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The Influence Of The Activism In The 1960's

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The 1960s were an era of change. Americans were waking up to the reality of inequality and social divisions that plagued the country. Activist groups emerged as an outlet for Americans to voice their opinions in order to propel their message for change. The activism of the 1960s has helped shaped the society we have today, through the nonviolent struggle for equality Americans had crafted a resistance to societal norms in order to provoke change in the nation.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quickly became a powerful symbol for not only the civil rights movement in the 1960s but for equality and activism as a whole. In 1955, King Jr. gave a compelling speech defending the actions of seamstress Rosa Parks. Parks, in a powerful nonviolent act of protest, refused to give up her seat for a white person. Even though Parks’s actions may seem small, her message was powerful. The civil rights activists believed in nonviolent acts of civil disobedience. Martin Luther King Jr. and the others involved in the civil rights movement utilized non-violent strategies to provoke a change in legislature that would in turn lead to true equality between african americans and whites. …show more content…

Women in the 1960s grew tired of the traditional role of housewife and wanted to be perceived as equals. In 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded with the goal to “take action to bring American women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now.” NOW sought to combat “half-equality” by pushing for legislation that protected against sex based discrimination, encouraging female education, and crafting the image of a new type of woman that could work to be an equal with her husband. By resisting societal constraints on what a woman could be, NOW and the women of the 1960s were fighting for equality while also opposing the status quo to create a new

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