Dr. King said, “You may have the law on your side, but we have morality on our side” (Martin Luther King Jr.). Dr. King fought the long and hard battle in Selma, Alabama with a non-violence policy. Dr. King planned a protest march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery, 54 miles away. King began the march on March 7, 1965. He organized a group of 600 people, but they were denied access by Alabama state troopers. The troopers hit them with whips, nightsticks, and tear gas limiting their ability to breathe. The powerful force pushed them from the Edmund Pettis Bridge back to Selma. That event is known today as “Bloody Sunday”. The march from Selma, Alabama was one of the most historically significant events in the struggle for civil rights. …show more content…
King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference made Selma, Alabama the focus of their voter registration campaign after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbade discrimination in voting on the basis of race. Alabama Governor George Wallace was a notorious opponent of desegregation, and the local county sheriff in Selma had led a steadfast opposition to black voter registration drives. As a result, only two percent of Selma’s eligible black voters(300 out of 15,000) had managed to register to vote. Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, that would help give him more attention to Selma because of his higher profile. On February 18, white segregationist attacked a group of demonstrators in the nearby town of Marion. In the chaos, an Alabama state trooper fatally shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young African-American demonstrator. After King heard word of his death, he and the SCLC planned a protest march from Selma to the state capitol of Montgomery. This march was unsuccessful because of the wielding whips and powerful gas of the state troopers. Another march was to take place on March 9, Alabama state officials (led by Wallace) tried to prevent the march, but a U.S. district court judge ordered them to permit the march. President Lyndon Johnson also backed the activist, by going on national television to pledge his support and and lobby for new voting rights in legislation that he was introducing in Congress. Two thousand people set out for …show more content…
In the American Republic, civil rights movements, or “freedom struggles,” have been a frequent feature of the nation’s history. Such movements have not only secured citizenship rights for blacks, but have also redefined prevailing conceptions of the nature of civil rights and the role of government in protecting these rights. The most important achievements of African-American civil rights movements have been the post-Civil War constitutional amendments. That amendment removed slavery and established the citizenship status of blacks and the judicial decisions and legislation based on these amendments, notably the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Act of 1965. These legal changes greatly affected the opportunities available to women, non-black minorities, disabled individuals, and other victims of
1868 marked a proud year for African Americans with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to Constitution. It proclaimed that “no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”1 This essentially color blinded government, and granted all citizens (a category which finally included African Americans) what is described in the document as indisputable equality.
Historians offer different perceptions of the significance of Martin Luther King and the 1963 March on Washington. Without examining this event within its historical context the media publicity and iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech can easily overshadow progress that was already underway in America. It was insisted by prominent civil rights activist Ella Baker, ‘the movement made Martin rather than Martin making the movement.’ What is important not to overlook is the significant change that took place in the United States during the previous 100 years. Such that, many influential figures in support of racial equality opposed the March. The Civil Rights Act proposed by President Kennedy in 1963 was already in the legislative process. Furthermore the Federal Government was now reasserting power over the entire of the United States by enforcing a policy of desegregation. It is important to note that these changes all took place less than one hundred years after the Thirteenth Amendment in 1965 abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth amendment in 1968 acknowledged the rights of former slaves to be acknowledged as U.S citizens. With this level of progress Kennedy was against the March going ahead due to the argument that it was limited in what it could achieve. Today, King’s 1963 Speech is viewed as one of the most iconic speeches in history. However, was it a key turning point in African Americans achieving racial equality? Federal endorsement would suggest yes after decades of southern states being able to subvert the Federal law designed to break down segregation. This support built upon the corner stones of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments in the nineteenth century. Therefore looking at the national status of black Americans fro...
Few things have impacted the United States throughout its history like the fight for racial equality. It has caused divisions between the American people, and many name it as the root of the Civil War. This issue also sparked the Civil Rights Movement, leading to advancements towards true equality among all Americans. When speaking of racial inequality and America’s struggle against it, people forget some of the key turning points in it’s history. Some of the more obvious ones are the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the North, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington D.C. in 1963. However, people fail to recount a prominent legal matter that paved the way for further strides towards equality.
The constant efforts and struggles of African Americans against Jim Crow laws, hate groups, social injustice, and racial bias prevailed and led to the Civil Rights Movement that has shaped our contemporary world. The struggle of African Americans to gain equal rights in a society dominated by conservative, white culture and prejudice along with the endeavor of acquiring the constitutional right to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, can safely place Jim Crow laws in archive of American
On the first day of the march, nicknamed Bloody Sunday, the activists made it to the Edmund Pettus Bridge before being stopped and brutally beaten by police officers. The activists persevered after the beatings, returning the two days later chanting “we’re gonna march!” (March Book Three 212). Their hope far outweighed any fear of being beaten again. Finally, two weeks after Bloody Sunday, they were allowed to march all the way to Montgomery. The perseverance of those who still marched to Montgomery after all of the violence that had been committed against them shows that the hope they had far superseded any doubts or fears they
Despite the 14th and 15th constitutional amendments that guarantee citizenship and voting right 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. As a result, they were powerless to prevent the white from segregating all aspects of their lives and could not stop racial discrimination in public accommodations, education, and economic opportunities. Following the 1954 Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, it remained a hot issue in 1955. That year, however, it was the murder of the fourteen-year-old Emmett Louis Till that directed the nation’s attention to the racial discrimination in America.
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."
Without Federal support, African Americans would have never been able to achieve what they have. Little Rock and the civil rights movement dramatically changed the face of the nation and gave a sense of dignity and power to black Americans. Most of all, the millions of Americans who participated in the movement brought about changes that reinforced our nation’s basic constitutional rights for all Americans- black and white, men and women, young and old. Bibliography Chalmers, David. And the Crooked Places Made Straight: The Struggle for Social Change in the 1960s.
Although the conclusion of the Civil War during the mid-1860s demolished the official practice of slavery, the oppression and exploitation of African Americans has continued. Although the rights and opportunities of African Americans were greatly improved during Reconstruction, cases such a 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson, which served as the legal basis for segregation, continue to diminish the recognized humanity of African Americans as equal people. Furthermore, the practice of the sharecropping system impoverished unemployed African Americans, recreating slavery. As economic and social conditions worsened, the civil rights movement began to emerge as the oppressed responded to their conditions, searching for equality and protected citizenship.With such goals in mind, associations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which came to the legal defense of African Americans and aided the march for civil rights reforms, emerged. By working against the laws restricting African Americans, the NAACP saw progress with the winning of cases like Brown v. Board of Education, which allowed the integration of public schools after its passing in 1954 and 1955. In the years following the reform instituted by the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the fervor of the civil rights movement increased; mass nonviolent protests against the unfair treatment of blacks became more frequent. New leaders, such as Martin Luther King, manifested themselves. The civil rights activists thus found themselves searching for the “noble dream” unconsciously conceived by the democratic ideals of the Founding Fathers to be instilled.
Before the Civil Rights Movement, which took place from 1955-1968, African-Americans had a difficult time establishing an identity and their rights. However, for many African-Americans, the Civil Rights Movement developed a purpose for one’s life and progressed African-Americans’ status and rights in society. Although some people may argue that the Civil Rights Movement was not productive and only caused conflict and havoc, due to the majority of African-Americans still employed in low-level jobs and many towns affected by the Civil Rights Movement being torn apart and degraded, those effects were only temporary and tangible to others. The Movement had a much more profound effect of giving one a purpose or “spark” in life, which later led to African-Americans demanding more rights and equal status in society.
From the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the Civil Rights Movement and the Pro-Life Movement of the 1960s, to the Tea Party Movement and Occupy Wall Street Movement of current times, “those struggling against unjust laws have engaged in acts of deliberate, open disobedience to government power to uphold higher principles regarding human rights and social justice” (DeForrest, 1998, p. 653) through nonviolent protests. Perhaps the most well-known of the non-violent protests are those associated with the Civil Rights movement. The movement was felt across the south, yet Birmingham, Alabama was known for its unequal treatment of blacks and became the focus of the Civil Rights Movement. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, African-Americans in Birmingham, began daily demonstrations and sit-ins to protest discrimination at lunch counters and in public facilities. These demonstrations were organized to draw attention to the injustices in the city. The demonstrations resulted in the arrest of protesters, including Martin Luther King. After King was arrested in Birmingham for taking part in a peaceful march to draw attention to the way that African-Americans were being treated there, their lack of voter rights, and the extreme injustice they faced in Alabama he wrote his now famous “Letter from Birmingham.”
Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in the United States was commonly practiced in many of the Southern and Border States. This segregation while supposed to be separate but equal, was hardly that. Blacks in the South were discriminated against repeatedly while laws did nothing to protect their individual rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ridded the nation of this legal segregation and cleared a path towards equality and integration. The passage of this Act, while forever altering the relationship between blacks and whites, remains as one of history’s greatest political battles.
Garrow, David J. Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. New York: New Haven and London Yale University Press. 1978
Thousands of nonviolent demonstrators were gathered by Martin Luther King. The first attempt of marching did not go as planned, the marchers were interrupted by angry mobs and cordons of police. This day was called, Bloody Sunday. The marchers plan was to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and reach the capitol, this goal was not achieved that day. Most of the African-Americans agreed with each other that they should have the same rights as th...
Massive protests against racial segregation and discrimination broke out in the southern United States that came to national attention during the middle of the 1950’s. This movement started in centuries-long attempts by African slaves to resist slavery. After the Civil War American slaves were given basic civil rights. However, even though these rights were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment they were not federally enforced. The struggle these African-Americans faced to have their rights ...