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The United Farm Workers Movement
The UFW was formed in 1962 by Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Philip Vera Cruz. Their goals were to help improve farmer's working conditions, homes, and wages. -
The Equal Pay Act
The Equal Pay Act of was a United States labor law, it was aimed to fix wage inequality based upon sex. It was signed in June 1963. It was signed by J. Kennedy, and it was a part of his New Frontier Program. The Equal Pay Act was among some of the first laws in America to actually address gender discrimination. Pres. Kennedy called it a “significant step forward,” but also truthfully said that “much remains to be done to achieve full equality of economic opportunity” in terms of women. -
California Grape Boycott
The California Grape Boycott , or the Delano grape strike, was a labor strike by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and the UFW against powerful grape growers in California. The strike started in 1965 and lasted more than five years. -
NOW
NOW stood for the National Organization for Women, and it was founded by Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Pauli Murray, Muriel Fox. It’s Purpose was take action to bring women into full participation in mainstream American society. It exercised all of the privileges and responsibilities in a truly equal standing with men. -
The Brown Berets
The Brown Berets were founded in Los Angeles, California in 1967, they were quite an influential community based social justice organization that played a huge role in the Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s and 70’s. The members of the Brown Berets wore brown berets as a sign of unity and resistance. -
Chicano Blowouts
The East Los Angeles Walkouts, also known as the Chicano Blowouts, were a set of 1968 protests by Mexican American students against unfair conditions in Los Angeles high schools. The first protest took place on March 6, 1968. -
AIM
The American Indian Movement , or AIM, was a Native American civil rights organization, founded in 1968 by Russell Means, Dennis Banks, and Clyde Bellecourt. It’s purpose was to encourage self-determination among Native Americans and to make sure they got international recognition of their treaty rights. -
The Occupation of Alcatraz
The Occupation of Alcatraz lasted from November 20, 1969 to June 11, 1971. During that time, Native Americans took over and held the Island as Indian Land. The Occupation of Alcatraz Island was led by a group called Indians of All Tribes , or IAT. The take over lasted more than 14 months and finally ended when they were forcibly removed by the federal government. -
The Stonewall Riots
The iconic Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous and radical demonstrations by members of the LGBTQ community. They were based against a police raid that took place during June of 1969. The raid happened at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan. It is considered to be the most important event leading up to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the US. -
La Raza Unida
The Raza Unida Party, which was officially known as Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida (meaning the National United People's Party or the National United Race Party) was a Chicano, or Mexican-American, nationalist organization. It was created in 1970 and became very popular in Texas and Southern California. -
Trail of Broken Treaties
The Trail of Broken Treaties was a cross country Native American protest, that happened in the fall of 1972. It was held by the American Indian and First Nations organizations. In total, more than 600 people traveled through the Trail of Broken Treaties. They took a caravan of buses, cars, trucks, and RV’s to Minnesota. There Native American activists, wrote about how the lack of sanitation and clean drinking water on reservations was killing American Indian children. -
Equal Rights Amendment
In March of 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by the U.S. Senate and sent into the states for ratification. Even though it was first proposed in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment wasn’t passed until 1972. It’s purpose was to provide legal equity of the sexes and outlaw discrimination just on the basis of sex. -
The Siege at Wounded Knee
The siege at Wounded Knee began in 1973 when about 200 followers of the AIM seized the town of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, which was on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Wounded Knee incident lasted for a total of 71 days, during that time two Sioux men were shot and killed by federal agents and many more were wounded. On May 8, the AIM surrendered after government officials promised to address their complaints. -
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade was legal case where the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973, ruled 7 to 2 that restrictive state regulation of abortion was unconstitutional. The court then tried to compel the states with the health of pregnant women and in the quality of life for fetuses. These issues are still a problem today, as well. -
Murder of Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk was a politician, and the first openly gay government official in the history of California. On Nov. 27, 1978, a member of the Board of Supervisors shot and killed Milk. His murder was devastating for many members of the community, but it left an impact on younger generations of LGBT people. That included getting rid of Prop. 6 , which prohibited gay people from working as school teachers. Also, a city ordinance was passed ensuring equal rights for all gays and lesbians in SF. -
Phyllis Schlafly and the Fall of the ERA
Phyllis Schlafly was a conservative political activist. She was known for her very vocal, yet skillfully organized protesting of the Equal Rights Amendment. She became a very outspoken especially during the 70s. She was the organizer of the Stop ERA campaign. Lucky for her, 15 states did not ratify the ERA. Those states were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia. -
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was put in place by the US Congress in October of 1988. It’s purpose was to regulate and establish framework for hunting and gaming on Native American land. There was no federal structure like this before the act. The IGRA established the National Indian Gaming Commission and also the mandatory structuring for Indian gaming and hunting in the US. -
The Murder of Matthew Shepard
Matthew Shepard was a gay student who was studying at the University of Wyoming. On the night of October 6, 1998, he was beaten, tortured, and left to die near a small town in Wyoming. This was an obvious hate crime. He was taken by EMT’s to a Hospital in Colorado, where he died six days later from very severe head injuries. -
Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Don’t ask, don’t tell (DADT) was a law put in place in 1994, barring LGBTQ people from serving in the military. Not only was this hugely unacceptable on behalf of basic human rights, it also sent a huge blaring message that homophobia was totally okay. And, sadly and unsurprisingly, DADT lasted until September of 2011, only eight years ago. -
Overgefell v. Hodges
Obergefell v. Hodges was a massively important civil rights case in which the Supreme Court that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This was so deeply important to the LGBTQ rights movement, and has been fought for, for centuries.
