In 60s, prisoners were treated badly and some of them were sent to a prison with unreasonable. The following is an interview with a young black man, who refused to register for the draft during the Vietnam War, by Willard Gaylin, a psychiatrist.

“How was your hair then?” I asked.

“Afro.”

“And what were you wearing?”

“A dashiki.”

“Don’t you think that might have affected your sentence?”

“Of course.”

“Was it worth a year or two of your life?” I asked. “That’s all of my life,” he said, looking at me with a combination of dismay and confusion. “Man, don’t you know! That’s what it’s all about! Am I free to have my style, am I free to have my hair, am I free to have my skin?”

“Of course,” I said. “You’re right.” (516)

While others had received two-year sentences for the same prosecution, this black man received five-year sentences. This interview tells he received such a strict penalty because he was black. Zinn also mentions the statistics of people who were sent to a prison. Poor people were more likely to go to a prison than wealthy people. According to Zinn, not only poverty made people to commit crimes, but also wealthy people hired good lawyers to avoid prosecutions or to get better sentences. That is, prejudice about race and social class affected sentences. Zinn implies that these socially oppressed people were sent to a prison and it made the way to treat prisoners worse.

The Indians were also people who had been oppressed in the U.S. for a long time. Since the Pilgrims arrived at Americas, they attacked and took away the land and the culture from the Indians. The Indians were placed in the Indian reservations and had suffered for poverty. Although the Indians finally protested against the government and well-educated Indians led the protest and negotiation to improve the Indians’ right, the oppression against the Indians continued in a different form.

“Indian people laugh themselves sick when they hear these statements (526).”

            Vine Deloria, Jr., made ironic remarks in his book about President Johnson talked about commitments of the U.S. and President Nixon talked that Russia failed to respect treaties. Zinn explains, “the United States government had signed more than four hundred treaties with Indians and violated every single one.” To ease the Indian’s protest, the government just pretended to make a compromise with the Indians. This dishonest attitude increased the incredibility against the government.

In the American history women had been treated unequally. They don’t have right to vote and couldn’t get same pay as men got. Therefore, they stared feminism for their right. Therefore, they went out to protest for their right. In the chapter the author wrote” Women were 50 percent of the voters-but (even by 1967) they held 4 percent of the state legislative seats, and 2 percent of the judgeships”. This shows that even after feminism, women still been treated unequally. Although half of voters were women, they only held a few seats in state legislative and judgeships. In additional, the state legislative is the government branch to create laws, if they don’t have enough seats, they will not have any chance to pass the law for women. Moreover, if there are a few women in judgeships, they will not get fair adjudge. As the result, they still didn’t have the same right as men had. Therefore, I think they are important in the chapter because it forces people to change their views, that the women are equal as the men.

In the chapter Zinn also includes the Native Americans because they were persecuted in the past. In the American history, the Native American had signed many treaties with white people. Some of the treaties were signed is voluntary, but some of the treaties were forced to sign by the white people, such as gave up their home land and moved to the wild west. “When it was over between 200 and 300 of the original 350 men, women, and children were dead. The twenty-five soldiers who died were mostly hit by their own shrapnel or bullets, since the Indians had only a few guns”. This shows when the Indians refused to do what the white people ordered them to do; they would be attacked by the militaries. Moreover, even most of them were women and children, and without weapons, soldier still cold-bloodedly killed all of them. Some of the soldiers were killed by their own bullets when they butchered the Indians. In conclusion, since the Indians were been treated unequally, I think they also important in the chapter because it force people to know whoever has the same right as we have, even they are the Native Americans, they are American too.

George Jackson was a “political prisoner” of the United States of America by Howard Zinn’s standards. He died after 10 years in jail, serving an inhumane: “indeterminate sentence for a $70 robbery” (519). Jackson, spoke out against his oppressors and died at their hands: “August 17 he was shot in the back by guards at San Quentin prison” (519). Jackson’s life candidly captures the plight of a people. A population who has been exiled into a mass solitary confinement. The criminal has been stripped of his humanity and deemed unfit for life within society. Perhaps rightfully so, the materialistic consumer nation that America has become has little space for dissidents. Zinn’s point in including Jackson can be perceived from several perspectives. It can be seen as an attack on the fairness of the American judicial system, why has George Jackson been locked away for over a decade while President Nixon is pardoned for crimes against the country. Jackson’s inclusion could play the role of bait in attracting sympathy for yet another oppressed and marginalized people. Not to mention the possibility of viewing George Jackson as the simple archetype of the complex criminal; educated and isolated, dangerous yet invisible.

Sid Mills is also included in Howard Zinn’s 19th chapter: Surprises. However, Mills’ role is to illuminate a different, arguably more thoroughly eradicated, population. The Native Americans have been at war with the United States of America for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, the popular consensus is the  ignorant assumption that these people have completely seceded to the regime of colonization in the 1600s: “It was thought that the Indians . . . . annihilated by the white invaders, would not be heard from again” (524). This is obviously a misconception upon the necessary inquiry. The Native American presence in the United States has retained a level of militancy and resistance through the 1900s: “By 1960 there were 800,000 Indians, half on reservations, half in town all over the country” (524). “Resistance was taking shape in various parts of the country” (526). While this point is true, many Native Americans did indeed venture in American society in hopes of conforming and finding some brand of normalcy. I believe herein lies the significance of Sid Mills’ mention. Mills served a foreign nation in the United States through  a false war in Vietnam. He realized that he was working for his oppressors for the acquisition of yet another colony and repeating the atrocities that his people endured so many years ago. Nevertheless, Mills’ major point, in a statement made in October of 1968, was to shed light upon the continued assault on the indigenous people of the continent: “Indian fishermen returned dead from Vietnam, while Indian fishermen live here without protection and under steady attack” (527). Sid Mills complete the tormented archetype of a perpetual victim. He has been disenfranchised from his environment by force and his response is to surrender by compliance. Contrary to moral instinct the tyrants he fought for have discharged him after expended used: “until critically wounded.” and resumed the destruction of him and his people.

   During 1960s to 1970s, strive to promote equality of blacks began to spread to other minority ethnic groups. People in the United States asked their equal rights, specifically the group of women and the group of Native Americans.

   World War II had brought more women than ever before out of the home into work. Women treated as men in the army. They helped to fight enemies, they helped to maintain homelands, and they helped to prepare for battles. However, women did not have the same equal rights as men after World War II. In the book, A People’s History of The United States, in Chapter 19 showed ” A few years ago I was suspended for three days from work because my children were still young and I had to take time off when they were sick…They want people who keep quiet, squeal on one another, and are very good little robots. The fact that many have to take nerve pills before starting their day, and a week doesn’t go by that there aren’t two or three people who break down and cry, doesn’t mean a thing to them.” According to this quote, women have no rights in workplace, at home, or public places. Men treat them very harsh, even though women work harder than men. Seems these happened for a long time or seems women helped to fight for the World War II, high educational women came out and led others to fight for women’s rights. These led the Feminist Movement, and women successfully earned their rights at the end. They had equal rights as men do.

  After the end of World War II, many group were out and fought for their rights. Native Americans was one group of them, because the government rules treated them very harsh. Their homelands were getting smaller, and they forced by white men. Even though they were the first group arrived in the United States, they still did not have equal rights as white men’s do. In the same book showed, “1.It is isolated from modern facilities, and without adequate means of teansportation. 2.It has no fresh running water. 3.It has inadequate sanitation facilitiees. 4.There are no oil or mineral rights. 5.There is no industry and so unemployment is very great. 6.There are no health care facilities. 7.The soil is rocky and non-productive; and the land does not support game. 8.There are no educational facilities. 9.The populartion has always exceeded the land base. 10.The population has always been held as prisoners and dependent upon others.” These quote showed Native Americans had no rights to use or to enjoy public facilities. Their living environments were bad, no fresh water, no oil or mineral rights. Everything for life, they had to find by themselves. Seems blacks earned their rights, Native Americans started to fight for their rights like women.

   These two movement were important for American histories. Feminist Movement and Native Americans Movement are helped to make American Laws more completely. Rights expressed more equally. Discrimination and prejudice were decreased, and human rights were more normal. Human rights were not only service for adult men, but women and some Minorities.