The+Art+of+1960s+Social+Movements

Feminist Movement I Civil Rights Movement I Green Movement

The social movements of the 1960s had much in common. They all grew out of the static, unchanging, repressive years of the early and mid-1900s; they were all part of a new kind of social awareness that also gave rise to the sixties counterculture. The three that are focused on here -- women's rights, civil rights, and the green movement -- are especially related, though they may initially seem very different. All three (though particularly the civil rights and women's rights movements) even had many supporters in common; more importantly, however, they were all part of a great societal movement to examine, reconsider, and change American life as it was then known. We owe much of the good in today's America to the people who fought in these movements.

The women's rights movement of the 1960s -- alternately known as the feminist movement or women's liberation -- sought equal and fair treatment of women. This issue was especially pertinent in 1960s America, both as a backlash to the conservative post-WWII 40s and 50s and as a genuine reaction to the thoroughly unfair (though, in some cases, legal) treatment of women at that time. Key figures of this movement include Gloria Steinem, Betty Freidan, Germaine Greer, and Pauli Murray, among others. The art that has been chosen to represent the feminist movement is intended to convey the spirit of the movement, as well as the radical, creative thinking of some of its members. Click here for the story of 1960s women's liberation, as told through art.

The civil rights movement worked to end racial discrimination against African-Americans, and to restore full suffrage in the South. Leaders of the civil rights movement include Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks.

The timeline below shows important events in the evolution of the women's rights, civil rights, and green movement between 1960 and 1970. For each year, events from at least two of the movements are listed; information regarding the women's movement is listed on top, the civil rights movement in the middle, and the green movement on the botton. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement. || Wallace Stegner publishes //Wilderness Essay//. || Congress passes the Equal Pay Act, making it illegal for an employer to pay a woman less than a man for doing the same job. || About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Four young girls (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins) attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, Alabama, the site of the attack, which leads to the deaths of two more black youths. || The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) launches a massive effort to register black voters. President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which abolishes all kinds of discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin, and also gives the government the power to enforce desegregation. || Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Race riots erupt in Watts, a black section of Los Angeles. President Johnson issues Executive Order 11246, which enforces affirmative action. African-Americans begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama by a police blockade. Police use tear gas, clubs, and whips against them, and over fifty marchers are hospitalized; the incident becomes known as "Bloody Sunday." || The Fur Seal Act of 1966 is signed into law. || In //L////oving// v. //Virginia//, the Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional; sixteen states are forced to change their laws. Major riots occur in Newark and Detroit. || President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law, prohibiting discrimiatory policies relating to the sale, rental, and financing of houses. || Congress passes the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. || In //Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education//, the Supreme Court orders the immediate desegregation of 33 Mississippi school districts. || Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes organize and hold the first Earth Day. President Nixon establishes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Congress passes the Clean Air Act and the Resource Recovery Act. ||
 * < 1960 ||< The Food and Drug Administration approves birth control pills. ||
 * <  ||< Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter.
 * < 1961 ||< President Kennedy establishes the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appoints Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman. That year, the Commission issues a report on discrimination against women in the workplace, and makes important recommendations intended to rectify the situation. ||
 * <  ||< Over the spring and summer, student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations. Several of the groups of "freedom riders" are attacked by angry mobs along the way. The program, sponsored by The Congress of Racial Equality, (CORE) and SNCC, involves more than 1,000 volunteers, black and white. ||
 * < 1962 ||<  ||
 * <  ||< James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Riots erupt, and President Kennedy sends 5,000 federal troops. ||
 * <  ||< Rachel Carson publishes //Silent Spring//.
 * <  ||< James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Riots erupt, and President Kennedy sends 5,000 federal troops. ||
 * <  ||< Rachel Carson publishes //Silent Spring//.
 * < 1963 ||< Betty Friedan publishes //The Feminist Mystique//. It energizes the movement and quickly becomes a bestseller.
 * <  ||< Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala.; he writes his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail," arguing that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws.
 * < 1964 ||< Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bars employer discrimination on the basis of race or sex. It also establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which has the power to investigate complaints and impose penalties. ||
 * <  ||< The poll tax is abolished by the 24th amendment.
 * <  ||< The poll tax is abolished by the 24th amendment.
 * <  ||< President Johnson signs the Wilderness Act of 1964 into law, thus protecting some 9 million acres of federal land. The law also defines "wilderness" as "... an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." ||
 * < 1965 ||< //Griswold v. Connecticut// removes the last existing state law banning the use of contraceptives for married couples. ||
 * <  ||< Malcolm X is assassinated.
 * < 1966 ||< Betty Friedan, among others, founds the National Organization for Women, or NOW. ||
 * <  ||< Huey Newton and Bobby Seale found the Black Panthers. ||
 * <  ||< The National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 becomes law; it provides guidelines and directives for administration and management of all areas in the National Wildlife Refuge system.
 * <  ||< The National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 becomes law; it provides guidelines and directives for administration and management of all areas in the National Wildlife Refuge system.
 * < 1967 ||< Executive Order 11375 expands President Johnson's affirmative policy of 1965 to cover discrimination based on gender. ||
 * <  ||< Stokely Carmichael, a leader of SNCC, coins the phrase "black power" at a rally in Seattle.
 * < 1968 ||< The EEOC rules that sex-segregated help wanted ads in newspapers are illegal. This ruling is upheld in 1973 by the Supreme Court, opening the way for women to apply for higher-paying jobs hitherto open only to men. ||
 * <  ||< Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tenn.
 * <  ||< Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tenn.
 * <  ||< Congress passes the National Trails System Act, which creates a series of trails "to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources of the Nation."
 * < 1969 ||< California becomes the first state to adopt a "no fault" divorce law, which allows couples to divorce by mutual consent. ||
 * <  ||< President Nixon issues Executive Order 11478, which requires that all federal agencies adopt "affirmative programs for equal employment opportunity."
 * < 1970 ||< In //Schultz// v. //Wheaton Glass Co.//, a U.S. Court of Appeals rules that jobs held by men and women need to be "substantially equal," but not entirely "identical," to fall under the protection of the Equal Pay Act. ||
 * <  ||< President Nixon signs the National Environmental Policy Act, which established the requirement for environmental impact statements, into law.
 * <  ||< President Nixon signs the National Environmental Policy Act, which established the requirement for environmental impact statements, into law.
 * <  ||< President Nixon signs the National Environmental Policy Act, which established the requirement for environmental impact statements, into law.