Chapter 18
• Students will be able to explain the different features of the student
movement and the counterculture
• Students will be able to discuss the feminist movement
• Students will be able to explain new civil rights challenges and
solutions to some of those challenges
• Students will be able to explain Americans’ new focus on
environmentalism
• 1960s – one of most turbulent
periods in US history
 Large youth movement
 Prosperity of 1950s
 Boom in college enrollment
 Youth questioning values of
parents
• Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS)
 Called for protest against big
corporations and government
 Occupied college buildings in
protest
Students with the SDS protest
• The Free Speech Movement
 University of California at
Berkley restricted students’
right to distribute literature
and recruit volunteers for
political causes
 Students protested – police
broke up demonstrations
 Caused more demonstrations
 Supreme Court ruled that
students had a right to free
speech and assembly
Police arrest protestors at USC Berkley
• The Counterculture
 Rebellion against dominant culture
 Hippies
 Utopian society
 Drug use
 Rise of communes – group living
arrangements in which everything
was shared
Hippies
• New Religious Movements
• Unification Church
 Founded by Korean Sun Myung
Moon
 Claimed he was the next Messiah
• Hare Krishna Movement
 Based on Hindi sect worshipping
the god Krishna
 Worshippers emulated early
Hindus in dress, diet and style of
living
Members of the Hare Krishna Sect in California
• Decline of Counterculture
 Glamor of drug use waned
 Hippies “grew up”
 Rise of crime in hippy areas
• Impact of Counterculture
 Fashion – colorful costumes / long
hair
 Art – pop art from comic books /
popular culture
 Music & Dance – Beatles, Bob
Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Woodstock
• Feminist Movement
 Women increasingly dissatisfied
w/ roles of homemaker and
unequal status in workplace
 Feminism – belief that men and
women should be equal politically,
economically, and socially
 Equal Rights Amendment –
Congress ignored due to division
among women
 By 1960, 40% of women in
workforce but paid less
Feminist demonstration
• Fighting for Workplace Rights
 President’s Commission on the Status
of Women – established by President
Kennedy & Eleanor Roosevelt
 1963 Equal Pay Act – outlawed paying
men more than women for same job
 Title VII – outlawed job discrimination
based on race, color, religion, national
origin, and gender
 Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission – investigated cases of
discrimination
• The Feminine Mystique (Betty
Friedan) – discussed women’s
lack of fulfillment
• National Organization for
Women (NOW)
 Founded by Friedan
 Fought for educational and
economic opportunities for
women
 Organization magazine edited by
Gloria Steinem
Betty Friedan
• Title IX – prohibited federally
funded schools from
discriminating against females
• Roe v. Wade
 Abortion regulated by state law
 Supreme Court ruled states
could not regulate abortion in
first three months of pregnancy
– violated “right to privacy”
 Caused rise of ”Right to Life”
movement
• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
 Passed by Congress in 1972
 Needed ratification by 38 states to
become law
 Ratified by 35 states
 Opposition to amendment led by
Phyllis Schlafly
 ERA finally failed in 1982
Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly
• Affirmative Action
 Called for companies doing
business w/government to actively
recruit blacks to improve social &
economic status
 Created what many called
“reverse discrimination”
 University of California v. Bakke –
Bakke sued school b/c he was
denied admission but blacks were
admitted w/lower scores
 Court ruled schools could not set
quotas
• Equal Access to Education
 Brown v. Board of Education – ruled
public schools had to desegregate at
“all deliberate speed”
 By 1960s many schools “segregated”
by neighborhoods
 Busing – transportation of students to
schools outside their neighborhoods
to achieve racial balance
 White Flight – many whites
responded by moving students to
private and parochial schools
• New Political Leaders
 Jesse Jackson
 People United to Save Humanity
(PUSH) – focus on registering
voters, opening up business
opportunities
 Congressional Black Caucus –
black congressmen focusing on
issues affecting blacks
• Cesar Chavez and the UFW
 Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta
established groups to aid migrant
farm workers
 Cooperated in strike against
California growers
 Chavez organized national boycott
of grapes
 Chavez & Huerta merged their
groups into the United Farm
Workers (UFW)
 Boycott ended when growers
agreed to new contract
• Growing Political Activism
 League of United Latin American
Citizens (LULAC)
 Brought landmark case Hernandez v.
State of Texas – right of Mexican
Americans to serve on juries
 La Raza Unida (the United People) –
mobilized Mexican American voters
to push for job training and access to
financial institutions
 Bilingualism – practice of teaching
immigrant students in their own
language while they learned English
• Native-Americans
 Smallest minority group <1%
 Poorest of minorities
 Representatives of 67 tribes met
and produced manifesto
Declaration of Indian Purpose
calling for policies to create more
opportunities for Indians
 American Indian Movement (AIM)
– militant group. Occupied
Alcatraz and Wounded Knee
• The Environmental Movement
 Silent Spring – Rachel Carson book
that helped stop the use of pesticides
like DDT
 Smog – fog made heavier by pollution
 Earth Day (April 1970) – established
to celebrate nature and protest
pollution
 Government passed laws to protect
environment
 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
 The Clean Air Act
 The Clean Water Act
 Endangered Species Act
• Love Canal
 Housing development near
Niagara Falls
 Citizens encountered health
problems – found out
development sat on toxic waste
dump
 Citizens protested – demanded
government do something
 US declared area federal disaster
area
 Citizens sued company that
created dump
Child protests health hazards at Love Canal, New York
• Energy
 US sought alternative to fossil
fuels
 Development of nuclear energy
 March 1979 – Three Mile Island
overheated / low levels of
radiation escaped into air
 Government evacuated citizens
 Turned people against nuclear
power
 Since accident 60 nuclear sites
have been shut down or
abandoned – no new ones built
Nuclear Power Plant at Three Mile Island , PA