7.2 Social & Reform Movements

Social and Reform Movements

The civil rights movement inspired a wave of other rights and reform movements in the 1960s and 1970s. Key Idea 11.10 asks students to connect these movements to constitutional principles — especially equal protection — and to the expanding federal role under the Great Society. Expect Part I questions that pair a reformer or law with its movement and Civic Literacy tasks that trace how groups pressed government to address inequality.

The women's movement and modern feminism

Post-war feminism reawakened with Betty Friedan's 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, which challenged the idea that women should find fulfillment only as homemakers. In 1966 Friedan and others founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) to push for equality in jobs, pay, and education. Major gains included:

• The Equal Pay Act (1963), requiring equal pay for equal work.
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964), banning employment discrimination based on sex as well as race.
• Title IX (1972), banning sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funds — the basis for expanded women's athletics.
• Roe v. Wade (1973), which recognized a constitutional right to abortion (later overturned in 2022).

The proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) passed Congress in 1972 but fell short of ratification by the states — a favorite Regents example of an amendment that was proposed but never added to the Constitution.

Labor and the farm workers

Reform also reached the fields. César Chávez and Dolores Huerta organized the United Farm Workers (UFW) and led the Delano grape boycott to win better wages and conditions for mostly Latino agricultural laborers. Their use of boycotts, strikes, and nonviolent protest deliberately echoed the civil rights movement and linked labor rights to the broader struggle for equality.

The environmental movement

Modern environmentalism is one of the most reliably tested reform topics. Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring exposed the dangers of pesticides such as DDT and is credited with launching the movement. Growing public concern produced a burst of federal regulation:

The pattern to remember: private concern (Carson) led to federal regulation (the EPA and the environmental laws of the 1970s), an expansion of government power over the economy.

Immigration reform

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart–Celler Act) ended the national-origins quota system that had favored immigrants from northern and western Europe since the 1920s. By replacing quotas with preferences for family reunification and skills, the 1965 law opened the door to far more immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, reshaping the nation's population in the decades that followed.

Latino, Native American, and LGBTQ movements

The era's spirit of activism spread to many groups:

• Latino movement — beyond the UFW, the broader Chicano movement pressed for political representation, bilingual education, and cultural pride.
• Native American movement — the American Indian Movement (AIM), founded in 1968, drew attention to treaty rights and poverty; the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (1975) gave tribes more control over their own affairs.
• LGBTQ movement — the Stonewall riots (1969) in New York City are widely marked as the start of the modern gay-rights movement, which decades later achieved nationwide marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).
• Disability rights — the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) banned discrimination against people with disabilities in employment and public accommodations.

The Great Society

These movements coincided with the largest expansion of federal social programs since the New Deal. President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society and its 'War on Poverty' aimed to reduce poverty and expand opportunity. Its landmark programs included:

• Medicare (1965) — health insurance for Americans 65 and older.
• Medicaid (1965) — health coverage for low-income Americans.
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) — federal aid to schools.
• Head Start — early education for low-income children.

Together with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Immigration Act of 1965, the Great Society dramatically expanded the federal role in health care, education, and civil rights — a theme the exam contrasts with the smaller-government philosophy that would follow in the 1980s.

A shared constitutional theme

Almost every movement in this era appealed to the same principle: equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. Women, farm workers, immigrants, and Americans with disabilities all argued that government must treat groups equally and remove barriers to full participation. This is why the Regents groups these movements together — each extended the civil rights model of litigation, organization, and legislation to a new community.

Common trap: The Equal Rights Amendment is often confused with a ratified amendment. Remember that it passed Congress in 1972 but was never ratified by the required three-fourths of the states, so it never became part of the Constitution. In contrast, Title IX (1972) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) are laws that did take effect and are still enforced today.

Exam strategy

When a stimulus names a reformer, match them to their cause: Friedan → women; Chávez → farm workers; Carson → environment. When a question asks about the Great Society, choose the option about reducing poverty and expanding federal support for social programs, not answers about foreign policy or returning power to the states.