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how to write a essay about Civil Right Movement
Essay Writing of Civil rights Movement
Essay Writing of Civil rights Movement
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The Civil Rights Movement
The 13th amendment, passed on the first of January, 1865 abolished slavery throughout America. Although African Americans were considered free after this amendment was approved, they still had a long and arduous struggle to absolute freedom. Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in the United States was frequently used throughout many of the Southern and Border States. Schools, bathrooms, libraries, and even water fountains were segregated. Though there were some laws that prevented segregation and discrimination at this time, they were not strongly enforced. Civil rights activists, revolting of being denied their rights as Americans, attempted to put an end to segregation and discrimination in America by starting boycotts and sometimes just simply talking about the issues of racial discrimination. The struggles for racial equality led to events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, sit-ins, the March on Washington, and much more. This political, legal, and social struggle to gain full citizenship rights for African Americans and to achieve racial equality is commonly known as the Civil Rights Movement (Civil Rights Movement). It was a time of tremendous change, and the Civil rights act of 1964, a bill passed on July 2, 1964, was hoping to conclude segregation and discrimination once and for all, however following the many years of anti-black violence and, unadulterated loathing towards African Americans, was it enough to change the mindset of the American people?
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
One of the first and most known events of the Civil Rights Movement was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and is regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the United States (Montgomer...
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...t’" PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.
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Sykes, Marvin. "A&T Students Launch 'Sit Down' Demand For Service At Downtown Lunch Counter." The Greensboro Record 2 Feb. 1960, sec. B: 1. Sitins. NRinteractive. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.
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The White Citizens Council was formed and led opposition to school desegregation allover the South. The Citizens Council called for economic coercion of blacks who favored integrated schools, such as firing them from jobs, and the creation of
The Montgomery Bus Boycott can be viewed as a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement as a whole, as neither one’s success was due solely to the work of the political system; a transformation in the consciousness of America was the most impactful success of both. Passionate racism ran in the veins of 1950s America, primarily in the south, and no integration law would influence the widespread belief that African Americans were the same level of human as Caucasians. The abolition of racism as a political norm had to start with a unanimous belief among blacks that they had power as American citizens; once they believed that to be true, there was no limit to the successes they could see.
Americans have been fighting for civil rights as early as the seventeenth century, and are still fighting for it today. From December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, the African-American community of Montgomery, Alabama boycotted public buses due to segregation of blacks. This events stands at the height of the Civil Rights Movement because of its victory. Much of African-American history went undocumented. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was an important enough event to keep in history textbooks because culturally, it started due to segregation based on race, and politically because these protests brought new laws into action.
On December 1st, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of a bus to a white man. It was this simple act of defiance that, arguably, began the Civil Rights movement which lasted from 1955 through the 1960’s and altered the face of our nation forever. Following the arrest of Rosa Parks for her simple denial, African Americans in Montgomery began boycotting the bus system, one of the first major stands against racism in the 1950’s. On the heels of the Brown v. Board of Education segregation trial which had ruled in favor of school integration, this boycott, which proved successful after the seat separation was removed, effectively began the civil rights movement with which we are now so familiar with. The civil rights movement in America aimed to gain civil liberties and rights which were guaranteed by law but withheld from them in society. While the movement lasted from about 1954 to 1968, it was not until the 1960’s that other minorities such as American Indians and women began to join the fight. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was possibly the most important domestic social movement of the twentieth century. At the very least, it was the most important social confrontation to grip America since the Civil War.
The 1960’s were one of the most significant decades in the twentieth century. The sixties were filled with new music, clothes, and an overall change in the way people acted, but most importantly it was a decade filled with civil rights movements. On February 1, 1960, four black freshmen from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College in Greensboro went to a Woolworth’s lunch counter and sat down politely and asked for service. The waitress refused to serve them and the students remained sitting there until the store closed for the night. The very next day they returned, this time with some more black students and even a few white ones. They were all well dressed, doing their homework, while crowds began to form outside the store. A columnist for the segregation minded Richmond News Leader wrote, “Here were the colored students in coats, white shirts, and ties and one of them was reading Goethe and one was taking notes from a biology text. And here, on the sidewalk outside was a gang of white boys come to heckle, a ragtail rabble, slack-jawed, black-jacketed, grinning fit to kill, and some of them, God save the mark, were waving the proud and honored flag of the Southern States in the last war fought by gentlemen. Eheu! It gives one pause”(Chalmers 21). As one can see, African-Americans didn’t have it easy trying to gain their civil rights. Several Acts were passed in the 60’s, such as Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. This was also, unfortunately, the time that the assassinations of important leaders took place. The deaths of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., all happened in the 60’s.
Johnson: Savior of the Civil Rights Movement? The Civil Rights Movement and President Johnson are closely linked in history. Though there were many other faces to the Civil Rights Movement, Johnson’s was one of the most publicly viewed and instrumental in its passing. It was Johnson who carried the weight and responsibility of the issue after the assassination of JFK, and it was he who would sign it.
The 1960’s were a time of freedom, deliverance, developing and molding for African-American people all over the United States. The Civil Rights Movement consisted of black people in the south fighting for equal rights. Although, years earlier by law Africans were considered free from slavery but that wasn’t enough they wanted to be treated equal as well. Many black people were fed up with the segregation laws such as giving up their seats on a public bus to a white woman, man, or child. They didn’t want separate bathrooms and water fountains and they wanted to be able to eat in a restaurant and sit wherever they wanted to and be served just like any other person.
Despite the great efforts put forth during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 in which the black community and its supporters refused to use public transportation, transport segregation still remained in some southern states. As a result the civil rights group, the Congress on Racial Inequality (C.O.R.E.), began to organize what they called “freedom rides.” In 1961, the group began sending student volunteers on bus trips to test the implementation of new laws prohibiting segregation in interstate travel facilities (Peck, 161). Most notable was a trip they took from Washington, D.C., making stops in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Upon arrival the group was met with violence and brutality from the Ku Klux Klan and others, but this did not deter them from getting their voice heard. In September 1961, the Attorney General petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to draft a policy making racial segregation in bus terminals illegal, and in November this was put into effect. The Freedom Riders gave national publicity to the discrimination that black Americans were forced to endure and, in doing so, helped bring about change not only in bus terminals but in the nation as a whole.
For many years after the Civil War many African-Americans did not truly enjoy the freedoms that were granted to them by the US constitution. This was especially true in the southern states, because segregation flourished in the south wwhere African-Americans were treated as second class citizens. This racial segregation was characterized by separation of different races in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home. In addition, Blacks were not afforded justice and fair trials, such as the case of the murder of Emmet Till. This unjust treatment would not be tolerated in America any more, which spurred the civil rights movement.
Why did Martin Luther King have a dream? Civil Rights Movement was a turning point in American History. Civil Rights Movement took place, early in 1950s through 1960s.There were a lot of different leaders who stood up and tried to change and fight against the government system. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the famous leaders who were against majority of the population and the government to receive equality. King wanted African Americans to get treated fairly. The purpose of the movement was to change the government system and multiple Civil Right Groups for freedom and equal rights for African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the speech “I Have a Dream” to make people believe in equal rights and freedom of speech. King wanted to prove that color does not determine the character. The speech “I Have a dream” was delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. After delivering the Speech “I Have a Dream” King became really famous. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15 in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. He was considered the formative figure in the modern fight for Civil Rights. “In 1957, King received a Nobel Peace Prize” (NAACP). The Speech “I Have a Dream” took place on August 28, 1963.It happened in Washington, D.C at the Washington Monument. The main Purpose of the speech was to prove that all people are created equal and should get their freedom of speech. The point was to get everyone together and make them believe in equality. The speech “I Have a Dream” made people get together and remind them that everyone in the world is created the same. In the speech King said, “This note was a promise that all black men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”...
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” This was a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. Even one hundred years after slavery was banned, African Americans were still being treated unfairly. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most famous leaders of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s. The Civil Rights movement was a movement of African Americans who felt that they were not being treated equally. There were also many other famous leaders and inspirations during the Civil Rights Movement. This movement was very important to the freedom of African Americans.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a massively critical part of the Civil Rights Movement. On 1 December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white person in Montgomery, Alabama. Her prosecution in turn sparked a 381 day-long boycott with over 50,000 African-American’s partaking in this protest. Not only was the sheer number of people involved in the boycott successful in making it especially significant in the short term; it acted as a catalyst for the movement, influencing other non-violent protests and in forcing Martin Luther King to the forefront of the movement. The non-violence that was encouraged by King also proved to be extremely effective in impacting the whole of Montgomery and elsewhere.
Many changes occurred during the late 1950s into the early 1960s in the goals, strategies, and support of the movement for African American civil rights. Many strides were made for racial equality in the United States. However, while changes were made, they did take a considerable amount of time to achieve. This made some leaders of the civil rights movement frustrated and caused them to divert from their original goal of integration. They instead strove for black separatism where blacks and whites would live segregated.
The civil rights movement was a mass widespread movement to arise for African Americans fighting for their equal rights. “In federal courts and in cities throughout the South, African Americans struggled to eradicate the system of racial segregation that denied them dignity, opportunity, and equal protection under the law” (Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, Soderlund, p. 740). Segregation laws being endorsed were recognized as Jim Crow. Affecting the lives of masses of people, Jim Crow, was entitled after a stereotype song during the 19th century. All over America, states were enforcing segregation with laws, such as, in North Carolina, were books were not be interchangeable among the white and colored schools, however, may well be continued to be used by the race first using them; all marriages between whites and Negros are prohibited and declared entirely illegal in states like Missouri, Florida and Maryland; and no nurse should be placed in a room that a negro men is placed in, Alabama. “‘Jim Crow’ laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures” (Civil Rights Movement). During the civil rights movement, various significant events occurred; the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King Jr., and voting rights were three major ones.
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.