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Yellow gold button with black text. 

For more than three decades, Iran has been under scrutiny for committing human rights abuses. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has imposed a strict, fundamentalist form of Islamic law, which has denied people of their rights and freedom. In particular, women, homosexuals, Christians, Jews, journalists, and political dissenters have been among the victims. A number of organizations have documented human rights violations in Iran and work to advocate for the victims.

Brown button with white text and white symbol in the middle. 

This button was made in 1966 for the Chicago Freedom Movement. It depicts the movement's symbol, which is made up of the letters M-O-V-E. The slogan "We're on the move to end slums" was created by Don Rose, the press spokesman for the movement.

The Chicago Freedom Movement attempted to end slums and housing discrimination in Chicago with the help of the SCLC and Martin Luther King Jr. who, in January 1966, moved his family into a tenement in Chicago. He soon began leading protests demanding open housing, good education and access to jobs. The Chicago Freedom Movement was one of the most ambitious northern Civil Rights movements and, although it was not very successful, it did bring economic inequality into the spotlight. 

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Black button with white text. 

By the end of the 1970's, the movement against the use of nuclear power had spread globally, with groups in Germany and other parts of Europe coming together to protest the opening of nuclear power plants. Before the highly publicized accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl brought to the forefront the question of plant safety, the primary concern was that the very existence of nuclear power threatened the future of the world. In 1978, a protest was organized in New York City near the United Nations at a time when the United States was in talks to pass the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act. The poster for the event featured an illustration of the globe at the center of a mushroom cloud with the title, "Evacuation Would Be Impossible." Though nuclear weapons have not been used since 1945, nuclear accidents as recent as the Fukushima disaster in 2011 have continued to raise concerns about the threat nuclear power poses to the environment and to the future of political relations worldwide.

Yellow button with red text in the center going in a circle and around it is the image of a sun.

Though the 1970's saw a rising environmental movement following the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, interest in solar energy didn't really gain traction until 1973. An embargo by the OAPEC caused the price of oil to quadruple over the span of a year, resulting in an oil crisis and national shortages. It raised serious questions about the United States's complete dependence on oil for power. In 1974, Nixon signed the Energy Supply and Environmental Coordination Act, which attempted to regulate the environmental impacts of US energy demands. One of the possible solutions for lessening the use of oil was solar power. Enthusiasm for clean energy continued into the 1980's with further legislation passed to financially incentivize businesses to invest in solar paneling. Today, the U.S. is ranked second in the world for solar use, but it still only accounts for 2.30% of total U.S. electricity.

White button with black text. The image of a white person and a black person reading a book together appears in the middle.  

The Woodlawn Project in an on-going educational study of 1,242 people from the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago starting in 1966 when participants were in first grade. The Woodlawn Project partnered with the Chicago Board of Health, the University of Chicago, and Chicago public and parochial schools. The Student Woodlawn Area Project (SWAP) motto was Pergite Pergere, Latin for “Keep on Pushing”. The project aims to identify poverty and social issues affecting school-age children as a way to improve educational opportunities and health services in underserved communities, including the Woodlawn neighborhood. The study is ongoing and consists of six monitoring stages: first grade, teenage years, young adulthood, a mother's interview, mid-life, and an aging assessment. 

White button with green text and the illustration of a green pine tree among some hills. 

People have been concerned about the effects of nuclear weapons since the mid 1950s, stemming from nuclear tests in the Pacific, but there was no real movement against nuclear power until the early 1970s when some scientists started to raise concerns about the dangers of nuclear power. The movements combined into an international antinuclear movement that encompassed both antinuclear power and antinuclear weapons activities by the mid 1970s. This button was made in 1977 and became an international symbol of the antinuclear movement. It was used to protest the proposed creation of a floating nuclear power plant off the coast of New Jersey. This power plant was proposed in the early 1970s and canceled in 1978 after environmental protests.

Grey button with blue, red and green text. An image of black hands breaking free from chains appears on the button. 

The South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) was a national liberation movement in Namibia and is a major political party in the country today. It was founded on April 19, 1960, by Andimba Toivo ya Toivo and Sam Nujoma. During the Namibian War for Independence, the SWAPO became the major force that fought South African attacks and was recognized by the U.N., in 1972, as “legitimate representative” of the Namibian people. The Namibian War for Independence ended in 1988 and its first election was held in 1990. The country elected Sam Nujoma as its first president. Since then, the SWAPO has been the governing party of the country; in 2014, it received nearly 87% of the popular vote.

Brown button with orange text.

In 1972 Colorado passed an amendment to their state constitution guaranteeing equal rights for women within the state. In 1976 Colorado's Measure 6 was proposed to remove the equal rights amendment from the state constitution. This button was worn in opposition to the measure, which did not pass.