History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 95

History - Essay Example These campaigns have however occurred in different periods of time, with each exacting its own influence on the feminist movement. This paper focusses on the evolution of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Often referred to as the â€Å"second wave feminism† the 1960s and 1970s feminist movement arose out of the turbulent social turmoil experienced during this period of American history. In these years, the feminist movement became more radicalized, under the directorship of various outspoken American women. The 1960s and 1970s were characterized by a mass entry of women into the workforce as a result of shifting workplace stereotypes against women in the previous decades. Accordingly, the Second wave feminist movement was primarily focused on disassembling workplace inequality, including salary inequity and increasing women’s access to better jobs. Feminists proposed to achieve this by seeking the abolishment of discriminatory laws and unfair labor practices. To this end, feminist activists distributed education materials to women across the country, regarding reproductive health and sex and pursued the legalization of all types of birth control. Feminists created polit ical organizations and published articles, books, as well as essays critiquing sexism and patriarchy in society. However, to achieve equality, feminists realized that women were required to transform the manner in which the society spoke about, thought of, and treated women. This required more than merely changing laws — this demanded a radical shift in every aspect of the American society to ensure that men and women would be regarded as equals. The main objective of feminists in this period was to reverse the ubiquitous belief that since women differed from men biologically, they were inherently more emotional, intellectually inferior, and were better off executing to domestic chores as compared to professional tasks and politics. Additionally, the feminist movement of the

Life, legacy and leadership of luis farrakhan Essay

Life, legacy and leadership of luis farrakhan - Essay Example In February 1955, while attending a musical concert in Chicago, Louis was invited to attend the Nation of Islam Saviour Day Convention. In this convention, he discovered a different calling and following encouragement Malcolm X, he joined the Nation of Islam, an organization established in the 1930s by Elijah Muhammad. Louis rose through the hierarchy and was later bestowed the holy name, Farrakhan by the movement’s leader Muhammad. When Elijah Muhammad the founder died in 1975, the Nation of Islam went into organizational chaos and eventually fragmented. One of Muhammad’s sons brought the movement to the formal tenets and practices of Orthodox Islam. Farrakhan withdrew from this Islamic organization and re-established the old Nation of Islam in which he remained loyal to the precepts and practices of its former patriarch. Louis stepped into Muhammad’s leadership mantle where he remained fiery and outspoken on social, political, racial and religious issues. In my view, he carved himself into an image of a militant spokesman for the conservative black nationals. In 1979 through the Nation of Islam movement, Farrakhan founded the Final Call, a weekly newspaper similar to the original Muhammad Speaks started by Malcolm X in which Farrakhan ran a weekly column (Kippenberger, 31). American politics are viewed as being free from threats of tyranny, dictatorship and a solid commitment to civil rights liberties and rights of individual citizens and minority groups as enshrined in the U.S constitution. On the contrary, Farrakhan through his speeches and views raises racial disharmony. He is an influential participant in the national black American politics and history. He continues to fight oppression in the U.S educational system, government and urban communities, the suffering endured by African-Americans, other ethnicities and racial groups. Many diverse local and global organizations hail Farrakhan as a champion in the struggle for freedom from oppressive treatment, justice and equality especially in uplifting and reforming the black community. With some scientific inclination, Farrakhan claims that blacks were the original human species and often quotes scientific findings of the oldest human being as being black (Kayyali, 173). He is well known for leading the Nation of Islam, an African-American movement that has practiced elements of Islam and Black Nationalism. The most significant accomplishment in civic rights activism was the 1995 Million Man March in Washington D.C. The march took a healing message and was inspired by concerns over the negative image of black men propagated by the media and film industry linking the black community to drugs, illicit sex and gang violence. He harnessed dialogue among gangs in the ghettos in major cities in America to reduce the level of social violence (Singh, 265). He set up an economic channel as a base for blacks to excel in business through education and training. He sought to bring solutions to the challenges of war, poverty, discrimination and the right to an education. In 2000 he convened the Million Family March to unite the human family, presided many weddings and re-commitment of vows. In 2005, upon the 10th anniversary of the