The Politics of Idenity
Ch 29
pages 895-903
The Politics of Identity -The Black Panthers
• In October 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale
founded the political party the Black Panthers
• It advocated self-sufficiency, full employment
opportunities, decent housing and no military
service due to the unfair numbers being drafted and
killed in Vietnam
• Police shootouts occurred and the FBI conducted
many investigations
• Panthers helped out with many community projects
in urban ghettos
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 and Beyond
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 targeted de facto
discrimination
It ended discrimination in housing
By 1970, 2/3 of African Americans were registered
to vote
Black elected officials grew from 100 in 1965 to
more than 7,000 in 1992
In the late 1960’s early 1970’s Affirmative Action
programs were started (Bakke vs CA 1985)
Women Fight for Equality
• What factors led to the women’s movement
of the 1960’s?
• What were some early gains and some losses
within the women’s movement?
• What was the legacy of the women’s
movement in employment, education, and
politics?
Sisterhood is Powerful
• 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”
• 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 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
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
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
The Chicano Rebellion
• 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 and Joseph was elected to the Senate
• In the 1940’s and 1950’s the League of United Latin
American Citizens LULAC fought in the courts for
school desegregation and gov. 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
RED Power -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 Means 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
“Red Power”
• Russell Means
Dennis Banks
Native American Victories
• In 1975 Congress passed the Indian-SelfDetermination and Education Act which gave tribes
control to govern their own affairs including
education
• In 1970 the Pueblos Taos, 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