“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall.”
President Obama uttered these words during his inauguration speech on January 21st, 2013, in front of over twenty million Americans. Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall. These three places mark the front lines of three distinct social movements that altered United States’ history – three places where activists fought relentlessly in order to bring about change and righteousness.
Seneca Falls was the site of a convention held on behalf of women’s rights in 1848 that kick-started the push for female social and economic equality under the law. Selma is an Alabaman city where protesters to black oppression marched in the name of justice, protesters who, as a result of police attacks, shed blood for their cause. The Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Rights Movement have made their foundation a prominent part of our nation’s philosophy for years: the idea that all people are equal, regardless of race or sex. America’s present would appear unrecognizable were it not for these shifts in our culture.
The outlier and unexpected addition to this trio, however, is Stonewall. On June 28th, 1969, the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. The abuse that customers underwent from police led to widespread riots, and gave birth to what is now commonly considered the gateway event that led to the modern LGBT Movement. Obama’s inclusion of Stonewall in his speech about equality opened the political theater to a subject never before heard in a Presidential address: the push to provide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgend...
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... by no means signifies the last front on our journey to equality. As citizens of the United States, each and every one of us has an obligation to contribute to the fight for the rights allotted to us in the founding documents that built our country – regardless of race, sex, OR sexual orientation. I’m confident that someday, fifty years from now, students will see gay rights as just another unit in the history books. The LGBT Movement will be a relic from the past where children exclaim, “Two men didn’t used be to allowed to get married?” in the same way that racial segregation puzzles the youth of today. A long road stretches before us on our trek towards tolerance.
Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall: the fight for justice began here. However, until the equality promised to us by our great nation touches every single one of its citizens, the battle is not over.
These documents touch on important topics that a lot of Americans have a hard time understanding. Both The Civil Rights movement and Feminist Movement connect to mainstream liberalism, share parallel goals or differences, progressed in the 1970s, and still have an influence on American’s views to this day. Equal rights among all, is still something America is struggling with after about 50 years. There is no denying though, that the movements during the 60’s and 70’s molded the lives of future generations in the way that American’s view each other as human beings.
Historians offer different perceptions of the significance of Martin Luther King and the 1963 March on Washington. Without examining this event within its historical context the media publicity and iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech can easily overshadow progress that was already underway in America. It was insisted by prominent civil rights activist Ella Baker, ‘the movement made Martin rather than Martin making the movement.’ What is important not to overlook is the significant change that took place in the United States during the previous 100 years. Such that, many influential figures in support of racial equality opposed the March. The Civil Rights Act proposed by President Kennedy in 1963 was already in the legislative process. Furthermore the Federal Government was now reasserting power over the entire of the United States by enforcing a policy of desegregation. It is important to note that these changes all took place less than one hundred years after the Thirteenth Amendment in 1965 abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth amendment in 1968 acknowledged the rights of former slaves to be acknowledged as U.S citizens. With this level of progress Kennedy was against the March going ahead due to the argument that it was limited in what it could achieve. Today, King’s 1963 Speech is viewed as one of the most iconic speeches in history. However, was it a key turning point in African Americans achieving racial equality? Federal endorsement would suggest yes after decades of southern states being able to subvert the Federal law designed to break down segregation. This support built upon the corner stones of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments in the nineteenth century. Therefore looking at the national status of black Americans fro...
In 1969, a serious of riots over police action against The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar New York City’s Greenwich Village, changed homosexuality society as a whole. Pros to this event it let the LGBT movement, organization of gay advocate groups, and inspirited media coverage on gay issues. Cons today’s youth do not realize how lucky they are to be able to express themselves more freely than in the pass, stonewall riots film portrayal is more negative than positive and it has also created anti-gay groups separating hatred throughout the country.
Few things have impacted the United States throughout its history like the fight for racial equality. It has caused divisions between the American people, and many name it as the root of the Civil War. This issue also sparked the Civil Rights Movement, leading to advancements towards true equality among all Americans. When speaking of racial inequality and America’s struggle against it, people forget some of the key turning points in it’s history. Some of the more obvious ones are the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the North, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington D.C. in 1963. However, people fail to recount a prominent legal matter that paved the way for further strides towards equality.
The media considers the1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City the spark of the modern gay rights movement. This occurred after the police raided the Stonewall bar, a popular gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. Allyn argues that the new energy and militancy generated by the riot played a crucial role in creating the gay liberation movement. Arguably, the Stonewall Riots have come to resemble the pivotal moment in gay rights history largely because it provided ways for the gay community to resist the social norms. In fact, the riots increased public awareness of gay rights activism (Allyn 157). Gay life after the Stonewall riots, however, was just as varied and complex as it was before. In the following era, ho...
Prior to the 1970’s, members of the LGBTQ community, and especially those who also identified as people of color, were forced to stay silent despite constant discrimination because of their minority statuses. They did not have a voice or means to speak out against the oppression. During the 1960’s, the few safe spaces established for QPOC in urban communities had disappeared, since this particular era was being overshadowed by the Civ...
The civil rights movement was a popular historical movement that worked to allow African Americans to have equal rights and privileges as U.S. citizens. The movement can be defined as a struggle against racial segregation and discrimination that began in the 1950s. Although the origins of the civil rights movement go back to the 1800s, the movement peaked in the 1950s and 1960s. African American men and women, along with whites, organized and led the movement from local to national levels. Many actions of the civil rights movement were concentrated through legal means such as negotiations, appeals, and nonviolent protests. When we think of leaders or icons of the movement we usually think of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. Even though Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. are important figures, their participation in the movement was minimal compared to other unknown or forgotten figures. Howell Raines’s, My Soul Is Rested, contains recollections of voices from followers of the civil rights movement. These voices include students, lawyers, news reporters, and civil right activists. Although the followers of the movement were lesser known, the impact they made shaped the society we live in today.
Through out history, Americans have fought for the rights of freedom in their country, freedoms that have been passed down through dozen’s of generations. Freedom’s such as religion, speech, press, slavery and the right to vote. Americans, though very aware of their freedoms, often take them for granted and forget the struggles that their ancestors went through to obtain them. One example of this struggle is a woman’s right to be treated and looked upon by the government as equals. This was not an easy battle to win, and it took a strong few to begin to bring the struggle that women had faced for centuries to an end.
· Influences: civil rights movement, Black Power movement, white student movement, antiwar movement, and feminism.
Trying to explain historical events is challenging because there are many sources and versions that can create confusion and misunderstanding of the real facts. In the case of Stonewall, it mostly got recorded to the history by newspapers, photography and the word of people who witnessed that night. However, the problem with these kind of sources, both from that period of time and the current ones, is that most of them are bias or are written with the purpose of influence the audience. Thus, each one of them can be taken as an opinion, leaving many unanswered questions surrounded by theories. In 2015, the released of the movie “Stonewall” about the place where the active movement for the LGTBQ community’ civil rights started, created
As New York City was waking up on Saturday, June 28, 1969, the New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. The raid led to riots and protests that lasted several days. Such police harassment was hardly uncommon at the time, but this particular raid proved to be the last straw. What could have been a quickly forgotten brawl instead became “the beginning of the modern struggle for gay civil rights” (Teal). The Stonewall Riots pushed the gay rights movement to the forefront of hot-button topics in the United States, where it has remained ever since (Teal).
The history of the gay rights movement goes as far back as the late 19th century. More accurately, the quest by gays to search out others like themselves and foster a feeling of identity has been around since then. It is an innovative movement that seeks to change existing norms and gain acceptance within our culture. By 1915, one gay person said that the gay world was a "community, distinctly organized" (Milestones 1991), but kept mostly out of view because of social hostility. According to the Milestones article, after World War II, around 1940, many cities saw their first gay bars open as many homosexuals began to start a networking system. However, their newfound visibility only backfired on them, as in the 1950's president Eisenhower banned gays from holding federal jobs and many state institutions did the same. The lead taken by the federal government encouraged local police forces to harass gay citizens. "Vice officers regularly raided gay bars, sometimes arresting dozens of men and women on a single night" (Milestones). In spite of the adversity, out of the 1950s also came the first organized groups of gays, including leaders. The movement was small at first, but grew exponentially in short periods of time. Spurred on by the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the "homophile" (Milestones) movement took on more visibility, picketing government agencies and discriminatory policies. By 1969, around 50 gay organizations existed in the United States. The most crucial moment in blowing the gay rights movement wide open was on the evening of July 27, 1969, when a group of police raided a gay bar in New York City. This act prompted three days of rioting in the area called the Stonewall Rio...
Nearly three centuries ago, black men and women from Africa were brought to America and put into slavery. They were treated more cruelly in the United States than in any other country that had practiced slavery. African Americans didn’t gain their freedom until after the Civil War, nearly one-hundred years later. Even though African Americans were freed and the constitution was amended to guarantee racial equality, they were still not treated the same as whites and were thought of as second class citizens. One man had the right idea on how to change America, Martin Luther King Jr. had the best philosophy for advancing civil rights, he preached nonviolence to express the need for change in America and he united both African Americans and whites together to fight for economic and social equality.
Have you ever thought how much progress the LGBT community has made and how it affects other people? The gay rights movement was and is currently a movement that “strives to end all discrimination towards the LGBT community” (Redlingshafer). As early as 1924, the Society for Human Rights in Chicago becomes United States’ earliest known gay rights organization (“Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement”). However, most people recognize the Stonewall riot in 1969 as being the beginning of the gay rights movement. Almost ninety years later, society and the government have progressed over time and are still growing. Harvey Milk, author of “The Hope Speech”, was a politician who led a portion of the gay rights movement. Also, a more recent and well known leader of the movement is Dan Savage, the creator of the “It Gets Better Project”. The followers of the gay rights movement are not just homosexual. There are followers and supporters of every gender, race, and sexual orientation. The gay rights movement and its issues are represented in “The Hope Speech” by Harvey Milk.
Homosexual activity has been around since the dawn of time. As far back as 9660-5000 BCE there has been evidence of homosexual encounters. Throughout history there have been numerous recordings of homosexual activity, from Roman art depicting homosexual acts during the 1st century, to Leonardo da Vinci who was charged with sodomy on multiple occasions in 1476, the acts of same sex encounters have been no stranger in the past (LGBT social movements, 2014). The LGBT movement however, is a more recent escapade. The LGBT movement is the attempt to change social and political attitudes towards homosexuality for the better. There have been multiple movements in the LGBT community as to date, along with the emergence of numerous LGBT organizations. There are well over fifty different LGBT organizations all over the world. Some are international, such as the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), and some are country or region based, such as Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) in Uganda. Each organization has its own mission and goals which it wishes to accomplish in order to make the world a better and more equal place for LGBT communities. Two specific LGBT organizations are: the Gay & Lesbian Alliance against Defamation (GLAAD) in the United States, and the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) in Sweden.