Topic 3 - Extent Of Progress In Individual And Civil Rights

Question 1

What was the Roe Vs Wade case?

Answer 1

Ruled that women could abort in first 13 weeks when a foetus was unable to sustain its own life
Passed in 1973

Question 2

What were the opponents to the Roe Vs Wade ruling?

Answer 2

• Conservative groups such as national right to life committee used methods such as mass mailing to persuade people to back the anti abortion campaign
• Phyllis schlafly = Catholic Lawyer and mother of 6, also campaigned for women’s skirts to be 2 inches below the knee.

Question 3

What was the state of women’s rights in the 1970’s?

Answer 3

• Gained a lot of success such as greater sexual freedom, right to abortion and drastically changing attitudes to women in the workplace
• Economic equality still lacking. Despite the 1973 equal pay act women still received 73% of the salary paid to men and 66% of adults classified as poor were women

Question 4

What opponents were there to women’s rights?

Answer 4

• National Right to Life committee gained huge support and funding
• Many Liberals defeated in 1980 congressional election and conservatives continued to gain strength
• Concerned Women for America (CWA) had 500k members fighting against abortion and the ERA

Question 5

What was the state of unions by 1973?

Answer 5

Many union members received benefits won by unions in the late 1940’s and 1950’s, including health insurance, life insurance, paid vacations and pensions

Question 6

1) What shows unions power in the early 1970’s?

2) What showed that unions were in decline during the mid-late 1970’s?

Answer 6

1) 1.8 million employees were affected by strikes and lockouts in 1974, when 31.8 million working days were lost
2) The 19 million workers in unions made up only 27.4% of non-agricultural workers

Question 7

Why were unions in decline?

Answer 7

• Public believed unions were communist, corrupt and that they damaged the nations economy
• Unions were largest in HI which was in decline after WW2. Between 1973-80 80% of new private sector jobs were in low-paid service/retail areas
• Booming southern economy meant unions failed to attract large numbers of members
• Business tried to lower costs in the face of increasing foreign competition so many moved plants to different countries. Decreased Union power and effectiveness
• Immigrants were wiling to work for less undermining American Labour
• Workers lacked unity

Question 8

What was life like for non union workers?

Answer 8

• Had few rights
• Vulnerable to employer abuse
• Sweatshops common
• Faced discrimination and sexism

Question 9

What was life like for homosexuals in the early 1970’s?

Answer 9

• Suffered employment discrimination, public hostility and humiliation
• Considered a curable mental illness

Question 10

What was abortion like before the Roe Vs Wade case?

Answer 10

• Illegal in 30 states and only legal in certain cases in 20 states
• Many risked backstreet abortions

Question 11

What progress did Homosexual’s make between 1973-80?

Answer 11

• 1973 NOW endorsed gay rights
• 1974 American psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of psychological disorders
• 1978 Californian voters defeated proposition 6 which would have rescinded a 1975 law that protected homo teachers from discrimination
• 1980 Democratic Party supports equality for all regardless on sexual orientation

Question 12

What set backs did Homosexual’s face?

Answer 12

• in 1980 millions of homo’s remained in the closet
• Politicians remained fearful of gay rights
• Homos were unsympathetically in the media
• Remained illegal in many states

Question 13

What was the status of Native Americans in 1973?

Answer 13

• Half of 700k population lived short hard lives on reservations with unemployment that ranged from 20% to 80%
• Life expectancy of 44 years compared to 64 years average
• Bad jobs
• Bad education
• Bad housing
• Problems rooted from land loss and the fact that they were not even considered citizens until after WW1

Question 14

What was AIM and what were some of there methods they used?

Answer 14

• Established in 1968, 40 chapters across the USA and Canada working to improve ghetto housing for Native Americans
• Stressed positive imagery (Washington redskins was racist)
• Monitored police racism
• Established survival schools such as the Heart of the Earth Survival School in Minneapolis which instructed urban children in Native Languages and culture
• Organised marches

Question 15

What success did Native American Lawyers achieve in terms of coal mining on their lands?

Answer 15

• Federal government traditionally leased mining rights on reservations to private companies and the Native Americans did not benefit
• 1973 the Northern Cheyenne of Montana Won enabling them to renegotiate mineral contracts

Question 16

What acts were passed increasing rights for Native Americans?

Answer 16

• Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance acts (1975) which gave tribes control over federal aid programmes and reservation education. Insufficiently funded therefore promised more than it delivered. Some argue they lead to….
• Indian Health Care improvement act were congress granted $1.6 billion to help improve the availability and delivery of healthcare for native Americans

Question 17

What were some Supreme Court decisions against/for Native Americans?

Answer 17

• Oliphant (1978), the Supreme Court limited tribal authority over non-Indians and Indians of other tribes
• US v Wheeler (1978) affirmed the right of a federal court to try a Native American who had already been tried by his tribe
• Decisions in 1979 resulted in the restoration of 1800 caries to Narrangansetts in Rhode Island and $100 million compensation to the Sioux for dishonourable dealings

Question 18

What was the status of Native Americans by 1980

Answer 18

• Red power contributed to a greater awareness of Native American rights to self-determination and land
• Treaty rights were still ignored
• Native Americans still remained economically disadvantaged
• Still greatly inferior to white Americans

Question 19

What was the economic status of African Americans in the early 1970’s?

Answer 19

• 1/3 of African Americans and 1/2 of black children lived below poverty line
• Infant mortality rate at 19%
• 1/3 of black workers had low status, low skilled jobs in low wage occupations
• Consisted 12% of population but 43% of arrested rapists
• Benefited from great society programmes
• Nixon ensured over 250k companies with federal contracts employed a fair proportion of minority workers
• Supreme court promoted affirmative action to end of economic inequality. Helped make 1.3 of black Americans middle class by 1980

Question 20

What was the educational status of African Americans in the 1970’s?

Answer 20

• White opposition to integrated education demonstrated continuing black social inequality
• 1971 Supreme Court ruled it time for the implementation of school desegregation specifying the bussing of black and white children to each other’s schools was the way to do this
• % of southern black American children in segregated schools fell from 68% to 8% during Nixon’s presidency

Question 21

What opposition did African Americans experience in the north during the 1970’s? And what was the impact of this?

Answer 21

• Irish Americans staged protest marches and sit-ins to demonstrate their opposition to school integration in 1974
• Pro-bussing Boston globe employed sharpshooters to defend its building
• Nixon appointed four conservatives to Supreme Court who ruled that Detroit school children should not be integrated via bussing
• Private school numbers rose and white flight was accelerated

Question 22

What was the political status of African Americans in the 1970’s?

Answer 22

• Supreme court acted to ensure equal political status ruling that no redrawing of political boundaries should leave ethnic minorities worse off in terms of political representation
• Some states went further and created districts were black American voters were grouped together to help ensure election of black officials
• More black Americans were elected mayors of major cities such as Detroit, LA (1973) and Birmingham (1979)
• However black candidates rarely won white votes and as a result only 1% of elected officials were black in 1980. Highlighted limitations of black progress

Question 23

What was the main factor slowing down individual rights in the 1970’s?

Answer 23

Conservative opposition