Hello, and thank you for joining me.

I'm Mr. Marchin and I'll be your history teacher for today's lesson.

I'll be guiding you through all of our resources, and my top aims are to ensure not only that you enjoy our learning, but also that you can successfully meet today's lesson objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on civil rights in the USA.

But we've been asking ourselves how successful was the American Civil Rights Movement? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to assess the extent of progress experienced by African Americans, and women in the USA between the 1950's and the 1970's.

There is one key word which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

That is second class citizen.

A second class citizen is someone who is not given the same rights and opportunities as other people in a society, usually because they belong to a particular group.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts, and we'll begin by focusing on discrimination against women and African Americans.

The Civil Rights Movement and Feminist Movement both developed in the USA during the mid 20th century.

Both movements were responses to widespread inequalities and discrimination suffered by women and African Americans.

After the end of World War II, many women and African Americans felt that they were treated like second class citizens compared to men and white Americans.

Significant challenges included segregation, workplace discrimination, economic inequality, lack of political power, and social restrictions.

So we'll think about each of these challenges in turn.

Before we do, let's just check our understanding of what we've heard so far.

Which two groups were most likely to suggest they were treated as second class citizens in the USA? So we have to pick from: African Americans, men and women.

Remember, you are picking two of those groups as your answers.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answers were A and C.

African Americans and women were likely to suggest they were treated as second class citizens in the USA around the mid 20th century.

So segregation was one of the challenges faced in America.

In the South, Jim Crow laws prevented white and Black Americans from using the same facilities as one another.

This applied to schools, transport, and many other public spaces.

Segregated facilities were nearly always of lower quality for African Americans, denying them the same opportunities that white Americans were able to enjoy.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

I want you to write the missing word from the following sentence.

Jim Crow laws, blank facilities for white and Black Americans.

But what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing word was segregated.

Jim Crow laws segregated facilities for white and Black Americans.

This included transport facilities and even schools.

So now we can think about workplace discrimination.

Employers were not legally prevented from discriminating against women and African Americans.

Both groups were usually paid less than other workers when completing the same work.

Both groups were often only hired for lower skilled jobs, and overlooked for promotions.

In some careers such as teaching, women could be fired just for getting pregnant, demonstrating how little protection they often had.

So thinking about what we've just heard, from which of the following jobs were many women fired if they became pregnant, was it as receptionists, as sale managers or from teaching? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was C.

Women who were teachers were often fired if they became pregnant, demonstrating just how few employee protections they had.

A lack of political power was also a serious challenge faced by women and African Americans.

Women and African Americans were poorly represented in U.

S.

politics.

Only one woman and no Black Americans were appointed to leading government positions in the 1950's.

In 1955, out of 531 members of Congress, just three were African American, and 15 were women.

In the South, racist tests and restrictions were used to disenfranchise millions of African American voters.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we've just heard.

In 1955, out of 531 members of Congress, how many were African American? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was three.

Just three out of 531 members of Congress were African American in 1955, showing just how poorly represented Black Americans were.

In fact, at the same time, only 15 members of Congress were women showing that these problems of poor representation extended to both groups.

And social restrictions were also an issue faced by African Americans and women.

African Americans and females had little control over their relationships, and their own bodies faced restrictions.

At the start of the 1950's, 29 states had laws banning Black Americans for marrying white Americans.

Women had little sexual freedom and were expected to become housewives.

In fact, many states banned contraceptives and abortions, meaning that sexual relationships for women came with the high risk of becoming pregnant.

There was little maternity support such as childcare as well, which meant that women were forced to remain at home as mothers rather than having opportunities to develop their careers once they had children.

So thinking about what we just heard, why did many mothers have to remain housewives after having children? Was it because childcare was not very accessible, because laws prevented them from returning to work, because there were serious job shortages in the 1950's, or because they lost the skills needed for the workplace? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was A.

Because childcare was not very accessible, many mothers had to stay at home to look after their children, meaning that they had to remain as housewives rather than developing their careers.

So we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge of discrimination against women and African Americans into practise.

I want you to study each of the following statements.

They say in the 1950's, women were poorly represented in Congress, but many representatives were Black.

In some careers, women could be legally fired if they got pregnant.

Only women face legal restrictions on their relationships, and segregation was considered unconstitutional by the start of the 1950's because separate facilities wouldn't be equal.

I want you to identify whether each statement is true or false, and then to correct any false statements.

You should provide additional details to support your corrections.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So firstly, I asked you to identify whether each of our statements were true or false.

You should have said that our first statement was false, that our second statement was true.

For example, female teachers who became pregnant were frequently fired for their job.

Our third statement was false, and our fourth statement was also false.

So now we can think about the second part of task A, what I asked you to correct any of the false statements and to provide additional details to support your corrections.

So your answers may have included: in the 1950's, women and African Americans were both poorly represented in Congress.

In 1955, out of 531 members of Congress just three were African American, and 15 were women.

Many states banned contraceptives and abortions, whilst Black Americans were banned from marrying white Americans in more than half of all states.

And segregation was considered constitutional by the start of the 1950's so long as facilities was separate but equal.

In reality, the segregated facilities provided for African Americans were usually of poor quality.

So really well done if all of your own corrections look something similar to those models which we've just seen.

And now we're ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today where we are going to think about changes in the law.

Discrimination and inequality in the USA was challenged by both the civil rights movement and the feminist movement between the 1950's and 1970's.

Both movements were able to secure a number of significant changes in the law.

So let's start by thinking about segregation.

In the Brown v.

Board of Education of Topeka case in 1954, the Supreme Court declared segregation in schools unconstitutional.

In 1956, the court also declared segregation of transport to be unconstitutional.

Pressure from campaigners like Martin Luther King led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which overturned the Jim Crow laws in effect throughout the south.

So thinking about what we've just heard, which Supreme Court case led to segregation in schools being declared unconstitutional? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was the Brown v.

Board of Education of Topeka case.

And now we can consider changes in the law regarding workplace discrimination.

In 1963, the Equal Pay Act banned employers on paying men and women differently for the same work.

Women could report employers who discriminated against them.

And in 1964, the Civil Rights Act banned workplaces from discriminating on the basis of race, colour, religion, or sex.

So this extended discrimination protections to African Americans against their employers.

So when was the Equal Pay Act introduced? Was it 1953, 1963, or 1973? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

The Equal Pay Act was introduced in 1963.

And now we can consider changes in political power.

The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, this banned voter discrimination.

And in areas where many African-Americans had been disenfranchised, the federal government took responsibility to register voters itself rather than leaving this to the individual states who discriminated against them before.

In areas targeted by the Voting Rights Act, the amount of the Black population registered to vote increased from 29.

3% in 1965 to 52.

1% by 1967, a significant increase in just two years.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we just heard.

Which statement about the 1965 Voting Rights Act is most accurate? That the act was not enforced, that the act was left to state governments to enforce, or that the act was enforced by the federal government? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was C.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act was enforced by the federal government.

Because of this, there was a significant increase in the amount of African Americans living in the South who were successfully registered to vote.

And if we continue to think about political power, there were 16 women in Congress by 1973, by the same year, there were also 16 African American members of Congress, including the first Black female representatives.

Shirley Chisholm was even supported by over 400,000 party members, unsuccessfully to become the Democratic party's presidential candidate in 1971.

So which statement is most accurate? That there were significantly fewer female members of Congress by the 1970's than in the 1950's? That there were significantly more Black female members of Congress by the 1970's than in the 1950's? That there were significantly more male members of Congress by the 1970's than in the 1950's? Or that there were significantly fewer male members of Congress by the 1970's than in the 1950's? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

There was significantly more Black female members of Congress by the 1970's than in the 1950's.

This included Shirley Chisholm, who was the very first female Black member of Congress elected in 1968.

And so finally, we can think about changes to social restrictions in the USA.

The Supreme Court declared that bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional in 1967.

This allowed African Americans to marry who they wanted regardless of their race.

And married couples were also guaranteed access to contraceptives by the Supreme Court in 1965, and to abortion after the 1973 Roe v.

Wade case.

So thinking about what we just heard, I want you to change one word to correct the following sentence.

The Supreme Court increased restrictions on abortion in the Roe v.

Wade case.

So think which word seems like it's incorrect, and what should it be changed to? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who changed the word increased to removed.

The Supreme Court removed restrictions on abortion in the 1973 Roe v.

Wade case, which declared that all American women had the right to a safe and legal abortion during the first three months of their pregnancy.

And so we are now in a good position to put all of our knowledge of changes in the laws into practise.

I want you to study the table.

It highlights four areas, segregation, workplace discrimination, political power, and social restrictions.

For each of those areas, I want you to identify one change which occurred between the 1950's and 1970's to benefit either women or African Americans.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So for each of the areas listed in the table, I asked you to identify one change which occurred between the 1950's and 1970's, which benefited either women or African Americans.

And your answers may have included for segregation that the 1964 Civil Rights Act overturned all Jim Crow laws.

For workplace discrimination, that the 1963 Equal Pay Act required women and men to be paid the same when they completed the same work.

For political power, that the 1965 Voting Rights Act banned voter tests, which had disenfranchised African-American voters.

And for social restrictions that the 1973 Roe v.

Wade Case guaranteed every woman's right to abort a pregnancy.

So really well done if your own examples look something similar to those which we've included in our model.

And now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today where we are going to think about evaluating progress by the 1970's.

Both women and African-Americans gained new rights after actions taken by the U.

S.

government and Supreme Court between the 1950's and 1970's.

However, for both groups, the benefit of some changes in the law were undermined by poor enforcement, and by unchanged attitudes.

So let's start by thinking about the impact of poor enforcement.

All schools were ordered to desegregate by the Supreme Court, but the federal government did not place much pressure on Southern states to comply with this order.

By 1969, this meant that 68% of Black children in the South still attended segregated schools, and many businesses continued to pay women lower wages after 1963 despite the Equal Pay Act.

In fact, on average, women still earned only 60% of men's average income by 1975.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

We have a statement on the screen that reads: all schools were desegregated immediately after the Brown v Board case.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that, that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that many Southern states resisted, and were often not pressured by the federal government during the 1950's and 1960's.

The second says that many Southern states resisted, but were all forced by the federal government to desegregate between 1960 and 1965.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was A, many Southern states resisted desegregation and were often not pressured by the federal government during the 1950's and 1960's.

In fact, by the end of the 60's, a majority of Black American students in the South was still attending segregated schools.

And now we can think about the impact of unchanged attitudes.

Changes in the law did not always reflect changes in public attitudes.

The Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA was backed by Congress in 1972, but blocked by Phyllis Schlafly's Stop ERA campaign.

Schlafly had argued that the ERA was a threat to traditional values and traditional protections for women.

Desegregation also came against public opposition as attempts to enforce desegregation in some parts of the South encountered significant violence.

In fact, Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968 as a result of his tireless campaigns for improved African American civil rights.

So considering what we've just heard, what does the example of Phyllis Schlafly best demonstrate? That some women risked danger to fight for equality? That some women opposed the campaign for equality, or that some women fought for equality by joining Congress? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B, some women oppose a campaign for female equality, and we can see that for an example of Phyllis Schlafly who led the Stop ERA campaign.

And let's think further about unchanged attitudes.

President Nixon blocked plans to provide greater access to childcare facilities in 1972 as he considered this a threat to what he considered traditional family values.

Similarly, between 1969 and 1974, President Nixon's cabinet did not contain a single woman or African-American.

So whilst laws had changed to try and support those groups, the leading political positions in a country continued to be held by white men.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

I want you to study the photo shown on the screen.

Based on the photo, which inference is most valid? That the disenfranchisement of Black voters continued in the 1970's? That political representation for women and Black Americans remained limited in the 1970's? Or that women had the right to in government in the 1970s', but most did not want to? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the most valid inference was B, that political representation for women and Black Americans remain limited in the 1970's.

We can infer this from the image because there is not a single woman or Black American included in this photo of President Nixon's cabinet in 1972.

Showing that all the most powerful positions in government continue to be held by white men at the start of the 1970's.

So we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge from today's lesson into practise.

I want you to study Sam's view.

Sam says that women and Black Americans were not much better off in the 1970's than they had been in the 1950's.

I want you to write one paragraph explaining why some historians might disagree with Sam's view.

And then you should write one paragraph explaining why some historians might agree with Sam's view.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So firstly, I asked you to write one paragraph explaining why some historians might disagree with Sam's view, and your answer may have included: some historians may disagree with Sam's view because the changes in the law which were made to protect the rights of African Americans and women, for instance, where segregation had been common in many areas of life in the South at the start of the 1950's, Supreme Court decisions and the 1964 Civil Rights Act overturned this.

This provided Black Americans with equal access to things like education.

Similarly, women gained new freedoms in this period.

For instance, the Roe v.

Wade case decided in 1973 that women had a right to an abortion.

This overturned the anti-abortion laws many states had in place and gave women considerably greater sexual freedom.

So well done if your own response to question one look something like that model which we've just seen.

And for the second part of task C, I asked you to write one paragraph explaining why some historians might agree with Sam's view.

And your answer may have included: some historians may agree with Sam because of the impact of public attitudes.

For instance, whilst African Americans gained from new civil rights laws, the leading figure in the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968.

This type of violence was quite common, and was used in some places to intimidate African Americans and try to limit change.

In the case of women, public attitudes actually managed to prevent some major changes the feminist movement hoped to achieve.

In the 1970's, Phyllis Schlafly's Stop ERA campaign successfully organised opposition against the equal rights amendment by claiming that equal rights for women would undermine traditional family values and risk unintended consequences.

So again, well done if your own response looked something similar to the model we've just seen.

And that means we've now reached the end of today's lesson, which puts us in a good position to summarise our learning about social and civil progress in the USA.

We've seen that various inequalities and different forms of discrimination in the mid 20th century meant that many women and African Americans in the USA felt like second class citizens.

In response to the civil rights and feminist movements, the Supreme Court and U.

S.

government made changes to the law, which improved the rights of women and Black Americans.

Issues such as the gender pay gap continued into the 1970's, in part because of poor enforcement of new laws.

And some changes failed to receive support from significant sections of the public and were opposed both violently and peacefully.

So really well done for all of your work during today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you for our resources, and to think about the levels of social and civil progress which occurred in the USA between the 1950's and the 1970's.