Chapter 31:

1. Chapter 31: An Era of Social Change

2. What was the greatest victory in the Latino American struggle for equality? • Under Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, the United Farm Workers of California were formed to fight for better wages and conditions. • After a nation-wide boycott of California grapes, the union won a pay increase and better benefits. • This launched other ‘Brown Power’ movements, such as the Brown Berets who demanded better schools. • Jose Guttierez formed La Raza Unida, which was a political movement dedicated to electing Latinos to office. They met succes in local communities, with posts on school boards and city councils.

3. What were some major events in the Native American struggle for equality? • Native Americans, after centuries of discrimination, are the poorest minority. After losing their lands and being forced onto reservations, they became dependent on the government. Thus, the rates of unemployment, disease, and infant mortality amongst NAs are the highest in the nation. • To fight for change, the American Indian Movement (AIM) developed. They often used aggressive measures to force the government to act. Specifically, they took over Wounded Knee to symbolically protest the 1890 massacre. After the shootout, the government promised to reevaluate Indian policy. • Some laws were passed, such as the Indian Education Act, which improve schools. Further, the termination policy, enacted under Eisenhower was, duh, terminated. It had proved to be a dismal failure because it relocating NAs to cities, but did NOT provide them with job skills training, decent jobs, or adequate housing. • Throughout the 1970s & 1980s, federal courts returned more than 40 million acres of land to native groups.

4. Who were some leaders in the women’s rights movement? • Feminism began to emerge as women fought for social, political, and economic equality. For example, they wanted to end wage discrimination nased on the fact that women are paid about 75 cents for every dollar a man earns. • Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique which prompted women to seek meaningful roles outside of the household. • Gloria Steinem encouraged women to pursue political office and created Ms. Magazine. • The National Organization for Women (NOW) organized protests and ought for more day care centers, an end to sex discrimination in hiring, violence against women, and equal educational opportunities. Friedan was the first president of NOW. • Two victories for the women’s rights movement included a ban on sex discrimination as part of the Higher Education Act of 1972. All-male colleges opened their doors to women for the first time. Also, the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision stated that women have the right to an abortion within the first three months of pregnancy, thereby ending dangerous ‘back alley’ abortions.

5. What happened to the Equal Rights Amendment? • In 1972, Congress passed the ERA, which guaranteed that women and men be treated the same under the law. • In response, conservative groups launched Stop-ERA campaigns led by Phyllis Schlafly. They argued that if the ERA passed, a ‘parade of horribles,’ such as same sex marriage, would destroy society. These conservatives would become members of the New Right, who would become instrumental in electing Reagan to the presidency in 1980. • Although 35 states had passed the amendment, 38 were needed to add it to the Constitution. Thus, although the ERA was defeated. Women have made significant strides in the areas of education, science, politics, and business over the last few decades.

6. What was the counterculture movement all about, man? • The hippie counterculture movement was made up of mostly white, middle-class college youth who had grown disillusioned with the Vietnam War and injustices in society. • They turned their backs on mainstream society’s emphasis on materialism and war and tried to form a new society based on peace, love, and communal living. • Hippies grew their hair long, wore tie dye, experiemented with Buddhism and drugs, and congregated at the ‘hippie-capital’ of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. • The Sexual Revolution emerged out of the hippie movement. It encouraged ‘free love’ and more relaxed attitudes towards sexuality.

7. What were some of the counterculture’s contributions to art & music? • Pop art, championed by Andy Warhol, became iconic symbols of the ‘Age of Aquarius.’ • This type of art tended to portray consumer items or repeated images to suggest that individual freedoms had become lost to conformity and a ‘cookie-cutter’ lifestyle. • Hippies embraced rock & roll, specifically the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez, who sang protest songs. Woodstock was a music festival held in upstate New York in 1969. It showcased many musicians over the course of a rainy weekend. • Due to the counterculture movement, a conservative backlash would galvanize mainstream America and help send Nixon and Reagan to the White House. Jimi Hendrix performs the National Anthem