Get documents about "1954--Civil-Rights-USC-warren-burger-stonewall-wounded-knee-compressed
Document Sample
Supreme Court
Civil Rights:
African-Americans
The Accused
Women
Native Americans
The Warren Court (1953-1969)
Brown v. the Board
of Education
of Topeka, KS
• Found segregation of public
schools to be unconstitutional
• Defender (Chicago) June 12, 1954
The Arkansas Democrat
May 22, 1954
“No job for a
race horse”
“Forced
Progress”
“Gradualism”
• Chronicle
(San Francisco)
May 18, 1954
• Afro-American
(Richmond)
May 22, 1954
Yates v. US (1957)
• The First Amendment
protected radical and
revolutionary speech, even by
Communists
• unless it was a “clear and
present danger” to the safety
of the country
Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
• Exclusionary
rule:
Illegally seized
evidence
cannot be
used in court
against the
accused
Baker v. Carr (1962)
• Gerrymandering shown to favor rural
areas and disadvantage large cities
• “one man, one vote” – election districts to
be drawn to provide equal representation
1965 flag from the voting-
rights march (Selma to
Montgomery, AL)
led to the passage of
the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Engel v. Vitale (1962)
State laws requiring prayers and
schools
Bible readings in publicEngel Vitale Nobolis
• violated the First Amendment’s
separation of
church & state
Murray v. Curlett (1963)
• ended daily prayer in US
public schools.
• Madalyn Murray O'Hair
later founded the American
Atheists
• 1964: Life magazine
Mysteriously
referred to her as "the disappeared
most hated woman in 1995 – found
murdered
America."
Gideon v. Wainwright
(1963)
• Sixth Amendment
requires states
provide council
(the services of an
attorney) for
indigent (poor)
criminal
defendants
Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)
• Police must honor a person’s
request for a lawyer to be
present during interrogation
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
• A state could not
prohibit the use of
contraceptives by
adults because of a
citizen’s “right to
privacy”
• The adult right to
privacy was later
expanded in Roe v.
Wade
Miranda v. Arizona
(1966)
• Inform:
right to remain silent,
whatever said could be
used against you,
right to an attorney
even if can’t afford
one
1 phone call to obtain
a lawyer
The Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) (1966)
• establishes the public's right to obtain
information from federal government agencies.
• "Any person", including U.S. citizens, foreign
nationals, organizations, associations, and
universities can request information
• In 1974, after the Watergate scandal, the Act
was amended to force greater agency
compliance.
• It was also amended in 1996 to allow for
greater access to electronic information.
Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971)
The Burger Court (1969 –1986)
• Warren E. Burger
• Appointed by
Nixon
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Board of Education (1971)
• unanimous
ruling
supporting
busing to
reduce de
facto racial
segregation in
schools.
• de jure happens “by law” –
through segregation laws
• de facto happens “by fact”
rather than by law
–Ex: a primarily Af-Ams
neighborhoods produces
predominantly black
neighborhood schools
“Affirmative Action”
• 1961: term first introduced by JFK
• Active policies to ensure equal
opportunity for blacks, women, and
other minorities in education and jobs.
• Enforced by President Johnson. "We
seek… not just equality as a right and
a theory, but equality as a fact and as
a result."
1974: Forced Busing in Boston
1964 - Boston
• Had an “open enrollment” policy that permits any child
to transfer to any school where there is rooom
• 25 Boston schools had enrollments less than 20%
white
• A new state law required schools to correct racial
imbalance or forfeit state funds
• The US Commissioner of Education was investigating
if Boston’s schools could continue to quality for 2M in
federal aid
• “yellow slips”
• http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,834
372,00.html
• "I believe that little children should go to schools in their own
neighbor hoods with the children with whom they play — it's as
simple as that."
• Yellow slips! Yellow slips!" she yelled, referring to certificates
that are required for school transfers. "Without those yellow
slips your children will be turned away!" In response, the
Negroes shot back boos and catcalls. As it happened, a few
dozen Negro kids were turned back until they could pick up
their slips, but by last week about 300 had been successfully
transferred.
• "I defy any of the civil rights leaders to prove that any of our
neighborhood schools are inferior." When Negroes protest that
this is the old "separate but equal" argument, she retorts: "Stop
banging on our door—the real problem is housing." She feels
misunderstood. "In every one of the major cities the civil rights
leaders have found a scapegoat. If it has to be me, so be it. My
conscience is clear."
Mrs. Louise Day Hicks 46 chairman of the five-man Boston
School Committee, which sets policy for Boston's public
Integration: South vs. North
• Southern: de jure segregation
• Chief Justice Earl Warren had stated
“Segregation in Boston was eliminated in
1855” (Brown, 1954)
• Northern: de facto segregation
• schools were just as segregated because
of segregated housing patterns – South
Boston and Charlestown were primarily
white areas
• Boston: Morgan v. Hennigan
(1972)
• 1974: MA Federal Court, Judge
Garrity ruled the Boston School
committee “intentionally brought
about and maintained racial
segregation”; it had resisted
desegregation; it alone had the
power to decide who when to any
given school
• 1974 – Garrity ordered immediate
action be taken to integrate Boston
schools in the 1974-1975 school year
• Thousands of white students would
be bused to black communities, black
students would be bused to white
schools,
• 1972-1974: protests and
demonstrations revealed white
resistance and racial tension in
Boston…
• Phase 1: Black students from
Roxbury, “the heart of Boston’s
black ghetto” would be bused to
South Boston (Italian)
• Most schools quietly complied with
busing
• South Boston: buses carrying black
children were greeted by an angry
mob that threw rocks through the
windows – 9 black students were
injured
• Black parents organized efforts to
escort their children to school safely
• Incidents of white-black violence in South
Boston and black-white violence in Roxbury
• Taunting/fights in schools
• 12/11/74: a black student at South Boston HS
stabbed a white classmate
• 1975: busing was revised, but violence against
Boston’s black community continued,
particularly in Charlestown and South Boston
• Many white families boycotted the schools
• Boston's busing plan continued indefinitely.
Eventually, the violence subsided as some
white families complied, while others enrolled
their children in private schools or moved out of
the city altogether into predominantly white
suburbs.
1975-6
• Phase II: busing of blacks and Latinos into
Charlestown (Irish) and “Townie” children into
Roxbury
• Faced similar opposition
• Italian students from East Boston had also
encountered hostilities when they had chosen
to attend Charlestown High before Garrity’s
busing
1974: Busing in
Boston
Forced
busing
in the
south
de facto segregation
• happens “by fact” rather than by law
• Ex: a concentration of Af-Ams in certain
neighborhoods produces neighborhood schools
that are predominantly black
• It still can be found throughout the country
de jure segregation
• (di JOOR-ee, day YOOR-ay) happens “by law”
• In the South, racial segregation was de jure
• In the North, it was de facto.
Americans with Disabilities Act
(1990)
• Expands the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
which prohibited discrimination based
upon race, religion, gender, or national
origin
• Disability is defined as "a physical or
mental impairment that substantially limits
a major life activity."
• Employment, public services, public
accommodations, telecommunications
United States v. U.S. District Court
(1972)
• a warrant must be
Warrentless
obtained before wiretapping is
beginning currently a
electronic major issue of
surveillance debate
regarding the
• even if domestic War on Terror
security issues
were involved.
Furman v. Georgia (1972)
• in a 5-4 decision, invalidated
all death penalty laws
• “cruel & unusual
• Racial & economic imbalance
• Insufficient due process
safeguards
Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)
• Amish families could
home school their
children after
elementary school
• because the Amish
believed that a public
school education
posed a threat to their
religion
Roe v. Wade (1973)
• Burger voted with the majority to recognize a
broad right to privacy that prohibited states from
banning abortions before the point of viability.
The War Powers Resolution (1973)
• In response to Vietnam & Korea
• the President can send troops into action
abroad only by authorization of Congress
• or if America is already under attack or
serious threat.
• The War Powers Act requires that the president
notify Congress within 48 hours of
committing troops to military action
• and forbids troops from remaining for more than
60 days without a declaration of war.
• How might this apply today?
United States v. Nixon (1974)
• unanimous 8-0 decision
• Against Nixon's attempt to keep several memos
and tapes relating to the Watergate scandal
private. The ongoing scandal caused Nixon to
resign in order to avoid impeachment.
Nixon Resigns (1974)
• August 8, 1974
• “I have never been a quitter.”
• http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/richardnixonresignationspeech.html
Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
• the Court majority reinstated
the death penalty
• Meets contemporary
standards of decency
• Proportional to crime
• No unnecessary
infliction of pain
• Is a deterrent
Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke (1978)
• Quotas = reverse discrimination
• race could be only one of the factors
considered in choosing a diverse student body
in university admissions decisions.
• UofCA Davis medical school’s 16% minority
quota had discriminated against Allan Bakke
• rejected Bakke 2 years in a row while accepting
less qualified minority applicants
• HOWEVER, the Court upheld the legality of
affirmative action overall
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(1978)
• prescribed procedures for physical and
electronic surveillance and collection of
"foreign intelligence information"
• between "foreign powers" and "agents of
foreign powers" (which may include
American citizens)
• created a court which meets in secret, and
approves or denies requests for search
warrants.
FISA under Bush
–Only the number of warrants applied
for, issued and denied, is reported.
• In 1980 (the first full year) it approved
322 warrants.
• In 2006 it approved 2224 warrants.
• 1979-2006 a total of 22,990
applications for warrants were made
to the Court, and only 5 were
definitively rejected
Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
• upheld Georgia
law criminalizing
sodomy
• laws criminalizing
homosexuality
were ancient?:
• [sodomy is a]
"crime against
nature...of deeper
malignity than
rape
-- Burger citing
Blackstone
Texas v. Johnson (1989)
• Gregory Johnson
burned an
American flag at a
political
demonstration
during the 1984
Republican
National
Convention in
Dallas
USA PATRIOT Act (2001)
• “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to
Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act”
• The act expands the authority of US law enforcement agencies
for the stated purpose of fighting terrorism in the United States
and abroad. Among its provisions, the Act increases the ability
of law enforcement agencies to search telephone, e-mail
communications, medical, financial and other records; eases
restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United
States; expands the Secretary of the Treasury’s authority to
regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving
foreign individuals and entities; and enhances the discretion of
law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and
deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts. The
act also expands the definition of terrorism to include domestic
terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which the
USA Patriot Act’s expanded law enforcement powers can be
applied.
THE
ENVIRONMENTAL
MOVEMENT
1970s =
The “Me Decade”
???????
Clean Air Act (1963)
•established
emissions
standards in
factories and
automobiles
Rachael Carson’s
Silent Spring
• Published
9/1962
• 100K copies
sold by
Christmas
Consumerism
• Protects consumers from businesses
• Ralph Nader’s “Unsafe at Any Speed”
(1965)
• Detailed poor safety standards for automobiles
• Manufacturer’s resistance to seat belts
“Nadar’s Raiders”
• Consumer advocates
• grassroots civic activism in the 1980s
• Investigated federal bureaucracies
• Protecting the environment &
worker’s rights, limit corporate power
• They researched and prepared
reports that helped spur legislative
change.
Ralph Nader
•“Green Party”
candidate for
president
–1996
–2000
–2004
• the Coyahoga
River on the
Coyahoga
southern River Fire
shores of
Lake Erie
(1969)
caught on fire
• oil and
chemicals, in
the lake
somehow
ignited
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga, gone
Let's put our heads together,
start a new country up,
Underneath the river bed
we burned the river down.
This is where they walked, swam,
hunted, danced and sang,
Take a picture here,
take a souvenir
Earth Day (1970)
• Reflected growing concerns
over pollution/the environment
• Unofficial start of
environmental movement
•20 million
Environmental Protection
Agency (1970)
• Established by NIXON!
• charged with protecting human
health and with safeguarding
the natural environment: air,
water, and land.
Clean Air Act Extension
• the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955,
• the Clean Air Act of 1963
• the Clean Air Act Extension (1970)
• 1977 Clean Air Act Amendment
• 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment
• Regulate greenhouse gasses?
SALT I (1971)
- “strategic arms limitation talks”
- Agreement between US and
USSR
- An ENVIRONMENTAL policy?
- limit nuclear arms
The Endangered
Species Act (1973)
• Anti-extinction legislation (Silent Spring)
• arguably the most powerful
conservation law ever enacted by any
nation
• provides protection to fish, wildlife, and
plants listed as endangered or
threatened and identify critical habitat
HOWEVER,
the environmental
movement
primarily acted
the community level
Love Canal, NY
(1978)
•One of the best
examples of
community action
• local mother
• children's recurring LOIS GIBBS
epilepsy, asthma,
and urinary tract
infections
• wondered if
connected to their
exposure to
leaking chemical
waste.
•Gibbs later
discovered that her
neighborhood sat on
top of 21K tons of
buried chemical
waste
• Gibbs led a community effort to
investigate
• residents made repeated
complaints of strange odors and
"substances" that surfaced in
their yards.
• City officials were brought to
investigate the area, but did not
act to solve the problem.
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) discovered in 1979:
• residents exhibited a "disturbingly
high rate of miscarriages...Love Canal
can now be added to a growing list of
environmental disasters involving
toxics, ranging from industrial workers
stricken by nervous disorders and
cancers to the discovery of toxic
materials in the milk of nursing
mothers."
• Love Canal and
Times Beach,
Missouri, led to the
Comprehensive
Environmental
Response
Compensation and
Liability Act
(CERCLA).
• Established a
“superfund" to help
the clean-up
Three Mile Island
(1979)
Maximum meltdown radius
Chernobyl
(1986)
Exxon Valedez
oil spill (1989)
• Reinforced fears of the
deadly combination of
human error and modern
technology
The
Native
American
Movement
Eisenhower
• Encouraged Native Americans to leave
reservations and assimilate into urban
society
• Native American leaders resisted the loss
of cultural identity
American Indian Movement (AIM)
(1968)
Platform: demanded
radical changes
in the administration of
reservations
To achieve
self-determination
Revive tribal traditions
AIM soon took militant
action
Alcatraz (1969)
• AIM took over the
abandoned prison in
San Francisco Bay
• Indians have
gathered on Alcatraz
every November
since 1975 on
"Un-Thanksgiving Day"
Wounded Knee, SD
(1973)
• Site of 1890 massacre
by US cavalry
• AIM occupied for 71
days
• 11 hostages taken
• 1 federal agent was
paralyzed
• 2 Indians killed
• 500,000 bullets fired
• 600 people arrested
• 0 convicted!
Pine Ridge
(1975)
• two FBI Agents died during
a shoot-out on the Pine
Ridge Indian Reservation
• 1977: Leonard Peltier
sentenced to two terms of
life imprisonment
“Free Peltier” movement
Indian Self-Determination
Act (1975)
• Gave reservations and tribal lands greater
control over internal programs, education,
and law enforcement
The Tribally Controlled Community
College Assistance Act (1978)
• Improvement in education aimed at
reducing unemployment and poverty
on reservations
Hispanic
Chicano movement
• La Raza Unida (1969)
– Hispanic American political party
– 1st Third party organized around
ethnicity
– to secure job training & loans for
Mexican Americans
– Promoted political, social and
economic improvement
Caesar Chavez
• Mexican American
–farm worker,
–labor leader,
–civil rights activist
• founded the
National Farm Workers
Association with
Dolores Huerta
• later became the
United Farm Workers.
•César Chávez and
Dolores Huerta fought
the Bracero Program
that existed from
1942 to 1964.
–undermined U.S. workers
–exploited the migrant workers
• 1965: Chávez supported the Filipino-
Am farm workers Delano grape strike
• Six months later, Chávez and the
NFWA led a strike of California
grape pickers and a farm workers
march from Delano to Sacramento.
• The UFW encouraged all Americans
to boycott table grapes
• The strike lasted five years
• Attracted national attention.
• 1966 the U.S. Senate
Committee on Labor and Public
Welfare's Subcommittee on
Migratory Labor held hearings
in California on the strike.
• subcommittee member Robert
F. Kennedy expressed his
support for the striking workers.
The
Gay Liberation
Movement
Stonewall Riots
• June 27: Judy Garland dies
• June 28: police officers raided Stonewall Inn, a
small Greenwich Village bar
• The crowd of onlookers began pelting the
officers with coins, stones and bottles.
• The police, surprised by and unused to such
resistance, beat those they could reach with
nightsticks, but eventually were forced to take
refuge by locking themselves inside the
Stonewall.
• Someone squirted lighter fluid inside the
bar and attempted to ignite it.
• parking meter were used as a battering
ram against the front of the Stonewall.
• others chanted "Gay Power!"
• a riot-control police unit arrived to
rescue the trapped officers and break
up the demonstration. However, it would
be more than an hour before the unit
was finally able to disperse the crowd
• a group of drag queens taunted the police by
singing at the top of their lungs:
We are the Stonewall girls
We wear our hair in curls
We wear no underwear
We show our pubic hair
We wear our dungarees
Above our nelly knees!
The modern Gay Rights Movement
was born
Homosexuality & Psychology
DSM-I (1968)
The first Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM)
▪ classified homosexuality
as a sexual deviation
DSM-II (1973)
• 1973: the revised DSM-II
eliminated the general
category of homosexuality
____________________________________
and replace it with
“sexual orientation
disturbance.”
•1977 -
1st Harvey
openly gay Milk
politician
elected
•San Francisco
Board of
Supervisors
• Daniel White, a fellow
City Supervisor,
murdered Milk on
11/27/78
• a psychologist testified:
junk food exacerbated
White's depression.
• More than 160 people
ended up in the hospital
when San Francisco
erupted after the verdict
DSM-III (1978)
• 1978: The DSM-III diagnosis of
ego-dystonic homosexuality
"...represented a compromise between
those individuals whose clinical
experience, interpretation of the data,
and, perhaps, biases, led them to the
conviction that homosexuality was a
normal variant of sexual expression..."
• 1978: Gaylord v.
Supreme Tacoma, WA
Court refused
to hear the
case of the
firing of a
teacher for
being
homosexual.
“Save our Children Campaign”
• coalition headed by
Anita Bryant
• To repeal the
Dade County FL
ordinance that
prohibited
discrimination on
the basis of sexual
orientation
"As a mother, I
know that
homosexuals
cannot biologically
reproduce
children; therefore,
they must recruit
our children"
“If gays are
granted rights,
next we'll have to
give rights to
prostitutes and to
people who sleep
with St. Bernards
and to nail biters."
"All America and all
the world will hear
what the people have
said, and with God's
continued help we
will prevail in our fight
to repeal similar laws
throughout the
nation."
•1978: the Supreme
Court did not overturn
the prison sentence of
a man convicted solely
of having consensual
sex with another man
DSM-IV (1987)
• homosexuality is no longer
considered a disorder
• But it still permits the diagnosis
of "Sexual Disorder Not
Otherwise Specified"
–for someone with "...persistent
and marked distress about
sexual orientation".
Ryan White
• "Because of the lack of education on
AIDS, discrimination, fear, panic, and
lies surrounded me. I was labeled a
troublemaker, my mom an unfit mother,
and I was not welcome anywhere.
People would get up and leave so they
would not have to sit anywhere near
me. Even at church, people would not
shake my hand. This brought on the
news media, TV crews, interviews, and
numerous public appearances. I
became known as the AIDS boy. I
received thousands of letters of support
from all around the world, all because I
wanted to go to school."
---Ryan White at the President’s Commission on AIDS in
1988
The
AIDS
Quilt
(1987)
“Magic”
Johnson
•Announced
he had
AIDS in
1991
1993 “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell”
• President Clinton’s attempt to end
discrimination against gays and lesbians in the
military
• “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell”
Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act (1994)
• requires the United States
Sentencing Commission to increase
the federal penalties for
“hate crimes”
• committed on the basis of the actual
or perceived race, color, religion,
national origin, ethnicity, gender,
disability, or sexual orientation of
any person.
Matthew Shepard (1998)
• “gay bashing” case
• a gay student at UofWY
• attacked 10/6/98
• died from severe head injuries
• His murder brought national
attention to the issue of hate crime
legislation at the state and federal
levels.
•Check out this
anti-Semitic website
accusing the liberal
media of suppressing
black “hate crimes”
against whites!
• http://christianparty.net/wm/wm0184a.html
FEMINISM
FEMINISM
• Spurred by increasing employment
opportunities and increasing
numbers of educated women !
• Questioned
“traditional” women’s roles
• Increased opportunities for women
in work, education, and business
• 1918: Condoms legalized
• 1920s: birth rate drops ½
Condom reliability still terrible
by modern standards
• 1960: Searle drug company
receives FDA approval
for Enovid – 1st birth control pill.
• "The Pill" revolutionizes contraception -
is nearly 100% effective
• BUT terrible side effects deadly blood
clots - the dose was 10x too high.
1960
• Women earn only 60 cents for
every dollar earned by men
• A decline since 1955.
• Women of color earn only 42
cents.
President's Commission on
the Status of Women (1961)
• JFK establishes the PCSW
• appoints Eleanor Roosevelt as
chairwoman.
• The 1963 report documents
substantial workplace
discrimination against women
• makes recommendations for
– fair hiring practices,
– paid maternity leave,
– and affordable child care.
“Affirmative Action”
– to provide minorities access to
good jobs and adequate schooling
– to improve the social and
economic status of minorities and
women
– to give minorities and women the
opportunity to begin building
better lives
The Feminine Mystique (1963)
• Betty Friedan
• one of the most influential nonfiction
books of the 20th century.
• attacked “traditional” gender roles
• the popular notion that women sole
satisfaction comes through
homemaking.
• Five million copies are sold by 1970
• Helped spur the Feminist Movement
Equal Pay Act (1963)
• outlawed paying men more than women
for the same job in most cases.
Gloria Steinem
• In 1963 she was
employed as a Playboy
Bunny at the New York
Playboy Club
• to research an article that
exposed how women
were treated at the clubs.
Political
• The article was a awakening
sensation &
Activism
• Steinem was in-demand
Shirley Chisholm
• 1968: became the first African
American woman elected to
Congress.
• She hired an all-female staff and
fought for civil rights and women’s
rights;
• she was cofounder of the National
Organization for Women (NOW).
• A vocal critic of the Vietnam War,
Chisholm was a champion of the
poor and fought for increased
funding for education.
“Breeders” or Career women
• Margaret Atwood, a feminist
author, explored themes on
women’s roles since 1969
• Her most famous work: The
Handmaid’s Tale (1986)
• Handmaids are fertile women
whose are forced to bear
children as their social function
1964 Civil Rights Act
• Title VII: prohibited gender
discrimination by employers
Affirmative Action challenged:
Was always meant to be temporary
Supreme Court outlawed reserving a
fixed number of jobs, promotions,
and places in schools for minorities
and women
Regents of the University of California
v. Bakke (1978)
N.O.W. (1966)
• National Organization for Women
• Founded by Betty Friedan,
Shirley Chisholm, & 27 others
• To create equality between the
sexes
“No fault” divorce
• California becomes the first state to
adopt a "no fault" divorce law
• allows couples to divorce by mutual
consent.
• By 1985 every state has adopted a
similar law
• Laws are also passed regarding the
equal division of common property.
Ms. magazine
• Founded by Gloria Steinem in 1971
• “More than a magazine – a
movement”
Roe v. Wade (1972)
• most laws against abortion in
the United States violated a
constitutional right to privacy
• under the Due Process Clause
of the Fourteenth Amendment.
• The decision overturned all
state and federal laws
outlawing or restricting abortion
that were inconsistent with its
holdings.
• Roe v. Wade is one of the
most controversial and
politically significant cases in
Supreme Court history
“Pro-Life” vs. “Pro-Choice”
Shirley Chisholm for President!
• 1972: 1st woman to
launch a major
campaign for
president
• she did not win her
party’s nomination,
but received 151
delegate votes.
Education Amendments of 1972
• Also known as the
Patsy T. Mink
Equal Opportunity
in Education Act
• Title IX
• Title VII
Title IX
of the 1972
Equal Opportunity in Education Act
prohibited
gender-based
discrimination
in federally
funded schools
Title VII
of the 1972
Equal Opportunity in Education Act
• outlawed discrimination by private employers
on the basis of gender
Equal Rights Amendment
• “Equality of rights under the law shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by
any state on account of sex”
• written in 1923 by Alice Paul
• The ERA was introduced into every session of
Congress between 1923 and 1972, when it was
passed and sent to the states for ratification.
• the ERA was never ratified – when the time-
limit expired 1982 it was 3 states short of the
38 required
• It has been reintroduced into every Congress
since that time.
ERA supporter
Phyllis Schlafly
opposed the E.R.A.: it would take away the
"special protection" the "Christian tradition
of chivalry" offered women - in other words, the "right"
to be "supported and protected" by men.
• linked the ERA with
military conscription
for 18-year-old girls
• coed bathrooms
• homosexual rights.
1973
• The1 st
battered women's
shelters open in the US, in
Tucson, Arizona and St.
Paul, Minnesota.
Roe v. Wade (1973)
• the Supreme Court establishes a
woman's right to abortion within the
first three months of pregnancy
• Based upon a broad right to privacy
• prohibited states from banning
abortions before the point of viability.
• canceled the anti-abortion laws of 46
states
Billie Jean King
• 6 Wimbledon singles
championships
• 4 U.S. Open titles.
• She was ranked No. 1 in the world
five years.
• She defeated such magnificent
players as Martina Navratilova,
Chris Evert and Margaret Court.
• King was instrumental in making it
acceptable for American women to
exert themselves in pursuits other
than childbirth.
• She started a women's sports
magazine and a women's sports
foundation.
“The Battle of the Sexes”
• 1973: Bobby Riggs vs. Billie Jean King
• Riggs: a 1939 Wimbledon champion &
sexist
• "I thought it would set us back 50 years if
I didn't win that match," she said. "It
would ruin the women's tour and affect
all women's self esteem."
• King was carried out on the Astrodome
court like Cleopatra, in a gold litter held
aloft by four muscular men dressed as the London
ancient slaves. Sunday Times
• Riggs was wheeled in on a rickshaw called it:
pulled by sexy models in tight outfits, "the drop shot
"Bobby's Bosom Buddies." and volley heard
around the
world."
• She put the
self-proclaimed
“male chauvinist
pig” in his place
• King
• age 29
• defeated
• Riggs
• age 55
• 6-4
• 6-3
• 6-3
1974
• The Equal Credit Opportunity Act
– prohibits discrimination in consumer credit
practices on the basis of sex, race, marital status,
religion, national origin, age, or receipt of public
assistance.
• Corning Glass Works v. Brennan
– employers cannot justify paying women lower
wages because that is what they traditionally
received under the "going market rate."
– A wage differential occurring "simply because men
would not work at the low rates paid women" is
unacceptable.
1976
• The first marital rape law is
enacted in Nebraska:
• making it illegal for a
husband to rape his wife.
1978
• For the first time in
history, more women
than men enter college.
The Pregnancy
Discrimination Act (1978)
–a woman cannot be
fired or denied a job
or a promotion
because she is or
may become pregnant
–nor can she be forced
to take a pregnancy
leave if she is willing
and able to work.
HOWEVER
The declining economy
created a growing gap
between
men’s and women’s
earning power
Geraldine Ferraro
• 1984: 1st female VP nominee on a
major ticket
Sandra Day O’Connor
• 1981: the first woman justice to
sit on the Supreme Court
• Appointed by Reagan
Sexual Harassment
• Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson
(1986)
–the Court finds sexual harassment is a
form of illegal job discrimination.
1990
• The number of Black women in
elective office has increased from
– 131 in 1970
–1,950 in 1990
Clarence Thomas
& Anita Hill
• 1991, President George Bush
nominated Clarence Thomas,
• Anita Hill, a law professor at the
University of Oklahoma, came forward
with sexual harassment allegations
• Hill had worked for Thomas when he
was head of the Equal Employment
Opportunities Commission.
• Hill charged that Thomas harassed her
with inappropriate discussion of sexual
acts and pornographic films after she
rebuffed his invitations to date him.
• In the end, the Senate voted 52-48 to
confirm Clarence Thomas
1992
• Women now paid 71 cents for
every dollar paid to men.
–64 cents for working-class women
–77 cents for professional women
with doctorates.
• Black women earned 65 cents
• Latinas earn 54 cents.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
•1993: 2nd female
Supreme Court
Justice
•Nominated
by Clinton
Madeleine Albright
• 1996: 1st woman to become
Secretary of State.
• appointed by Bill Clinton on
Janet Reno
• 1993: 1st woman
Attorney General
1996
• US women's spectacular
success in the Olympics
– 19 gold medals
– 10 silver
– 9 bronze
• The result of large numbers of girls and
women active in sports since the passage
of Title IX.
1999 American Women's
World Cup soccer team
champions!
"They changed the perception of women's
sports in society"
• 90,185: the
largest ever
crowd to see
a women's
sporting
event.
• Millions
watched at
home.
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Co. (2007)
• A female tire plant worker claimed pay
discrimination
• Lost: the conservative majority concluded she
missed a critical deadline for filing a lawsuit.
• Lilly Ledbetter accused gender discrimination:
• court records showed she was being paid
$6,000 less than men doing the same work,
including those who were the lowest paid in
their job duties.
Ginsburg said: "The
court does not
comprehend, or is
indifferent to, the
insidious way in
which women can
be victims of pay
discrimination.
Today's decision
counsels: Sue early
on, when it is
uncertain whether
discrimination
accounts for the pay
disparity you are
beginning to
experience."
Traditional Family is
Changin…
– the divorce rate soared, and
parents and children spent
less time together
The New Age Movement
– people are capable of self-healing
– people’s lives and fate are their own creation
– daily meditation can lead to peace and harmony
– the spiritual movement led by the guru
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was called
“Transcendental meditation”
– another term used to describe enlightenment is
“Zen”
