'We Are Taking Up Where the Movement of the 1960s Left Off': The Proliferation and Power of African American Protest during the 1970s

The 1970s are often presumed to be a decade of decline and fragmentation of the American civil rights movement. Drawing together a wide range of recent research, this article argues that the decade of the 1970s saw a surge rather than a decline in public protest - it was a story of proliferation rather than fragmentation. This article focuses on the expansion of grassroots workplace and political activism, and on the emergence of new campaigns by welfare, feminist, and imprisoned groups. It shows how Such activism drew on the example of 1960s protest, took advantage of the legislative achievements of the 1960s, and pursued agendas that had often been marginalized in the heyday Of the 1960s civil rights movement and Black Power era.