1. Social Movements: Civil Rights as a Movement Model
Chapter 12

2. A Social Movement Defined
A sustained challenge to those in power put forth by individuals, acting in concert with others, who have been excluded from the political process or who consider themselves political outsiders

3. A Social Movement Defined
Conditions that give rise to social movements
Shared grievances
Supportive environment
Catalyst
Catalytic leadership

4. A Social Movement Defined
Social movements and democracy
Social movements enhance democracy by bringing previously excluded groups into the political process
Social movements can sway public opinion

5. A Social Movement Defined
Social movements and democracy (cont.)
A principal objective of social movements is to change public policy
Social movements increase political participation
Social movements can bring about change in the structure of political institutions
Some social movements have worked to decrease the political access of oppressed groups
White supremacy/separatist movement

6. Successful American Social Movements
The Civil Rights Movement
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Jim Crow laws
“Separate but Equal” doctrine

7. Successful American Social Movements
The Civil Rights Movement (cont.)
Start of the movement: 1900–1920
Lynching
Resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan
NAACP: founded in 1909
World War I

8. Successful American Social Movements
The Civil Rights Movement (cont.)
Movement spurred by New Deal and World War II: 1930–1950
New Deal programs
Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada (1939)
World War II
Returning Black veterans demanding civil rights

9. Successful American Social Movements
The Civil Rights Movement (cont.)
Modern phase begins: 1950–1960
Boycotts, sit-ins, and demonstrations
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
White Citizens Council

10. Successful American Social Movements
The Civil Rights Movement (cont.)
Nonviolent civil disobedience increases: 1960–1965
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Catalytic leadership: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
See “Our Voices: Excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Birmingham, AL: Police Commissioner “Bull” Connor and violent reactions to demonstrators

11. Successful American Social Movements
The Civil Rights Movement (cont.)
Nonviolent civil disobedience increases: 1960–1965
1963: March on Washington
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965

12. Successful American Social Movements
The Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights Movements
The first stage of the women’s rights movement
1848: Seneca Falls Convention
Women’s movement split over the Fifteenth Amendment
National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) versus American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)
1890: NWSA and AWSA reunited to create the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

13. Successful American Social Movements
The Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights Movements (cont.)
The first stage of the women’s rights movement
1920: Passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
1923: First draft of the Equal Rights Amendment

14. Successful American Social Movements
The Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights Movements (cont.)
The second stage of the women’s rights movement (beginning in 1960s)
President Kennedy appointed Esther Peterson as the Head of the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau
Development of a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
1963 report from the Commission on the Status of Women documenting widespread discrimination against women

15. Successful American Social Movements
The Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights Movements (cont.)
The second stage of the women’s rights movement (beginning in 1960s)
1963: The Feminine Mystique
1966: National Organization for Women (NOW)
1972: Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
STOP ERA campaign
See “Evaluating Equality: What Arguments Did Supporters and Opponents of the ERA Put Forth?”

16. Successful American Social Movements
The Labor Movement
1868: Establishment of 8-hour work day for federal workers
1886: American Federation of Labor (AFL)
1925: Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids
First labor union organized by African Americans

17. Successful American Social Movements
The Labor Movement (cont.)
Early 1900s standards
8-hour work day
40-hour work week
Prohibitions of child labor
Minimum wage
Workplace safety rules and regulations
Collective bargaining
Establishment of the Department of Labor

18. Successful American Social Movements
The Labor Movement (cont.)
1930s–1940s: “Glory” years for organized labor
1955: AFL-CIO formed
Late 1970s: Beginning of union decline

19. Union Membership as a Percentage of the Total Workforce, 2016

20. Successful American Social Movements
The environmental movement
1960s–1970s
Environmental Policy Act of 1970
Creation of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Establishment of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Environmental racism

21. Successful American Social Movements
The anti–Vietnam War movement
Vietnam War (1959–1975)
U.S. college student reactions to religious intolerance in Vietnam
1965: Antiwar demonstrations, draft card burnings
1968: Democratic National Convention
Protest against the Selective Service deferment options for middle- and upper-class men and male college students
Protest against racial and ethnic minorities bearing much of the burden of the war

22. Successful American Social Movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement
Dates back to eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
1924: Society for Human Rights
1950: Mattachine Society
1970s: Gay liberation movement and lesbian feminism
1969: Stonewall riots led to the broader modern movement
2009: Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act

23. Successful American Social Movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement (cont.)
Civil unions and same-sex marriage
2011: Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy
Increasing favorable public opinion for state-recognized same-sex marriage
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)
North Carolina’s HB2
Transgender “bathroom bill”

24. Other Important U.S. Social Movements
The Chicano civil rights movement
Began in 1940s
Influenced by Black civil rights movement
1968 mass walkouts of high school students over poor education and discrimination

25. Other Important U.S. Social Movements
American Indian movement
1924: U.S. citizenship for American Indians
Suffrage with the Voting Rights Act of 1965
1968: American Indian Movement (AIM)
Mass demonstrations in the 1970s

26. Other Important U.S. Social Movements
Asian American movement
Late 1960s
Antinuclear movement
1970s
Religious fundamentalist movement
Greater political influence by 1990s

27. Why Some Social Movements Decline and Some Fail
Factors that contribute to social movement decline
Factionalism
Changes in public opinion
Countermovements
Success

28. Why Some Social Movements Decline and Some Fail
Factors that contribute to social movement failure
Broad or unrealistic goals
Inability to organize effectively
Suppression
Physical, legal, or violent force

29. Social Movement or Political Activism?
Social movements are difficult to develop and sustain
Black Lives Matter
Political activism versus social movement
Time horizons
Corporate “astroturfing”
Tea Party