Australian Civil Rights Movement In The 1960's

1473 Words3 Pages

The Australian and American Civil Rights Movement was the fight for racial equality of the people living in Australia and the United States. The Australian’s were fighting for the rights of the Indigenous people, whereas the United States were fighting for the rights of the African-American’s. The Civil Rights period was at its peak in the 1960’s in both Australia and America. The Australian Civil Rights Movement was heavily influenced by the American Civil Rights Movement as they gained ideas and inspiration from the protests, organisations and campaigns that occurred in America in order to put an end to the inequality that existed in both sides of the World. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) helped motivate and encourage the civil rights movement in both these countries as it set a …show more content…

In 1901, the Indigenous gained their voting rights back after being taken away from them in the 1800s. One of major break throughs was the success of the Aboriginal’s gaining their land rights back due to the ‘Mabo’ case, which was an on-going 10 year protest to achieve recognition that Indigenous people did exist and live in Australia before the European Settlement. As well as this, in 1967 a referendum for Aboriginal Census rights was ran through a vote to the whole of Australia with the good results of 91% of voters approving the change that Indigenous people now had the right to an Australian Citizenship. This was a major turning point for Australian, as it opened the eyes of many Australian’s to see how the Indigenous had a place in Australian society. This realisation led to the end of the social segregation the Indigenous people were receiving. As for the ‘Stolen Generation’, Prime Minister of 2008, Keven Rudd, apologised to the Australian Indigenous people who had been mistreated and involved in the stolen generation where families were torn

Open Document