AP United States History

## Learning Outcomes

- Understand how the Black freedom struggle inspired other ethnic rights movements after **1945**
- Identify the goals, leaders, and methods of the **Chicano Movement** and **Red Power**
- Explain why Mexican American and Native American activism were similar in some ways but different in others
- Recall key events including the **Delano Grape Strike (1965)**, **East Los Angeles walkouts (1968)**, **Occupation of Alcatraz (1969–1971)**, and **Wounded Knee (1973)**
- Understand how **affirmative action** expanded the meaning of equality beyond simply ending legal discrimination
- Use specific evidence to answer APUSH questions about continuity, change over time, and causation in Period 8

## AP United States History Syllabus

For the AP United States History, you are expected to understand broader ethnic rights movements in the postwar period, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that the civil rights era expanded beyond African Americans to include Mexican American, Native American, and other ethnic rights movements
- Identify the aims of the **Chicano Movement**, including labor rights, educational equality, political representation, and cultural pride
- Understand the importance of **Cesar Chavez**, **Dolores Huerta**, the **United Farm Workers**, and the **Delano Grape Strike**
- Explain the goals of the **Red Power movement**, especially tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, and self-determination
- Identify the role of **AIM**, the **Occupation of Alcatraz**, the **Trail of Broken Treaties**, and **Wounded Knee**
- Understand the shift from ending formal discrimination to promoting opportunity through **affirmative action**
- Know the importance of **Executive Order 11246 (1965)** and **Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)**
- Explain how federal Native policy changed from **termination and relocation** in the 1950s to **self-determination** by **1975**

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. How did the Chicano Movement differ from the Native American rights movement?
2. What was the significance of the **Delano Grape Strike** and boycott?
3. Why was the **Occupation of Alcatraz** important in Native American activism?
4. What did **affirmative action** mean, and how was it different from earlier civil rights laws?
5. What did the Supreme Court decide in **Bakke (1978)**?

## Introduction

In APUSH Period 8, civil rights history does not stop with Black freedom struggles in the South. After **World War II**, and especially during the **1960s** and **1970s**, other groups used protest, organization, and legal pressure to demand equality, dignity, and power. These movements were influenced by Black activism, but they were not copies of it. Each had its own goals shaped by its own history.

For Mexican Americans, this often meant fighting for fair wages, decent schools, voting power, and respect for Chicano identity. For Native Americans, the key issues were often not desegregation, but **sovereignty**, treaty rights, land, and self-rule. At the same time, federal policy also changed. The government moved from simply banning discrimination to trying to correct unequal outcomes through affirmative action.

> **Key Term: broader ethnic rights movements**
> Rights movements in the 1960s and 1970s in which groups such as Mexican Americans and Native Americans demanded equality, representation, cultural respect, and political power.

### How the civil rights movement widened after 1945

The Black freedom struggle created a model that other groups could adapt. That model included marches, boycotts, student protest, court action, media strategy, and pressure on the federal government. But APUSH questions often reward students who explain difference as well as similarity.

Mexican American activists were often dealing with low-paid farm labor, unequal schools, and weak political representation in the Southwest and urban West. Native activists were reacting to a longer history of broken treaties, land seizure, and federal control over tribal life. So while both movements demanded justice, the exact form of that justice differed.

> **Key Term: affirmative action**
> Policies designed to increase access to jobs and education for groups that had faced past discrimination.

This matters for historical reasoning. If an essay asks how the civil rights movement expanded, do not only say “other groups wanted equality too.” That is too vague. A stronger answer shows the chain of cause and effect:

- Black civil rights victories showed protest could work
- Television and mass media spread those examples
- Federal civil rights laws proved Washington could be pressured
- Other ethnic groups adapted those tactics
- Their own distinct histories shaped different demands

For example, Native American activists were less focused on integration into mainstream institutions than on control over their own communities. That is a major distinction.

> **Test Tip:** In an SAQ or LEQ, aim for a “similarity + difference” structure. Example: “Like Black activists, Chicano and Native activists used protest and federal pressure; unlike Black activists, Native activists emphasized sovereignty and treaty rights rather than mainly desegregation.”

### The Chicano Movement: labor, schools, politics, and cultural pride

> **Key Term: Chicano Movement**
> A Mexican American movement of the 1960s and 1970s that sought civil rights, labor rights, educational equality, political representation, and cultural pride.

The Chicano Movement was broad. Students often reduce it to one leader, **Cesar Chavez**, but APUSH expects more than that. It included labor organizing, student activism, community protest, and third-party politics.

One major branch was the farmworker struggle. Mexican American and Filipino farmworkers faced low wages, poor housing, pesticide exposure, and little job security. In **1965**, the **Delano Grape Strike** began in California. Chavez and **Dolores Huerta**, leaders of the **United Farm Workers (UFW)**, turned a local labor dispute into a national movement by linking strike action to a consumer boycott.

That strategy mattered. Farmworkers were economically weak against growers. A simple strike could be broken by replacement labor. But a nationwide grape boycott changed the battlefield. It brought middle-class consumers, students, churches, and labor supporters into the conflict. This is a good example of how activists used indirect pressure when direct bargaining power was limited.

> **Key Term: United Farm Workers (UFW)**
> The farm labor union led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta that used strikes, marches, and boycotts to improve conditions for farmworkers.

The Chicano Movement also fought educational inequality. In **1968**, the **East Los Angeles walkouts**, also called the Blowouts, protested overcrowded schools, discriminatory treatment, weak college preparation, and limited curriculum. Students objected not just to bad facilities, but to an educational system that pushed Mexican American students into lower expectations and fewer opportunities.

This is a point students sometimes miss: educational protest was about power, not just comfort. If schools steer one group away from academic success, that shapes jobs, income, and representation later. So school inequality was part of a larger system.

Political representation also grew in importance. In **1970**, activists created **La Raza Unida Party** to increase Mexican American electoral influence. This reflected frustration with the two major parties, which many activists believed ignored Chicano communities.

> **Key Term: La Raza Unida Party**
> A political party founded in 1970 to build independent Mexican American political power and representation.

The Chicano Movement also promoted cultural pride. The use of the word “Chicano” itself was political. It rejected shame and asserted identity. This shows a wider Period 8 trend: rights movements were not only demanding legal protection, but also dignity and recognition.

A strong APUSH comparison is this: the earlier civil rights movement often targeted **de jure** exclusion, such as segregated laws. Chicano activism still confronted discrimination, but it also pressed for bilingual education, ethnic studies, and cultural legitimacy. That is a move from legal access alone toward institutional change.

> **Test Tip:** If asked for evidence, use a range: UFW and Delano for labor, East L.A. walkouts for education, and La Raza Unida for politics. That shows range and earns stronger evidence credit.

### Red Power and Native American activism: sovereignty, treaties, and self-determination

> **Key Term: Red Power**
> A Native American activism movement of the 1960s and 1970s focused on sovereignty, treaty rights, self-determination, and cultural survival.

Native American activism in this era must be understood against earlier federal policy. In the **1950s**, the government had often pursued **termination** and **relocation**. Termination aimed to end the special legal relationship between tribes and the federal government. Relocation pushed Native people toward cities, supposedly for opportunity, but often produced poverty and dislocation.

These policies helped create the anger behind Red Power. They also helped create urban Native communities, where activism could organize more easily.

> **Key Term: termination policy**
> A 1950s federal policy aimed at ending tribal recognition and weakening the federal relationship with Native nations.
>
> **Key Term: self-determination**
> A policy approach supporting greater Native control over tribal government, education, services, and community decisions.

The best-known organization was the **American Indian Movement (AIM)**, founded in **1968** in Minneapolis. AIM first protested urban issues such as police abuse and poverty, but soon became nationally visible through dramatic actions.

> **Key Term: American Indian Movement (AIM)**
> A Native American activist organization founded in 1968 that fought police abuse, poverty, treaty violations, and limits on tribal sovereignty.

The **Occupation of Alcatraz** from **1969 to 1971**, led by Native activists including Indians of All Tribes, became a symbolic turning point. Activists claimed the abandoned island and drew national attention to broken treaties and Native demands for land and dignity. The event mattered not because Alcatraz itself solved material problems, but because it made Native activism visible and hard to ignore.

The **Trail of Broken Treaties** in **1972** carried Native activists to Washington, D.C., to protest federal failures. Then in **1973**, the **Wounded Knee occupation** in South Dakota brought activists and federal authorities into a 71-day standoff. The choice of Wounded Knee was deliberate: it connected current grievances to the longer memory of Native dispossession and violence.

Students often confuse Native activism with standard civil-rights integration campaigns. That is a mistake. Native activists were often saying: we are not only a minority seeking equal treatment inside U.S. institutions; we are nations with treaty rights and political standing. That is why sovereignty matters so much.

This helps with comparison:

- Chicano activists: labor rights, schools, voting power, cultural pride
- Native activists: sovereignty, treaties, land, self-determination

Both used protest. Both were influenced by the 1960s climate. But their demands came from different historical problems.

Federal policy did begin to shift. A major turning point was the **Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975**, which allowed tribes greater control over federal programs affecting their communities. This marked a clear movement away from termination and toward self-determination.

> **Key Term: Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (1975)**
> A law that allowed Native American tribes greater control over education and federal programs serving their communities.

### Affirmative action and the debate over equality

The expansion of rights movements also changed the meaning of equality. Earlier civil rights laws, such as the **Civil Rights Act of 1964**, mainly attacked legal discrimination. By the mid-1960s, policymakers increasingly argued that banning discrimination was not enough if past exclusion still shaped present opportunity.

That is where affirmative action enters the story. In **Executive Order 11246**, signed by **Lyndon B. Johnson** on **September 24, 1965**, federal contractors were required to take affirmative action to ensure equal employment opportunity.

This is a major APUSH distinction: the issue was no longer only “Do not discriminate.” It became “Take steps to widen access.”

That shift was controversial. Supporters argued it was necessary to address long-term barriers. Critics said it unfairly favored some groups and created “reverse discrimination.” By the **1970s**, this debate had become central.

The key court case is **Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)**. The Supreme Court rejected rigid racial quotas in admissions but allowed race to be considered as one factor among others. So Bakke did not end affirmative action. It limited one method while preserving the broader idea.

> **Key Term: Executive Order 11246**
> A 1965 order requiring federal contractors to take affirmative action to ensure equal employment opportunity.
>
> **Key Term: Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)**
> A Supreme Court case that rejected strict racial quotas in admissions but allowed race to be considered as one factor.

For APUSH, the larger significance is that rights politics had entered a new phase. The country was debating not only whether discrimination was wrong, but also whether government should actively remedy unequal outcomes.

That debate connects directly to Period 8 themes:

- liberal reform expanded federal action
- identity politics became more visible
- equality came to mean more than formal legal sameness
- backlash grew stronger in the 1970s

A useful essay judgement would be: broader ethnic rights movements expanded the civil rights era by widening who was included and by widening what equality meant.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- Broader ethnic rights movements expanded civil rights activism beyond African Americans during the 1960s and 1970s
- The Chicano Movement focused on labor rights, educational equality, political representation, and cultural pride
- Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta led the United Farm Workers
- The Delano Grape Strike began in 1965 and gained strength through a national boycott
- The East Los Angeles walkouts of 1968 protested unequal schooling and limited opportunity for Mexican American students
- La Raza Unida Party was founded in 1970 to increase Mexican American political power
- Red Power emphasized Native sovereignty, treaty rights, self-determination, and cultural survival
- AIM was founded in 1968 and became the best-known Native activist organization of the era
- The Occupation of Alcatraz and Wounded Knee drew national attention to Native grievances
- Federal Native policy shifted from termination and relocation toward self-determination by 1975
- Executive Order 11246 showed a shift from banning discrimination to requiring affirmative action
- Bakke in 1978 limited racial quotas but allowed race-conscious admissions policies in some form

## Key Terms and Concepts

- broader ethnic rights movements
- affirmative action
- Chicano Movement
- United Farm Workers (UFW)
- La Raza Unida Party
- Red Power
- termination policy
- self-determination
- American Indian Movement (AIM)
- Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (1975)
- Executive Order 11246
- Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)


The Civil Rights Movement Expands - Broader ethnic rights movements