The movements and protests that took place in 1960s played a vital role in shaping the modern social, political, legal, and economic status of the American people. The prolonged social inequality and injustices and the exposure of the American in the Vietnam War were some of the factors that influenced young Americans, mostly students and women stage protests in an attempt to reclaim the rights of the minority groups. The most influential movements that took place in 1960s and early 1970s include the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-Vietnam war movements, the women’s movement, and the Environment movement among others. Each group of protesters had specific demands that they called for the federal government to fulfill, particularly since the government had a duty to protect the rights of the citizens.
Among the main demand of the protesters in the 1960s movements was the promotion of equal rights for the black Americans who had for long time experienced discrimination at schools, transport means and other institution. In addition, all African- Americans had no right to vote in the US. The civil rights movement, led by historical activists like Martin Luther King Jr among others led the protests against racial discrimination and segregation of black Americans especially in the South (Ollhoff, 14). The subsequent impact of the civil rights movement was the signing of the Civil Rights Act 1964 that illegalized discrimination in education and employment opportunities as well as prohibited any form of racial segregation in any type of public accommodation. This ended the previous segregation where black American children had their schools; there were specific seats for blacks in public transport among other discrimination concerns. In addition, the movement led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 that granted any American with the appropriate age the right to vote regardless of their race.
Other than the existence of discrimination based on race, women also felt that there was an existing inequality based gender especially in professional and social representation (Ollhoff, 28). For instance, despite the passing of the Civil rights Act in 1964, women rights at workplace were being violated whereby women received low salaries as compared to their male counterparts in addition to occupying low paying jobs at the workplace.
This prompted the formation of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966, led by Betty Friedan who was author of the bestselling book ‘The Feminine Mystique’. The book played a crucial role in motivating the women to participate in the movement to fight for their rights. It encouraged the women to search new responsibilities and decisions and stop depending on the decisions made for them in the male-dominated community. The Women movement subsequently led to the amendment of the Civil rights Act to include clauses that restricted discrimination on the basis of gender and sex in 1972.
The anti-Vietnam protest changed the morality and skepticism of how the president and the federal government executed the foreign policy. During the earlier years especially the in 1940s at the height of Cold War and early 60s before the eruption of the protest, citizens accepted any presidential decision on foreign policies unquestionably (Anderson, 125). However, the debates and protest questioning the involvement of America in the Vietnam war exerted pressure to president Nixon to adopt measures to withdraw the American soldiers who were fighting in Vietnam. This is whereby, there were less than 50,000 soldiers in Vietnam by 1972 as compared to the initial number of over 500, 000 troops sent to Vietnam by President Johnson by 1968. The government’s implementation of the foreign policy changed as the Americans became more involved in demanding to know the morality and purpose of America’s involvement in foreign affairs.
Works Cited
Anderson, Terry. The Movement and the Sixties. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Ollhoff, Jim. The Civil Rights Movement. NY: ABDO Press, 2011.
