Chapter 22: Voices Of Protest

Chapter 22 explains how the African American civil rights movement soon spread to inspire protests among women, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and the younger generation.

Section 1 explores the women's rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Although calls for women's equality had been batted around since the 1800s, the early 1960s witnessed new focus for the women's rights movement. Motivated by strong leaders, several organizations formed to address such issues as equal pay, employment opportunities, educational opportunities, and representation in government. Feminists also focused attention on women's rights to determine control of their bodies. These issues created strong opposition, and when a constitutional amendment guaranteeing equality was put to a vote in the states, it failed to win ratification. The Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade further widened a split between pro-choice and pro-life supporters.

Section 2 describes the ways in which Hispanic Americans made their presence known and their voices heard during the 1960s and 1970s. Because of their diversity, Hispanic Americans found it difficult to unite all the segments into a single political force. Like other minorities, they faced discrimination, and some suffered exploitation in the workplace. In 1966 Hispanic American leader César Chávez organized a widely successful grape boycott that brought the condition of Hispanic Americans to national attention. In the years that followed, Hispanic Americans began to organize politically, gather into unions, and support bilingualism.

Section 3 details Native Americans' roles in the protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s. During these years Native Americans organized to fight the poverty, unemployment, and the various social problems that plagued their groups. Choosing self-determination over assimilation, some Native American activists formed militant groups. When militants seized Wounded Knee, the plight of Native Americans gained national attention. In addition to direct action, Native Americans used the courts to bring claims against the same government that had broken treaties and taken Native American land.

Section 4 looks at how the younger generation of the 1960s rejected society's traditional values and created a new counterculture. Members of the counterculture stressed the importance of personal freedom, intuition, and antimaterialism. They rebelled against members of the mainstream establishment and influenced changes in food, clothing, music, and art. Terms such as generation gap, hippies, communes, Haight-Ashbury, Beatlemania, and Woodstock came to define the era.