-
Founding of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
One of the most important Civil Rights movements, the SNCC emerged from a student meeting organized by Ella Baker and was created by young people who had emerged as leaders of the sit-in protest movement. The sit-ins were initiated on by four black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina. The members of SNCC included both blacks and whites. -
FDA Approves Sale Of Birth Control
In the 1950s, Margret Sanger underwrote the research necessary to create the first human birth control pill. She also raised $150,000 for the project. Due to the research and money raised by Sanger led to the first oral contraceptive, Enovid, was approved by FDA as contraception. -
Civil Rights Act (1964)
The Civil Rights act made racial, religious, and sex discrimination by employers illegal, and gave the government the power to enforce all laws governing civil rights, including desegregation of schools and public places. -
Griswald vs. Connecticut
A court case that primarily dealt with the idea of the "right to privacy." This idea would become a key factor in consitutional law, and protected people from unwarrented intrusion by the state. Connecticut laws had previously ban dissemination of information on contraceptive and birth control. However, the supreme court ruled that this law had violated couple's "right to privacy." -
Immigration Act
The Immigration Act replaced varying quotas with the limit of 20,000 immigrants per year from anyone outside the Western hemisphere and 120,000 from the Western hemisphere. -
Medicare and Medicaid
Medicare and medicaid were a joint state and federal program that helped pay medical costs for both the poor and the elderly. Medicare was more aimed towards the elderly, and medicaid was directed towards the poor. The establishment of these insurance programs showed the expanding federal government, and it's involvement within American lives. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Signed by Lyndon B. Johnson, a law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African-American suffrage. It was also designed to prohibited discrimination in the voting system. The main priority of the law, was to protect minorities, and their voting rights. -
Founding of National Organization for Women (NOW)
The National Organization for Women was created by Betty Friedan, along with other feminists. The organization contributed to the rise of the second wave of feminism, and had several purposes. These purposes included to promote equal rights for women, make changes in divorce laws, and legalize abortions. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The ERA or Equal Rights Amendment was created to ensure that women and men were treated equally. The amendment was intended to make it unconstitutional to deny any equal rights "on the account of Sex." However, the amendment never passed due to opposition by women, who were lead by Phyllis Shlafly. Their main argument being that women will be forced to take on men's role. -
Roe v. Wade
The Roe vs. Wade decision became a huge part of the idea of "the right to privacy." The descision declared that a fetus (developing child) did not have the right to life until the final 3 months of pregnancy, when a child could survive without its mother. Therefore, the decision ultimately legalized abortions, annd preserving the mother's right to privacy. -
Webster v. Reproductive Health Service
The supreme court allowed states to impose certain conditions, such as tests of viability and waiting periods, before abortions could be preformed. -
Congress Aproves Health Care Bill
President Obama proposed a system that combined both private and public health care insurance. Elderly and poor would continue to have insurance, and private insurers would continue to insure millions, but they could not kick people people out of their system when they became ill. In addition, companies consisting of more than 50 employees would have to give insurance to their employees and employee's families.
