KQ4 How far did other groups achieve civil rights in America? Hispanic Americans Why did immigration to America increase after the Second World War? An agreement was reached in 1942 between the US and Mexico called the Bracero Program This allowed Mexico to supply contract workers to the US. Many Mexicans were attracted but economic opportunities which were better in the US than in Mexico. The programme expired in 1947 but remained in Agriculture until 1964. At the height of the programme there were almost 500,000 Braceros in America. The 1965 Immigration Act abolished immigration quotas which had been put into place by the 1924 Immigration Act. This led to a surge in immigration. Many people were reunited with family members having been separated by the Repatriation Program (1929-37) Some immigrants moved to America for political reasons following Castro s Communist take over of Cuba in 1959. Discrimination against Hispanics Like African Americans, Hispanic Americans experiences discrimination and prejudice on the grounds of their race. In the 1930 census, the Social Security Act (SSA) requested employers to correctly identify and record the race of their employees; the categories were White, Negro, Asian, Indian and Mexican. Mexican Americans suffered high unemployment, ill treatment and low wages in the workplace, poor housing, educational segregations and discrimination. They were under-represented in local politics because they were discouraged from registering to vote, and the number of elected Mexican officials was tiny in relation to the size of their community. The Chicano Movement Many Mexicans came to identify themselves as Chicanos American citizens of Mexican descent. However, this was counter-productive as racist attitudes meant that those who called themselves Chicanos faced discrimination. Despite this Chicanos continued to claim their own identity, with many now stating they were brown and talking of brown pride. Other Hispanics preferred to consider themselves semi-white. In the 1960s the term Chicano became a symbol of self-determination and national pride. The Chicano Civil Rights Movement campaigned throughout the 1960s and 1970s for equal rights for Hispanic Americans.
Achievements of Hispanic Americans Education In 1945 Gonzalo Mendez and other WW2 veterans filed a law suit against the four school districts in OC, California. They claimed that their children were being denied access to schools based on their heritage. It was discovered that the school board had created a racial profile that allowed them to identify Mexican students and send them to Mexican schools. The school board argued that they had done this because of language deficiencies. In 1947 the Supreme Court ruled, in the case of Mendez v. Westminster, that segregating because of descent was unconstitutional. However, discrimination continued and the 1960s saw more protests including in 1968 a protest of 20,000 students in LA. It gained media coverage and Attorney General Robert Kennedy met with the protestors. Many of the student activists went on to be movement leaders, inspiring others to join in the protests. Despite this there were violent clashes and no substantial changes to educational conditions for Hispanics. The struggle for land In 1966-7 Reies Lopez Tijerina formed a campaign for land grants in New Mexico, which Tijerina argued were owed to the descendants of the land s Spanish colonial and Mexican owners. The legal campaign was defeated but it did succeed in highlighting the issue and also appealed to young Chicanos, giving them a sense of pride and identity. The struggle in the fields In 1966 Cesar Chavez led a strike by California grape pickers for higher wages and safer working conditions. The strike dragged on for 5 years, attracting national attention and leading to a Senate subcommittee being set up to look into it. The strike was supported by Robert Kennedy and led to similar actions in places like Texas and Ohio. However, little changed and Chicanos generally remained one of the poorest and most discriminated sections of society. Political recognition Political recognition for Hispanics occurred in 1970 with the creation of the Raza Unida Party. It had its roots in the school protests and it still continues to fight for political rights.
Native Americans What were the issues faced by Native Americans? Ever since their defeat by the emerging USA in the 1800s, most Native Americans had been forced to live on reservations. On these reservations the opportunities were few. There was a lack of decent jobs and education was poor. By the 1950s Native Americans had some of the highest rates of alcoholism, mental heath problems, economic deprivation, illiteracy and lack of opportunity of any racial group. Assimilation The policy of Assimilation had begun in the 1870s and had become official policy in the 1920s under the Bureau of Indian Affairs The policy was an attempt to transform Native American culture to European-American culture and civilise the Native American population It began with educating children away from reservations to re-educate them and force them to abandon their language and culture. This led to them not fitting in anywhere as they were rejected by both the Native Americans community and the White community. In the 1950s and 1960s US Congress adopted the Indian Termination Policy which gave Native Americans full US citizenship and bound them to the same laws as the rest of the population. It allowed states to take over Native American land. The policy had devastating effects on tribal culture and economic well-being. A sterilisation programme was also undertaken and it is estimated that 25% of women of child bearing age were sterilised during the 1970s. Native American protest Alcatraz In November 1969 a group of young Native Americans occupied Alcatraz island in San Francisco with the aim of raising awareness of the plight of Native Americans. The occupations was forcibly ended after 19 months but it had succeeded in bringing international attention to issues such as the unpopularity of the termination policy. It also saw the birth of the American Indian Movement (AIM) whose young members were idealistic and defiant. The occupation gave confidence to others who staged other demonstrations such as in 1972 when they occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington DC, causing $1.5 million in damage. Wounded Knee AIM s most widely recognised protest was at Wounded Knee in 1973. Wounded Knee was the site of a brutal massacre of Lakota Indians in the 1890s. In the winter of 1973, a group of armed Native Americans occupied the area in the name of the Lakota Nation. The National Guard was called out but the protestors were defiant. The government cut off electricity and food supplies, and finally, after 71 days the siege ended, with the government making nearly 1200 arrests. The protests of the AIM brought publicity to the plight of Native Americans, and led to a number of positive changes.
Positive changes during the period Presidents Johnson and Nixon decided to encourage Native American self-determination, increasing tribal control over the reservations. The most significant piece of legislation passed by President Johnson was the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) which was passed in 1968. This gave back legal jurisdiction over reservations to the tribes. Nixon officially reversed the federal Indian policy which led to a number of bills which strengthened tribal autonomy and land claims. For example, he returned 48,000 acres of sacred tribal land to the Taos Pueblo Indians. In 1973 Nixon increased the budget of the BIA by 214%. Funds for improving health of Native Americans doubled during his first term. He also pledged that BIA funds should fit priorities set by the tribes themselves. The Indian Financing Act of 1974 gave aid for tribal commercial development. The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1974 prevented government agencies taking children to be brought up elsewhere. In 1975, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act gave control of tribal finances back to Native Americans. This Act effectively ended the US policy of trying to assimilate Native Americans and guaranteed that they would be free to govern themselves while still receiving aid from the US government.
Women Why did the Women s Movement develop? World War Two had increased the number of women workers and this highlighted gender inequalities within the workplace. In 1960 Eleanor Roosevelt (the widow of President Roosevelt) pressurised Kennedy into setting up a commission to investigate the status of women, especially in work. It reported that despite the fact that almost half the workforce were women, there were a number of problems. For example, women earned around 50-60% of the wages of men, even for the same work. Women could also be dismissed from their jobs when they got married. After the Second World War there had been a rush of women getting married and having children. Many of these women felt undervalued and depressed as little more than domestic servants. In 1963 Betty Friedman described the problem in her influential book The Feminine Mystique. She said that married women should be helped to continue in paid employment and that bringing up children should be a shared role. The Contraceptive Pill was first used in 1960 and allowed women to make choices about when to have children. In 1965 the Supreme Court ruled against the prohibition of the use of contraceptives by married women. The Women s Movement was also encouraged by the successes of the Black Civil Rights Movement. So what was the Women s Movement? The Women s Movement was thousands of different groups with the single aim of raising the status of women and ending discrimination. 1966 saw the founding of the National Organisation for Women (WOW). By 1970 NOW had 40,000 members. It used lobbying, public demonstrations and court cases to push for change. For example in 1969 Robin Morgan led a demonstration against the Miss America pageant. In 1970 thousands of women took part in Women s Strike Day to demand equality. The issue of abortion Abortion was illegal in America but feminists believed that this law discriminated against women. They said that a woman had the right to choose what happened to her body. In 1968 Betty Friedan set up the National Abortion Rights Action League. Gloria Steinem co-founded the National Women s Political Caucus in 1971 as well as the Women s Action Alliance, both of which campaigned for the legalisation of abortion. In 1965 a young medical student challenged the anti-contraception laws. In her home town of Connecticut both contraception and abortion were illegal. In the case of Griswold v. Connecticut her lawyers cleverly argued that these laws were an illegal restriction on the privacy of ordinary Americans. Griswold won her case. A further landmark ruling occurred in 1973 with the case of Roe v. Wade. The case related to a woman who wanted to have an abortion. Her lawyers argued that the decision as to whether a woman could have an abortion should be a private decision between the woman and her doctor. The case was won and eventually led to abortion becoming freely available. However, abortion continues to be a controversial issue in America to this day.
Changing legislation In 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed which said that a woman could not be paid less than a man was paid for doing the same job. The 1964 Civil Rights Act included a section which prohibited sex discrimination. A number of changes occurred under President Nixon: In 1972 the Education Amendment Act was passed which dealt with sexism in educational institutions Nixon also increased the number of female appointments to administration positions, created a task force on Women s rights and asked the Justice Department to bring sex discrimination suits under the Civil Rights Act Opposition to the Women s Movement Many right wingers enjoyed attacking feminism, especially as attacking Communism had started to go out of fashion. The most high profile anti-feminist movement was STOP ERA led by Phyllis Schlafly. ERA stood for Equal Rights Amendment, which was a proposal to amend the US Constitution specifically to outlaw sex discrimination. Congress were in favour of ERA, so was 63% of the population. However, Schlafly led a successful campaign to prevent its becoming law. She argued that feminists devalued the woman s role by making it equal to men s. She compared the feminist woman s complaints with the positive woman s approach. ERA became bogged down in Congress as a result of STOP ERA s campaigning and was finally defeated by three votes in 1982.