Major social movements are often well-covered by national news sources. Local news can also provide insight on how those movements were expressed in smaller communities. News will give you a contemporaneous view of events through journalistic reporting and opinion pieces. You can also skim other articles and headlines published at the time to learn what else was going on in the world that might have had an impact on the issue you are researching.
Current and additional historical news sources can be found on the Guide to News Sources.
Our large news databases often include long runs of many periodicals (always check for the exact date range), which you can then search individually or collectively. The ProQuest Historical Newspapers database has many prominent titles, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Globe and Mail (Toronto), and Chicago Tribune.
However, some periodical archives are sold as separate products - see a selected list of titles, below.