These Days Are Dark - Historical Context

[queelez]

Welcome to the study guide for These Days are Dark. bessyboo and I have been working on this vid for about nine months, and I really hope that you take something from it. We covered forty different events in the flashback sequence, and I wanted to have a companion post detailing the historical significance of what we covered, or at least a brief overview.

A couple of quick notes before I launch into history: as we were doing research and narrowing the field for what to include, we came up with three loose criteria for what to include:
1) The event in question had to be America-centric. (This meant no fall of the Berlin Wall, no VE or VJ Day, and that we tried to ensure any footage from contemporary marches were from the United States, and not more easily-accessible footage overseas).
2) We wanted to keep things on political movements and victories, as opposed to broader cultural discussions and changes. (We toyed with including footage from Woodstock, the beginnings of the counterculture movement, beatniks, and the like - but in the end, they weren't quite political enough).
3) Whenever possible, we wanted to focus on the movement and actions of everyday citizens, rather than the decrees and machinations of politicians. I admit that this isn't always reflected in the writeups below, especially with Supreme Court cases.

Thanks so much for watching, and again - keep fighting. We're all in this together.


1909 - Uprising of the 20,000
In the early twentieth century, thousands upon thousands of women in New York worked in the garment industry under wretched conditions. Workers were expected to work at least 65 hours per week and, despite low wages, were required to provide their own materials. In some cases, workers were trapped in the factories by steel doors, which famously resulted in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, wherein a fire broke out, leading workers to perish in the fire or try to leap out of the windows. Most of the women working in the garment industry were under the age of twenty. Half were Jewish.

On November 22nd, 1909, Ukrainian immigrant Clara Lemlich demanded to speak at a union meeting. Calling for an immediate strike, Lemlich led the crowd in a modified Hebrew oath: “If I turn traitor to the cause I now pledge, may my hand wither from the arm I now raise.” Over the next several days, twenty thousand workers walked out of the factory, over 60% of the entire garment workforce in New York. With the support of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILCWU) and the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL), the strike lasted until February 1910, when the demands were met, resulting in better pay, shorter hours, and equal treatment of union and nonunion workers.

1920 - Women's Suffrage
The notion of a woman’s right to vote had been a core issue of the women’s rights movement since its inception. At the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, suffrage was included in the convention’s list of resolutions, despite initial misgivings that it may be too radical. Throughout the remainder of the 19th century, women played a large role in the abolitionist movement. In 1866, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the American Equal Rights Association, working for full suffrage for women and African Americans. Several years later, the organization schismed into two, as Anthony and Stanton believed that their allies were focusing on the rights of African Americans over women’s suffrage - only to merge back in 1890, now named the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

In 1913, the first suffragist parade in Washington DC was organized by Alice Paul, through the National American Woman Suffrage Association. By that time, some states ( including Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, California, Oregon, Arizona, and Kansas) had already granted women full suffrage in any state or local election. The Women’s Suffrage Parade was organized on the eve of President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, to “march in the spirit of protest against the present political organization of society, from which women were excluded.” Organizers were divided on the inclusion of black women - some wanted them excluded altogether, while others wanted them towards the back of the parade. Under the leadership of Ida B. Wells, the delegation from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) marched in parade with their white contemporaries. With an attendance of eight thousand, suffragettes marched through the streets of Washington DC, led by Inez Milholland, decked in a crown and cape, on horseback. Along the way, they were blocked by crowds of men who jeered and harassed the marchers, earning outrage not only by the marchers but the press and large swaths of the country.

In January 1917, as Russian delegates arrived at the White House to discuss the ongoing World War One, members of the National Women’s Party picketed on the grounds of the White House itself, a first in American history. Holding signs referring to President Wilson as “Kaiser Wilson” and saying that the United States were “not a democracy,” protesters fought off attempts to destroy their signs and shove them out of sight. Police arrested over two hundred women, half of whom were subjected to abuse and force-feeding in prison. The Wilson Administration, realizing the negative publicity, released all of the prisoners. In 1918, Wilson spoke to the Senate in favor of the tentative suffrage amendment.

At the end of World War One, statewide suffrage had spread to over half of the country, allowing women to vote for President in states allotted over 60% of the electoral college. It was increasingly clear that suffrage was not going to be a question of if, but when.

The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the “denial or abridging” of the right to vote based on sex, was passed by both the House and Senate in late Spring of 1919. On August 18th, 1920, Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the amendment, passing the necessary two-thirds and making it law. Women - or at least white women - were freely allowed to vote in the Presidential election that year.

There was still a long ways to go.

1921 - American Birth Control League
Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921. By that time, she was already well-established as a proponent of ‘voluntary parenthood,’ and had been arrested several times for running a birth control facility in Brooklyn. Her New York facility was the first clinic with an all-female staff, and a clinic she later founded in Harlem had an African American advisory council.. Sanger is commonly cited with coining the term ‘birth control,’ and is generally considered the founder of the modern birth control movement.

It should be noted that Sanger was a proponent of eugenics, particularly that she endorsed sterilizing the “feeble minded.” Sanger divided society into three classes, one of which she believed were too “irresponsible and reckless” to be allowed to procreate. Despite common misconceptions, Sanger did not single out the African American population in this class, and did not advocate for their extermination. Far from it, she repeatedly reached out to black leaders, especially ministers and pastors, for their assistance in dissuading that notion.

Today, the American Birth Control League is better known as Planned Parenthood.

1930 - Great Depression Protests
The stock market crashed on October 24th, 1929, sending shockwaves through the world’s economy and (according to historians) officially starting the Great Depression. During this time, unemployment in the United States rose to 25%, and international trade halved. Crop prices fell by as much as 60%, and the effects of the depression were felt in many countries until the beginning of World War Two. Industries, towns, and the lives of millions were devastated.

Throughout the Depression, there an enormous number of protests, rallies, and marches against the wealthy. Many of these were organized by the Communist Party USA, who began to form organized Unemployment Councils in the early years of the Depression. These organizations marched in unison to factories and auto plants, demanding work, as well as gathering to protest police brutality and oppression. Among the most notable protests was International Unemployment Day, where hundreds of thousands across the globe took to the streets to protest mass unemployment. In cities such as New York and Detroit, they were met with hundreds of police officers, resulting in rioting, open fighting on the streets, and the arrest of several high-ranking members of the Communist Party USA.

There was also great unrest with racial tensions, horrifyingly exemplified with the Scottsboro Case. Nine African American teenagers were falsely accused of raping two white women on a train in 1931. The trail was a farce, riddled with an all-white jury and a complete lack of effective legal counsel. On August 1, 1932, Communist Party USA organized a protest of fifty thousand individuals, a quarter of them African American, in Time’s Square. Bit by bit, the Scottsboro case climbed through the courts to the Supreme Court, resulting in landmark decisions to combat racist juries and withholding legal counsel.

1933 - The New Deal
When the Great Depression began, public blame shifted to President Herbert Hoover. While it’s debatable if Hoover was directly responsible (his restrictions on trade and low taxes on the wealthy certainly didn’t help), he hard a horrid response to the Depression itself. As such, Franklin Delano Roosevelt rode a wave of support to the presidency in 1932, and immediately began work on ending the depression with a massive series of laws, acts, and programs known as the New Deal.

Within the first hundred days of his presidency, Roosevelt worked to reorganize the banking system, repeal prohibition, and, by signing the National Industrial Recovery Act, created a system to begin hundreds of public work programs called Public Works Administration. These included large dams, which both created construction jobs and offered inexpensive hydroelectric power to local residents. Congress passed a bill that paid farmers to let their fields fallow, lessening the pressure of constantly growing crops in favor of letting farmland replenish.

Several years later, in 1935, Roosevelt launched the Second New Deal, more aggressive programs to combat the still-ongoing depression. Roosevelt created the Works Program Administration, which offered individuals construction jobs on a more local level than PWA. This program also gave work to artists and musicians. Soon after, he established the National Labor Relations Board, creating a more formal agency to oversee labor rights, laws, and disputes throughout the country. Perhaps most famously, Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act of 1935 to offer federal assistance to those unable to work. For decades, Republican and Democrat presidents alike worked to expand on programs the New Deal established, until the rise of the New Right in the 1980s and the election of Ronald Reagan.

1945 - Strike Wave of 1945-1946

The Strike wave was not a specific movement, but rather a series of strikes beginning after World War Two, in industries ranging from oil crews, auto workers, meatpackers, miners, railroad engineers, and film crews. During the war itself, there was a general promise between unions (accounting for roughly a quarter of the country’s workforce) and the government, that the unions would not strike as to not impede the war effort. While there were strikes during the war without the approval of an industry’s union (known as a wildcat strike), unions as a whole stayed true their promise until V-J day in 1945. There was not a single issue with these strikes - reasonings varied from wages to company policy to firings - but they were part of a larger conversation about the relationships between unions and employeers. At the time, many companies were what were called closed shops, where union membership was required for all employees, and leaving the union necessitated leaving the company. Also in existence were union shops (where non-union members could be hired, but must join the union) and agency shops (where paying a fee equivalent to the union membership fee was required, but membership itself was not). Business preferred open shops, where union membership is nearly completely divorced from employment.

When viewed together, the wave was the largest strikes in American history, with over five million Americans taking part. Historian Jeremy Brecher has called it “the closest thing to a national general strike of industry in the twentieth century.” Unfortunately, the government was not pleased - Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, which banned closed shops nationally, and permitted individual states to pass laws banning union and agency shops. This opened the door for right-to-work laws to pass. As of the posting of this video, the Taft-Hartley Act is still in effect.

1954 - Brown v. Board of Education
Since the Plegssy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, racial segregation in the United States was legal under the doctrine of “separate but equal.” It determined that, so long as the facilities provided to each race were equal, segregation backed by law was allowed in areas such as employment, transportation, housing, medical care, and education. This ushered in an era of Jim Crow laws (named for a popular minstrel character), segregating aspects of life ranging from schools and hospitals to transportation, movie theatres, and drinking fountains. Segregation laws also prohibited interracial marriage and implemented restrictions on voting. While de jure segregation - that is, segregation written into the law - was mainly prevalent in the Deep South, many northern states practiced de facto segregation, where while segregation may not have been codified legally, it was still very much a fact of life.

In 1951, a class action lawsuit was filed against the Board of Education in Topeka by thirteen parents, on behalf of their twenty children. The named plaintiff, Oliver L. Brown, was convinced to join after realizing that his young daughter had to walk nearly as far to the bus stop as she would to the nearest white school. The argument became that in addition to the quality of the schools not being the same (violating the supposed ‘separated but equal’ doctrine), the mere act of segregation was detrimental to those who suffered under its effects. While the District Court ruled in favor of the Board, citing Plessy v. Ferguson, the plaintiffs continued to appeal their case.

Brown v. Board of Education became a combination of five separate cases, all arguing against school segregation, filed in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Deleware, and Washington DC. Some of the cases were filed by parents, while others, namely Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County in Virginia, began as a student protest where 450 students organized a walkout. Thurgood Marshall, NAACP lawyer and later Supreme Court Justice, argued before the court: “the only way that this Court can decide this case in opposition to our position...is to find that for some reason Negroes are inferior to all other human beings.”

After much deliberation, the Court decided, unanimously, that establishing separate public schools for black and white students was unconstitutional. In a second decision the following year, the Court ordered states to desegregate “with all deliberate speed.” While this was a milestone victory, it was not easy. Even with the law on their side, black students faced immense discrimination and vitriol trying to attend schools. Still, it was a strong signal of what was to come.

1955 - Montgomery Bus Boycott
While not the first bus boycott (a successful boycott occurred in Baton Rouge in 1953) nor the first instance of civil disobedience in the Montgomery Bus Line (Claudette Colvin and Aurelia Browder had already been arrested for refusing to vacate their seats), the Montgomery bus boycott was an early milestone in the Civil RIghts movement.

By 1955, Rosa Parks had already been a long-standing member of the local chapter of the NAACP. In 1943, she’d been stopped from boarding a bus by its driver, who ordered her to use the back door before driving off without her. On December 1st, 1955, Parks refused to move out of her seat when ordered, violating the city’s segregation laws. Parks was arrested and fined, and appealed her case. After the arrest, local leaders of the African American community formed the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by newcomer to the city Martin Luther King Jr. Members of the community called for a boycott of the city’s bus system on December 5th. That day, during a mass meeting, King spoke in favor of the boycott being extended, to which the crowd enthusiastically agreed.

The boycott lasted for just over a year, during which time African American citizens carpooled, walked, or took the cab to school and work. Despite attacks on the street and bombings at the houses of King and fellow organizer Ralph Abernathy, the boycott continued strong, causing enormous economic distress to the city’s bus system. Meanwhile, attorney Fred Gray filed a lawsuit on behalf of several Montgomery women, including Colvin and Browder but not Parks. Browder v. Gayle was heard by the District Court in June of 1956, where they ruled that Montgomery’s enforced bus segregation was unconstitutional, depriving people of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. That November, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the decision. Montgomery Mayor W.A. Gayle was served a federal order to desegregate the bus system on December 20th, 1956, marking the successful end of the boycott.

1961 - Women Strike for Peace
In September of 1961, children’s book author Dagmar Wilson read a newspaper article about British anti-war activist Bertrand Russell’s arrest at a rally against nuclear weapons. Infuriated, Wilson reached out to her friends, making phone calls and stenciling fliers on mimeograph copiers. The Soviet Union had announced that they planned to resume above-ground testing for nuclear weapons, and Cold War tensions were nearly at their peak.

On November 1st, Women Strike for Peace led a march of fifty thousand women across sixty cities to protest nuclear testing. It was the nation’s largest women’s peace protest of the 20th century. Wilson herself led a crowd of 1,500 to the foot of the Washington Monument, while President John F. Kennedy watched from the window of the White House. As the crowd moved to the White House, Wilson and several others hand-delivered a letter to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, asking her to use her influence to curb the nuclear arms race. At the same time, an identical letter was delivered to the Soviet embassy, addressed to Nina Khrushchev, wife of the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

During a press conference several months later, President Kennedy mentioned that he had seen the “extremely earnest” protesters. In 1963, he and Premier Khrushchev signed a partial nuclear-test ban. Women Strike for Peace continued to be an active peace group, opposing the Vietnam War, US intervention in the Persian Gulf States, and protested against the Gulf War.

1963 - March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Perhaps the most famous march in American history, the March on Washington was organized by Civil Rights leaders Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph. Though the organizers and supporters had disagreements on the precise purpose of the march (particularly focused around the bill which would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964), they agreed on a set of goals examining segregation, discrimination, minimum wage, and passing or strengthening meaningful legislation. In total, the attendance was cited at 250,000 participants, roughly 75-80% of them black.

The march is most well known for Martin Luther King Jr’s iconic I Have a Dream speech, a partly-improvised coda to his prepared remarks, calling for an end to racism in America. Speeches were not merely about ideals, but action. John Lewis ended his speech by saying that “by the force of our demands, our determination, and our numbers, we shall splinter the segregated South into a thousand pieces and put them together in the image of God and democracy.” At the time, the march was highly divisive, resulting in increased surveillance of its leaders by the FBI, as well as criticism from activist Malcolm X.

The march, as well as the meeting of select leaders with President John F Kennedy, is credited with helping to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as laying the groundwork for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

1964 - War on Poverty
During his State of the Union speech in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared an “unconditional war on poverty” across America. Seen by many as a continuation of the New Deal and by Johnson himself as a continuation of the policies of his predecessor John F. Kennedy, the War on Poverty was an unofficial blanket term for a series of laws passed by Johnson between 1964 and 1965. Johnson aimed to completely eradicate poverty in America, referring to issues as unemployment and a lack of money as the “symptom” of poverty, and not the cause itself.

The effects of the myriad of laws included greatly expanding food stamps, establishing Medicare and Medicaid, creating Americorps, and providing increased funding to primary and secondary schools. These were run by the Office of Economic Opportunity, a branch of the federal government responsible for the implementation of Johnson’s policies. While the OEO was formally disbanded in 1981, many of the individual programs are still in effect to this day. However, the view of government assistance to the poor underwent a severe shift in the eighties, thanks in no small part to Ronald Reagan’s fictions of the welfare queen. As such, restrictions on welfare were expanded with the Personality Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996.

1965 - Voting Rights Act
In addition to segregation, Jim Crow laws also implemented barriers for African Americans to vote. States could require literacy tests or enact poll taxes, obstacles that people of color found difficult, if not impossible, to overcome. These were often accompanied by a grandfather clause, stipulating that if a person’s grandfather was permitted to vote, they could avoid the test or tax. This allowed whites to circumvent some voting restrictions, as their grandparents were permitted to vote.

The fight for equal voting rights had been one of the main focuses of the Civil Rights Movement since its inception. Activists organized mass voting registration efforts, which were often violently suppressed by local police force. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had some protections, such as establishing a presumption that those with a sixth grade education were literate enough to vote, curtailing the effects of literacy tests, it still did not offer concrete prohibitions against voter suppression.

In February 1965, advocate and deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot and killed by a police officer during a peaceful protest outside Perry County jail. To attempt to diffuse the community’s outrage, Southern Christian Leadership Conference leaders James Bevel and Martin Luther King Jr organized a march from Selma to Montgomery, to peacefully ask Alabama governor George Wallace about his role in Jackson’s death, as well as to call national attention to voting rights. The first of the Selma marches on March 7th resulted in mass violence, where police shot tear gas into the crowd, beat them with nightsticks, and charged them on horseback. The event, known as Bloody Sunday, shocked the nation, spurring a second march days later, where King controversially worked with the Johnson administration to lead protesters to the bridge between Selma and Montgomery and turn around, in exchange for a promise of protection against the police.

Later that month, President Johnson convened a joint session of congress and outlined what would become the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was formally introduced to congress two days later, while civil rights leaders led a march of twenty five thousand people from Selma to Montgomery. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6th, 1965, prohibiting local and state governments from imposing any voting law which would result in discrimination against racial minorities.

The Voting Rights Act would be amended and strengthened several times. However, in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the current formula that renders certain states from making alterations to their voting laws without federal approval was unconstitutional, opening the door to a new era of voter suppression. While the provision requiring federal approval is still intact, it’s ultimately unenforceable without new guidelines from Congress.

1968 - Poor People's Campaign
As interest in the War on Poverty began to wane as the Vietnam War slogged on, African-American leaders began to seize on poverty as a vital detriment to civil rights. Leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr and Ralph Abernathy realized that, despite the gains they’d made, conditions for living amongst African Americans had not improved. The campaign was aimed at alleviating poverty regardless of race, and drew on activist groups of all backgrounds. King envisioned a large-scale demonstration of civil disobedience, large enough to halt operations across the entirety of Washington DC. During it, they planned on presenting a list of demands to the federal government, including a commitment to full employment, more funding for low-income housing, and measures for a guaranteed annual income.

Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4th, 1968, throwing the future of the campaign into serious doubt. The campaign, now led by Abernathy, resolved to proceed, but reorient away from civil disobedience and towards the creation of a tent city on the National Mall. In May 1968, Coretta Scott King began a two-week protest in Washington DC, demanding an economic bill of rights. Throughout the rest of the month, additional protesters and activists caravanned into the city. The FBI, fearful that this was pretext to a violent takeover of Washington DC, kept a watchful eye on all protesters.

On May 21, the official tent city was set up near the reflecting pool. Named Resurrection CIty, it boasted a population of roughly three thousand people. Residents described it as a place where “you don’t pay taxes, there’s no police brutality, and you don’t go to jail.” Resurrection City included numerous tents for sleeping and eating, a city hall, a psychiatrist, and a university, among other amenities. Protesters constantly attempted to meet with members of congress, which were generally unsuccessful.

Resurrection City lasted six weeks, until police cleared it out and arrested remaining protesters on June 24th.

1969 - Stonewall Riots
During the 1960s, the Stonewall Inn near Greenwich Village was the premiere gay bar in New York City. At the time, police raids on gay bars were common, with some locations subject to them on a monthly basis. Management at Stonewall were oftentimes tipped off to when raids would occur, allowing them to give some heads-up to patrons to minimize arrests and lost business. However, early in the morning on June 28th, 1969, police stormed into the bar, announcing the raid. It soon became clear that the bar's’ patrons were not going to comply. Gay men refused to provide identification, and drag queens did not go into the bathroom to prove their sex, as was standard procedure. As patrons began to be led out into the street, crowd were starting to gather. Finally, tensions escalated when a woman in handcuffs tried to fight with a police officer, yelled “Why don’t you guys do something?” to the crowd of bystanders, and was thrown into the back of a patrol wagon.

Violence broke out almost immediately afterwards. The crowd was formed of not only members of the New York gay community including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, but also sympathetic bystanders and homeless youth, who viewed places like Stonewall as refuge. Protesters threw bottles and bricks, fighting back against the police in a spontaneous demonstration. As Michael Fader remembered, “We all had a collective feeling like we’d had enough of this kind of shit.” The riot dissipated by four in the morning, only to begin again the following night - this time, joined by thousands more.

While LGBT advocacy existed before Stonewall, the riots marked the genesis of what would become the modern LGBT movement (then known as the Gay Liberation Movement). By 1971, gay rights groups had sprung up in every major city in the country. In 1970, Chicago Gay Liberation organized a march on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots. The following day, a Los Angeles gay rights organization marched as well. As publication the Advocate reported, they “staged not just a protest march, but a full blown parade down world-famous Hollywood Boulevard.”

1970 - Vietnam War Protests
Between 1955-1975, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War, a civil war wherein the communist North Vietnam was backed by the Soviet Union, and South Vietnam was supported by the United States. While America’s initial reasoning for wading into the conflict was to keep the entirety of Vietnam from becoming communist (believing that surrounding countries would follow suit, known as the domino theory), it was soon clear that America had entered a war it had no hope of winning.

Throughout the war, millions of Americans protested the war. Reasonings for opposing the war were vast - moral arguments against American imperialism; belief that intervention was not legally justifiable; theories that the draft disproportionately targeted the poor; and a general weariness and disillusionment of war, to name a few. Just as varied were the communities opposing the war. While many in power attempted to brush off protesters as merely leftists and hippies, citizens from all walks of society protested the war in droves: civil rights luminaries, college students and academics, the clergy, musicians and actors, Mexican American movements such as the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, women’s groups such as Another Mother for Peace and Women Strike for Peace, Asian American advocacy groups such as the Asian American Political Alliance, and dozens of other groups, associations, and committees.

Protests were continuous, especially on college campuses. Many of them took the form of teach-ins, wherein students and teachers would participate in lectures, debates, and screenings aimed at protesting the war. After the nationwide Moratorium marches on October 15th and November 15th in 1969, many university activists held monthly Moratoria on the 15th of each month. On May 4th, 1970, members of the National Guard shot into a crowd of students in Kent State, killing four. The Kent State shooting inspired the Student Strike of 1970, where four million students went on strike to protest the massacre.

The United States withdrew their troops from Vietnam on January 27th, 1973. At that time, national support for involvement in Vietnam had dropped to 28%.

1972 - Title IX
Part of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex by any educational program receiving federal funding. The genesis of it comes from the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in which sex was included at the last minute. However, while it prohibited discrimination in a variety of fields, it did not prohibit discrimination based upon sex in any public school or federally-funded programs. As a result, discrimination was rampant on college campuses, especially within student athletic departments.

After receiving her doctorate in Counseling and Personal Services, Dr. Bernice Sandler was repeatedly turned down for professorships due to “coming on too strong for a woman.” Sandler worked tirelessly to campaign President Johnson to issue executive orders to strengthen the act. Eventually, a push started to go through congress itself. Spearheaded by Birch Baych and Patsy Pink, Title IX seeked to rectify discrimination in educational programs receiving federal funding. It was signed into law by Richard Nixon on June 23rd, 1972.

The effects and implications of Title IX are massive. Under it, schools are required to have an established procedure for handling cases of sexual harassment or violence; must ensure that victims aren’t forced to share spaces with their abusers; and have the authority to prevent assailants from interacting or approaching their victims. Additionally, schools cannot encourage students to discontinue their education. Title IX also opened the door for better funding for women’s sports and sports scholarships - it’s estimated that participation in women’s college sports rose by as much as 600%.

Title IX has been amendent several times since its passage, primarily to expand its effects into primary and secondary school, and to require further transparency with salaries, roster sizes, and other data. In 2002, it was renamed the Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

1972 - Bureau of Indian Affairs Takeover
The takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building from November 3rd-9th, 1972, was the culmination of a month-long, cross-country protest known as the Trail of Broken Treaties. Organized by the American Indian Movement, the protest was an attempt at bringing national attention to issues facing the American Indian communities, ranging from poor housing and living situations to the violation of treaty rights. As part of this, the movement presented a Twenty-Point Position Paper with their desires. These positions generally revolved around an issue for more Indian American representation and agency when examining treaties with the federal government, as well as dismantling or ending federal programs overseeing American Indian rights. Most importantly, they wished for an end of assimilation and termination - a process which robbed American Indians of sovereignty, forcing them to abandon their heritage and history, living as American citizens.

Upon arriving in Washington DC, protestors were infuriated to find that the administration of Richard Nixon was refusing to meet with them. In retaliation, a group of around five hundred protesters entered the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices and barricaded the building with tables and desks. Some vandalized the building, destroying records and treaties and earning the ire of other members of the community, who thought the actions of the American Indian Movement was rash, and could set them all back. The standoff ended in roughly a week, during which time Nixon swept the 1972 elections in a landslide. Nixon agreed to discuss all points, save amnesty against the damages suffered during the occupation.

In 1973, Nixon signed the Menominee Restoration Act, returning federal sovereignty to the Menominee tribe of Wisconsin, and opening the door for other tribes to regain sovereignty, either through bureaucratic process or direct Congressional intervention.

1973 - Roe v. Wade
One of the most important Supreme Court decisions in the 20th century, Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States. Specifically, it determined that the right to privacy law under the Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion - in other words, that it was unconstitutional for a state to ban abortion, as abortion was a private act, and therefore not under the jurisdiction of the state. The Court also ruled that this right must be balanced against the state’s right in regulating abortions and established the trimester framework, which would later be revisited in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992.

In 1969, Norma L. McCorvey (alias Jane Roe) attempted to get an abortion - at first lying that she’d been raped (Texan law stipulated that abortion was legal only in cases of rape or incest), and then going to an illegal clinic, which she discovered had been shut down by the police. McCorvey sought legal advice, and her lawyers filed suit against the state of Texas (represented by Henry Wade), stating that she was legally eligible for an abortion under the Ninth amendment. While the Court did not argue under those exact terms, instead shifting their focus to the Fourteenth amendment, the decision was still overwhelmingly in favor of abortion, 7-2.

1973 - Wounded Knee Incident
During the 1970s, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was led by tribal president Dick Wilson. Wilson faced immense criticism for mistreating the elderly, embezzling money, and using intimidating tactics to exert his will over the Oglala Lakota. Despite multiple attempts at removing him from office (including an impeachment trial presided over by Wilson himself), Wilson remained in power, with the backing of the US Government. On February 27th, 1973, roughly two hundred members of the Oglala Lakota and American Indian Movement seized control over the town of Wounded Knee, demanding Wilson’s removal from office and new tribal negotiations with the American government. The standoff between the American Indian Movement and the FBI lasted for 71 days, punctuated by frequent exchanges of gunfire, and the government gradually cutting off electricity, water, and supplies to Wounded Knee. A delegation of Oglala Lakota attempted to appeal directly to the United Nations, beginning the laborious process of the UN looking into the plight of American Indians in the US.

Sympathy to the Oglala Lakota was high, and the occupation of Wounded Knee helped to open the country’s eyes to the mistreatment of American Indians in society. Most famously, Marlon Brando boycotted the Academy Awards, and instead sent actress Sacheen Littlefeather to collect his Oscar for his role in The Godfather. As Littlefeather said, Brando “cannot accept this very generous award, and the reasons for this being the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry, and on television in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee.”

1973 - 504 Demonstrations
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was signed into law on September 26th by President Richard Nixon. It was a landmark law in disability rights, and among the earliest laws passed in the United States to explicitly protect people with disabilities from discrimination. Specifically, section 504 dictated that no “qualified individual with a disability” should, solely by reason of their disability, be denied benefits of or subjected to discrimination by any program that received federal funding. This meant that any program that received federal funding, regardless of whether or not it was a federal program, was allowed to discriminate against people with disabilities. Schools, both K-12 and higher education, were required to permit students with disabilities full access to an education and to all programs. Airports and public libraries, both funded at least in part by the government, were also affected, as was Section 8 housing.

However, implementation proved to be a different story. By 1977, four years and three presidents after Section 504 was put into law, the executive branch had still not put the new regulations into meaningful action. Joseph Califano, Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under the administration of Jimmy Carter, had not yet signed the regulations that the HEW and Congress had put forth.

In response, the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities organized a protest across ten cities, most notably Washington DC and San Francisco. Activists organized sit-ins at government offices, refusing to leave until Secretary Califano signed the regulations. In San Francisco, roughly one hundred fifty members of the disabled community occupied the HEW building for twenty-five full days. It remains the longest sit-in at a federal building to date.

Regulations were signed on April 28th, 1977.

1976 - Love Canal
A neighborhood in Niagra Falls, Love Canal was the site of a toxic waste site owned and maintained by Hooker Chemical Company. The landfill was in use between 1942-1952, and saw regular dumping of chemical byproducts from the manufacturing of dyes, perfumes, and rubber solvents. Over the decade, roughly 21,800 tons of chemicals were dumped in the landfill. By 1950, Niagra Falls was experiencing a population boom, and city officials began to scout for a location to build a new neighborhood and school. They approached Hooker Chemical Company about purchasing the land, which had long since been covered by topsoil and grass, looking like any other stretch of undeveloped property. Hooker Chemical was hesitant, advising that constructing a school above a toxic dump would potentially be dangerous. After lengthy negotiations, Hooker Chemical deeded the site to the school board, along with clause they hoped with release them from any legal obligations and lawsuits in the future.

Throughout building of the neighborhood and school, construction workers began to breach containment structures, allowing for chemical sludge to seep out into the open. Combined with heavy rainstorms, this began a public health emergency. Construction shifted less than one hundred feet away, as to not be directly on top of a chemical dump, and 93rd Street School opened its doors in 1955. The following year, crumbling foundations revealed barrels of waste, which proceeded to flood with rainwater and leak into the open. Children enjoyed playing in the puddles.

In 1976, reporters David Pollack and David Russell found evidence of toxic chemicals in the groundwater near Love Canal. Several years later, journalist Michael Brown found an “alarming number” of birth defects in the youth living in and near the neighborhood. Local mother Lois Gibbs rallied her friends, collecting stories of a “thick, black ooze” that seeped into basements and caused vegetation to die. This brought national attention to Love Canal, with newspapers referring to the site as a “public health time bomb.” Gibbs continued to protest and investigate, only for the mayor of Niagra Falls to declare that there was “nothing wrong” with the area.

In response, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, establishing the creation of Superfund sites, giving the federal government broad authority to execute environmental cleanup. Hooker Chemical Company, now owned by Occidental Petroleum, was ordered to pay damages. The city of Niagra Falls, despite their culpability, did not have to pay damages. The population of Niagra Falls has halved since its peak in the 1960s, beginning with an exodus out in response to the Love Canal disaster.

1981 - Solidarity Day
On August 3rd, 1981, twelve and a half thousand air traffic controllers, all union members, went on strike for increased wages, manageable work hours, safer conditions, and an end to overly long shifts. As federal employees, they were barred from striking. President Ronald Reagan responded by firing a staggering 96% of the workers on strike. Reagan had previously spoken warmly about the union (The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or PATCO), and they had endorsed him during his 1980 race against Jimmy Carter. In firing twelve thousand workers, Reagan crippled unions in a way still felt today. After the President responded to a strike by simply firing the employees, it opened the doors for corporations and employers to follow suit, and unions lost an enormous amount of bargaining power.

Roughly one month later, on September 19th, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest federation of unions in the country, organized a solidarity protest in Washington DC. Estimations for attendance vary between three hundred and five hundred thousand people, making it, at the time, the largest march in Washington DC.

1983 - International Day of Nuclear Disarmament
After the beginning of nuclear proliferation in the Cold War, and thanks in part to the efforts of Women Strike for Peace in 1961, the anti-nuclear movement began to spread and diversify, not solely focusing on nuclear weapons, but also on larger environmental costs. Protests occurred throughout the 60s and 70s, oftentimes tied together with protests against the Vietnam War, or as part of the burgeoning environmentalist movement.

Environmentalists in particular were concerned about the effects that nuclear power plants would have on surrounding areas. Activists rallied against the creation of Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire, often facing mass arrests. At the peak of these protests, twelve thousand activists showed up in June 1978. The most notable protest against a specific power plant occurred after a reactor at the Three Mile Island station in Pennsylvania suffered meltdown, contaminating surroundings with radiation. This empowered anti-nuclear activists around the world, resulting in a demonstration of two hundred thousand people in New York.

As the 80s began, campaigns for nuclear disarmament enjoyed a sort of renaissance as new blood began to speak out, participating in rallies and marches. Spearheaded in part by organizations such as Livermore Action Group, protesters staged demonstrations and protests at secret facilities. In March 1982, 1,100 protesters were arrested and held for trespassing at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. In June 1982, one million people protested in Central Park in a call to end the arms race. “This feels like the 60s,” one protester said. “It feels hopeful, inspiring...it’s good for our souls.” The following year, on June 20th, marked the International Day of Nuclear Disarmament, with protests across fifty cities in the United States. True to form, one protest in California saw nearly a thousand members of Livermore Action Group arrested.

1987 - AIDS Quilt
Beginning in 1981, the AIDS crisis paralyzed the queer community in the United States with fear. A diagnosis served as a death sentence, with many young gay men not bothering to accumulate savings or plan for the future, knowing that they would not live to see. The public consciousness waved off the pandemic as the “gay plague,” believing that it was simply the queer community’s punishment for depravity and sin. For a time, AIDS was the leading cause of death among young men. In Washington, President Reagan ignored the crisis altogether, privately stating that solving it was “not a priority.” His homophobia and cruelty were further encapsulated by his refusal to allow C. Everett Koop, Surgeon General of the United States, from funding research against the disease. By the time that Reagan spoke about AIDS publically in 1987, twenty thousand people had died.

The AIDS Quilt was conceived by activist Cleve Jones in 1985, during a candlelit remembrance of the assassination of Harvey Milk. Protesters wrote names of loved ones who died due to AIDS-related causes on signs, which were then taped against the walls of the San Francisco Federal Building. The image reminded Jones of a patchwork quilt and he conceived of a vast quilt, serving as a visual memorial to those who had died. Working with a team of volunteers, Jones coordinated the campaign to create a series of panels, three feet by six feet, created by friends and family and consisting of cloth, clothing, personal items, and other decorations.

The AIDS quilt was first displayed on the National Mall on October 11th, 1987. It was roughly the size of a football field, consisting of 1,920 panels. Today, it is made up of over 48,000 individual panels and memorials.

1990 - Americans With Disabilities Act
While Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act legally protected people with disabilities from discrimination (and even labeled them a cohesive class that could be discriminated against), the question still remained of what non-discrimination meant in the context of disability, and how it differed from discrimination based on sex or race. During the 80s, the Reagan administration attempted to “de-regulate” parts of Section 504, believing it to be an unfair burden on businesses. The disabled community organized protests, meetings, and campaigns for two years, bringing the attempt to a halt. The movement suffered additional setbacks, such as the Supreme Court case Southeastern Community College v. Davis, where the court ruled that a woman’s hearing impairment disqualified her to participate in a nursing program, opening the door for more discrimination acting against the spirit of Section 504.

Throughout the 80s, the disabled community lobbied to overturn several negative Supreme Court rulings. The right to sue states for violating Section 504 was reinstated, as was coverage of anti-discrimination provisions to all airlines. Additional awareness campaigns were conducted via discrimination diaries and public hearings, where thousands of people with disabilities and their loved ones attended to share their own experiences.

As drafts of the Americans with Disabilities Act slogged through Congress, activists continued to speak out. On March 13th, 1990, dozens of protesters abandoned their wheelchairs and crutches to crawl up the steps of the Capitol in a spontaneous dramatization of the barriers and challenges facing their day-to-day lives.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on July 26th, bringing sweeping changes. It sharpened the definition of discrimination against people with disabilities, bringing it to all government organizations regardless of funding, as well as private companies with fifteen employees or more. It also ensured that accommodations must be made in any public space including parks, hotels, restaurants, schools, and transportation.

1995 - Million Man March

Organized by a wide group including local NAACP chapters, the National African American Leadership Summit, and radical group the Nation of Islam, the Million Man March was a wide-scale demonstration in October 1995 with the goal to “convey to the world a vastly different picture of the Black male.” Organizers believed that, due to the Republican party’s victory in the 1994 congressional elections, public discourse concerning the African American community had greatly diminished. In particular, they believed that politicians were failing to address issues such as income disparity, unemployment, and police discrimination.

The march was held on October 16th, 1995 on the National Mall. Attendance reached over 825,000 members with programmed events ranging from prayer, addressing racist portrayals of black men in the media, and community involvement. While the Million Man March was a male-dominated and organized event, there was a parallel activity called the National Day of Absence. Organized by black women, the Day of Absence was geared towards members of the black community who were unable to attend the march in Washington. It encouraged them to stay home from school, work, and other responsibilities in favor of organizing teach-ins and worship services.

The Million Man March was marred by controversy in two major ways. As previously mentioned, it was geared specifically towards black men, leading to accusations of sexism. Secondly, it was called and partially organized by Louis Farrakhan, then-leader of the Nation of Islam, labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. Farrakhan’s speech was blasted by critics as sexist and anti-Jewish, while some of his religious rhetoric was derived as homophobic. It remains a point of debate whether or not the message of the Million Man March could be divorced from one of its leaders.

1997 - Million Woman March

Founded in direct response to the male-centric Million Man March, the Million Woman March was created to help bring large-scale change and empowerment to black communities throughout the United States, with a particular focus on the role of black women. Co-founder and march leader Phile Chionesu said that the march was designed to convince African American women to “recognize their own economic, social, and political might to overcome the ills of their communities.” It was also to draw attention to the disproportionate hardships that African American women endured, including an increased wage gap, high rates of violent crime, and an increased likelihood of contacting AIDS.

The March was held on October 25th, 1997. Held in Philadelphia, some 750,000 attendees marched from the Liberty Bell to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Speeches ranged in topics from faith and community to the drugs in inner cities, but all included a call to action. “If you do not put petty jealousy aside,” said Leona Smith, President of the National Union of Homeless, “if you do not continue to organize and mobilize, this day will mean nothing.”

When organizing began, the Million Woman March was not backed by any large groups or organizations. It was fully organized by communities and grassroots leaders by word of mouth and the nascent Internet. This was in stark contrast to the Million Man March, which had the official backing of prominent politicians, advocates, and religious leaders. It marked a shift in how protests would be organized.

The union behind the Million Woman March are still active today. They are currently planning a Twentieth Anniversary March for October 2017.

1999 - World Trade Organization Protests
Since its commencement in 1995, the World Trade Organization, an intergovernmental organization with the purpose of regulating international trade, has been among the most powerful economic organizations in the world. It has been criticized for favoring the desires of first-world countries over the needs of poorer countries, ignoring environmental concerns, and not working enough to better labor rights around the world. Every few years, the WTO meets for their Ministerial Conference to negotiate new deals and policies going forwards. In 1999, the WTO prepared to meet in Seattle to negotiate deals going into the new millennium, hoping to usher in a new era of globalization.

In response, a series of protests from a diverse range of organizations sprung up in downtown Seattle. While protesters were united in their opposition to the WTO, their precise motivations varied. Many were labor unions (such as the AFL-CIO) advocating for better labor practices. Others included student groups, environmentalists, and anticapitalists. Finally, there was a significant number of anarchists forming what was known as a black bloc, a group of protesters who wore scarves, ski masks, goggles, and other face-concealing items to hide their identities. The coalition of protesters was overseen by Direct Action Network, a Seattle-based group formed specifically for the WTO protests. The protesters as a whole were nicknamed N30, following the tradition of earlier anarchist rallies.

Throughout the morning of November 30th, the first day of the WTO conference, activists began to converge around the convention center. Bit by bit, access to the convention center was locked off by protests, teach-ins, street parties, and the sheer mass of bodies. Delegates were unable to get from their hotels to the convention. Meanwhile, the black bloc grew in size, smashing the windows of shops and police cars. Police responded by firing pepper spray, tear gas, and stun grenades into the crowd, spurring protesters to throw bricks and bottles back at the police. The opening ceremony to the Ministerial Conference, scheduled for noon, was cancelled.

Mayor Paul Schell declared a state of emergency, while Governor Gary Locke sent in two battalions of National Guardsmen to form a perimeter around the conference center on the morning of December 1st. Protests, riots, and violence continued over the next several days, giving the protests the nickname the Battle of Seattle. By the end, WTO negotiations had all but collapsed, hundreds of protesters and bystanders alike had been jailed, and the activist’s anti-globalization messages received international attention.

While there was division regarding the message and method of the protesters, it was widely agreed that the brutal tactics of the Seattle police were far out of proportion to the actions of the protesters, even the anarchist black blocs. Sympathizers argued that any violence was “symbolic,” in that it was directed towards property and not people. Regardless, the police’s poor handling of the situation led to the resignation of the chief of police and Mayor Schell losing his re-election bid two years later.

2003 - Iraq War Protests
After the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and the invasion of Afghanistan, the administration of George W. Bush turned its eye towards Iraq. Presenting evidence that Iraq had a hand in the 9/11 attacks and that Saddam Hussein was in possession of “weapons of mass destruction,” it seemed that Bush was preparing to invade the country. The possibility was controversial from the start; with many citizens believing that Bush’s reasonings were poor, or that they were even excuses. Many thought that his administration was trying to attain control of the Iraqi oil supply, or that Bush himself desired to finish his father’s legacy. (George H. W. Bush had overseen the Gulf War between 1990-1991).

On February 15, 2003, there was a global anti-war protest across 600 cities worldwide. Estimations vary, but it’s likely that between six and eleven million people participated. A journalist in CNN remarked on the diversity of the crowd, mentioning that many in attendance were military veterans and “veterans of the anti-war movement.”

United States armed forces invaded Iraq on March 20th. That evening and into the following day, protests sprang around the country. Many of them were spontaneous, organized around city halls, state capitols, and the like. Others, known as Day X protests, were planned weeks in advanced, ready to commence if and when war began. As with the global protests the month prior, a precise tally is difficult to find, but it’s thought that at least 350,000 people participated.

As the war continued, Bush’s excuses were revealed as fraudulent. There were no weapons of mass distraction. Hussein had no connection with the 9/11 attackers. Public support of the war diminished. In a retrospective, Gallup polling stated that since mid-2005, “opponents of the war tended to outnumber supporters.” American involvement in Iraq ended by December 2011, when President Barack Obama withdrew the last of American troops. Protests continued on a regular basis.

2005 - Bush Counter-Inaugural Protest
Despite his mishandling of the war in Iraq, the controversy surrounding his initial election in 2000, and a general lack of broad popularity, Bush secured re-election in a close race against Senator John Kerry. On January 20th, there were a series of demonstrations in Washington DC against Bush’s second inauguration. The DC Anti-War Network sponsored a mass rally at Malcolm X Park of around ten thousand people, culminating in a much smaller die-in shortly after at Lafayette Square, where protesters lay down on the street, blocking further movement. Though they anticipated being arrested, local police left them alone.

During the parade, roughly five thousand attendees turned their back as the Presidential motorcade approached. This was a common form of protesting against Bush that had its genesis at Ohio State University in 2002, during a commencement speech Bush gave to the graduating class.

There was also some violence and vandalism. During the rally at Malcolm X Park, members of the conservative Protest Warrior group attempted to instigate a conflict. Some of the local protesters took issue with their presence, leading to a brief physical brawl. A leading member of the DC Anti-War Network sought to mediate the conflict, reminding the Protest Warriors that the group had a permit to gather at the park, and found space for the conservatives some distance away. At night, during one of the inaugural balls, a group of masked protesters marched towards the Washington Hilton Hotel, spraypainting buildings with the anarchist symbol and breaking windows. Police arrested roughly six dozen marchers who were not engaging in vandalism, attacking them with pepper-spray and holding them overnight. This led to a class-action lawsuit by the ACLU against the District of Columbia, ruled in the ACLU’s favor.

2008 - Obama Elected
By the end of George W Bush’s administration, the country was sliding into recession, and approval ratings were reaching a low of 25%. It was clear that the country was sick of Bush’s policies and general ineptitude, and looked towards the future for a new way forwards. Emerging as major candidates to the political race were John McCain, a veteran Arizonian senator who’d handily secured the Republican nomination, and Junior Senator from Illinois Barack Obama. Obama primaried against initial frontrunner Hillary Clinton, senator from New York and former First Lady, before finally securing the nomination on June 3rd.*

Obama ran on a platform of ending the war in Iraq, universal health care, and revitalizing America’s standing in the world. His campaign slogan was a simple, powerful statement of determination and optimism: Yes We Can. By contrast, McCain was seen as old hat, a moderate Republican who was too aligned with Bush’s policies. In addition, his nominee for Vice President, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, swiftly earned a reputation of being an ineffective and inexperienced politician. On November 4th, Obama swept the election, becoming the first African American President in history.

*On a personal note, Bess and I graduated from high school the same date, less than a block away from where Obama was speaking and unofficially accepting the nomination. Our ceremony was at the exact same time. We’re still bummed we couldn’t see him speak instead.

2009 - Prop 8 Protests
Narrowly passed by voters in 2008, Proposition 8 was an amendment to the California State Constitution banning marriage between same-sex couples. It was the second such referendum put on the ballot - Californian voters had previously passed on Proposition 22 in 2000, restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples until it was struck down by the California Supreme Court in 2008. Originally titled the California Marriage Protection Act, Proposition 8 swiftly gained enough support to be put on the state ballots for the November elections, where it was passed, rendering all current same-sex marriages void.

Protests sprang up immediately, organized by Join the Impact, an LGBT advocacy organization founded by Amy Balliett and Willow Witte. On November 15th, less than two weeks after Prop 8 went into effect, Join the Impact led nationwide protests. Twelve thousand protesters chanted “No on Hate” and “No More Mr. Nice Gay” in Los Angeles, while another twenty-five thousand marched in San Diego. In Salt Lake City, roughly 600 mothers of LGBT children held a candlelit vigil around the Church of Ladder-day Saints.

The referendum also faced fierce opposition among California politicians. State Congress tried numerous times to override the law and legalize same-sex marriage, only to be repeatedly vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. On November 13th, after hearing out the Strauss V. Horton case, the California Supreme Court ruled that marriages performed before Prop 8 were valid.

In 2009, during the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, the US District Court found that banning same-sex marriage violated equal protection under the law. While Attorney General Jerry Brown declined to appeal the case, the original sponsors and backers of Proposition 8 chose to appeal, gradually working up towards the Supreme Court. Specifically, the Court was to rule as to whether or not the backers of Prop 8 had standing - that is, the legal right to be involved with the case. On June 26th, 2013, the court ruled 5-4 that proponents of Proposition 8 did not have standing, and, after a long stay of proceedings where same-sex marriage was illegal as the cases were heard, same-sex marriage once more was legal throughout the state of California.

2011 - DREAM Act
Officially known as the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, the DREAM Act is a proposed law which would provide undocumented immigrants with a clear, legal path to citizenship. It was originally proposed in 2001 and, despite numerous attempts to pass it through congress, has still not been signed into law. Under the DREAM Act, undocumented immigrants who arrived to the United States before the age of 16 could be granted legal conditional residence within the country, so long as they, among other qualifications, had proof of residence for at least five consecutive years, had graduated from high school (or had a GED or admission to higher education), and were of “good moral character.” Following that, if they completed a college degree or equivalent or served two years in the military, they would be eligible for full citizenship.

While the DREAM Act has not been implemented on a national scale, there have been smaller statewide laws passed based on similar structures. The California DREAM Act, passed in 2011, allowed children who arrived in US under the age of sixteen full access to college financial aid. Likewise, Illinois authorized a private scholarship plan for children of all immigrants. In 2012, President Obama established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, allowing undocumented immigrants who’d arrived under the age of 16 to apply for two-year deferrals against deportation.

2011 - Occupy Wall Street
Officially beginning on September 17th, 2011, Occupy Wall Street was a protest in New York’s financial district, primarily centered in Zuccotti Park. It was first proposed by the anti-capitalist magazine Adbusters, who called for a peaceful demonstration on Wall Street to protest the utter lack of legal consequences for the corporations who, through their greed, were largely responsible for the 2008 financial crisis. Protesters arrived in New York in mid September, setting up an encampment where they would stay for several months.

As OWS did not have any official leadership, there was not a universally agreed-upon platform. In general, though, the primary focus was to raise awareness of economic inequality throughout the world, as evidenced by their slogan, “We are the 99%.” According to studies, 1% of the world’s population possesses and controls a disproportionate amount of the world’s wealth. Protesters also spoke out against corporate interference in politics and mass student loan debt. The encampment consisted of around two hundred permanent residents living in tents, sleeping bags, and air mattresses, with thousands more drifting in and out throughout the protest. After a box of books was left in the park, protesters started the People’s Library, a free library consisting of texts available for free circulation amongst the activists.

As the protests in New York continued, the Occupy movement began to spread across the globe. By October, there were protests in over eighty countries across the globe, all created out of a desire for global economic justice. While police resistance was initially shifted, police in riot gear attempted to clear out a protest in Oakland, attacking protesters with tear gas and pepper spray. This led to additional police crackdown in numerous protests. The New York protest was evicted from Zuccotti park in November 2011, and other major protests swiftly were as well.

2014 - People's Climate March
The environmental organization 350.org, named for their goal of reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, was founded in 2007 by environmentalist writer Bill McKibbin. Since its foundation, 350.org has organized numerous marches, summits, and campaigns to raise awareness about climate change and pressure world leaders into taking meaningful, direct action. After successful rallies in 2009 and 2012, McKibbin wanted to hold “the largest demonstration yet of human resolve in the face of climate change.”

The march was scheduled on September 21st, 2014, in response to the announcement of a Climate Summit two days later. It was not conceived as a protest against the summit, but rather as a reminder to the government leaders attending that their citizens were watching, and a plea to commit to long-term change. The march itself was an “anchor event,” a lynchpin around which additional presentations, performances, and discussions took place, both before and after the Climate Summit. These included additional marches in other cities and film screenings. In New York, 311,000 protesters marched through Manhattan, and it’s estimated that an additional 300,000 protested around the planet in over one hundred and fifty different countries. The day after the march, several thousand activists participated in Flood Wall Street, blocking traffic around New York’s financial district to call attention to the role that corporations played in pollution and climate change.

Government officials and business representatives met for the Climate Summit on November 23rd, beginning the drafting of plans to make necessary cuts to mitigate climate change. This included setting a goal to limit global warming to 2°C, and plans to halve the rate of deforestation by 2020. These drafts were further refined and put into motion in 2015, resulting in the Paris Climate Accord.

2014 - Ferguson
Michael Brown, an eighteen-year old from Ferguson, Missouri, was murdered by police officer Darren Wilson on August 9th, 2014. Brown’s body was left on the street for four hours. That night, community members created a makeshift memorial where Brown had died, with a vigil lasting well into the night. The vigil continued the following night, only to be met by 150 local officers in full riot gear. Some, claimed by residents to be out of towners, began to vandalize vehicles and loot local businesses, burning down a nearby convenience store.

Over the next several nights, protesters ventured out into the streets seeking criminal prosecution against Wilson, unnamed by the police at this time. Night after night, police officers responded by issuing full SWAT teams and firing tear gas, rubber bullets, flash grenades, and smoke bombs into the crowds. Witnesses reported that officers hurled racial slurs, comparing the protesters to animals. As reporters began to cover the scene, police tactics only grew shadier. Policemen refused to identify themselves by name and arrested journalists covering the unrest. As the days turned into weeks, protests continued. On August 16th, Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew. On the 18th, he sent in members of the National Guard. That November, a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson for any crime.

The Ferguson protests drew national attention. While it was by no means the first police killing in the United States, it helped to bring the discussion of police militarization and discrimination back into the national consciousness. Thanks to the advent of social media, protesters and newscasters were able to broadcast live footage detailing the ruthless tactics that police used against their community.

2014 - Black Lives Matter
Beginning in 2013 as a hashtag in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin, Black Lives Matter rose to national prominence after the death of Michael Brown. Members of the organization held their first in-person protest in Ferguson, bringing one hundred protesters in from out of town. The movement was co-founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, three community organizers who had previously worked together through Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity. However, BLM has no official leadership or hierarchy, but instead operates as a call to arms - a coalition of groups advocating for racial justice. The focus on local grassroots organization rather than a national structure can lead to among the press, as actions and statements made by individual supporters are attributed to the movement as a whole.

BLM engages in direct action, building power and community through protests and rallies. Their tactics include disrupting events, blocking freeways, and using social media to spread information about extrajudicial killings. They are also known for their use of slogans, often used as memorials to the fallen: “Black Lives Matter,” “Hands up, don’t shoot” (Michael Brown), “I can’t breathe” (Eric Garner), and “Is my son next” (taken from a sign from a BLM protest in Memphis).

While the Black Lives Matter Network was founded in the United States and focuses primarily on race relations in the US, it has become an international movement. In Australia, protesters met in Melbourne to bring awareness to systemic oppression and violence against Aboriginal Australians. Rallies have also been organized in Canada and the United Kingdom, in response to black men and women who died in police custody. Black Lives Matter, along with other organizations such as the National Conference of Black Lawyers and Mothers Against Police Brutality, are members of the Movement for Black Lives, an alliance of movements and organizations dedicated towards erasing systemic oppression towards the black community.

2015 - Obergefell v. Hodges
Much like other landmark cases revolving around civil rights, Obergefell v. Hodges was a combination of many cases, representing a total of sixteen same-sex couples, as well as a number of children, a widower, and several others. The case that provided the name began in July 2013 where James Obergefell and John Arthur, a gay couple who had gotten married in Maryland, moved to Ohio and discovered that their new home state would not recognize their marriage. Arthur was terminally ill, and they anticipated that the state of Ohio would not name Obergefell as his surviving spouse on his death certificate. The couple filed a lawsuit, arguing that as they had been legally married in another state, Ohio must recognize their marriage. The other five lower-court cases involved adoption, parenting rights, and states where same-sex marriage was banned not recognizing legal marriages from other states. All six of the lower-court rulings found in favor of the same-sex couples and other claimants.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Fourteenth Amendment requires all states to recognize same-sex marriages granted in other states, as well as granting same-sex marriages themselves. This is done under the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. As Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the Court’s decision, “They asked for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

2016 - Dakota Access Pipeline Protests
Located in North and South Dakota, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation is home to over ten thousand members of Lakota and Dakota tribes. In 2014, they learned of planned construction for the Dakota Access Pipeline, an oil pipeline stretching from North Dakota to Illinois. Concerns arose due to the environmental impact of the pipeline. Citing several high-profile pipeline leaks throughout the previous few years, residents of Standing Rock believed that the pipeline could potentially contaminate the Missouri River, the source of all fresh water at the reservation. More importantly, local tribe leaders maintained that the federal government did not adequately work with the tribe during the permitting process for the pipeline, which is required under federal law.

While direct protests against the pipeline began as early as fall 2014, the protests and pipeline gained international attention in September 2016, when a private security firm attacked protesters with pepper spray and guard dogs. As autumn continued, reports of abuse and oppression rose: protesters were forcibly strip-searched, left naked in jail cells, attacked with sound cannons, and shoved into dog kennels. Clashes between the police and protesters occurred daily.

Throughout the protest, tribal leaders worked to gain press coverage and support from the wider world. On August 23rd, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe released a series of letters of support from 87 tribal governments around the country. “The US Government is wiping out our most important cultural and spiritual areas,” said LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, founder of Sacred Stone Camp. “These sites must be protected, or our world will end, it is that simple.” By December, the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline had become the largest intertribal alliance in centuries.

The Pipeline became commercially operational on June 1st, 2017. On June 14th, a court ruled that the approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline violated the law, as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe had believed. It is unknown how this will impact the pipeline going forward.

2016 - Hillary Clinton’s Nomination
As First Lady, Hillary Clinton was an advocate for gender equality and healthcare reform, championing universal healthcare throughout her husband’s two terms as President. In 2000, she was elected as the first female senator from New York, where she became known for her willingness to find common ground with political opponents. House Speaker Newt Gingrich allegedly forbade Republican staffmembers to speak with her in private, fearing that they’d return champion progressive causes.

Clinton ran for President in 2008, appearing to be the frontrunner, but eventually losing the nomination to Barack Obama. Upon Obama’s victory, Clinton was named Secretary of State, in which she improved the United States’ standing around the globe and helped lay the foundation for the Iran Nuclear Deal. After Obama was re-elected for a second term, Clinton stepped back into the private sector, only to emerge as a frontrunner for the Democratic nominee for President once more. Though she was challenged by progressive independent Bernie Sanders, Clinton secured the nomination, becoming the first ever female nominee of a major party for President of the United States of America.

In her acceptance speech for the nomination, Clinton said: “Though ‘we may not live to see the glory,’ as the song from the musical Hamilton goes, ‘let us gladly join the fight.’ Let our legacy be about ‘planting seeds in a garden we never get to see.’ That’s why we’re here, not just in this hall, but on this Earth. The Founders showed us that, and so have many others since. They were drawn together by love of country, and by the selfless passion to build something better for all to follow. That is the story of America. And we begin a new chapter tonight. Yes, the world is watching what we do. Yes, America’s destiny is ours to choose. So let’s be stronger together, looking to the future with courage and confidence, building a better tomorrow for our beloved children and our beloved country.

“When we do, America will be greater than ever.”

Comments

[duskpeterson]

You saved me the immense work of looking up all the protests and reforms in your vid! Thank you so much for putting this together.