As @President_Lincoln pointed out, I techincally already made a TV Tropes page.I've just caught up on this timeline, and I just want to say how fantastic it is, Mr. Lincoln! It has the right blend of idealism, realism, and twists and turns in-between
Since I saw some people wishing this had a TVTropes page, I've taken the liberty of finally putting one up. It's very barebones at the moment, but I-and others, no doubt-will add more to it down the line.
I'm curious as to how much the comic book industry has been affected by the POD and other various butterflies. For example, IIRC, DC published a Superman comic that involved the Man of Steel helping out with Kennedy's Physical Fitness Program. However, it was still in the works when he was assassinated and didn't see publication until LBJ persuaded DC to publish it as a tribute story of sorts eight months later. With the JFK assassination not happening AIOTL, perhaps it's published whenever it was intended to?
Blue Skies in Camelot: An Alternate 60's and Beyond
- Thread starter President_Lincoln
- Start date
Sorry about that. I didn't see it on the AHDC page, and assumed no one had made one yet D: I didn't think to check the other Alternate History indexes.
A 1962 POD with a surviving JFK and earlier civil rights could really effect the comic industry - does the Code get lessened early? - Does X-Men still happen? Does a happier(?) population in the 60's take to the bickering FF and angsty Peter Parker? Do see a revival of fashion, cowboy, sci-fi comics? Does a longer Star Trek see comics and novels wrapped into Canon since Paramount are going to want to cash in?
That’s a good point... could we see a stronger Wonder Woman earlier too, I wonder? Something a la George Perez’s run but earlier...
You humble me, @IntellectuallyHonestRhino!
Even being nominated for the Turtledove was a tremendous honor.
Chapter 62
Chapter 62 -She’s Not Just Another Woman - The Fight for the Equal Rights Amendment
Above: Congresswoman Martha Griffiths (D - MI), a lifelong advocate of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In time, she would become something of a feminist icon for her legislative efforts on behalf of women’s liberation and equality.
Way back on September 25th 1921, the National Women’s Party announced plans to campaign for an amendment to the United States Constitution to guarantee women equal rights with men. The text of the proposed amendment read thus:
“Section 1. No political, civil, or legal disabilities or inequalities on account of sex or on account of marriage, unless applying equally to both sexes, shall exist within the United States or any territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
Alice Paul, head of the National Women’s Party, was not convinced that the Nineteenth Amendment would be enough to ensure that men and women were treated equally regardless of sex. Calling her creation the “Lucretia Mott” Amendment, after a female abolitionist who fought for women’s rights and attended the First Women’s Rights Convention, Paul hoped that this additional amendment would help level the playing field once and for all throughout the nation. Not all feminists agreed with Paul’s notion however, and the introduction of the Amendment to Congress by then Senator and future Vice President Charles Curtis (R - KS) in 1923 caused a great debate which tore the women’s liberation movement in two. Paul, her National Women’s Party and their heirs asserted that women should be on equal terms with men in all regards, even if that meant sacrificing benefits given to women through protective legislation, such as shorter work hours and no night work or heavy lifting. Opponents of the amendment, such as the Women's Joint Congressional Committee, however believed that the loss of these benefits to women would not be worth the supposed gain to them in equality. Because lobbying efforts were split between the factions of Women’s groups and political momentum was hard to come by, from its inception in 1921 through the late 60’s, the E.R.A. languished in committee and managed to reach the Senate floor only once, 1946. Once there, it was defeated because the 38 - 35 vote failed to reach the requisite two-thirds supermajority to be passed. This marked not the end for the Amendment however, but rather the first chapter in a long and complicated legislative history.
In 1950 and 1953, the E.R.A. managed to be passed by the Senate with a provision known as "the Hayden rider", introduced by then Arizona Senator Carl Hayden (D). The Hayden rider added a sentence to the E.R.A. to keep special protections for women: "The provisions of this article shall not be construed to impair any rights, benefits, or exemptions now or hereafter conferred by law upon persons of the female sex." By allowing women to keep their existing and future special protections, it was expected that the E.R.A. would be more appealing to its opponents. Though opponents were marginally more in favor of the E.R.A. with the Hayden rider, supporters of the original E.R.A. believed it negated the amendment's original purpose—causing the amendment not to be passed in the House.
E.R.A. supporters were hopeful that President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second term would advance their agenda after decades of debating in the dark. Eisenhower had promised on the campaign trail in ‘56 to "assure women everywhere in our land equality of rights," and in 1958, Eisenhower asked a joint session of Congress to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, the first President to show such a level of support for the idea. However, the National Woman's Party found the amendment to be unacceptable and asked it to be withdrawn whenever the Hayden rider was added, as Eisenhower wished it to be. Finding itself without widespread support, the amendment died in committee again. Once more, the project stalled, but its proponents pushed onward all the same. Frustrated at their lack of progress, the movement paused to take stock of their political footing. The Republican Party had included support of the E.R.A. in its platform in every election year beginning with Wendell Willkie’s nomination in 1940, especially highlighting it in 1964, the first major national ticket to nominate a woman for Vice President. On the other hand, the amendment was strongly opposed by the AFL-CIO and other labor unions, which feared the amendment would invalidate protective labor legislation for women. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and most New Dealers vigorously campaigned against the amendment for these reasons. They felt that the amendment was designed for already largely independent, middle class women, but that working class women needed additional government protection to get ahead and succeed. There was also a fear in Democratic circles that the E.R.A. would undercut the male-dominated labor unions that were a core component of the New Deal coalition. Most northern Democrats, who aligned themselves with anti-E.R.A. labor unions, therefore opposed the amendment. These political motivations did little to endear the Democrats to feminists in their liberal base, but many moderates understood that this position was one of expediency and necessity. At least, they understood for the time being.
At the Democratic National Convention in 1960, the issue reared its head again when a proposal to endorse the E.R.A. was rejected after it met explicit opposition from liberal groups. These included the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the AFL–CIO, labor unions such as the American Federation of Teachers, Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), the American Nurses Association, the Women's Division of the Methodist Church, and the National Councils of Jewish, Catholic, and Negro Women. Realizing that they would not receive a plank in both major parties’ platforms as they had hoped, the losing side then demanded that presidential candidate John F. Kennedy announce his personal support of the E.R.A.; which he did in an October 21, 1960, letter to the chairman of the National Woman's Party. When Kennedy was elected however, he made Esther Peterson the highest-ranking woman in his administration as an Assistant Secretary of Labor. Peterson publicly opposed the Equal Rights Amendment based on her belief that, as contended by Eleanor Roosevelt, it would weaken protective labor legislation. Peterson referred to the National Woman's Party members, most of them veteran suffragists and preferred the "specific bills for specific ills" approach to equal rights. Ultimately, Kennedy's ties to labor unions meant that he and his administration would not support the E.R.A.
As a concession to feminists, Kennedy appointed a blue-ribbon commission on women, the President's Commission on the Status of Women, to investigate the problem of sex discrimination in the United States. The commission was chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt who still opposed the E.R.A. but no longer spoke against it publicly. In the early 1960s, Roosevelt announced that, due to unionization, she believed the E.R.A. was no longer a threat to women as it once may have been and told supporters that, as far as she was concerned, they could have the amendment if they wanted it. However, she never went so far as to endorse the E.R.A. The commission that she chaired reported (after her death) that no E.R.A. was necessary. The commission did, though, help win passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 which banned sex discrimination in wages in a number of professions (it would later be amended in the early 1970s to include the professions that it initially excluded) and secured an executive order from Kennedy eliminating sex discrimination in the civil service. The commission, composed largely of anti-ERA feminists with ties to labor, proposed remedies to the widespread sex discrimination it unearthed and in its 1963 final report held that on the issue of equality "a constitutional amendment need not now be sought".
Above: President John F. Kennedy signs The Equal Pay Act into law.
The national commission inspired the creation of state and local commissions on the status of women and arranged for follow-up conferences in the years to come. The following year, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned workplace discrimination not only on the basis of race, religion, and national origin, but also on the basis of sex. This was largely thanks to the lobbying efforts of Alice Paul and Coretta Scott King and the skillful politicking of Representative Martha Griffiths of Michigan. The Act was, on its own, seen as a great step forward for ending sex-based discrimination in the U.S. but there were still others who felt that it did not yet complete their goal.
A new women's movement, “second wave feminism” gained ground in the 1960’s as a result of a confluence of events: Betty Friedan's bestseller The Feminine Mystique; the complex network of women's rights commissions formed in the wake of President Kennedy's national commission; the frustration over women's social and economic status; and anger over the lack of government and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforcement of the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In June 1966, at the Third National Conference on the Status of Women in Washington, D.C., Betty Friedan, Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe, and a group of activists frustrated with the lack of government action in enforcing Title VII formed the National Organization for Women. Demanding full equality for American women and men, the group made it its sworn mission to see an end to all sex based discrimination in the United States. The next year, at the urging of Alice Paul, NOW fully endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment and urged President Kennedy to make good on his promises from his first campaign. The decision caused some union Democrats and social conservatives to leave the organization and form the Women's Equity Action League, but the move to support the amendment benefited NOW more than it hurt it, bolstering its membership and giving the organization a tidal wave of free publicity. By the late 1960’s, NOW had made significant political and legislative victories and was gaining enough power to become a major lobbying force. In his farewell address to the nation, President Kennedy listed his failure to see the E.R.A. through Congress as “one of the few great regrets of my time in office”. In 1969, newly-elected Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D - NY) gave her famous speech "Equal Rights for Women" on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. In her oration, Chisholm came out hard for the amendment, and called on her fellow Democrats to join her, marking a shift in opinion on the issue from the party’s liberal left wing.
In February of 1970, NOW picketed the United States Senate, a subcommittee of which was holding hearings on a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18 (which would eventually be ratified). NOW interrupted the hearings and demanded a hearing be held instead on the Equal Rights Amendment. The stunt won the organization’s representatives, among them an increasingly political Marilyn Monroe, a meeting with Senators to discuss the E.R.A. That August, over 20,000 American women held a nationwide Women's Strike for Equality protest to demand full social, economic, and political equality. Said Betty Friedan of the strike, "All kinds of women's groups all over the country will be using this week on August 26th particularly, to point out those areas in women's life which are still not addressed. For example, a question of equality before the law; we are interested in the Equal Rights Amendment." Despite being centered in New York City—which was one of NOW’s biggest strongholds and having a relatively small number of participants in contrast to the large-scale anti-war and civil rights protests that had occurred in the recent time prior to the event, the strike was nonetheless hailed as one of the biggest turning points in the rise of second-wave feminism across the nation. In Washington, D.C., protesters presented a sympathetic Senate leadership with a petition for the Equal Rights Amendment at the U.S. Capitol. There, Marilyn Monroe gave an emotional, heartfelt address to thousands of onlookers in which she demanded that her son “grow up in a world where he be taught of the necessity for true, full equality between he and his female peers”. The speech, which was well received and seemed to shift the narrative on the issue in NOW’s favor, won Monroe widespread acclaim from the feminist movement, and had many calling for Monroe to seek political office herself. Influential news sources such as Time also supported the cause of the protesters, and before long, sympathetic editorials flooded The New York Times and Washington Post. Soon after the strike took place, activists distributed literature across the country, sparking not just a nationwide conversation, but a political movement. As the summer of 1970 wore on, congressional hearings began on the E.R.A.
On August 10th, 1970, Michigan Democrat Martha Griffiths finally brought the Equal Rights Amendment to the Floor of the House of Representatives, after fifteen years of the joint resolution languishing in the House Judiciary Committee. The joint resolution passed in the House and continued with PR momentum on to the Senate, which voted for the E.R.A. with an added clause that women would be exempt from the draft. Excitement within the ranks of NOW and beyond reached a fever pitch. It seemed that after decades, their goal was nearing completion. The 91st Congress, however, broke their hearts when it ended before the joint resolution could progress any further. NOW refused to give up, especially when their objective seemed so near at hand. Griffiths reintroduced the E.R.A. on January 13th, 1971, and hopes that this time, with the public behind her, she will at last be able to see the damned thing through.
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: The Hoover Affair Breaks Across the Nation
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OOC: Greetings everyone, quick announcement here: I'm headed back to University this weekend and have a feeling that I'll be swamped with re-orienting myself for the next week or so. As such, expect updates and replies to be few and far between for the near future. Fear not however, I'll be back before long and Blue Skies in Camelot will keep right on rolling. Stay tuned!
Fear not however, I'll be back before long and Blue Skies in Camelot will keep right on rolling. Stay tuned!A lot of this is as events transpired IOTL, yes.
Although the legislative atmosphere heading into '71 is going to be vastly different, especially once the Hoover case opens up.President Romney supports the E.R.A. and is calling on Congress to pass it as soon as possible.
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
"Candles in the Rain", "Who'll Stop the Rain"... I'm surprised you didn't use James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" as a title for anything in 1970.
Jumping forward, hoping the ERA is more of a thing ITTL! Awesome.
Jumping forward, hoping the ERA is more of a thing ITTL! Awesome.
It'll be interesting to see how 2nd Wave Feminism occurs ITTL. Hopefully, it'll achieve the same goals as IOTL, if not more.
Oh boy, I can't wait to see the scandals of the Hoover Affair!
Oh boy, I can't wait to see the scandals of the Hoover Affair!
I couldn't agree more, ImperialTheorist!
Second Wave Feminism made a lot of great points about how American society could be made a stronger, more equal place for men and women alike, and I think TTL's 70's could see a lot of progress in that regard. As for the Hoover Affair, you guys have already made a plethora of predictions about how it could turn out. I'll stay (mostly) silent for now, other than to say I hope it's a wild and enjoyable ride.
This looks like a much more interesting and nuanced debate than we got OTL! Please keep it coming!
Thank you, Worffan!
I'm glad to hear that both sides of the debate are well represented here, that is always my goal. The E.R.A. has several compelling arguments both for and against, and victory over it ITTL will come down to who can convince the American people that their arguments hold up the best.