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I agree that great progress has been made regarding the status of racial/ethnic minorities and women from the 1950s through the Clinton administration. Throughout the years many steps have been made to improve the status of racial minorities and women. Many political figures have made astounding impacts on these statuses including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Betty Friedan, and Martha W. Griffiths. These were just some of the political figures that made an impact on the progress of equality.
For African Americans, one of the most influential people was Rosa Parks. Her efforts sparked the mass action against the Jim Crow laws. Rosa Parks was riding on a bus one night when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger after a full day of work. Due to the local laws in the South, she was arrested and sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. Following the boycott, the emergence of potentially the most influential figure in the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King was influential in multiple different ways, including the creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the meeting with President Eisenhower and other civil rights leaders, as well as the multiple marches and speeches that he participated in and led (Foner, p.763). The efforts made by King and many other African American civil rights leaders led to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the abolishment of the Jim Crow laws in 1964, the establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Many strides were made in the 1950s and 1960s to improve the equality of African Americans.
Many strides were also made to improve the equality of women as well. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 improved the lives of many, including the safety of being able to buy or rent and not be discriminated against based on race color, or national origin, but it stretched even further in 1974 including sex within those parameters. Many women were influential in the feminist movement from the 1960s to the 1980s and made tremendous strides towards equality. One of these women is Betty Friedan who assisted in the founding and was the first president of the National Organization for Women or NOW. Betty Friedan was also a very talented writer writing many newspaper articles in the 1940s about pay discrimination. “Betty Friedan also wrote and published The Feminine Mystique in 1963…Her opening chapter, painted a devastating picture of talented, educated women trapped in a world that viewed marriage and motherhood as their primary goals” (Foner, p. 799). This book received overwhelming support from many female readers who said “the suburban dream had become a nightmare” (Foner, p.799). Another extremely influential woman was Martha Griffiths. She was a lawyer who served as a U.S. Representative and had a significant role in including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act which prohibited sex discrimination. The United States has come a long way in the equality of women as well as minorities passing not only the Fair Housing Act of 1968 but also the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX which prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act that bans discrimination against pregnant women (Foner, p.814).
I believe that the United States has made several positive strides toward equality for both racial minorities and women. I also believe that there is still a long way to go for minorities and women to be considered equals in our society. I believe that it takes everyone to make people equal, but I feel that equality can be achieved.
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