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Not In Our Town II highlights how individuals can and do make a difference.
We encourage students to explore how ordinary people can and do
shed their passivity, engage in the democratic process and help
create a society that values diversity and human rights.
The positive actions highlighted in Not In Our Town II are not unique
in history. Today as in the past, people and groups work in many
different ways to combat prejudice, discrimination and hate crimes.
Not In Our Town I and II show concrete examples of Americans acting
on their belief that persecution and injustice based on race, religion,
gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation must not be tolerated.
Instead of reiterating the many unjust laws and policies our government
has allowed, we have chosen to focus on historic examples of groups
and individuals who have made a positive difference.
While it is not possible to do a complete survey of the history of social
justice and community activism in a study guide of this length,
here are a few select topics:
Colonial
Era America included residents who fled religious persecution in
England. In many ways Americans have been cooperatively resisting
discrimination since the beginning. As early as the 1600s, Quakers
throughout the colonies rejected slavery; they saw it as an affront
to God’s will. For this and other unorthodox beliefs the Quakers
themselves often faced discrimination. In the mid-1700s, colonists
began to object to what they saw as discriminatory English practices,
especially Parliament’s taxing policies: Parliament levied taxes
on colonists even though the colonies had no representation in Parliament
(“taxation without representation is tyranny”). To protect their
rights, colonists refused to pay certain taxes, engaged in skirmishes
with the English authorities, and eventually instigated the American
Revolution.
The
American Republic declared itself a democracy in which all people
were created equal. In practice, though, only Protestant white men
achieved any level of equality. Women, non-Protestants, and people
of color were routinely almost uniformly discriminated against.
This inequality did not go unchallenged. Citizens and non-citizens
used their voices to effect change. Before the Civil War, black
and white abolitionists struggled to convince the American people
and government that slavery was unacceptable in a free republic.
At times, these abolitionists put their own lives and freedom in
jeopardy to work for the freedom of others. African American men
won the right to vote in 1870, with the ratification of the Fifteenth
Amendment, but both black and white women continued to be denied
that right. Their campaign for the right to vote in national elections
did not succeed until Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment in
1920. During the same period, Jim Crow laws required African Americans
in the South to maneuver in subtle but sometimes powerful ways to
counteract the effects of overt racial discrimination.
Many
nineteenth century Americans, both African American and white, saw
the institution of slavery as a gross injustice and fought to abolish
it. Three of the greatest abolitionists, Sojourner Truth, Harriet
Tubman, and Frederick Douglass, had been born into slavery themselves.
Frederick Douglass escaped in 1838 and soon began lecturing about
his experiences. He became the most prominent African American abolitionist,
speaking across the northern United States, founding an anti-slavery
newspaper, and meeting with Abraham Lincoln several times to discuss
the issue. Douglass also protested discrimination against free African
Americans in the northern states. Another great abolitionist orator,
Sojourner Truth,the first African American woman to speak out against
slavery, was famous for her rhetorical power. Harriet Tubman gained
fame as a “conductor” on the underground railroad, the network of
guides and safehouses that helped escaped slaves reach freedom in
Canada. After escaping slavery herself in 1849, Tubman returned
to the South nineteen times to free others. During the Civil War,
Tubman worked as a nurse, a scout, and a spy for the Union army—in
one campaign she helped free 750 slaves. Thanks to the efforts of
these and other abolitionists, slavery was outlawed in 1865 with
the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Throughout
the twentieth century, the struggle for civil rights has been one
of the strongest forces producing social and political change in
America. The 1950s and 1960s, saw African Americans and white sympathizers
unite in unprecedented numbers to effect long overdue changes in
American law: the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 secured
civil rights for all American citizens at least in legal terms regardless
of race or ethnicity. Yet legal equality does not necessarily trans-late
into real equality. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act, many
individuals and groups worked hard to make equality a reality to
put an end to discrimination, promote tolerance, stop hate crimes,
and press for redress of past wrongs. African American civic leaders
and clergy continued to be at the forefront of the fight against
discriminatory practices. Encouraged by African American successes,
Latinos organized in the 1960s and 1970s to demand equal rights,
forming groups to promote cultural pride and combat prejudice. Also
in the 1960s and 1970s, women argued more strongly for their equal
rights, which had never been constitutionally guaranteed; Native
Americans took action, asserting traditional rights to land and
resources that had been denied them for centuries; and Asian Americans,
long denied fundamental rights because of race, worked through
legal channels to correct wrongs of the past.
“We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are
created equal.” So began the Declaration of Sentiments drafted at
the 1848 Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention. This conference
was called by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, abolitionists
spurred to action when they were barred from participating in an
anti-slavery convention because of their gender. Seneca Falls was
the beginning of the women’s suffrage (voting rights) movement in
the United States. Suffragists pro-moted their cause by holding
parades, rallies, and public speeches, and through acts of civil
disobedience, such as voting illegally. Suffragist activism led
to Wyoming’s granting women the vote in 1869. Many other states,
mostly in the West, followed suit, but the majority of American
women still were not allowed to vote. The National Woman’s Suffrage
Association (NWSA), founded by Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, focused
on the goal of passage of a Constitutional amendment guarantee-ing
universal voting rights for women. The suffrage amendment, first
introduced in Congress in 1878, was finally passed as the Nineteenth
Amendment in 1920. A period of relative inaction followed; then,
in the 1960s, activists such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem
launched the “Second Wave” of the women’s movement. They focused
on raising awareness of unequal treatment and passing laws to fight
sexual discrimination in the economic and social realms. The laws
they championed today guarantee equal pay for men and women working
in the same jobs, prohibit job discrimination on the basis of gender,
and bar sexual discrimination in schools receiving federal funds.
Most
Native Americans in the United States are not only citizens of this
country, but also members of independent tribes with their own governments.
Because of this, Native American activism has generally focused
on promoting autonomy for tribal governments as well as protecting
the civil rights of individuals. Tribal governments, regional inter-tribal
associations, and national organizations such as the National Congress
of American Indians, founded in 1944, and the Native American Rights
Fund, founded in 1970, work to protect the rights of Native Americans,
both collectively and individually. These organizations have successfully
pushed legislation protecting the sovereignty of tribal governments
on reservation lands, restoring tribal rights (such as hunting and
fishing rights) guaranteed by historical treaties, and gaining U.S.
government recognition for tribes that have been “terminated,” or
stripped of their sovereign rights.
The
world’s most active organization in the fight against anti-Semitism
is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), founded in 1913. The ADL combats
Holocaust denial, neo-Nazism, and other types of anti-Semitism,
and works toward tolerance not only for Jewish people but for all
minority groups. One of the League’s most important missions is
its campaign against hate crime (crimes in which victims are singled
out because of their race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation).
ADL experts study hate crime and develop programs to reduce the
violence, including diversity awareness training and laws that dictate
harsher-than-usual penalties for hate crimes. About 40 U.S. states
have laws based on or similar to the ADL’s model for anti-hate crime
legislation. In 1993 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality
of hate crime “penalty enhancement,” and a federal hate crime statute
was included as part of the 1994 U.S. Crime Bill. The ADL also promotes
the separation of church and state in order to protect religious
freedom for all.
Racially-segregated
schools and public facilities were the law in many parts of the
United States until Oliver Brown, a railroad worker, sued the Topeka,
Kansas board of education in 1951. His daughter had been barred
from attending a public school in her neighborhood because she was
African American. The case—known as Brown v. Board of Education—went
all the way to the Supreme Court, where Thurgood Marshall, then
chief counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP), successfully argued that the principle of
“separate but equal” is unconstitutional. Marshall later became
the first African American Supreme Court justice. Through the 1950's
and 60's, the NAACP and other African American organizations such
as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) championed desegregation. They won many other important court
cases overturning laws restricting the civil rights of African Americans.
They also successfully pushed for new laws guaranteeing these rights:
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination based on race,
sex, religion, national origin, or color and protected every individual’s
right to vote, seek employment, use public facilities, and patronize
public places. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 provided for equal treatment
in the sale or rental of housing. These acts ended de jure racial
segregation (segregation by law), although de facto segregation
(segregation in fact) is still a major problem today.
The
Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), founded in 1930, is a
national organization devoted to protecting the rights of Japanese
Americans. Its mission has evolved over time to include effective
social activism. In 1946 an initiative that called for validation
of the alien land law was introduced in California. The JACL mounted
vigorous opposition by reminding voters of the contributions made
by Japanese American citizens and soldiers. In large part because
of the JACL’s efforts, the proposition was defeated. In 1956 the
JACL placed Proposition 13—an initiative calling for repeal of the
alien land law—on the California ballot. Proposition 13 passed with
overwhelming public support. The JACL fought for the right to citizenship
for foreign-born Japanese living in America, particularly for the
parents of American-born soldiers who fought in World War II. In
1978 the JACL asked Congress to evaluate the wartime internment
of Japanese Americans to “determine whether a wrong was committed;”
as a result of the arguments and evidence presented, the House of
Representatives in 1987 concluded that the United States government
should make a formal apology to Japanese Americans and provide financial
compensation for survivors of the internment camps.
When
César Chávez first began organizing Latino farm workers in the 1960s,
labor unions had long been a useful and successful tool for those
who strove to improve conditions in the workplace. Until the 1930s,
Latinos had been largely excluded from mainstream American labor
organizations; after the 1930s, Latinos were generally allowed to
become union members, but experienced discrimination in some unions.
In 1962 Chávez and others founded the National Farm Workers Association
in California, an independent union that later became a part of
the major umbrella organization for unions, the American Federation
of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and changed
its name to the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). Under Chavez’s
leadership, the UFW achieved significant gains for farm workers
(both Latino and non-Latino) through successful boycotts of agricultural
products. The UFW continues to press for better wages and working
conditions for farm workers. The activities that Chavez and his
dedicated organizers led inspired the Chicano activism of the 1960s
and 70s, helping to create a Latino civil rights movement.
The
modern gay rights movement is considered by many to have started
with the Stonewall riots in New York City in 1969. Since that time,
numerous groups have been established to promote civil rights for
lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. One of the most influential is
the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), founded in 1973,
which has worked to combat anti-gay violence and to improve the
legal status of gay men and lesbians in the United States. Important
advances in gay rights have been made since the 1960s. Several states
have repealed laws that made homosexual acts illegal, despite the
fact that in 1986 the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality
of such laws. Several states have also passed laws prohibiting discrimination
based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, and other areas.
When Colorado passed an amendment to its state constitution banning
this type of civil rights protection for gay men and lesbians in
1992, the United States Supreme Court ruled the amendment unconstitutional.
Three mass marches on Washington—in 1979, 1987, and 1993—have helped
place gay and lesbian rights in the national spotlight.
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