The Fight For Rights: The 1960s

During the American 1960s, the fight for rights and freedom that should be guaranteed was predominant. Some of these groups were the African Americans fighting for civil rights, Homosexuals contending for Gay rights, and women determined to gain liberation.
African Americans continually fought for freedom from the severe racism and restriction of rights before the 1960s, but that culminated in the decade. Events in the 60s helped give a rise to the Black Power movement by giving African Americans a “new mood” about their treatment from their oppressors. In April of 1964, African American attempted to convene into a political party, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, to try to represent blacks, going through potential harm and the loss of jobs in order to do so. Unfortunately, when this political party was received at the Democratic National Convention they only received two seats and what they considered a “back of the bus offer”. Through further boycotting—the Montgomery Bus Boycott, for example—and the March on Washington. Both of these types of protest helped African Americans gain the winning Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Gays and Lesbians also went through a contentious time during the 1960s. This began with a routine police raid at the Stonewall, a bar that gays frequented. During this raid, they men refused to be arrested and sent to prison, and they began a riot in the streets. This riot became a three day rebellion that had gay men flaunting their homosexuality in Sheridan Square for all to behold. This “coming out” helped the Gay Rights movement because it “initiated self-defense and political activity”, bringing more attention to the matter. Organizations like the Gay Liberation Front attempted to connect the s...

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