What does The First Lady of Alabama have to do with women’s right? The late 60’s and 70’s belonged to the woman as a new feminist movement was on the horizon. Although this was a time when oral contraceptives were being introduced and more and more women were joining the work force, women were still not being treated fairly. Congress passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 which made it okay to pay a woman less money for the same work done by a man. This act is still in play today. Such laws caused women to rally together and fight for their civil rights. There were two different views by women for women. The first group focused on “equal treatment of women in the public sphere” while women liberation groups focused on women being equal on a more personal level. However, the lines of these two views were blurred because it was more important for women to succeed as a whole and not just in a public forum or on a personal level. …show more content…
Born Lurleen Burns in Northport, Alabama on September 19 1926, this woman would grow up to be the First Lady of Alabama and then the Governess of Alabama. Growing up a tomboy, politics was the furthest thing from Lurleen’s mind. After graduating high school early, Lurleen started working at a local grocery store. At just 16 years old she met the man, George Wallace, who would thrust her in to the spotlight and become her husband. George Wallace was a law school graduate who later joined the Army Corp during World War II. Lurleen and George got married and she end up traveling from base to base while he was in the
Up until and during the mid -1800’s, women were stereotyped and not given the same rights that men had. Women were not allowed to vote, speak publically, stand for office and had no influence in public affairs. They received poorer education than men did and there was not one church, except for the Quakers, that allowed women to have a say in church affairs. Women also did not have any legal rights and were not permitted to own property. Overall, people believed that a woman only belonged in the home and that the only rule she may ever obtain was over her children. However, during the pre- Civil war era, woman began to stand up for what they believed in and to change the way that people viewed society (Lerner, 1971). Two of the most famous pioneers in the women’s rights movement, as well as abolition, were two sisters from South Carolina: Sarah and Angelina Grimké.
After moving to Rochester, NY in 1845, the Anthony family became very active in the anti-slavery movement.
Women were held at an extremely high standard, in fact, they were held at a standard that was too high. They were expected to be at-home mom and take care of their children and their husbands. It was frowned upon if they obtained a higher level of educated, and it was disdainful for them to have a job outside the home. Women who did acquire a job found that what were not treated with the same respect as men and were paid less than men (“Women in Antebellum America”). For these reasons, women decided that enough was enough and it was time to start standing up for themselves.
Women had been “denied basic rights, trapped in the home [their] entire life and discriminated against in the workplace”(http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/). Women wanted a political say and wanted people to look at them the way people would look at men. in 1968, many women even protested the Miss America Beauty Pageant because it made it look that women were only worth their physical beauty. A stereotyped image was not the only thing they fought, “Women also fought for the right to abortion or reproductive rights, as most people called it” (http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/). These were the reason why the Women started the Women’s Liberation. African Americans, however, had different causes. After almost a century after the Emancipation Proclamation, black men are still being treated unfairly. They were being oppresed by the so-called “Jim Crow” laws which “barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures” (http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/). They wanted equal rights, equal facilities and equal treatment as the whites. This unfairness sparked the African American Civil Right’s Movement. This unfairness was seen in the Women’s Liberation as well. Both were treated unfairly by the “superior”. Both wanted equal rights, from the men or whites oppressing them. They both wanted equal treatment and equal rights. During the actual movement
Mississippi history is full of strong African American women who made a stand against racism, injustice, and segregation, or paved the way for others to achieve the American Dream. Ida B. Wells, Ruby Bridges, and Oprah Winfrey each fought for equality of African-Americans in different ways and different time periods, but each has made a major impact on Mississippi and elsewhere in the United States.
Throughout history many movements have tended to have a founding father and mother. Coretta Scott King portrayed this mother in the American Civil Rights Movement. She embodied all that a woman could want to be as she stood up for her rights and the rights of others. This is what has made her a household name throughout the world and an iconic figure for change. Along with her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta spent a majority of her life fighting for the equal treatment of her people in America. Over time this spread to the many different realms of society, touching on racial and economic equality, religious freedom, the necessities of the poor and homeless, employment and healthcare, equal educational opportunities, women’s and children’s rights, as well as gay and lesbian rights, nuclear disarmament, and ecological sanity.
The fight for women’s rights began long before the Civil War, but the most prominent issue began after the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments joined the Constitution. The rights to all “citizens” of the United States identified all true “citizens” as men and therefore incited a revolution in civil rights for women (“The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”). The National Women’s Suffrage Convention of 1868
Moreover, I believe it is a good start to set a foundation in order to work and find solutions to every misrepresentation in the country in regards to women. In my opinion, it is an honor to have a woman representing one of the most used U.S. bills, especially since it is the first time in the history that has ever been generally accepted. On the other hand, there is a strong irony and controversy respecting the substitution of a president who supported and profited black slaves with a woman who escaped, helped escape other slaves, and fought for this discriminatory policy. However, it is extremely interesting the relationship of both, especially because there were other women in the contest to be portrayed in the bill, and she was the one who won thanks to citizens’
After earning a master’s degree, she moved to Montgomery Alabama to teach at Alabama State College. In the the late 1940’s Robinson experienced racial segregation when she was yelled at for sitting in the empty white section of a bus. Robinson eventually went on to become the president of the Women’s Political Council and met with the mayor of Montgomery, William A. Gayle. However, the city wasn’t denied their demands to integrate buses so Robinson, MLK, E.D. Nixon and the local leaders get together to plan a boycott.
Women in public leadership roles and positions were not very common; they were even less recognized as figures of political revolt. Rosa Parks is a vivid example of a woman who is generally recalled as a quiet and tired woman who refused to give up her seat in protests of segregation when she was actually “an agent” (Olson, 2001) for political activism. Interestingly, she is not historically depicted as a revolutionary for social justice, but as a deferential woman who served as a catalyst for a bus boycott organized by men. Hamer defied such a demure perception of herself through her speeches and through her actions. She challenged, albeit unwittingly, other women, particularly white women to recognize their “common bond” with her: “In the past, I don’t care how poor this white woman was, in the South, she still felt like she was more than us…But coming to the realization of the thing, her freedom is shackled in chains to mine, and she realized for the first time that she is not free until I am free,” (Marable & Mullings, 2009). Like King, and the other major prominent civil rights leaders of the time, Hamer was profoundly committed to the idea that the struggle to achieve equity and justice for one’s race and one’s humanity was a moral and spiritual commitment. She was fighting for something much bigger than herself; she was fighting for all people who were trapped by a system from which there had never been a clear
Susan B. Anthony is the most well known name in women's rights from the 1800s. Most people who are not familiar with the history of this time are aware of Susan's reputation and nearly everyone of my generation has seen and held a Susan B. Anthony silver dollar. For these reasons I was greatly surprised to learn that Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the original women's rights movement spokeswoman and Susan B. Anthony her protégé.
...n our country. She’s saying that the advancement of women is getting stuck between a rock and a hard place. This was such a strong point in her speech because it shed light into the logical thinking, and made a historical connection to slavery. By making this connection, she was able to help many see that women were convicted slaves to the current state of the union.
Her ideals were perfect for the times. In the mid-1960s the civil rights movement was in full swing. Across the nation, activists were working for equal civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race. In 1964 Chisholm was elected to the assembly. During the time that she served in the assembly Chisholm sponsored fifty bills, but only eight of them passed. One of the successful bills she supported provided assistance for poor students to go on to higher education. Another provided employment insurance coverage for personal and domestic employees. Still another bill reversed a law that caused female teachers in New York to lose their tenure (permanence of position) while they were out on maternity
Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February fourth, 1913 to a carpenter father and a teaching mother, in the town of Tuskegee, Alabama- one of the most racist states of the union. She lived a somewhat normal (raised liberally) life, having grown up with her grandparents on a farm in he...
Rosa Parks- Rosa Parks is known for not giving up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery city bus. She is also known as the “First Lady of Civil Rights.”