History

Cooperation and mutual progress between various human rights movements in the United States have for long been facilitated by common language and philosophy. Civil and women rights movement are some of the human rights movements that have been in existence in the United States. The earliest womens rights movements in the United States include the national womens suffrage association and the American woman suffrage association. The two groups later joined to from the broad national American woman suffrage association.  The original wave of women rights movement began and ended in the 1920s. The second wave started in the 1960s followed by the modern third wave. All these waves dedicated their efforts in the fight against discrimination of women. This is the same case with the civil rights movements. Civil rights movements have been in the forefront in the fight against discrimination of any form for African-Americans. Women movements were formed by the middle and upper class white women. On the other hand, civil rights movement was a course primarily undertaken by African-Americans. A very good example of a civil rights movement is the African-American civil rights movement.

Women rights movements in the 1960s employed an independence strategy. They were independent of all other social and political movements. They formulated their own agenda independent of any political influence. Reformers in the women rights movements of the 1960s advocated for the same pay as men, freedom to engage in family planning measures, as well as equal rights regarding law. In 1966, National Organization for Women was created in the United States. The main aim of this movement was to fight for equality. This movement was feminist fighting for the rights of women. However, this sparked a major debate. Civil rights activities as well as other men interpreted this as hatred of men rather than seeing it as promotion of gender equality.

The main aim of the African-American civil rights movement was eliminating racial discrimination as well as restoring suffrage in South America. Its aims were enlarged to incorporate racial dignity, political independence and freedom from cruelty of the Caucasians. The African-American civil rights movement adopted nonviolent demonstrations and civil defiance strategy in their fight for freedom. Students, who were the majority of civil rights activists members, formed the student nonviolent coordinating committee. This organization joined hands with the congress of racial equality.  National boycotts were a very common strategy employed by civil rights activists. A very good example of a boycott was the Montgomery bus boycott aimed at fighting segregation in sitting positions in public transport. In 1964, a major achievement was made by the African-American civil rights movement, whereby the civil rights act was passed. This led to the banning of discrimination on the basis of color, religion or nationality.

In the 1960s, the civil rights movements garnered a lot of support from the womens rights movements as well as many women from learning institutions. This led to the realization of the civil rights movements that discrimination existed in the same way for both women and African-Americans. Whereas National Organization for Women was fighting for their rights to vote, civil rights movements were fighting for abolition of racial discrimination in voting especially in the southern states. After much struggle from both National Organization for Women and African-American civil rights movement, equal rights amendment was approved by the congress in 1972. Opponents however saw this amendment as a way of discouraging cultural values and the responsibility of women in the society. The National Organization for Women rights was legally challenged in sectors of reproductive rights, domestic associations, employment, as well as criminal law. These legal challenges were the main cause why the womens equal rights amendments were not ratified. Other achievements made by the National Organization for Women were for example, the passing of women educations equity act, the pregnancy discrimination act, among many others. The National Organization for Women also saw the change of attitude towards women. This is regarded as one of the most celebrated success achieved by the womens rights movements.