Chapter 23, Sec 1, 2, 3: Things to Know• What is counterculture?• What did the baby boom generation value?• What is a generation gap?• How did the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix lead to the end of the

counterculture movement?• Why did the second wave of feminism differ from the first wave of feminism?• What was one of the two major goals that NOW worked toward when it was

first founded?• What was Roe v. Wade?• Who was Cesar Chavez?• What did the Chicano Movement do?• The American Indian Movement confronted the government through what

measure?• What main demand of Native American advocacy groups was met with the

passage of the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975?• Why was the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 significant?• In what way did the US government expand the rights of people with disabilities

in the 1960s and 1970s?

Chapter 23: An Era of Protest and Change

Why It Matters

• Woodstock was a dynamic expression of a counterculture that arose in the 1960s. Members of the counterculture adopted values that ran counter to mainstream culture. They rebelled against long-standing customs in dress, music, and personal behavior. The counterculture both challenged the values of mainstream American society and unleashed a movement to reassert traditional values.

Section 1: The Counterculture• The counterculture was rooted in the social and

political events of the 1950s.– What is counterculture?

• It was a 1960s lifestyle challenging traditional mainstream values. It was also known as the Beat movement and had emphasized freedom from materialism and the importance of personal experience.

• The civil rights movement introduced the idea of social and political protest.

– What did the baby boom generation value?• Youth, spontaneity, individuality, and spirituality. These so called

hippies promoted peace, love, and freedom. They experienced with new styles of dress and music, freer attitudes toward sexual relationships, and recreational drugs.

The Counterculture• Their values were so different from traditional

ones that many social analysts described the resulting situation as a generation gap.– What is a generation gap?• A lack of communication between adults and youths.

– The music industry rushed to produce music the baby boomers liked; designers copied the styles the hippies introduced, and universities were forced to change college courses and rules to accommodate them.

– People used the trinity of the counterculture to define the youth generation – sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll.

The Counterculture

• Rock bands such as the Beatles and Bob Dylan made protest songs that highlighted civil rights and the peace movements. – Rock music became a staple for the baby boomer

generation.– The art of people such as Andy Warhol also displayed

the rebellious side of the baby boomer generation.– Literature also helped the generation express itself.

Novels by Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson blurred the lines between reporting and political activism.

The Counterculture• Members of the counterculture also rejected many

traditional restrictions on sexual behavior in what became known as the “sexual revolution.”– Many hippies lived in communes, or small communities in

which the people there have common interests and share resources.

– The sexual revolution was one of the strongest indicators of the generation gap.

– Nearly two-thirds of the population over the age of 30 opposed premarital sex, but the majority of those under 29 did not.

– The sexual revolution led to a more open discussion of sex in the mainstream media.

The Counterculture

• The Haight-Asbury district in San Francisco was an area where hippies flocked to in 1967 to experiment in drug use, wore unconventional clothing, and listened to rock music and speeches by political radicals.– The problem here lies in the fact that high drug use

resulted in drug abuse which led to increased crime rates.– Many hippies explored Buddhism and other Eastern

religions, while others sought spirituality by living in harmony with nature.

– These beliefs had a lasting impact on the budding environmental movement.

The Counterculture

• Drug addictions and deaths from drug overdoses rose, leading to an end to the counterculture.– How did the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix

lead to the end of the counterculture movement?• Young people realized drugs were deadly.

– The movement’s values were becoming increasingly shallow and self-centered.

– When the counterculture fell apart, most hippies abandoned their social experiments and melted right back into the mainstream society.

Section 2: The Women’s Rights Movement

• Historians often refer to the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s as the second wave of feminism, or the theory of political, social, and economic equality of men and women.– Why did the second wave of feminism differ from the

first wave of feminism?• Because modern women wanted full equality with men, not

just the right to vote.– The civil rights movement both inspired women to

demand gender equality and taught them ways to get it. It also brought black and white women together, strengthening their shared cause.

The Women’s Rights Movement

• Several years after she wrote The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan helped establish the National Organization for Women (NOW).– NOW set out to break down the barriers of

discrimination in the workplace and in education.– Its first goal was to bring about the passage of the

Equal Rights Amendment.– What was one of the two major goals that NOW

worked toward when it was first founded?• Protecting reproductive freedom. They wanted the right of

a woman to make the decision of having an abortion. The other goal was to get the ERA passed.

The Women’s Rights Movement• The NOW organization was considered by some

to be too tame. – These people believed in a more radical approach to

fight for women's rights. – Not everyone was for the women’s rights movement.

Some actually opposed the women’s rights movement.• Phyllis Schlafly was a conservative political activist who

denounced women’s liberation as a “total assault on the family, on marriage, and on children.” With her help, the ERA fell three states short of becoming a constitutional amendment.

The Women’s Rights Movement

• The women’s movement did have lasting effects even though it faced several setbacks. Women gained legal rights that had been previously denied.– Several laws and bills were passed helping women:

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave feminists a legal tool. It included a clause called Title VII that outlawed discrimination on the basis of sex.

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up to enforce the federal prohibition on job discrimination.

• Title IX of the Higher Education Act of 1972 banned discrimination in education.

• The Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974 made it illegal to deny credit to a woman just because of her gender.

The Women’s Rights Movement

• Some feminists considered their most important legal victory to be in the 1973 Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade.– What was Roe v. Wade?• The 1973 Supreme Court case on abortion. It assured

women the right to legal abortions. The case and its decision was highly controversial at the time and still is today.

– The workplace was the last thing to change for women.• The percentage of women in the workplace rose from 30

percent in 1950 to more than 60 percent in 2000.

The Women’s Rights Movement

• Despite these gains, the average woman still earns less than the average man, partly because many women continue to work in the jobs that pay less.– Some have referred to this situation as a “pink collar

ghetto.” • Whether this is because of discrimination, or because women

who shoulder family responsibilities often have limited job choice, remains a matter of debate.

• Some believed that there was a glass ceiling over the heads of women, allowing them to only reach certain heights in the workplace.

• These situations have caused a feminization of poverty, making the working woman get the lowest paying jobs with the fewest benefits. Many of these poor women are single mothers.

Section 3: The Rights Revolution Expands

• The next expansion of the civil rights movement was for minority groups. These groups still faced discrimination and poverty across the nation.– The Latino population was growing throughout the

nation. – Mexican Americans, known as Chicanos, have always

made up the largest group of US Latinos.– Chicanos had been coming to America in high

numbers since the bracero programs in 1942. They settled in communities across the nation where they faced severe discrimination.

The Rights Revolution Expands• Who was Cesar Chavez?– He was the Latino union leader. He fought for the rights

for farm laborers, who were among the most exploited workers in the nation. These workers were known as migrant farmworkers.• They labored for long hours in deplorable conditions, with no

benefits.– Chavez merged his union with the United Farm Workers

(UFW) union which was for Filipino farm laborers.• They were committed to nonviolent tactics and implemented a

workers’ strike and consumer boycott of table grapes.• In 1975, California passed a law requiring collective bargaining

between growers and union representatives. The farmworkers won their battle for rights.

The Rights Revolution Expands• While Chavez focused on farmworkers’ rights, a

broader Mexican American social and political effort grew, which came to be known as the Chicano Movement.– What did the Chicano Movement do?

• It increased Latinos’ awareness of their history and culture.– Chicano students at high schools and universities

demanded educators to teach more about their culture and heritage.

– Much of the movement’s energy was focused on attaining political strength for Latinos, what some called “brown power.”

– The party worked for better housing and jobs, and it successfully brought six Hispanics to sit in Congress.

The Rights Revolution Expands• Native Americans suffered a long history of

discrimination and suffered high poverty, unemployment, and suicide.– In 1961, the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) formed,

with the goal of preserving native fishing rights in the Northwest.

– They expanded their aims to broad civil rights for Native Americans and in 1968 founded the American Indian Movement (AIM).

– AIM focused first on helping Indians living in urban ghettos but later moved to addressing all civil rights issues, particularly to secure land, legal rights, and self-government for Native Americans.

The Rights Revolution Expands

• In the 1960’s a group of Native American Indians occupied Alcatraz Island, a former prison in San Francisco Bay which had closed in 1963. – Members of the Sioux tribe claimed it was their land

under a treaty provision granting them unused federal land.

– About 100 American Indians representing 50 tribes joined the occupation.• Despite efforts of the Coast Guard to evict them, they

remained in control of the island until mid-1971.

The Rights Revolution Expands

• The 1970s saw another series of confrontations.– The American Indian Movement confronted the

government through what measure?• A march from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. The event

was called the “long march,” which happened in 1972.• Upon arriving at the capital, they took control of the Bureau

of Indian Affairs building. They temporarily renamed it the Native American Embassy, suggesting Native Americans are treated as foreigners.• The government would take back the Bureau when the

Indians left after a week of protesting. Before they left, they caused nearly $700,000 worth of damages.

The Rights Revolution Expands• AIM would later stage a dramatic confrontation at the historic site

of Wounded Knee. This came about due to the awareness that was raised about the treatment of Native Americans in a book about the event.

– In late February of 1973, AIM took over the village and refused to leave until the government agreed to investigate the conditions of reservation Indians.

• Federal authorities put Wounded Knee under siege; two Native Americans were killed in the resulting gunfire. The event ended in May after the government pledged to reexamine native treaty rights.

– Later, the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975 would be passed.– What main demand of Native American advocacy groups was met

with the passage of the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975?• It granted tribes greater control over resources on reservations.

The Rights Revolution Expands• In the same way that many activists worked to

extend peoples’ rights and to protect the environment, others worked to protect the rights of consumers and Americans with disabilities.– Ralph Nader led the reemergence of the consumer rights

movement in the 1960s and 1970s.• Nader was a lawyer who began to investigate whether flawed car

designs led to increased traffic accidents and deaths.• He wrote a book that sparked Congress to pass the National

Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966.

• Why was the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 significant?– It recognized the right of consumers to buy safe cars.

The Rights Revolution Expands• Historically, the nation had treated people with

disabilities as being defective.– By the 1970s, people with disabilities were making great

strides toward expanding their rights. – Disabled veterans also took part in this activism.– The JFK administration called for change by establishing

the Panel on Mental Retardation in 1961 to explore ways for the government to help people with intellectual disabilities.

– Eunice Shriver, Kennedy’s sister, started the Special Olympics.

– In what way did the US government expand the rights of people with disabilities in the 1960s and 1970s?• Congress passed laws guaranteeing them access to education.

In Conclusion…• The counterculture that came around in the 1960s and

1970s was considered a defiance to all things that the baby boomers had obeyed in previous years. It ended with the conclusion that drugs were actually deadly.

• Women’s rights were something that had been a long time coming. The second wave of feminism would fundamentally change Americans life – from family and education to careers and political issues.

• Minority groups and the disabled experienced discrimination just as women did during this era. Activists worked to expand rights for two broad groups: consumers and people with disabilities. Their success, again, was limited, but would create a stepping stone for future presidents and legislation.