Significant Socio-Political Movements in U.S. History

Introduction

Socio-political movements are those in which radical advocation for change within American life and politics comes from a horizontal hierarchy where the everyday citizen believes that they can participate in reform. In history, the United States has seen several different movements, from the suffragettes to the Stonewall riots and everything in between. The goal is to construct a new social reality out of a conflict, with a set opponent. Social movements often arise from a competitive pursuit of collective interests, for example, the reconstruction of social, cultural, or political identity, the defense of status or privileges, or a political force drawing groups or communities together. One of the first movements to successfully evoke change in governmental processes and policies was the Civil Rights Movement. Most recently, Black Lives Matter protests have been and still are calling for a reformation of the police, an agency that receives some of the highest government funding. This article seeks to discuss the roots of various movements, as well as their impact.

Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement, which took place during the late 1940s to 1960s, relayed a national struggle for Black Americans seeking an end to discrimination under the law. Despite the abolition of slavery after the Civil War, inequality endured, and Black people were considered separate but equal (e.g., Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896) for more than a century. Jim Crow laws, created by Democratic legislatures during the Reconstruction Era, enforced racial segregation in the South. These laws called for “persons of color” to be legally separated from whites in public transportation, schools, parks, cemeteries, and more. They derived in opposition to laws passed by Republicans to protect African Americans, including the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments that provided equal protection under the law and allowed Black American men to vote, respectively. At the time, Democrats were conservative, and Republicans were more progressive; the two parties “switched” political positions and ideologies around the twentieth century (this is commonly known as the twentieth-century reversal).

In 1948, while the United States was engaged in the Cold War, President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 to end discrimination “based on race, color, religion, or national origin” in the military. The desegregation of the military often serves as a marker for the start of the civil rights movement. Efforts towards equality occurred slowly over decades. The Plessy v. Ferguson U.S. Supreme Court ruling was only partially reversed in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case where segregation in public facilities was ruled unconstitutional, finally acknowledging that “separate” was inherently unequal. This first step towards desegregation is recognized as a legal turning point during the civil rights movement but did not evoke any immediate moves to desegregate education. Schools mostly defied the directive, and a decade later, in 1964, more than 98 percent of Black students in the South were still attending segregated schools. Northern states were also known to practice discrimination in many economic and opportunity-based situations, resembling modern-day inequalities in the United States.

Significant figures of the civil rights movement include the “Big Six”: Asa Philip Randolph, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer Jr., John Lewis, Whitney Young Jr., and Roy Wilkins. These activists organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a major moment for the movement. In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his speech, “I Have a Dream,” at the march, which served as a petition to the government and forever secured King a political legacy. The March on Washington was instrumental in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which sought to enforce the constitutional right to vote, prohibit segregation and discrimination in public institutions, and establish a government agency called the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Black female activists of the civil rights movement were Ella Baker, Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, and Claudette Colvin. Murray challenged the “separate but equal” doctrine based on sex, co-authoring the essay “Jane Crow and the Law,” which Ruth Bader Ginsberg argued for in Reed v. Reed. The Supreme Court ruled that discrimination on the basis of sex violated the 14th Amendment. Months before Rosa Parks, Colvin was the first Black woman to refuse to give up her seat on the public bus. Baker was an organizer for the civil rights movement, working alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

Gay Liberation Movement

The gay liberation movement is known for advocating equal rights for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender persons; anti-sodomy laws actively discriminated against the LGBTQ+ community, and the United States government took intense actions to uphold heteronormativity for many decades. In the 1950s, the government maintained a campaign designed to identify and fire suspected gay employees after President Eisenhower stated that gay men and lesbians were a threat to national security. Executive Order 10450 banned homosexual individuals from working for any agency of the federal government, including private contractors and overseas allies. Individuals were targeted based on their marital status, voices, mannerisms, etc. The New York Times covered this discrimination against homosexuals, known as the Lavender Scare, using the word “perverts” as a synonym for gay. Anti-gay implementations by the government and the surrounding social alienation resulted in severe emotional distress, unemployment, and increased rates of suicide for members of the LGBTQ+ community. This occurred at the height of the Cold War, and the Red Scare, an anti-communist movement, used gays as a scapegoat, linking communism and homosexuality. It was on this basis that the government saw fit to criminalize the community, stereotyping that gay individuals had “mental imbalances” that made them targets for communist brainwashing.

With the congressional purge of gays from the federal workforce at the hands of Eisenhower and Robert Cutler Jr., founder of the gay rights movement, Harry Hay, formed one of the first national gay rights organizations. However, most gay culture thrived underground during this time. 1950s Boston was known for having several gay bars and clubs that were heavily regulated by police looking for homosexual behavior, so they developed warning codes. Cashing in on the opportunity to provide a community for the socially excluded LGBTQ+ community, the Mafia ran a significant number of gay bars in NYC. In 1966, a Mafia family purchased the Stonewall Inn as a gay bar and nightclub, which now serves as a name-sake for the Stonewall riots. The riots occurred in 1969, serving as the first major protest for gay rights and a catalyst for more widespread support. Bars and restaurants were forbidden to have gay employees or patrons, and years of arrests and discrimination contributed to the Stonewall riots. When undercover police officers aggressively raided Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ community decided to fight back. Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transgender woman, resisted arrest the night of the riots and is a prominent figure in queer activism. Following several uprisings, Johnson and others are recognized for creating the Pride parade.

After decades of little political progress, the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Rights in 1993 made history as one of the largest protests America had seen for gay rights. The march was organized on account of ever-present discriminatory policies such as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and certain state amendments invalidating anti-discrimination laws based on sexual orientation. The demands included: an LGBTQ+ civil rights bill to end state and federal government discrimination, repealing all sodomy laws and laws criminalizing private sexual acts; reproductive freedom and choice; increased funding for AIDS; and anti-discrimination legislation regarding custody rights, adoption, and foster care.

Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas ruled sodomy laws to be unconstitutional, and a year later, same-sex marriages were legalized in Massachusetts. A bill passed by the House of Representatives in 2003 ensured equal rights in the workplace for gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals. In 2015, same-sex marriages were ruled constitutional in the Supreme Court Case Obergefell v. Hodges. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for the military was created by President Clinton to ban homosexual activity but allow gays to serve. Military members were not allowed to discuss their sexual orientation at risk of being discharged. The federal policy was only repealed in 2011, with a promise that members previously discharged for their sexuality could re-enroll without facing discrimination. In 2017, however, President Trump enforced a transgender military ban with the support of the Supreme Court that would eventually be lifted by President Biden.

Women’s Rights Movement

From 1848 to 1917, the women’s rights movement began with a group of abolitionist activists gathered at the Seneca Falls Convention to plan a protest against governmental discrimination against women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a well-known organizer, stated that “We are assembled to protest against a form of government, existing without the consent of the governed - to declare our right to be free as a man is free, to be represented in the government which we are taxed to support, to have such disgraceful laws as give man the power to chastise and imprison his wife, to take the wages which she earns, the property which she inherits, and, in case of separation, the children of her love.” The Fourteenth Amendment defined voting rights as a privilege of “male” citizens, and Congressmen were fervently against women’s suffrage. Additionally, a women-led anti-suffrage movement sought to counter the suffragettes and fought against their right to vote. Stanton and other figures produced a “Declaration of Sentiments” that stated: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Seventy years after the Seneca Falls convention, Congress passed an amendment to the Constitution - the Nineteenth Amendment. During World War I, women had taken on the roles of absent men and, as a wartime measure, President Wilson supported the amendment. With the amendment ratified in 1920, the lengthy protest finally produced a vote for white women. Women of color, on the other hand, were barred from the polls for another forty years. When the Fifteenth Amendment was passed, white suffragette leaders vehemently opposed Black men receiving a vote before them and discriminated against Black suffragist women. The National Association of Colored Women Clubs (NACWC) worked to include Black women and men in the fight for voting rights.

Today, advocation for women’s rights often stems from the policing of women’s bodies and their right to abortion. The 2017 Women’s March on Washington is known for several different goals, including reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and gender equality. The march was a protest to the inauguration of President Trump, on account of his political positions that are deemed anti-women. For decades, advocation of the pro-choice movement has received increasingly widespread coverage and is a hot topic for the women’s rights movement and feminism. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that women should have bodily autonomy, striking down many laws that criminalized abortion; Roe v. Wade enabled many conversations over who should decide the constitutionality of abortion and to what extent.

Learn More

If you are interested in socio-political movements and how they have shaped American history, there are many more that this article did not cover! The counterculture movement or the "hippie" movement, the labor movement, and March for Our Lives have all had a significant impact on the US government.

Also, check out the documentaries 13th and The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution for cinema relevant to the civil rights movement. For a film that follows activists of the gay liberation movement, watch The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson. The documentary RBG follows the incredible political and women’s rights legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Edited by Amy Quinn

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