Sunflower School

English Holiday
Homework

Topic-
 Black Americans and their fight for
justice
 Vietnam and their fight for
independence
 Women and their fight for equality

-Phaniraj X ‘B’
Black Americans and their fight for justice
One of the most important movements was the American civil
rights movement. It was fought for the equal treatment of Afro-
Americans or Black Americans and against the rules that
permitted segregation of blacks and whites in schools and public
places and discriminated against them in housing and even voting
rights. This movement reached its height -during the 1960. It was
largely non-violent and took the form of massive demonstrations,
marches, civil disobedience and boycott of discriminatory
services. One of the important actions was the year long boycott
of buses by blacks led by Dr. Martin Luther King. This caused a
huge loss to the bus company and
eventually forced the court to ban
segregation of seats for blacks and
whites in buses in 1956. At the same
time, a powerful movement was going
on for ending segregation in school.
On 28th August 1963, more than two
lakh people marched to Washington
demanding the passage of Civil
Rights Act and demanding among
other things, program for generation
of employment, decent housing, the
right to vote, and adequately
integrated education system in which whites and blacks could
study together. This was addressed among others by Dr. King
who made his historic speech, “I have a dream”. These laws were
subsequently passed and after a long struggle, many of them got
effectively implemented. This became an inspiration all over the
world for leading non violent social movements for reforms and
change. As the movement grew in strength, several viewpoints
emerged – many people agreed with Dr King that it was possible
to achieve equality for all people through peaceful means and
persuading the government to pass necessary laws. However,
many others like Malcolm X were of the view that blacks were a
separate nation and should fight for independence from white
rule. They also felt that in order to win power they will have to
use all means including armed conflict. A large section of people
who actively participated in the civil rights movement were black
women, who felt that their voice was not being heard even within
the movement which was dominated by men. In fact no woman
was allowed to speak in the famous Washington March. They felt
that women needed to assert themselves for equality of women.
All these diverse streams too contributed in their own way in
building a powerful movement for equality which shaped modern
history of the USA.

Vietnam and their fight for

independence

The Colonial Experience In mid 19th

century Vietnam came under the direct rule of the French who
retained a puppet Vietnamese emperor but virtually ruled Vietnam
the way Britain ruled India. It influenced all aspects of Vietnamese
life just as in India under Britain.

Exports, Landlordism and Peasants

The French were keen to develop Vietnam as an exporter of rice
and for this purpose they adopted a threefold strategy – improving
irrigation network, encouraging landlords and facilitating
marketing of agricultural produce like rice and rubber.
Construction of a trans-Indo-China rail network that would link
the northern and southern parts of Vietnam and China was begun.
The colonial economy in Vietnam was primarily based on rice
cultivation and rubber plantations owned by the French and few
Vietnamese elite. Bonded labour was widely used in the rubber
plantations. The French did little to industrialise the economy. In
the rural areas landlordism spread and large landlords took over
the lands of small peasants and made them work as tenant
farmers. As a result the standard of living for the peasants
declined.

Emergence of Vietnamese Nationalism

By the 1920s, students were forming various political parties, such
as the Party of Young Annam, and publishing nationalist journals
such as the Annamese Student. In early 20th century Vietnamese
students went to Japan to acquire modern education. For many of
them the primary objective was to drive out the French from
Vietnam, overthrow the puppet emperor and re-establish the
Nguyen dynasty that had been deposed by the French. The Great
Depression of the 1930s had a profound impact on Vietnam. In
February 1930, Ho Chi Minh brought together competing
nationalist groups to establish the Vietnamese Communist Party.
In 1940 Japan occupied Vietnam, as part of its imperial drive to
control Southeast Asia. So nationalists now had to fight against the
Japanese as well as the French. The League for the Independence
fought the Japanese occupation and recaptured Hanoi in
September 1945. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was formed
and Ho Chi Minh became Chairman.

The New Republic of Vietnam

The new republic faced a number of challenges. The French tried
to regain control. After eight years of fighting, the French were
defeated in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu. In the peace negotiations in
Geneva, the Vietnamese were persuaded to accept the division of
the country. North and south were
split: Ho Chi Minh and the
communists took power in the north.
The south was handed over to an old
Emperor who was soon ousted by
Ngo Dinh Diem. He built a
repressive and authoritarian
government. His dictatorial rule was opposed by a broad
opposition united under the banner of the National Liberation
Front (NLF). In the North Vietnam till this period the Vietminh
had followed a soft policy in relation to land reforms confining
themselves to ensuring reduction in land rents and confiscating
only the lands of landlords who openly sided with the French or
the Japanese. This decisively won them the support of Vietnamese
peasants whose long cherished dream of owning their own land
was now being fulfilled.

The Entry of the US into the War

With the help of the Ho Chi Minh government in the north, the
NLF fought for the unification of the country. The US watched
this alliance with fear. Worried about communists gaining power,
it decided to intervene decisively, sending in troops and arms. US
entry into the war marked a new phase that proved costly to the
Vietnamese as well as to the Americans. Even though the US had
advanced technology and
good medical supplies,
casualties were high. This
phase of struggle with
the US was brutal.
Thousands of US troops
arrived equipped with
heavy weapons and tanks and
backed by the most powerful
bombers of the time – B52s. The wide spread attacks and use of
chemical weapons – Napalm (a deadly bomb), Agent Orange
(which destroyed plants and trees), and phosphorous bombs –
destroyed many villages and decimated jungles. The effect of the
war was felt within the US as well. The prolongation of the war
created strong reactions even within the US. The widespread
questioning of government policy strengthened moves to
negotiate an end to the war. A peace settlement was signed in
Paris in January 1974. This ended the conflict with the US but
fighting between the Saigon regime and the NLF continued. The
NLF occupied the presidential palace in Saigon on 30 April 1975
and finally unified Vietnam.
 Women and their fight for equality

During the pre-civil war period of 1820-1860, vast changes in

society were occurring. Conflicts between the North and South
were increasing in number and intensity, and many advocators of
abolition and women’s rights began to gain recognition and
supporters.
This was a period of great change in the United States, particularly
for women.

In fact, this is when women began to actively give their support to

a wide-range of reforms. Many
supported the abolition
movement and the temperance
movement. With the majority
of women advocating for the
highly visible abolition and
temperance movements,
disunity fell upon the women’s right movement. Though the
women’s rights movement was not generally considered to be
greatly successful, women gained the knowledge, experience, and
contacts needed for meetings yet to come by being involved with
these movements.

The women’s rights movement as a whole is a complex historical

event and many happenings are interrelated and
uncharacteristically interlinked socially, economically, and
politically. Socially, much progress was made in the areas of
educational equality, contraception awareness, and the anti-
slavery and temperance movements. Women were also somewhat
successful economically by gaining more equality in the
workplace. Politically,
however, they were not so
fortunate. Women did not
get the right to hold
property or divorce until
well after the civil war, nor
did they gain the right to vote until 1920.
Ideas like these were considered by most to be too radical to take
on at the time. As a result, overall the women’s movement for
equality was not greatly successful from 1820-1860.

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 Bibliography

Content-
10th Class SSC Social Textbook
Chap. National liberation
Movements in the Colonies

Chap. Social Movements in our times

www.bartleby.com

Pictures-
SSC Social textbook (class10)
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