Diablo Valley College The Feminine Mistique Discussion

I’m working on a history question and need guidance to help me understand better.

This Reading Check walks you through a few primary sources for the sake of discussion. You don’t have to read and assess all the sources, but I’ve kept the excerpts short to encourage it.

Assignment Instructions

Step 1: Assess the sources.

First, take a look at this short PBS documentary segment on the 1964 testimony of Mississippi sharecropper Fannie Lou Hamer at the Democratic National Convention (relaying what happened when she tried to register to vote):

Having been introduced to the context of Hamer’s speech, read her shocking testimony (Links to an external site.) in full. You can listen along as well– the website has a recording embedded. Be warned that her testimony includes descriptions of assault. I encourage you to listen to the speech as you read it.

While women activists like Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker took a supporting role in the Civil Rights Movement as “bridge leaders.” It was largely men (especially ministers and religious officials) who were the leaders of organizations like SNCC, CORE, and the SCLC (fronted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). As with women’s rights during Reconstruction and the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, white women’s activism for black civil liberties often became centered on their own female oppression. Check out this memo (Links to an external site.) written by Mary King and Casey Hayden in 1965 about the sexism they observed and experienced within SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). In general, the Civil Rights Movement’s ideologies and methods of protest influenced similar ideas and protest methods in the Women’s Liberation movement that took off in the 1960s.

Also influencing second-wave feminism and Women’s Liberation was the publication of Betty Friedan’s 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique

. This source includes some of the letters received by Friedan after the publication of her book.

Take a look at El Plan de Santa Barbara (Links to an external site.), a manifesto written by Chicano students at UC Santa Barbara in 1969. The push for civil liberties from the Mexican-American community has a much longer history in California and the American southwest, but it was during the 1960s that a widespread student-led movement for Chicano pride gained popularity. What influences do you see from the Civil Rights Movement and general protests of the 1960s? What makes these demands different, especially in California?

Lastly, take a look at this satirical letter (Links to an external site.) written by an organization called Indians of All Tribes (IAT). In this letter, they proclaimed their goals and reasoning for occupying the abandoned, defunct prison-island Alcatraz in the San Francisco bay in 1969. This was just one manifestation of the “Red Power” movement that was inspired by the Black Power and Brown Power (not limited to Chicanx) movements.

Step 2: Reply to Prompt.

Compose a 100- to 200-word discussion post that addresses the following prompt. No formal citations, but describe or embed the images you are referencing.

Prompt: Describe the origins of one aspect of the rights movement of the late 1960s: second wave feminism, the Black Power movement, the free speech and antiwar movements, the Chicano movement, or the Red Power movement. Be sure to analyze the significance of these movements. How did the Civil Rights Movement for Black civil liberties influence the movement you chose? Give some historical context of the rights revolution focus you have chosen.

Step 3: Reply to One (1) Peer.

• In a short paragraph between 50 and 100 words, respond to a peer’s post; you can agree with something that has been said and add further supporting details, answer a question that has been posed, or otherwise give your academic reaction to your peer’s post.
• Respond to as many peers as you like, but you must respond to at least one peer.

Please reply to a peer who does not yet have replies so that all are included in the conversation.