscohost.com/...detail, accessed 9/10/12
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_kwXNVCaxY, accessed 9/13/12. special thanks to "cumulo25" for video.

• www.lessonsite.com/...Protests60s.html, accessed 9/10/12
• Dudley, William. "Black Rights." The 1960s: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1997. N. pag. Print.
• www.worldbookonline.com/...article, accessed 9/10/12
• www.bottlebrushpress.com/antivietnamwarprotests.html, accessed 9/11/12
• hippieviews.com/ippie-views-of-the-vietnam-war, accessed 9/11/12
• chasemillis.hubpages.com/...How-the-1960s-changed-America, accessed 9/10/12
• en.wikipedia.org/1960s, accessed 9/10/12

BLACK RIGHTS MOVEMENT

-brogan

Political and Social

Movements of the 1960's

Table of Contents

• Protests about the Vietnam War
• Woman's Rights
• Gay Rights
• Black Rights
• Bibliography

Political and Social

Movements of the 1960's

By: Brogan B., Edd S., Joey D., and Luke B.

By: Ed Saunders