As feminist movements began to take over the 1960’s, other movements began to form as well including the Native American rights movement.

“As the civil rights and antiwar movements developed in the 1960s, Indians were already gathering their energy for resistance, thinking about how to change their situation, beginning to organize.”

Zinn explains that Native Americans were beginning to take action for their own rights and to declare their own destiny for the cause. He talks about how Native Americans were treated throughout history and how that there was not enough support for their own rights.

“Resistance was already taking shape in various parts of the country. In the state of Washington, there was an old treaty taking land from the Indians but leaving them fishing rights. This became unpopular as the white population grew and wanted the fishing areas exclusively for themselves.”

Many non Indians failed to respect those treaties that was supposed to help the Native Americans. Natives were still being treated as a nobody and as outcasts. They were considered to be on the same page as blacks or even at the very bottom. The Indians always insisted their territory was separate  and not to be invaded by the white man’s law.

To conclude things up, I think there was a clear cut reason why Howard Zinn included these kinds of individuals and movements in this chapter. Native Americans were clearly being taken advantage of from land, treaties, you name it.

Obviously the women’s movement was biggest picture of the 1960s, but the emergence of the Prison Abolition movement was not far behind.

“The prisons in the United States had long been an extreme reflection of the American system itself: the stark life differences between rich and poor, the racism, the use of victims against one another, the lack of resources of the underclass to speak out, the endless “reforms” that changed little.”

This movement seeks to reduce and eliminate prison systems and replace them with a more effective system than they had back then. Dostoevski even notes that : “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” These prisons reflected a society between the social classes of the rich and the poor. However, Zinn explains that minorities in the prisons were treated worse than whites. “It had long been true, and prisoners knew this better than anyone, that the poorer you were the more likely you were to end up in jail.” Zinn says that these “minorities” are more likely to end up in jail in the first place, not just because they committed more crimes, but they didn’t have the resources like the rich. They didn’t have the luxuries that the rich had like getting out on bail, or hiring good lawyers. Finally, this whole inequality within the prison system led to the movement of a more effective system

After a long-life period where women had unique duty to be perfect housewives, the sixties is an era of movements, actions, protest, and most importantly an era of change for women’s status.

“Time indeed were changing.” (Zinn) Zinn explains, in this chapter, that women, instead of only taking part of community clubs as the women would do in order to feel valuable in the 50’s, were taking part into various movements, such as Students for a Democratic Society, an antiwar group which organized a parade called “The Burial of Tradition Womanhood.” Although, he mentions that few disagreements among women and men were build on whether women should battle only in general movements such as racism, or more especially their own issues in society, the feminist movement was gaining value and was starting to be heard.

The image of women, as an object of decoration, which has been constructed for many years was finally questioned, and moreover rejected by the Radical Women in the fall of 1968. As Zinn puts it, “people were beginning to speak of ‘Women’s Liberation.’”

“There is no “joining” WITCH. If you are a woman and dare to look within yourself, you are a WITCH. You make your own rules.” Is a quote from the WITCH organization formed by NY Radical Women. This quote shows effectively how women were freeing themselves from the traditional rules and male domination by taking responsibilities and promoting the power of free-will.

Moreover, the change, in this era, did not only touch the middle class housewives from the 50’s. In fact, Zinn mentions the lower social class and African americans women by quoting Helen Howard, an organizer, who explains that through the meetings, and thus by standing up, the community was not afraid anymore.

The feminist movement gained more and more valued and popularity through publications such as women’s magazines, newspapers and books.
This led, from 68, the right of women to choose for themselves, and especially about child birth. Indeed, abortion became a woman’s rights, and thus, from justice, abortion became a private matter. Women were finally the only actors and decision makers of their own lives.

As Zinn mentions, regarding the Equal Rights Amendment, “It seemed clear that even if it became law, it would not be enough, that what women had accomplished had come through organization, action, protest. Even where the law was helpful it was helpful only if backed by actions.” In other words, women understood that they had only to count on themselves for change, and thus, this self-consciousness made them questioned the roles of gender, reject the male supremacy, and a strong union between women, also called sisterhood.

In my opinion, I think it is pretty clear why this category of individuals had to be mentioned in Zinn’s chapter. Women, instead of hoping, have created, during this period, a modernization of society by supporting and fighting against male dominance that women from today thank.

The sixties, not only focused on individuals’ movements as feminist, but also broke sexuality taboos by raising people’s consciousness through media, and liberalism.

While, in the 50’s, sexuality is a matter for silence and taboo, Zinn mentions the sexual behavior went through outstanding changed few years later with individuals revolting “against artificial and unquestioned ways of living.”
Indeed, sex between two people that were not married was spoken freely, and moreover, homosexuality, which was seen as a disease in the 50’s, was openly accepted as heterosexuality.  Thus, many individuals finally show their true self by not concealing their sexuality anymore, and organized meetings to reject discrimination, and encourage sexuality equality.
Media and literature helped tremendously to let this new insight on sexuality grow.

This whole new vision on homosexuality was one of the first steps in American history to truly show Democracy. From seeing it as a mental illness to simply sexual attraction, it has pushed people to be truer towards themselves, and among society than they ever had.
Finally, even though it took a major period of time to accept the concept of gay marriage in the United States, the homosexuals’ movements, in the sixties, were the first ones to fight for equality.