Editing 1960s (section)

==Social and political movements==
===Counterculture and social revolution===
{{See also|Counterculture of the 1960s | Timeline of 1960s counterculture}}
In the second half of the decade, young people began to revolt against the conservative norms of the old time, as well as remove themselves from mainstream liberalism, in particular the high level of materialism which was so common during the era. This created a "counterculture" that sparked a social revolution throughout much of the Western world. It began in the United States as a reaction against the conservatism and social [[conformity]] of the 1950s, and the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam. The youth involved in the popular social aspects of the movement became known as [[hippies]]. These groups created a movement toward liberation in society, including the [[sexual revolution]], questioning authority and government, and demanding more freedoms and rights for women and minorities. The [[Underground Press]], a widespread, eclectic collection of newspapers served as a unifying medium for the counterculture. The movement was also marked by the first widespread, socially accepted drug use (including [[LSD]] and [[cannabis (drug)|marijuana]]) and [[Psychedelia|psychedelic]] music.

===Anti-war movement===
{{main|Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War}}
[[File:Vietnamdem.jpg|thumb|left|A demonstrator offers a flower to military police guarding [[the Pentagon]] during the [[National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam]]'s 21 October 1967 [[March on the Pentagon]]]]
The war in Vietnam would eventually lead to a commitment of over half a million American troops, resulting in over 58,500 American deaths and producing a large-scale antiwar movement in the United States. As late as the end of 1965, few Americans protested the American involvement in Vietnam, but as the war dragged on and the body count continued to climb, civil unrest escalated. Students became a powerful and disruptive force and university campuses sparked a national debate over the war. As the movement's ideals spread beyond college campuses, doubts about the war also began to appear within the administration itself. A mass movement began rising in opposition to the [[Vietnam War]], including the [[National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam]]'s 1967 march to the United Nations  and its [[March on the Pentagon]], the [[1968 Democratic National Convention protests]] at which the slogan "[[The whole world is watching]]" became famous, and continuing in the massive [[Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam|Moratorium]] protests in 1969 as well as the movement of resistance to [[Conscription in the United States|conscription]] ("the Draft") for the war.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}}

The [[antiwar movement]] was initially based on the older 1950s [[Peace movement]], heavily influenced by the [[Communist Party USA|American Communist Party]], but by the mid-1960s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centered in universities and churches: one kind of protest was called a "[[sit-in]]". Other terms heard in the United States included "[[the Draft]]", "[[draft dodger]]", "[[conscientious objector]]", and "[[Vietnam veteran|Vietnam vet]]". Voter age-limits were challenged by the phrase: "If you're old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to vote."

===Civil rights movement===
{{Main|Civil rights movement}}
[[File:Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. (Leaders of the march posing in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln... - NARA - 542063 (cropped).jpg|thumb|240px|Leaders of the [[civil rights movement]]'s 28 August 1963, [[March on Washington]] in front of the [[Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln Memorial)|statue of Abraham Lincoln]]]]

Beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing into the late 1960s, [[African Americans]] in the United States organized a movement to end legalized [[racial discrimination]] and obtain [[Suffrage|voting rights]]. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South. The emergence of the [[Black Power movement]], which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the civil rights movement to include racial dignity, [[Economy of the United States|economic]] and [[politics of the United States|political]] [[self-sufficiency]], and [[anti-imperialism]].

The movement was characterized by major campaigns of [[civil resistance]]. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of [[civil disobedience]] and [[Nonviolence|nonviolent]] protest produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful [[Montgomery bus boycott]] (1955–1956) in Alabama, [[sit-in]]s such as the influential [[Greensboro sit-ins]] (1960) in North Carolina, [[Demonstration (people)|marches]] such as the [[Selma to Montgomery marches]] (1965) in Alabama, and other nonviolent activities.

Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the civil rights movement were passage of [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]<ref name="cra64">{{cite web|url=http://finduslaw.com/civil_rights_act_of_1964_cra_title_vii_equal_employment_opportunities_42_us_code_chapter_21|title=Civil Rights Act of 1964 – CRA – Title VII – Equal Employment Opportunities – 42 US Code Chapter 21|access-date=22 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101021141154/http://finduslaw.com/civil_rights_act_of_1964_cra_title_vii_equal_employment_opportunities_42_us_code_chapter_21|archive-date=21 October 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations, the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] that restored and protected voting rights, the [[Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965]] that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups, and the [[Fair Housing Act of 1968]] that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.

===Hispanic and Chicano movement===
Another large ethnic minority group, the [[Mexican-Americans]], are among other [[Hispanics]] in the U.S. who fought to end racial discrimination and socioeconomic disparity. The largest Mexican-American populations were in the Southwestern United States, such as California with over 1 million ''[[Chicanos]]'' in Los Angeles alone, and [[Texas]] where [[Jim Crow]] laws included Mexican-Americans as "non-white" in some instances to be legally segregated.

Socially, the [[Chicano Movement]] addressed what it perceived to be negative [[ethnic stereotype]]s of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness. It did so through the creation of works of literary and visual art that validated Mexican-American ethnicity and culture. Chicanos fought to end social stigmas such as the usage of the Spanish language and advocated official [[bilingualism]] in federal and state governments.

The Chicano Movement also addressed discrimination in public and private institutions. Early in the twentieth century, Mexican Americans formed organizations to protect themselves from discrimination. One of those organizations, the [[League of United Latin American Citizens]], was formed in 1929 and remains active today.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://lulac.org/about/history/ |title=LULAC History{{snd}}All for One and One for All |website=[[League of United Latin American Citizens]] |access-date=22 March 2023}}</ref>

The movement gained momentum after World War II when groups such as the [[American G.I. Forum]], which was formed by returning Mexican American veterans, joined in the efforts by other civil rights organizations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americangiforum.org/about.cfm |title=americangiforum.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150706223234/http://www.americangiforum.org/about.cfm |archive-date=6 July 2015 }}</ref>

Mexican-American civil-rights activists achieved several major legal victories including the 1947 ''[[Mendez v. Westminster]]'' [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional and the 1954 ''[[Hernandez v. Texas]]'' ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other racial groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th Amendment]] of the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.latinola.com/story.php?story=432|title=LatinoLA – Hollywood :: Mendez v. Westminster|work=LatinoLA|access-date=17 March 2008|archive-date=16 April 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080416202512/http://www.latinola.com/story.php?story=432|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1950%E2%80%931959/1953/1953_406/|title=Hernandez v. Texas – The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law|work=oyez.org|access-date=27 June 2017|archive-date=7 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307034040/https://www.oyez.org/cases/1950%E2%80%931959/1953/1953_406/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The most prominent civil-rights organization in the Mexican-American community, the [[Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund]] (MALDEF), was founded in 1968.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.maldef.org/about/index.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080422002948/http://www.maldef.org/about/index.htm|url-status=dead|title=MALDEF{{spaced ndash}} About Us<!-- Bot generated title -->|archive-date=22 April 2008}}</ref> Although modeled after the [[NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund]], MALDEF has also taken on many of the functions of other organizations, including political advocacy and training of local leaders.

Meanwhile, [[Puerto Rican people|Puerto Ricans]] in the U.S. mainland fought against racism, police brutality and socioeconomic problems affecting the three million Puerto Ricans residing in the 50 states. The main concentration of the population was in New York City.

In the 1960s and the following 1970s, Hispanic-American culture was on the rebound like ethnic music, foods, culture and identity both became popular and assimilated into the American mainstream. Spanish-language television networks, radio stations and newspapers increased in presence across the country, especially in U.S.–Mexican border towns and East Coast cities like New York City, and the growth of the [[Cuban American]] community in Miami, Florida.

The multitude of discrimination at this time represented an inhuman side to a society that in the 1960s was upheld as a world and industry leader. The issues of civil rights and warfare became major points of reflection of virtue and democracy, what once was viewed as traditional and inconsequential was now becoming the significance in the turning point of a culture. A document known as the Port Huron Statement exemplifies these two conditions perfectly in its first hand depiction, "while these and other problems either directly oppressed us or rankled our consciences and became our own subjective concerns, we began to see complicated and disturbing paradoxes in our surrounding America. The declaration "all men are created equal..." rang hollow before the facts of Negro life in the South and the big cities of the North. The proclaimed peaceful intentions of the United States contradicted its economic and military investments in the Cold War status quo." These intolerable issues became too visible to ignore therefore its repercussions were feared greatly, the realization that we as individuals take the responsibility for encounter and resolution in our lives issues was an emerging idealism of the 1960s.

===Second-wave feminism===
{{Main|Second-wave feminism}}
A second wave of feminism in the United States and around the world gained momentum in the early 1960s. While the first wave of the early 20th century was centered on gaining suffrage and overturning ''de jure'' inequalities, the second wave was focused on changing cultural and social norms and ''de facto'' inequalities associated with women. At the time, a woman's place was generally seen as being in the home, and they were excluded from many jobs and professions. In the U.S., a [[Presidential Commission on the Status of Women]] found discrimination against women in the workplace and every other aspect of life, a revelation which launched two decades of prominent women-centered legal reforms (i.e., the [[Equal Pay Act of 1963]], [[Title IX]], etc.) which broke down the last remaining legal barriers to women's personal freedom and professional success.

Feminists took to the streets, marching and protesting, authoring books and debating to change social and political views that limited women. In 1963, with [[Betty Friedan]]'s book, ''[[The Feminine Mystique]]'', the role of women in society, and in public and private life was questioned. By 1966, the movement was beginning to grow in size and power as women's group spread across the country and Friedan, along with other feminists, founded the [[National Organization for Women]]. In 1968, "[[Women's Liberation]]" became a household term as, for the first time, the new women's movement eclipsed the [[civil rights movement]] when [[New York Radical Women]], led by [[Robin Morgan]], [[Miss America protest|protested the annual Miss America pageant]] in [[Atlantic City, New Jersey]]. The movement continued throughout the next decades. [[Gloria Steinem]] was a key feminist.

===Gay rights movement===
{{Main|Gay liberation|LGBT social movements}}
The United States, in the middle of a social revolution, led the world in LGBT rights in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Inspired by the civil-rights movement and the women's movement, early gay-rights pioneers had begun, by the 1960s, to build a movement. These groups were rather conservative in their practices, emphasizing that ''gay men and women are no different from those who are straight'' and deserve full equality. This philosophy would be dominant again after AIDS, but by the very end of the 1960s, the movement's goals would change and become more radical, demanding a right to be different, and encouraging [[gay pride]].

The symbolic birth of the [[gay rights movement]] would not come until the decade had almost come to a close. Gays were not allowed by law to congregate. Gay establishments such as the [[Stonewall Inn]] in New York City were routinely raided by the police to arrest gay people. On a night in late June 1969, LGBT people resisted, for the first time, a police raid, and rebelled openly in the streets. This uprising called the [[Stonewall riots]] began a new period of the LGBT rights movement that in the next decade would cause dramatic change both inside the LGBT community and in the mainstream American culture.

===New Left===
The rapid rise of a "[[New Left]]" applied the class perspective of [[Marxism]] to postwar America but had little organizational connection with older Marxist organizations such as the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]], and even went as far as to reject organized labor as the basis of a unified left-wing movement. Sympathetic to the ideology of [[C. Wright Mills]], the New Left differed from the traditional left in its resistance to dogma and its emphasis on personal as well as societal change. [[Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)|Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS) became the organizational focus of the New Left and was the prime mover behind the opposition to the War in Vietnam. The 1960s left also consisted of ephemeral campus-based [[Trotskyism|Trotskyist]], [[Maoism|Maoist]] and [[anarchism|anarchist]] groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned to [[Militant (word)|militancy]].

===Crime===
The 1960s was also associated with a large increase in crime and urban unrest of all types. Between 1960 and 1969 reported incidence of violent crime per 100,000 people in the United States nearly doubled and have yet to return to the levels of the early 1960s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/statab/hist/HS-23.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924134627/http://www.census.gov/statab/hist/HS-23.pdf|url-status=dead|title=U.S. Census Bureau Data |archive-date=24 September 2015}}</ref> Large riots broke out in many cities like Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, [[Newark, New Jersey]], [[Oakland, California]] and Washington, D.C. By the end of the decade, politicians like [[George Wallace]] and [[Richard Nixon]] campaigned on restoring law and order to a nation troubled with the new unrest.