Browse Cases

Showing 26-50 of 71 results

Tallahassee, Florida, students sit-in for U.S. Civil Rights, 1960

Country
United States
Time period
February, 1960 to December, 1960
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
3 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Jeewon Kim, 12/09/2010

Prior to the Tallahassee student sit-ins of 1960, the Tallahassee Bus Boycott took place in 1956, patterned after the Montgomery Bus Boycott that started with the refusal of Rosa Parks to surrender her bus seat to a white person. Tallahassee was sometimes called the “little Mississippi” where segregation was prominent.

Tallahassee black community boycotts buses for desegregation, 1956-57

Country
United States
Time period
May 27, 1956 to January, 1957
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Hanna King, 12/9/2010

On May 27, 1956, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, two female students at all-black Florida A+M University in Tallahassee, Florida, paid their ten-cent fares and boarded a segregated city bus. They sat in seats normally occupied by white people, because the back of the bus, where black patrons were expected to sit, was very crowded. When the driver asked them to move, they refused, citing the standing-room only conditions of the back of the bus, and their own fatigue. They offered to leave if their fares were refunded.

Orangeburg, South Carolina, students sit-in for U.S. civil rights, 1960

Country
United States
Time period
February, 1960 to March, 1960
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
4 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
William Lawrence, 12/09/2010

In 1960, Orangeburg, South Carolina was a town of 13,852 people.  Although the African-American population numbered only around 5,000 and declining, racial tension in the town was high due to a series of protests and boycotts in 1955-56.  Two all-black colleges, South Carolina State College (SCSC) and Claflin College, were home to plenty of potential activists.  When students in Greensboro sat-in for racial integration on February 1, students in Orangeburg eagerly followed suit.  They formed the Orangeburg Student Movement Association (OSMA) to coordinate actions between

U.S. farmworkers in California campaign for economic justice (Grape Strike), 1965-70

Country
United States
Time period
September, 1965 to July 29, 1970
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Lindsay Carpenter, 3/8/2011 and Maurice Weeks, 14/8/2008

Before the grape strike in 1965, the average annual income
of a California farmworker was less than $1,400. In addition, variations in
weather or market patterns could lessen this amount. Working conditions were
also poor, as many workers did not have access to a sufficient amount of food
or sanitary facilities.

U.S. National Woman's Party campaigns for suffrage, 1914-1920

Country
United States
Time period
February, 1914 to August 24, 1920
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Sarah Noble, 18/08/2008

When Alice Paul emerged into the somewhat stagnant scene of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association’s (NAWSA) campaign for the right to vote in 1912, the energy and momentum of the movement surged. Having just come from Britain where women were fighting a similar battle in which they were imprisoned, partaking in hunger strikes and smashing windows, NAWSA’s polite pleading over a cup of tea with political leaders and legislators was not only ineffective in the eyes of Paul and other emerging women leaders, it was a blow to the dignity of women to request basic human rights.

Industrial Workers of the World campaigns for free speech in Spokane, Washington, U.S.A., 1908-1910

Country
United States
Time period
March, 1909 to March, 1911
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Kate Aronoff, 23/10/2011

Around the turn of the 20th century, employment agencies, or, as they were known to many workers, “job sharks” had a monopoly on casual laborer in the American West. Industries such as mining and agriculture would contract labor out to an agency, which would “buy out” job applicants and take a sizable cut of what would otherwise have been workers’ wages.

College of the Holy Cross students campaign against war and racism, 1968-1969

Country
United States
Time period
January, 1968 to December, 1969
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Peace
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Patrick Curran, 4/11/2011

Similar to action taken on college and university campuses throughout the 1960s in the United States, students at the College of the Holy Cross also took a stand against the Vietnam War.  Students first organized to protest the presence of recruiters for Dow Chemical Company (a manufacturer of napalm) in O’Kane Hall on campus in January 1968.

Black University of Washington students campaign for inclusion, United States, 1968

Country
United States
Time period
January, 1968 to May, 1968
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Hanna King, 31/10/2010

The 1960s was a time of national turmoil for the civil rights of African-Americans, and Seattle was no exception. However, up until 1968, Seattle’s civil rights movement was subdued, compared to the fervor and tension of campaigns in other cities.

Puerto Ricans expel United States Navy from Culebra Island, 1970-1974

Country
Puerto Rico
United States
Time period
1970 to 1974
Classification
Change
Cluster
National/Ethnic Identity
Human Rights
Peace
Environment
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Nathalie Schils, 06/07/2011

In 1970, Puerto Rico was a non-sovereign territory of the United States. Its residents were U.S. citizens but could not vote in presidential elections, nor did they have political representation in the U.S. Congress, although they could serve and be drafted in the U.S. armed forces. At the beginning of the 20th century, the U.S. Navy eliminated the principal town on the island of Culebra and evicted its residents so that a marine base could be built. In 1941, President Roosevelt claimed exclusive rights to the air space above Culebra as well as a three-mile wide radius around the island.

Philadelphian African American students campaign for greater rights, 1967

Country
United States
Time period
November 10, 1967 to November 22, 1967
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
Total points
4 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Carl E. Sigmond, 16/06/2011

Cecil B. Moore, the prominent African American civil rights activist and criminal defense attorney, ran for mayor of Philadelphia in 1967. As part of his campaign, Moore supported the demands of Philadelphia's African American students and parents who called for changes to school district policy. These changes included new courses in African American history and the allowance of African American students to wear traditional African clothing in school.

U.S. protesters campaign against death penalty in Philadelphia, 2000

Country
United States
Time period
24 July, 2000 to 5 August, 2000
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Carmen Smith-Estrada, 23/10/2011

In 1981, former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal was accused of murdering Daniel Faulkner, a police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A series of discrepancies emerged in the trial, which took place in June 1982. Although Abu-Jamal insisted that another assailant shot Faulkner, the police found two witnesses who claimed to have seen Abu-Jamal commit the crime. One of the witnesses, a cab driver, changed his testimony from the original story given on the night of the crime.

East Los Angeles students walkout for educational reform (East L.A. Blowouts), 1968

Country
United States
Time period
March 1, 1968 to October, 1968
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
5.5 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Rebecca Contreras 24/04/2011

In late 1967 East Los Angeles housed a school system entrenched in racism. The Mexican American community had the highest high school dropout rate and lowest college attendance among any ethnic group. The poor facilities and constant underestimation of student capabilities by teachers created an atmosphere hostile to learning. The oppressive conditions coupled with the inability to make changes compelled students, activists, and teachers to meet and discuss the situation.

U.S. west coast longshoremen strike for union recognition and San Francisco general strike, 1934

Country
United States
Time period
9 May, 1934 to 19 July, 1934
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Hannah Jones, 14/5/2010

The San Francisco general strike grew out of a coast-wide maritime strike in which ports up and down the west coast of the United States were closed by striking workers. While there were complaints about wages and working conditions, the strikers (headed by the International Longshoremen’s Association) were committed to workplace democracy, calling for worker control of unions and hiring and a coast-wide industrial organization inclusive of unskilled workers, skilled workers, and workers of all races and nationalities.

Peace campaigners act for civil rights in Albany, GA, 1963-1964

Country
United States
Time period
December 23, 1963 to February 24, 1964
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Peace
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Anthony Phalen, 06/11/2009

In 1963 a long-distance peace march demanding U.S. foreign policy change got caught in the wave of civil rights campaigns in the southern United States. Beginning on May 26, 1963, the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA), a racially integrated group of social activists left Quebec City, Canada on their Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace to protest the United States' policy toward Cuba. 

Lawrence, MA factory workers strike "for Bread and Roses," U.S. 1912

Country
United States
Time period
11 January, 1912 to 12 March, 1912
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Kelly Schoolmeester, 29/03/2010

As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!
- James Oppenheim (Used as the rallying cry for the movement)

University of California at Berkeley students campaign for freedom of speech, United States, 1964

Country
United States
Time period
September 10, 1964 to January 4, 1965
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Aly Passanante, 10/04/2011

In the fall of 1964, student activists at the University of California at Berkeley set up information tables on campus and solicited donations for civil rights causes.  However, according to existing rules at that time, fundraising for political parties was limited exclusively to the Democratic and Republican school clubs.  On September 16, 1964, Dean of Students Katherine A.

African Americans campaign for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, USA, 1965

Country
United States
Time period
January, 1965 to April, 1965
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Max Rennebohm, 28/9/2009

Even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, most African Americans in the southern United States were still unable to vote because of registration requirements such as literacy tests and slow registration processes. In Selma, Alabama the registration office was open only two days a month and could only process 15 registrations for each of these days. This was not nearly enough to register the 15,000 black citizens of voting age in the county.

Cambridge, Maryland, activists campaign for desegregation, USA, 1962-1963

Country
United States
Time period
January, 1962 to July, 1963
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Human Rights
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Rebecca Contreras, 30/01/2011

Cambridge, a small city in Eastern Shore Maryland, was racially divided in 1960 between African Americans and European Americans. Unemployment rates for African Americans were quadruple those of white people and segregation was pervasive in public and private spaces alike.

University of California Berkeley students win divestment against apartheid South Africa, 1985

Country
United States
Time period
10 April, 1985 to 23 May, 1985
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Arielle Bernhardt, 05/02/2010

In the spring of 1985, campaigns against apartheid in South Africa mobilized on campuses across the United States. Students at University of California Berkeley became aware of these campaigns and were moved to act. On April 10, two student groups—the UC Divestment Committee and the Campaign Against Apartheid—began organizing daily rallies at Sproul Plaza, a main gathering place on campus. Nancy Skinner led the Divestment Committee and William Nessen headed up the Campaign Against Apartheid, but the student coalition made decisions through the consensus of all members.

African-Americans in Birmingham, Alabama, protest segregation, 1956-1958

Country
United States
Time period
December 20, 1956 to November, 1958
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
4 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Danny Hirschel-Burns, 30/01/2011

In the mid 1950’s, segregation was widespread and legally enforced throughout the American south.  Birmingham, Alabama was a hotspot of black activism in opposition to segregationist policies.  Between December 26, 1956 and November 1958, Birmingham blacks, led by Fred Shuttlesworth and other black ministers, initiated a campaign against the legal segregation of Birmingham buses.

U.S. activists and politicians campaign at South African Embassy for end to apartheid, 1984-1985

Country
United States
Time period
21 November, 1984 to November/December, 1985
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Zein Nakhoda, 14/02/2010

In 1984, South Africa was ruled by an increasingly brutal and repressive regime under Prime Minister Pieter Botha, a strong supporter of apartheid, a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government under which the rights of the majority black inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by whites was maintained. In response to increased anti-apartheid protest in 1984, the Botha regime repressed political dissent with increasing brutality. In November of that year, Ronald Reagan had been reelected as President of the United States.

Americans blockade Washington, DC, to protest the Vietnam War, 1971

Country
United States
Time period
1 May, 1971 to 6 May, 1971
Classification
Change
Cluster
Peace
Total points
2 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Kelly Schoolmeester, 19/04/2010

“If the government won’t stop the war, we’ll stop the government.”
That was the central slogan of the Mayday campaign.

The Anti-Vietnam War movement included striking examples of nonviolent direct action. Many of the protests against the Vietnam War took place in the mid-1960s, when the war was still in its early stages, but demonstrations grew in numbers toward the end of the decade. One of the more dramatic efforts to end the war took place in 1971, when the war was rapidly losing public support among American citizens.

Virginia Union University students campaign for desegregation in Richmond, USA, 1960

Country
United States
Time period
February 20, 1960 to January, 1961
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Hannah-Ruth Miller, 31/01/2010

The students of Virginia Union University, a black university, wanted to do something to contribute to the growing sit-in movement that had begun on February 1, 1960, in Greensboro, North Carolina (see “Greensboro, NC, students sit-in for U.S. Civil Rights, 1960”). Led by students Frank Pinkston and Charles Sherrod, who had been counseled on nonviolent protest methods by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., more than 200 Virginia Union students and faculty marched from their campus to Richmond’s downtown shopping district on February 20, 1960.

Los Angleles Justice for Janitors campaign for economic justice at Century City, 1989-1990

Country
United States
Time period
Summer, 1989 to June 25, 1990
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Gavin Musynske, 04/12/2009

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) formed the Local 399 shortly after World War II. The Local 399 was a labor union for janitors which had reached its peak in the 1970s, but was struggling in the 1980s. During this time, the Local 399 fought for higher wages for its members, which motivated cleaning contractors to invest in nonunion options. The cleaning industry was extremely competitive at the time and as a result of this emphasis on nonunion cleaners, membership in the Local 399 had fallen from approximately 5,000 members to only 1,800.

Freedom Riders end racial segregation in Southern U.S. public transit, 1961

Country
United States
Time period
4 May, 1961 to 1 November, 1961
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Gavin Musynske 12/09, edited with additional material by George Lakey 9/9/11

In 1947, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) conducted a “Journey of Reconciliation” to direct attention toward racial segregation in public transportation in the Southern U.S.A. Although this initial freedom ride campaign was not regarded as a great success during its time, it inspired the 1961 Freedom Rides that fueled the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.