• 1. the Civil Rights movement
• A worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between 1950 and 1980.
• Accompanied by much civil unrest and popular rebellion. Most of these movements did not achieve or fully achieve their objectives.
• The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. refers in part to a set of noted events and reform movements. between 1954 to 1968 • Aims:
• Outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring Suffrage (voting rights) in Southern states.
• Racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from oppression by whites.
• Big events timeline:
• The Montgomery bus boycott (on December 1,1955, Rosa Parks)
• On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers “I Have a Dream” speech to hundreds of thousands supporters, at the same time, 250 thousand people marched to the Washington D.C., requesting for work and freedom.
• Influence:
• It not only changed the fate of African Americans, giving them a high degree of equality, freedom and dignity, has profoundly affected the lives and idea of most of Americans. The civil rights movement also inspired people to fight for their rights and freedom. The modern women’s movement, the left movement etc.
• The civil rights movement was a new page in American history, was a great victory for most people, and this movement made America find his correct way to be a super country.
• 2. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Life: January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968
• Titles : a human rights icon
• A Baptist minister
• Education:
Bachelor of Divinity in 1951
Doctor of Philosophy on June 5, 1955—systematic theology
• Career
• King organized and led marches for blacks’ right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other basic civil rights.
• led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott
• helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957
• 1963 March on Washington—I Have a Dream
• In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
• By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective.
• 3. the anti-war movement
• Time :
From the mid and late 1960s to the early days of 1970s
During the years of the Vietnam Conflict
Until 1975, the movement ended
• Setting:
From the mid-1960s to the beginning of 1970s, America waged the Vietnam War which was the longest and the most consumed in the history of America. It had great effect on the economy, the politics, the military affairs and the society of America. As the Vietnam War advanced further, a spectacular peace antiwar movement occurred in America.
• Aim:
Anti-war activists work through protest and other grassroots means to attempt to pressure a government (or governments) to put an end to a government (governments) to put an end to a particular war or conflict.
Peace negotiations, ending the Vietnam War
• Main force:
Students on various college campuses, women and religionists
• Influence：
• The enormous opposition that the Vietnam War provoked was virtually unprecedented in U.S. history and created an antiwar subculture whose ideology has c
ontinued to have a profound impact on American society up to the present day. The antiwar movement and corresponding anti-antiwar movement also exposed class tensions within the United States. Ironically, it was the relatively well-to-do young Americans of the student protest movements who were most likely to receive draft deferments from the government. Some went to great lengths to avoid the draft, while those who were drafted could often parlay typing skills or a few business courses into safe assignments, doing administrative tasks away from the front lines. While relatively well-off college students protested the war stateside, young people from lower-class families made up the vast majority of the soldiers who actually fought and died in Vietnam. In this respect, the war was in many ways a working-class war fought by those from poorer, less-educated backgrounds.
• 4. The Counter-cultural Movement
• Introduction:
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly development in the United States and the United Kingdom and spread throughout much of the western world between 1956 and 1974.
It made resistance to the mainstream culture, social system, social injustices, and war, etc in the fields of political and culture. Started by millions of young university students who pursued love, justice, freedom and peace, counterculture movement was in fact a revolt aimed at striving for civil rights and opposing wars.
• Background:
The cold war
The post-war baby boom
The Vietnam War
The tense situation between black and white
• Politics:
African-American Civil rights movement
Free speech movement
Anti-war movement
Feminism/the women’s movement
• Counter-culture:
Reject cultural standards
Revolt against the conventional norms
Derive from mainstream culture
React against the conservatism & military intervention in Vietnam
• The modes of the movement:
New left, Hippies, living in groups, unusual dress, non-violence
About the evaluation of the movement:
Passive aspects: rooted in extreme individualism, hedonism, some modes too unusual and extreme, like taking drugs, living in groups
Positive effects: produce a new America subculture---youth culture; massive influence in politics
• The major groups in the movement:
American youth (college students), Women, Blacks
• Influence:
To some Americans, counterculture reflected American ideals of free speech, equality, and pursuit of happiness.
Other people saw the counterculture as self-indulgent, rebellious,
unpatriotic, and destructive of America’s moral order.
• 5. the Feminist Movement • Definition:
The Feminist Movement, that is, the women’s liberation movement. Purpose is to get women equal rights and the right to equal status with men, and the choice of people’s career and the way of life of freedom.
• Three waves of feminism in America:
The first wave;
Time: 1940s to 1960s this is a period of feminist budding period
Reason: in the 19th century abolitionist movement(废奴运动), many white women are active participants, and play a positive role, but they did not obtain the corresponding right with man.
Aim: for equality with men in education rights, political rights, business rights and property right of inheritance(遗产).
Represent：The United States first conference of women was hold in Seneca Falls in 1848
Result: After more than 72 years of hard struggle, women right to vote on 19 of amendments to the United States Constitution(第19条宪法修正案) finally were approved by Congress(国会), American women have won the right to vote.
• The second wave:
Time: 1960s to 1980s women’s liberation
Reason: the various popular forms of sex discrimination in today’s society(性别歧视)
Aim: improve women’s consciousness of sex oppression, and her personal experience as a political issue
Represent: Betty Friedan (贝蒂.弗里丹)
Written《the feminine mystique》which published in 1963
Set up the national organization for women in 1966
Held large-scale demonstrations(示威活动)in 40 cities in 1970
Feature: associated with the black civil rights movement for equal rights.
Result: women’s gender awareness has been greatly enhanced and women’s social status also has been great improved.
• The third wave:
Time: the end of 1980s so far post-modern feminist
Reason: more and more women participate in the political business, media and industry, and go into leading class
Feature: more attention to women’s socialism and sexual freedom instead of the scope of philosophical reflection
Result: women get more power; even can affect the country’s political, economic, and cultural
• Conclusion:
Feminism not only promotes the development of American feminist literature, and culture development, but also the development of world’s feminist movement.
The status of women is gradually increasing and women even to determine some major politics of government and society.
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