-
United Farm Workers Movement
The United Farm Workers is a union originally founded founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Together, Chavez and Huerta fought against agribusiness, and organized thousands of laborers so they could earn a living wage and have just working conditions. United Farm Workers became the largest farm worker union in the United States. The goal was to get better pay and safer working conditions for farmers -
Equal Pay Act
The Equal Pay Act is a United States labor law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, put in place to end the wage gap based on sex. It was signed into law by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program. In passing the bill, Congress stated that sex discrimination depresses wages and living standards, tends to cause labor disputes, thereby burdening, affecting, and obstructing commerce, and constitutes an unfair method of competition. -
California Grape Boycott
Filipino American grape workers decided to go on strike against Delano-area table and wine grape growers. They were protesting years of poor pay and conditions. Cesar Chavez, who began the United Farm Workers movement voted to join the Filipino workers. Cesar asked strikers take a solemn vow to remain nonviolent during the process. The strike drew support from outside and from other unions, church activists, students, Latinos and other minorities, and civil rights groups. -
N.O.W.
As a major part of the women’s movement, the National Organization for Women was created to help secure women’s rights. It is now the largest organization of feminist grassroots activists in the United States. Since the founding, NOW’s purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life. -
Brown Berets
The Brown Berets are a pro-Chicano organization that emerged during the Chicano Movement in the late 1960s. It was founded by David Sanchez and remains active. The group was seen as part of the Third Movement for Liberation. The Brown Berets' movements largely revolved around farm worker's struggles, educational reform, and anti-war activism; they have also organized against police brutality. -
American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement is a Native American advocacy group in the United States, founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was initially formed to address Native American affirmation, treaty issues, spirituality, and leadership while also addressing incidents of police harassment and racism against Natives forced to move away from reservations and tribal culture by the Indian Termination Policies. AIM's main objective is to create "real economic independence for the Indians" -
Chicano "Blowouts"
In 1967 Mexican American students throughout the Southwest held a 60% high school dropout rate. If they did graduate, they averaged an 8th-grade reading level. Prejudice from teachers and administrators had stereotypes of Mexican Americans that discouraged the students from higher learning. These inequalities in education led to East Los Angeles Walkouts, also known as the "Blowouts," which displayed the largest mobilization of Chicano youth leaders in Los Angeles history. -
Occupation of Alcatraz
The Occupation of Alcatraz was a long protest where 89 American Indians and their supporters occupied Alcatraz Island. This group lived on the island together until the protest was ended by the U.S. government. Under a treaty with the U.S., all retired, abandoned or out-of-use federal land was returned to the Native people who once occupied it. Since Alcatraz had been closed, and the island had been declared federal property, many activists felt the island belonged to Native people. -
Stonewall Riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the LGBTQ community. These riots were against a police raid that took place at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. They are widely considered to constitute the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States -
La Raza Unida
The Raza Unida Party or the National United People's Party is a Mexican-American nationalist organization. It was created in the early 1970s and became prominent throughout Texas and Southern California. It was started to combat growing inequality and dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party that was typically supported by Mexican-American voters. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal differences between the treatment of men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. It was originally written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman. The amendment still prompts conversations about the meaning of legal equality for women and men today. -
Trail of Broken Treaties
The Trail of Broken Treaties was a cross-country protest, that was staged by American Indian and First Nations organizations. It was designed to bring national attention to American Indian issues, such as treaty rights, living standards, and inadequate housing. The caravan began on the west coast of North America with protesters traveling by car, bus, and van until they reached the national capital of Washington, D.C. -
Phyllis Schlafly and the defeat of the ERA
Phyllis Schlafly was an American constitutional lawyer. She held conservative social and political views, supported antifeminism, opposed abortion, and successfully campaigned against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Schlafly co-authored books on national defense and was critical of arms control agreements with the Soviet Union. In 1972, Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum, a conservative political interest group. -
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade was a decision made by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of the constitutionality of laws that criminalized or restricted access to abortions. The Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy also applied to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that this right must go with state regulation of abortions. It also has to protect women's health and protect the potentiality of human life. -
Siege at Wounded Knee
The siege occurred when 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the AIM seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The protest followed the failure of an effort of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization to impeach tribal president Richard Wilson, whom they accused of corruption and abuse of opponents. The protesters criticized the United States government and its failure to fulfill treaties with Native American people. -
Murder of Harvey Milk
Former supervisor, Dan White shot and killed San Francisco’s Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Milk was the first openly gay official in the state of California and his election greatly changed San Francisco politics. They had originally disagreed on a proposed drug rehabilitation center in the Mission District. White pulled Milk aside into a room and gunned him down. -
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is a federal law that establishes the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming. There was no federal gaming structure before this act. The purpose of the act includes providing a basis for the regulation of Indian gaming, protecting gaming, encouraging economic development, and protecting from negative influences. The law established the National Indian Gaming Commission and gave it a regulatory mandate. -
Murder of Matthew Shepard
Matthew Shepard was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die. He was taken by rescuers to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died six days later from severe head injuries. Shepard's murder brought national attention to these hate crimes. Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Shepard's death inspired films, novels, plays, songs, and other works. -
Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell
Before the act was repealed, openly gay and lesbian people were not allowed to serve in the armed forces of the United States. Many people emailed congress and tried to take action against this act because it made discrimination by sexual orientation okay. There were also multiple court challenges such as Mcveigh vs. Cohen where a man was discharged for homosexual conduct. This act was signed by Barack Obama on December 22, 2010 and made effective about a year later. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
Obergefell v. Hodges was a civil rights case where the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It requires all fifty states to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples on the same terms and conditions as the marriages of opposite-sex couples, with all the accompanying rights and responsibilities.
