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CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORYing African Americans into mainstreamwhite society. Malcolm X,an eloquent activist, was the mostprominent figure arguing for African-Americanseparation fromthe white race. Stokely Carmichael,a student leader, became similarlydisillusioned by the notions of nonviolenceand interracial cooperation.He popularized the slogan “blackpower,” to be achieved by “whatevermeans necessary,” in the words ofMalcolm X.Violence accompanied militantcalls for reform. Riots broke out inseveral big cities in 1966 and 1967.In the spring of 1968, Martin LutherKing Jr. fell before an assassin’sbullet. Several months later, SenatorRobert Kennedy, a spokesman forthe disadvantaged, an opponent ofthe Vietnam War, and the brotherof the slain president, met the samefate. To many these two assassinationsmarked the end of an era of innocenceand idealism. The growingmilitancy on the left, coupled withan inevitable conservative backlash,opened a rift in the nation’s psychethat took years to heal.By then, however, a civil rightsmovement supported by court decisions,congressional enactments,and federal administrative regulationswas irreversibly woven into thefabric of American life. The majorissues were about implementationof equality and access, not about thelegality of segregation or disenfranchisement.The arguments of the1970s and thereafter were over matterssuch as busing children out oftheir neighborhoods to achieve racialbalance in metropolitan schoolsor about the use of “affirmative action.”These policies and programswere viewed by some as active measuresto ensure equal opportunity, asin education and employment, andby others as reverse discrimination.The courts worked their waythrough these problems with decisionsthat were often inconsistent.In the meantime, the steady marchof African Americans into the ranksof the middle class and once largelywhite suburbs quietly reflected aprofound demographic change.THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENTDuring the 1950s and 1960s,increasing numbers of marriedwomen entered the labor force, butin 1963 the average working womanearned only 63 percent of what aman made. That year Betty Friedanpublished The Feminine Mystique,an explosive critique of middleclassliving patterns that articulateda pervasive sense of discontent thatFriedan contended was felt by manywomen. Arguing that women oftenhad no outlets for expression otherthan “finding a husband and bearingchildren,” Friedan encouragedher readers to seek new roles and responsibilitiesand to find their ownpersonal and professional identities,rather than have them defined by amale-dominated society.The women’s movement of the1960s and 1970s drew inspirationfrom the civil rights movement. Itwas made up mainly of members ofthe middle class, and thus partookof the spirit of rebellion that affectedlarge segments of middle-classyouth in the 1960s.Reform legislation also promptedchange. During debate on the 1964Civil Rights bill, opponents hopedto defeat the entire measure by proposingan amendment to outlaw discriminationon the basis of gender aswell as race. First the amendment,then the bill itself, passed, givingwomen a valuable legal tool.In 1966, 28 professional women,including Friedan, established theNational Organization for Women(NOW) “to take action to bringAmerican women into full participationin the mainstream of Americansociety now.” While NOW andsimilar feminist organizations boastof substantial memberships today,arguably they attained their greatestinfluence in the early 1970s, a timethat also saw the journalist GloriaSteinem and several other womenfound Ms. magazine. They alsospurred the formation of counterfeministgroups, often led by women,including most prominently the politicalactivist Phyllis Schlafly. Thesegroups typically argued for more“traditional” gender roles and opposedthe proposed “Equal Rights”constitutional amendment.Passed by Congress in 1972,that amendment declared in part,“Equality of rights under the lawshall not be denied or abridged bythe United States or by any State onaccount of sex.” Over the next severalyears, 35 of the necessary 38 statesratified it. The courts also movedto expand women’s rights. In 1973the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wadesanctioned women’s right to obtainan abortion during the early monthsof pregnancy — seen as a significantvictory for the women’s movement— but Roe also spurred the growthof an anti-abortion movement.In the mid- to late-1970s, however,the women’s movement seemedto stagnate. It failed to broaden itsappeal beyond the middle class.Divisions arose between moderateand radical feminists. Conservativeopponents mounted a campaignagainst the Equal Rights Amendment,and it died in 1982 withoutgaining the approval of the 38 statesneeded for ratification.THE LATINO MOVEMENTIn post-World War II America,Americans of Mexican and PuertoRican descent had faced discrimination.New immigrants, coming fromCuba, Mexico, and Central America— often unskilled and unable tospeak English — suffered from discriminationas well. Some Hispanicsworked as farm laborers and at timeswere cruelly exploited while harvestingcrops; others gravitated to thecities, where, like earlier immigrantgroups, they encountered difficultiesin their quest for a better life.Chicanos, or Mexican-Americans,mobilized in organizationslike the radical Asociación NacionalMexico-Americana, yet did278279