Topic 15 - Postwar America (1945-1975)

Lesson 5 - The Struggle for Equal Rights Continues

By the end of the 1970s, more than 10 million Latinos lived in the United States, and they worked hard to gain equal rights. They were joined by Asian Americans and American Indians in the fight for equality.

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In the 1960s, Dolores Huerta organized migrant farm workers to fight for better pay and working conditions. At this 1988 rally, Huerta led farm workers demanding decreased use of pesticides. How do environmental issues impact workers’ rights?

Guiding Questions

How did different groups try to achieve equal rights?
What obstacles did women face in achieving equal opportunities?
Why were gays and lesbians at a particular disadvantage in their fight for equality?

Vocabulary

Academic Vocabulary

Why Did Other Minorities Fight for Equality?

Discrimination limited Mexican Americans and other Latinos. They were not subject to strict segregation laws, but other laws—as well as traditions—worked against them. In the Southwest, all-white schools closed their doors to Mexican American children. Instead, they were segregated in poorly equipped “Mexican schools.” Discrimination kept Mexican Americans from living in certain neighborhoods or using certain hotels or restaurants. Often, better-paying jobs were not open to them.

Mexican Americans

Mexican Americans are the largest group of Latinos living in the United States today. From 1960 to 1980, the greatest number of immigrants to the United States came from Mexico.

Many Mexican Americans lived and worked in cities. Many more labored as migrant workers who traveled from farm to farm looking for seasonal work. Low wages and harsh working conditions made life difficult for them. Discrimination made things worse. Mexican Americans were often barred from better-paying jobs and from better neighborhoods. Few schools offered programs for those whose first language was Spanish. Migrants moved so often that it was hard for their children to make steady progress in school or even to attend regularly.

Mexican Americans organized their own fight for civil rights. Mexican American veterans founded the American GI Forum of the United States (AGIF) in 1948 to campaign for equal rights. Similar to the NAACP, the AGIF supported legal challenges to discrimination.

Analyze Images In contrast to the 1960s, strawberry pickers today are provided breaks, toilets, clean drinking water, hand washing facilities, protection against pesticides, and safety and sanitary conditions in farm labor camps.

Use Visual Information Why is fruit picking back-breaking work?

A Legal Victory

In 1954, the same year as Brown v. Board of Education, Mexican Americans won an important legal battle when the Supreme Court ruled on the case of Hernández v. Texas.

Pete Hernández, a Mexican American, had been convicted of murder by an all-white jury in Texas. Among the lawyers who appealed his conviction was Gus Garcia, one of the leaders of the AGIF. Attorney James DeAnda, another Mexican American, also helped. He had previously worked to desegregate areas of Corpus Christi, Texas, where Mexican Americans were not allowed to buy houses.

Hernández’s lawyers argued that Mexican Americans in Texas were denied equality under the law because they were excluded from juries. The Supreme Court agreed. It overturned the conviction and ended the exclusion of Mexican Americans from juries. In the future, other minority groups would use this decision to help win their civil rights.

Puerto Rican Americans

Latinos in the eastern United States often came from Puerto Rico. In the 1950s, thousands left Puerto Rico in search of work in the United States. Many took jobs in the factories of New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Some went to Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. Puerto Ricans also faced discrimination in housing and jobs wherever they settled.

Cuban Americans

A third group of Latinos came in two waves from Cuba. Between 1959 and 1962, some 200,000 people fled to southern Florida when Fidel Castro set up a Communist government in Cuba. These immigrants were often middle class and well educated. They adapted quickly to their new home. A second wave of immigrants came in 1980 after Castro allowed thousands of people to leave the island. Many of these new refugees were unskilled. They had a hard time making a living.

As their numbers grew, Cuban Americans became a force in southern Florida. Miami took on a new look. Shop windows displayed signs in Spanish. Cuban restaurants and shops opened. Cubans published Spanish-language newspapers and operated radio and television stations. Cuban American politicians were soon elected.

Cooperation Yields Results

In the 1960s, new Latino organizations sought change. Cesar Chavez formed a union of migrant workers, the United Farm Workers. When farm owners refused to talk to the union, Chavez called for a nationwide boycott of grapes and some other farm products. In the end, the owners recognized the union, and workers won higher wages.

By the mid-1960s, Latinos began to publicly take pride in their history and culture. Mexican Americans called themselves Chicanos, a name that comes from the Spanish word Mexicano.

Latino groups also registered voters and made sure that voting laws were enforced. These new voters helped to elect more Latino officials to represent their interests.

One result of these efforts was the Voting Rights Act of 1975. It required areas with many non-English-speaking citizens to hold bilingual elections. Bilingual means in two languages. Many Latinos' native language is Spanish. A bilingual ballot makes it easier for people whose native language is not English to vote.

The Bilingual Education Acts of 1968 and 1973 promoted bilingual programs in public schools for Spanish-speaking and Asian students.

Asian Americans

Asian Americans began their own fight against discrimination in 1968 when students at the University of California at Berkeley founded the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA). Students of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and other Asian descent joined to promote the rights and culture of Asian Americans. As a result, many universities across the nation created programs in Asian American studies.

American Indians

American Indians also worked for their full rights. They claimed rights not only as individuals, but also as members of tribal groups.

Over the years, the federal government had recognized tribal governments by signing treaties with them. During the late 1940s and the 1950s, the federal government tried to break up tribal governments. They also encouraged American Indians to leave the reservations. By the late 1960s, more than half of all American Indians lived off the reservations, mainly in cities. Gradually, city life weakened traditional customs, and Indians became separated from their heritage. Yet, they were often unable to become fully integrated into the larger society.

American Indians organized against these government policies. The National Congress of American Indians regularly sent delegations to Washington to defend Indian rights.

The American Indian Movement (AIM) protested the treatment of Indians. In 1973, AIM members occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, for several weeks. As you have read, the United States Army had killed nearly 300 American Indians at Wounded Knee in 1890. AIM wanted to remind people of the government’s failure to deal fairly with American Indians. Since Wounded Knee, protests and court cases have won sympathy for Indian causes and more rights for American Indians.

Analyze Images In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) blocked roads and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, to call attention to their cause.

Infer Why do you think these protesters chose to arm themselves?

READING CHECK

Draw Conclusions Why did the rights of Latinos become a more prominent issue during the civil rights era?

The Women’s and Gay Rights Movements

Women had long fought inequality. Following the success of the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement gained energy in the 1960s. Meanwhile, a movement for equal rights for homosexuals began to gain attention.

Betty Friedan’s 1963 book The Feminine Mystique challenged traditional male and female roles. While many men and women argued that women’s natural role is to care for a traditional family, Friedan and others urged that women and men should have the same economic, social, and political opportunities.

New laws in the 1960s helped women make some gains toward equality. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 required equal pay for equal work. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination in hiring based on gender and on race. Still, to this day equal pay and full equality on other issues remain elusive for women.

Inequality at Work

In the workplace, qualified women found that male employers were unwilling to hire them for certain jobs. Women were usually paid less than men, even for the same work. They were laid off before men and passed over for promotions in favor of men.

In 1966, 28 women including Friedan and Pauli Murray helped to set up the National Organization for Women (NOW), which worked for equal rights for women in jobs, pay, and education. It also helped women bring discrimination cases to court and campaigned for maternity leave and child-care centers. Urging women to be more politically active, NOW organized the Strike for Equality Parade in 1970. Some 50,000 women marched.

The Equal Rights Amendment

In the 1970s, the women’s movement suffered a major defeat. In 1972, Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution. The amendment would ban discrimination based on gender.

After passage by Congress, the ERA went to the states for ratification. Phyllis Schlafly and other conservative women led a successful campaign against ratification of the amendment. They said the ERA would lead to women being drafted into the military and would harm the traditional family. Despite this defeat, the women’s movement brought women more power and equality.

Since the defeat of the ERA, it has been reintroduced in every Congress.

Analyze Images Women march in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), 1973.

Explain an Argument Why did some people reject women’s claims for equal rights?

Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement

Gay rights is one of the most strongly debated social issues of our time. In 1924, the first gay rights organization, the Society for Human Rights, was founded.

Gay men and lesbian women continued to be exposed to discrimination, even by their own government. In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower banned the hiring of gays and lesbians for government jobs. Around the nation, gays and lesbians also suffered harassment by the police. At this time, homosexuality was against the law in most of the United States.

Gay rights activists began to protest what they saw as unfair treatment. In 1950, Chuck Rowland and Harry Hay formed the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles. This was a gay rights group of mostly male members. In 1955, the Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian group, was formed in San Francisco by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon.

In 1967, Los Angeles police raided the Black Cat, a gay bar, and arrested more than a dozen people. Gay rights activists demonstrated in front of the bar during the following days. The voices of gay and lesbian people were beginning to be heard.

Two years later, police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City—a known gathering place for homosexuals—aiming to arrest people just for being there. Police had been making such arrests for years. That night and for several days afterward, homosexuals from around New York City rioted against the police. The events of Stonewall inspired gays and lesbians elsewhere to fight for equal rights.

The next year, 5,000 gay men and women marked the first anniversary of the riots with a march in New York City. The event became a yearly celebration.

Many Americans opposed the growing demands for equal rights by gays and lesbians. Many condemned homosexuality because they considered it immoral for religious reasons. Due to this opposition, efforts to eliminate discrimination in jobs and housing had little success during the 1960s and 1970s.

Analyze Images On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Liberation Day, these marchers commemorated the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Generate Explanations Who was the audience for this form of protest?

READING CHECK

Summarize the actions and results of the women’s and gay rights movements.

Lesson Check

Why was it difficult for the children of migrant workers to get an education?
How did bilingual ballots make it easier for Latinos to vote?
How did the Civil Rights Act help women and minorities?
Identify Main Ideas How did the United States government try to control American Indian groups during the 1950s?
Summarize the emergence of the gay and lesbian rights movement in the United States.
Writing Workshop: Write an Introduction Write an introduction to your informative essay on changes to the United States after World War II. Include your thesis statement in your introduction.

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