The 1960s and early 1970s were a time that forever changed America's culture and humanity. It was a time widely known for peace and love when in reality; many minorities were struggling to obtain a minimum of equality and freedom. It was a time when a younger generation rebelled against conventional norms, questioning power and government and insisting on greater freedoms for minorities. Additionally, a huge opposition movement to the Vietnam War began to arise. It was a time of brutal altercations, with the civil rights movement and youth culture demanding equality, and the war in Vietnam tested the public's loyalty. Countless African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, women, and college students were left frustrated, angry, and disillusioned by the turmoil around them. African Americans had been fighting for equal rights for decades. During the 1960s, the civil rights movement intensified, and civil rights leaders pleaded with President Kennedy to intervene. They knew that it would take an extreme legislature to obtain results of any merit. Kennedy was afraid to move forward in the battle for civil rights, so a young preacher named Martin Luther King began a campaign of nonviolent marches, sit-ins, and prayers in Birmingham, Alabama, to try to force a crisis that the president would have to face. recognize. Eventually things got heated and Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor released his men to attack the protesters, including many schoolchildren. All of this was captured and televised to the world's horror. This ultimately forced the President to act and he proposed a bill banning segregation in public facilities. The bill bogged down in Congress, but civil rights groups… middle of paper… “relieved boredom,” which quickly swelled in numbers. These women met to discuss the injustice of “sexism,” an equivalent to racism; they began to start many feminist projects, such as health collectives, day centers, rape crisis centers, abortion counseling services, and women's study programs. In the 1970s they focused on three issues: equality in education/employment, access to legal abortions, and the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Congress also passed Title IX of the Higher Education Act. This law prohibited bias on the basis of sex in any educational program that received federal resources that were once male-only, were forced to accept female students. Although great strides have been made in women's equality, the pay discrepancy between men and women for the same jobs remains prevalent today..