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Selma, Alabama became the focus of the civil rights movement as activists worked to register Black voters. Demonstrators also organized a march from Selma to Montgomery to promote voting rights. "Bloody Sunday" occured when state troopers attacked demonstrators.
Despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the active attempts of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register the Black voters of Alabama no significant progress was made . One such place was Selma Alabama. This small southern town of 29,000 soon became the focal point of the Civil Rights movement. Of the 15,156 blacks in Dallas County, Alabama only 156 were registered to vote. On January 2, 1965 Reverend King visited Selma and gave a fiery speech in it he stated: "Today marks the beginning of a determined organized, mobilized campaign to get the right to vote everywhere in Alabama."
On Monday January 14th King returned to Selma, registered in the Hotel Albert, becoming the first black to do so. He then went on to lead to the courthouse to register to vote. Nothing happened the first day, but on the second 67 people were arrested. So it went day by day. Reverend King was arrested during one of the marches and his presence in jail attracted additional media attention to Selma.
On February 18 the SCLC leader James Orange was arrested in Perry County. That evening hundreds of blacks gathered and marched on the jail. On the way they were attacked. Among the victims of the attacks were Jimmey Lee and his mother. Lee was beaten and then shot in the stomach, later dying in the hospital. At a large memorial service for Lee, a march from Selma to Montgomery was announced that would take place on March 7th. The marchers set off for Montgomery, but as they crossed the Pettus Bridge, they were attacked by troopers. As the New York Times reported the next day: "The first 10 or 20 Negroes were swept to the ground, screaming, arms and legs flying, and packs and bags went skittering across the grassy divider strip and onto the pavement on both sides.
Here, though, the focus is primarily on the Committee’s voter registration initiative starting in 1964. This documentary provides a more historical perspective, and offers glimpses into the strategies used in Selma, Alabama to obtain social change. It shows how those within the group questioned the effectiveness of the protests and the march, and
When a person, who is a citizen of this country, thinks about civil rights, they often they about the Civil Rights Movement which took place in this nation during mid 11950s and primarily through the 1960s. They think about the marches, sit-ins, boycotts, and other demonstrations that took place during that period. They also think about influential people during that period such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, John Lewis, Rosa parks, and other people who made contributions during that movement which change the course of society's was of life in America. In some people view, the Civil Rights Movement began when the Supreme Court rendered their decision in Brown vs. Education, or when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Bus and the Montgomery Bus-Boycott began. However, the Civil Rights Movement had already begun in several cities in the South. This was the case for the citizens of African descent of the city of Tuskegee.
10). The large characteristics associated with a social movement distinguish the movement from a regional or local, short-term pressure group, campaign, or “protest act” (Stewart, Smith, & Denton 2012, p. 10). The Civil Rights Movement is easily distinguishable from a social collective, largely due to the immense geographical size and longevity of the movement. The Civil Rights Movement took place all across the American south and endured on for well over a decade starting in the mid 1950s and ending in the late 1960s. The movement, led by Martin Luther King Jr. grew steadily out of Montgomery, Alabama, taking over the Deep South, one city at a time with the aim of tackling a relentless history of oppression and segregation.
The Civil Rights Movement changed American Democracy today in its fight against racial segregation and discrimination. We still see racial discrimination today, but we don’t see much racial segregation. People like Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and A Philip Randolph led the Civil Rights Movement with their abilities to coordinate and connect people. They fought for equality among men and women of all colors and religions.
The Civil Rights Movement refers to the political, social, and economic struggle of African Americans to gain full citizenship and racial equality. Although African Americans began to fight for equal rights as early as during the days of slavery, the quest for equality continues today. Historians generally agree that the Civil Rights Movement began with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and ended with the passing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Despite the 14th and 15th constitutional amendments that guarantee citizenship and voting rights regardless of race and religion, southern states, in practice, denied African Americans the right to vote by setting up literacy tests and charging a poll tax that was designed only to disqualify them as voters. In 1955, African Americans still had significantly less political power than their white counterparts.
The Civil Rights Movement had a remarkable success during the summer of 1964. During 1964, committees such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) recruited members to work in the efforts of the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi to what became known as Freedom Summer. The project was meant to be a nonviolent effort to integrate Mississippi’s political system but was faced with violence. college students traveled to Mississippi to help register black. The predominantly white students established "freedom schools" to educate black school children, and organized voter registration drives throughout the state. The student volunteers, most importantly, helped to establish the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). However, it was a Mississippi native, Amzie Moore that brought the SNCC into Mississippi. Moore met New York native, Robert Moses during the Freedom Summer of 1964. When Moses arrived in Mississippi, he saw that there was a lack of student organizations in the state and discussed the possibilities of it with Moore. Moore’s dedication to the movement inspired Moses to put the idea of voter registration into the SNCC’s agenda (Carson). Although the movement had great support, it also had even greater opposition. For instance, the Citizens Councils which was founded in Indianola, Mississippi during the 1950’s. The council was a
The civil rights movement showed the world what it was and how bad it was compared to today 50 years later where we all get along. And the Freedom rides, Children’s March, and Orangeburg massacre were just three examples of the many in the movement. The civil rights movement turned the United States from the land of the free and the home of the segregated into the land of the free and the home of the brave.
One very important figure at this time was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King had a dream and his dream still lives on now even decades later. Dr. King was a non violent Civil Rights leader. King wanted everyone to be treated equal all over the United States. He lead marches and gave many speeches. True freedom and equal rights was all black people wanted. Being equal meant having the choice to go where ever they wanted and do what ever they wanted no matter what color of skin they had, so this is a little of what the Civil Rights Movement was all about.
Garrow, David. Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Voting rights act of 1965. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1978. 135-147. Print.√
During the times of the Civil Rights Movement the black communities of Birmingham, Alabama suffered severely due to the notorious acts of racism geared towards them simply because they were black. They boldly endured beatings, lynching, bombings, and demeaning treatment from the white community and especially from the Clan. The September 15, 1963 racially motivated bombing of the Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which resulted in the deaths of four innocent black girls, was one of the darkest moments of the Civil Rights Movement and perhaps one of the darkest days in Birmingham, Alabama’s history. Betty Blackman was born and raised in Birmingham. Her life was engulfed by the racism and left her with dramatically scaring memories of Birmingham.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, was created on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh in April 1960. SNCC was created after a group of black college students from North Carolina A&T University refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina where they had been denied service. This sparked a wave of other sit-ins in college towns across the South. SNCC coordinated these sit-ins across the nation, supported their leaders, and publicized their activities. SNCC sought to affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence as the foundation of their purpose. In the violently changing political climate of the 60’s, SNCC struggled to define its purpose as it fought white oppression. Out of SNCC came some of today's black leaders, such as former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry, Congressman John Lewis and NAACP chairman Julian Bond. Together with hundreds of other students, they left a lasting impact on American history.
When Afro-American’s came to America in hopes of having a better and easier way of life, and after they arrived it was a totally opposite of what they expected. The following are a couple events that took place in different locations for the fight for freedom and right. The first is Bloody Sunday; which took place in Selma, Alabama. This particular event was the march of black activists from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Thomas-Samuel (1996) stated that “In 1965, Alabama state troopers and local deputies stopped and clubbed black activists as they marched peacefully….” (para. 1). These people just wanted to make a point by marching from one city to another and they got beating just for it. Next is the fight for...
Leader and President of SCLC, King used his organization as a national platform to support civil right reform. SCLC gave King a base of operation with a strong following of supporters eager to make a change. The organization established its first movement to conduct non-violent protests and fight for the an equal voting process to register black voters in the south. According to the Digital History textbook, during this time period Selma, Alabama, “ blacks slightly outnumbered whites in the city of 29,500 people, Selma's voting rolls were 99 percent white and 1 percent black” (DigitalHistory, “Voting Rights”, Para. 2). This was because laws were set in Southern states designed to prevent blacks from voting or registering to vote. In King’s biography, Heros and Villains series, the accomplishments of the SCLC applied pressure to government assist as “It created the Civil Rights Commission to investigate laws that kept blacks from voting”, and although small victories in increasing numbers of black voters, the SCLC had not radically improved the lives of southern blacks. Meetings and protests were held in key southern cities in 1963 and launched their first major campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. High publicity of the protest gained northern supports as nonviolent protesters were confronted and faced by police with clubs,
Sobel, Lester A. “Vote Campaign in Selma.” Civil Rights 1960-66. New York: Facts on File 1967.
Historically, the Civil Rights Movement was a time during the 1950’s and 60’s to eliminate segregation and gain equal rights. Looking back on all the events, and dynamic figures it produced, this description is very vague. In order to fully understand the Civil Rights Movement, you have to go back to its origin. Most people believe that Rosa Parks began the whole civil rights movement. She did in fact propel the Civil Rights Movement to unprecedented heights but, its origin began in 1954 with Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was the cornerstone for change in American History as a whole. Even before our nation birthed the controversial ruling on May 17, 1954 that stated separate educational facilities were inherently unequal, there was Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 that argued by declaring that state laws establish separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. Some may argue that Plessy vs. Ferguson is in fact backdrop for the Civil Rights Movement, but I disagree. Plessy vs. Ferguson was ahead of it’s time so to speak. “Separate but equal” thinking remained the body of teachings in America until it was later reputed by Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, and prompted The Montgomery Bus Boycott led by one of the most pivotal leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. After the gruesome death of Emmett Till in 1955 in which the main suspects were acquitted of beating, shooting, and throwing the fourteen year old African American boy in the Tallahatchie River, for “whistling at a white woman”, this country was well overdo for change.