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Main Idea 3: Students organized sit-ins to protest segregation.
• Many private businesses in the South were segregated.
• On February 1, 1960, four students went into a Woolworth in Greensboro, North Carolina, and staged a sit-in—a demonstration in which protesters sit down and refuse to leave.
–They sat in the “whites only” section of the lunch counter.
–The next day, they returned with dozens more students.
–Soon another sit in began at a nearby store.
–Despite harassment, they refused to respond with violence.
• Over time, some businesses began process of integration.
• Leaders of student protests formed Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.
March on Washington•June 1963– Kennedy announced support for a civil rights bill.•African American leaders held the March on Washington to show support for the bill.•August 28, 1963– Martin Luther King Jr. gave his powerful “I Have a Dream” speech before 200,000 people.
Fight for Rights
Birmingham, Alabama• In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. organized
marches in Birmingham.• King was jailed for marching without a
permit.• Released and led new marches• May 1963– 2,500 demonstrators marched.• Police chief ordered attack dogs and blasted
marchers with high-pressure water hoses.• Televised images shocked nation.
Voting Rights Act of 1965•Signed into law in August 1965•Gave federal government new powers to protect African Americans’ voting rights•Within three years, more than half of all qualified African Americans in the South registered to vote.
Civil Rights Legislation
Civil Rights Act of 1964• Signed into law on July 2, 1964• Banned segregation in public places• Outlawed discrimination in the workplace
on the basis of color, gender, religion, or national origin
• Hispanic American activist• Formed union in 1962 that would later become the United Farm Workers (UFW)
– Committed to goal of better pay and working conditions for migrant farm workers
• Led the UFW in a five-year strike and boycott against California grape growers– Workers won better wages and benefits in 1970.
• Committed to non-violent protest• Inspired young leaders in Chicano movement• His work impacted new legislation.
– Amendment to 1968 Elementary and Secondary Education Act required schools to teach students whose first language was not English in both languages until they learned English.
– Voting Rights Act of 1975 required communities with large immigrant populations to print ballots in the voters’ preferred language.
Main Idea 2: The women’s movement worked for equal rights.
• Activists brought attention to women’s position in society– A 1963 government commission reported fewer job opportunities and
lower pay for women.• Legislation was passed to help equalize rights.
– 1963 Equal Pay Act– required many employers to pay men and women equal salaries for same work.
– Civil Rights Act of 1964– banned discrimination based on gender and race• Women began questioning traditional roles.• The women’s movement worked for equal rights.
– Author Betty Friedan became a leader of modern women’s rights movement.
– National Organization for Women (NOW) founded in 1966.– Women like Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected
to Congress, worked for change by running for office.
Disabled • Disabled in Action created in 1970 to raise awareness of challenges facing people with disabilities and to work for legislation.•The Rehabilitation Act of 1973•The Education of Handicapped Children Act of 1975•Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) outlawed all discrimination against people with disabilities.
Native Americans•National Congress of American Indians helped win passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 allowing tribes to gain more control over reservation lands.• American Indian Movement founded in 1968 to fight for rights•Protests were organized, some of which ended in violence.
Main Idea 3: Other Americans also fought for change.